RESEARCH BULLETIN OF NARUTO UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION Volume２１２００６
TheState of the JET Programme, Team Teaching and English Education in Japan.
Gerard MARCHESSEAU
（Keywords : Team Teaching, JET Programme, NEST, NNEST）
１．Introduction tion system in Japan or Japanese language (CLAIR，２００５;Gillis-Furutaka, １９９４). Presumably The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Pro- this is due to the size of the programme and the gramme began modestly in １９８７ and has grown con- difficulty in recruiting such as large number of quali- sistently. Today it is one of the largest exchange fied instructors. programmes in the world. In July of １９９４ there were ５５６７ participants in the roles of ALT or CIR. ２．Justification for team teaching The vast majority of participants are Native English speakers working in public schools as ALTs. CIR Bailey ２００２,(cited in Murahata，２００４)suggests participants work for local governments as 国際交流 how the success of a teacher can be plotted graphi- 院.Thispaper will discuss some of the roles of cally, illustrated in figure １.Wecan assume that Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) and Assistant ALTs have high proficiency in English, as native Language Teachers (ALTs) which have been realized speakers of the language, though they may know lit- in the classroom. Challenges, successes and short tle about teaching or Japanese Education. JTEs on comings of the programme will be discussed and the other hand are qualified as teachers but their several suggestions that have been echoed in research proficiency in the target language may pose a weak- on the JET programme will be presented. ness in many cases. Where both an ALT and a Several definitions should first be clarified. Na- JTE are present in class however, the two compli- tive speaker teaching assistants on the JET pro- ment each other’s strengths and weaknesses so that gramme have been referred to as Assistant English the teachers as a team, function high in the first Teachers (AETs), (Wada and Cumminos, Eds. １９９４) quadrant. Considering the strengths and weaknesses but they are increasingly referred to as Assistant of ALTs and JTEs, Gillis-Furutaka (１９９４)summarizes Language Teachers (ALTs) and this is the term used that the role of the ALT is to “engage actively in in this paper, except when quoting other sources. communication and interaction with Japanese stu- The term ALT is specific to the JET programme and dents” (p．１３). About the role of JTE’s, she states : is not applicable to situations in other countries, nor is the term used consistently in private Junior or JTEs are expected to explain facts about English Senior High Schools. Native English Speaking language and answer learners’ questions.However Teachers (NEST) is the more accurate and applicable they are also expected to communicate and in- term. Non-NEST or NNEST refers to teachers of teract actively with their students, just like English, whose native language is not English. AETs. In fact, their active participation in com- Within this paper, the terms ALT and NEST are municative activities is far more important than both used, depending on the context and the specific their analysis and explanation of English lan- references being cited. Some generalizations should guage. (p．１３). also be pointed out to provide context. Most JET Programme ALTs are hired directly in their home These roles are very broad and specifically how countries and are recent University graduates with no teachers fulfill these roles is still a matter of discus- teacher training and little knowledge about the educa- sion and sometimes, controversy. Herein, I will de-
―１６８― Gerard Marchesseau scribe what the literature says about roles for ALTs Figure ２: Tajino and Tajino (２００１) and JTEs and then we’ll see what common patterns emerge.
Figure １:Bailey (２００２)
Among the limited amount of literature dealing with team teaching and the JET Programme, Studies in Team Teaching (２００４, Wada and Cuminos, Eds.), provokes constructive discussion, presenting a variety ３．More Specific Roles for ALTs and JTEs of sometimes contradicting views as to what role in the classroom ALTs and JTEs should assume. Many suggest that the ALTs role should be restricted to stimulating Tajino and Tajino (２０００)showed enthusiasm for communicative competencies such as speaking and team teaching. Reviewing １０ years of practice in listening. (Browne, C. and Evans, B. １９９４;Garant, Japan, they discussed the various roles that NESTs M. １９９４). Browne, C. and Evans, B．(１９９４) cast the and nonNESTs could play. Consistent with modern ALT in the narrow role of cultural informant to views, they suggest teachers should de-centralize the stimulate conversation. Their argument is on based classroom, proposing the term “team learning” rather linguistic research into communicative competence than “teach teaching”. They propose several patterns and assumes that students have little opportunity to indicated in figure １.Pattern A represents a tradi- communicate with JTEs. Others however, suggest tional role where the class is teacher fronted and the that ALTs can and should be able to assist the JTE teachers pass knowledge to the students. In pattern with reading and grammar classes. Law (１９９４)for B however, the students play an active role teaching example discusses the impact, or washback effect of the native speaker. We see an alliance between the entrance exams on team teaching and although reluc- NNEST (JTE) and the students such that the Japa- tant to criticize the exams, he states : nese teacher may help or facilitate the students, in teaching the JTE. The students may for example, If the role of the AET in team teaching is con- wish to teach the NEST something about Japanese ceived simply as that of improving listening and culture, or perhaps more interestingly, about their fa- speaking skills, the above may merely serve to vourite TV programme, etc. Pattern C has the confirm that college entrance exams are an in- NEST working with the students, perhaps to teach surmountable obstacle to reform. I wish to ar- the NEST something, or to translate what the gue here that this represents a historically and NNEST is saying in Japanese. In pattern D half of theoretically inappropriate view of team teaching, the students work with the NEST and the other half and instead advocate an active role for the AET work with the NNEST. Finally in pattern E, all of in encouraging fluency reading within an inte- the participants work together toward one common grated curriculum. goal. This pattern might be practical for group pro- jects such as correspondence with a sister school in There is a clear indication that the role of the an English speaking country or introducing students’ ALT is influenced by the washback effect of Univer- hometown in English. As Tajino and Tajino suggest, sity entrance exams. Yukawa suggests that given the these patterns are not exhaustive. priority that reading competence takes, ALTs should
―１６９― TheState of the JET Programme, Team Teaching and English Education in Japan.
be able to assist with reading classes. She found ２．poor communication however, that when reading passages became progres- ３．the ALT’s limited sphere of influence, often in- sively more difficult, the JTE found it difficult to in- cluding limited interpersonal relations. corporate ALTs into the lesson, resorting to Japanese As a former JET programme participant working translation to ensure that students understood the con- at three different junior high schools from １９９８ to tent of reading passages. She also suggests that in ２００１,theauthor can comment on these points draw- exam track high schools, JTEs prefer not bring ALTs ing on personal recollection and journal entries. The into the classroom because time spent on ‘chatting’ first issue is certainly one of the salient aspects of is not efficient for preparing for exams. the ALTs position. It was not a stress factor per se Leaving the issue of entrance exams aside for for the author in most cases, but it was certainly a the moment, a pattern emerges regarding the role of challenge and a learning experience. Poor communi- ALTs and JTEs, namely that there is no clear con- cation and limited interpersonal relations, however sensus. Given their relative strengths one would ex- was frustrating at times. In many cases, particularly pect that JTEs would focus on grammar and ALTs when ALTs work at more than one school, they tend on communication but the roles have not been to be treated as a special guest. While advantageous clearly defined. Though the ideas put forth are at times, consistently being treated as an outsider in sometimes conflicting, the prevailing pattern is that in one’s place of work is certainly a stress factor. the absence of concrete guidelines about how to Voci-Reed (１９９４) goes on to describe stress fac- teach, every case is different. For teachers looking tors for JTEs : for answers to the questions ; “What should I do with １．Teachers are under constant pressure from exter- my ALT?” this might not seem to be a satisfactory nal sources such as parents and other school staff answer but is not necessarily a bad situation. JTEs to ensure successful performance on University En- and ALTs all have different styles and in most cases trance Exams. they have been able to adapt and settle into a vari- ２．Cultural differences ety of roles, sometimes through compromise, depend- ３．Lack of support for creativity in class. ing on the circumstances. Student needs and exter- It is significant to note that two of these ‘stress nal constraints such as entrance exams are other vari- factors’ are external to the relationship between ALTs ables which influence classroom practice. Therefore JTEs. Again we see the impact of entrance exams it is probably not appropriate for ‘Monkasho’ to de- playing a role. Lack of support for creativity in the fine ideal roles and then tell teachers that this is the class refers not only to other aspects of the curricu- way they should all teach.Research concurs that lum such as textbooks and material, but also to the the JET programme and team teaching has been rela- culture of education and prevailing views about edu- tively successful in the absence of more concrete cation in Japan held by parents, co-workers and other guidelines, or perhaps due to the absence of guide- interested parties. That is not to shift the blame lines. (Gillis-Furutaka, １９９４;Hogan, ２００４;Smith, from the ALTs however. One might speculate that １９９４;) cultural differences between ALTs and JTEs are the prime stress factor for JTEs in some situations. ４．Challenges for the JET Programme ５．Challenges for English Education in Japan Given the vast scale of the programme and the nature of the participants, one would expect numer- In １９８９ the Ministry of Education introduced ous problems to arise and countless anecdotes about Oral Communication A (OCA) and Oral Communica- cultural and professional clashes. Voci-Reed (１９９４) tion B (OCB), in attempt to improve students’ com- provides an accurate summary of stress factors which municative competence. (Taguchi,２００５). Taguchi ALTs and JTEs have voiced, indicating that ALTs (２００５) however, cites a wealth of research that indi- have experienced problems relating to : cates that these courses have not produced their in- １．uncertain or differing role expectations between tended results : Brown and Wada, １９９８;Gorsuch, school staff members and the ALT ２０００, ２００１;LoCastro, １９９６;Oka and Yoshida, １９９７;
―１７０― Gerard Marchesseau
Pacek, １９９６;Sato, ２００２;Taguchi, ２００２;and Wada, and to share their findings with other teachers. I ２００２.Taguchi (２００５)inturnobserved several OCA would add that training JTE training should include and OCB lessons and analyzed them using the Com- SLA and Language Teaching theory and be consis- municative Observation of Language Teaching obser- tent with the training that ALTs receive so as to vation scheme developed by Canal and Swain (１９８０). minimize discrepancy in the classroom. The results were not favourable. Among the most As has been well indicated, there is a tendency striking findings were that only ７％ of teachers re- for Japanese teachers of English to focus on form ported using English as an instructional medium ; that and for NESTs to focus on conversation. As a result, ５０‐９０％ of class time was devoted to language form, Japanese English education becomes atomized to an and that less than １５％ of class time was used for extent, with different abilities receiving focus in iso- speaking, with most speaking being choral repetition lation. While language competence appears to con- of dialogue and key words. Although teachers’ lim- sist of different abilities or competencies (Backman, ited English abilities play a role, Taguchi shows re- １９９０;Canale and Swain, １９８０), these abilities are in- luctance to place blame on teachers. She states : terdependent and should develop in tandem. Lan- guage competence can also be viewed holistically, This study revealed that teachers were in an likened to the development of a bud into a flower awkward position, caught between the objectives (Corder, １９８３). Therefore, it might not be appropri- of the national curriculum and the constraints ate or ‘natural’ to distinction between “Eikaiwa” that discourage active practice in the communi- classes, which tend to be taught by NESTs, and cative approach. The strong constraints were classes which address either form, or specific skills largely external, coming from the educational and are typically taught by Japanese teachers. Addi- system such as college entrance exams. (p．１０). tionally, since the number of NESTs is limited in Ja- pan, students may end up focusing almost entirely on ６．Several suggestions for a way forward form with little or no emphasis on output or mean- ingful communication in the language classroom. To ６．１ Improving teacher training correct this imbalance, Eikaiwa or “English conversa- Gillis-Furutaka (１９９４)proposes several sugges- tion” should not be considered strictly the realm of tions to improve the quality of ALTs. Primarily, Native English Speaking Teachers. NonNESTs ALTs should receive more teacher training. Echoed should be able to provide communicative language by CLAIR (２００５)andconsistent with the author’s lessons, with English as the main medium of com- experience, pre-departure training of ALTs focuses munication in the classroom. To further challenge heavily Japanese culture and adapting to life in Ja- the traditional division of roles between NESTs and pan, with very little or no emphasis in language nonNESTs, NESTs in Japan should be able to ad- teaching. Gillis-Furutaka (１９９４)proposes that MEXT dress form as well as specific skills in the language should teach ALTs about language teaching theory classroom. The reality is that many NESTs in Japan and methodology. Then, to capitalize on their in- are not adequately trained and can’t speak Japanese creased investment, competent and trained ALTs but those who are capable, should not be confined to should be permitted to stay longer than three years. the role of an “eikaiwa” teacher or “ALT”. Note that some ALTs are currently permitted to stay longer than three years but there is no systematic ６．２ Lessons from private schools. process in place at the moment and different prefec- It would also be appropriate for the public sec- tures seem to be pursuing different policies (CLAIR, tor to examine practices in private institutions. Not ２００５). It is also important to train JTEs. Gillis- bound by MEXT policies, public schools have pur- Furutaka (１９９４)suggests that MEXT (formerly Mon- sued a wider range of avenues and perhaps been busho) increase teacher training for JTEs in Japan more pragmatic about English Education. Odette, within their first three years of teaching as well as Tuitama-Robers and Iwamoto (２００３)forexample re- sending more JTEs abroad to receive training. JTEs port on the decision making process of how to use should also be encouraged to do classroom research NESTs most effectively at a private high school in
―１７１― TheState of the JET Programme, Team Teaching and English Education in Japan.
Okayama prefecture. Rather than pairing a NEST quality of ALTs becomes futile. To the contrary, if with a nonNEST as team teachers, it was decided ALTs are taught about Teaching English as a For- that they would teach a unified curriculum separately. eign Language (TEFL) or Second Language Acquisi- That is, the class would receive lessons from NESTs tion (SLA), this could even aggravate ALT stress and nonNESTs separately. This was deemed the factors, if this training contradicts what they see in most efficient way to use teachers. It is notable that the classroom. Again, the purpose of this paper is the NESTs at this school were qualified teachers not to examine the washback effect of entrance ex- with Japanese Language ability. In public schools, ams, but to draw attention to issued related to the where ALTs are less qualified, alternative approaches JET programme, team teaching and English Educa- such as this might not be possible. This however, tion in Japan. In the future however, an earnest, would only seem to strengthen the argument that objective and impartial study of the University en- ALTs should receive more training, and that qualified trance exams and their washback effect should be trained ALTs should be encouraged to stay beyond carried out towards the goal of improving English three years with higher status and influence than Education in Japan. ‘Assistant Language Teacher’ affords. Private ‘Conversation’ Schools also have explored References different ways of team teaching, recruiting NESTs, and using NESTs and nonNESTs in the classroom Alderson, J.C. and L. Hamp-Lyons. １９９６.TOEFL effectively. Though schools such as GEOS and preparation courses : a study of washback. Lan- AEON are ultimately motivated by profit (as critics guage Testing, １３ (２), ２８０‐２９７. are quick to point out), as a former employee of Bachman, L.F．(１９９０). Fundamental considerations in GEOS from １９９５ to １９９７,Imaintain that they have language testing. Oxford : Oxford University Press. well developed recruiting procedures and communica- Browne, C. and Evans, B. (１９９４). The ALT as cul- tive teaching methods. If one of the primary goals tural informant : A catalyst for developing students’ of Japanese education is “cultivating students’ basic communicative competence. In M. Wada and A. and practical communication abilities” (MEXT, ２００３), Cuminos (Eds.) Studies in team teaching.(pp.１７‐ then one would expect the public sector to feel ２８)Tokyo : Kenkyusha. obliged to thoroughly investigate private sector ap- Canale, M. and Swain, M. (１９８０). Theoretical bases proaches toward the same goal. of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing, Applied Linguistics, １ (１) １‐ ７．Evaluation and washback ４７. Corder, P. A role for the mother tongue. In S. Gass Entrance exams and washback effect are not the and L. Selinker (Eds.) Language transfer in lan- focus of this paper, but in any serious discussion of guage learning. Rowley : Newbury House. Japanese English Education the topic of entrance ex- Council of Local Authorities for International Rela- ams is bound to arise again and again. Washback tions (CLAIR), (２００５). Minutes from the ２００４‐２００５ effect is the influence that tests have on pedagogy JET Programme evaluation meeting for ALTs. Re- and other aspects of the curriculum and it has been trieved August ２０, ２００５, from
―１７２― Gerard Marchesseau
Law, G. (１９９４). College entrance exams and team and A. Cuminos (Eds.) Studies in team teaching. teaching in high school English classrooms. In M. (pp.７２‐８９)Tokyo : Kenkyusha. Wada and A. Cuminos (Eds.) Studies in team Taguchi, N. (２００５). Japanese teachers’ perception and teaching.(pp.９０‐１０２)Tokyo : Kenkyusha. practice of the communicative approach. The Lan- MEXT. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Sci- guage Teacher, ２９ (３), ３‐１２. ence, and Technology (２００３). Regarding the estab- Tajino, A. Tajino, Y. (２０００). Lessons from team- lishment of an action plan to cultivate “Japanese teaching in Japan. ELT J , ５４ (１), ３‐１１. with English Abilities” Retrieved August ２０, ２００５, Tuitama-Robers, O. and Iwamoto, J. (２００３). A reflec- from < http : / / www . mext . go . jp / english / topics / tive study of high school EFL classes utilizing na- ０３０７２８０１.htm>. tive and non-native speakers most effectively. The Murahata, Y.(２００４). A consideration of aspects of Language Teacher, ２７ (４), ９‐１３. NNEST-related issues to raise awareness and en- Yukawa, E. (１９９４). Team teaching and changes in hance expertise of ELT professionals. Shikoku Eng- teaching routines in a Japanese high school reading lish Language Education Society, ２４, ８１‐９０. classroom. In M. Wada and A. Cuminos (Eds.) Smith, R.C. (１９９４). Contents and activities in team Studies in team teaching.(pp.４２‐５０)Tokyo : teaching : Lessons from observation. In M. Wada Kenkyusha.
―１７３― The State of the JET Programme, Team Teaching and English Education in Japan.
Gerard MARCHESSEAU
Abstract
Team teaching in English classrooms in Japan has now been widely practiced for over a decade in public Junior and Senior High Schools. Native speakers of Englishare paired with Japanese teachers so that students gain exposure to authentic English from Native speakers, and professional instruction and guidance from Japa- nese teachers. Although team teaching has lead to some difficulties, many reviews have been favourable and it would seem to support the goal of improving students’ communicative competence. Herein, the practice of team teaching will be reviewed and situated within the broad context of English language education in Japan. Though we have seen positive results there would appear to be limitations arising from other aspects of the curriculum.
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