Inspection Tour to Elementary and
Junior High School in Beijing
I visited Beijing in order to inspect the movement of English Education in Beijing, China with many people concerned with English education. The group was formed by centering Principal Kageyama who is very famous for his invention of so-called “Calculation Exercise by Using 100 Spaces. “
We attended English classes at highest-level elementary and junior high schools in Beijing such as an elementary school from which the current President Hu Jintao in China graduated.
I’ll step by step report as to fruits brought from those useful inspection and opinion-exchanging meetings.
(1) The common situation among English education in Beijing is that students are all vivacious and active in giving their opinions before strangers.
A university teacher who accompanied me told that it might be from soldiery as a state system for students to be very vivacious and disciplined in their classes. Furthermore, most of them strongly desire to speak. Many students want faster to speak the results of pair work than others and desperately raise their hands.
Such a culture or style is established in their classes as it’s better for students positively to speak their opinions.
It gave us very fresh and astonishing impression that almost all students spoke loudly without any hesitation.
(2) Both teachers and students can pronounce nearly like a native.
Most of them haven’t studied abroad. Nevertheless, their pronunciation is very good. All of them seemed to have made efforts to acquire such a good pronunciation by themselves.
When an observer asked to some teachers whether such a good pronunciation was been acquiring at some English conversation school or not, one teacher answered that he was learning at a graduate school. It means that teachers usually go to higher level schools in order to hone their abilities or teaching skills.
And people who want to acquire some licenses or conversation skills go to English conversation schools.
Moreover every teacher is given in a teacher’s room a personal computer which is connected to the Internet and he or she learns English through the Internet after regular work.
By the way, Chinese language is called one of the most difficult languages in the world in its pronunciation. While Chinese may surpass Japanese in pronunciation, we can't help feeling that Chinese teachers have greater passion and are more endeavoring to better their abilities and skills than Japanese.
Although they can pronounce well, they still ask eagerly how they can improve their abilities more and more. This straight or serious attitude to chase a higher goal was so much impressive.
(3)Teachers always teach English through English except such a time as students wouldn’t understand or teachers must use extremely difficult expressions.
Moreover, both asking and answering are very smoothly and naturally done.
But they couldn't answer so fluently for my questions after classes. It may mean that while they had completely prepared teaching materials before their performance, their ability isn’t so flexible outside classes.
(4)Teachers’ ability is prominently high and they are all professional even in elementary school.
The advantages are as follows.
(a)Teachers’ pronunciation is very good.
(b)Classes are performed very rhythmically.
© Pair work is very often employed.
(d)A communicative method is conspicuously adopted.
(e)Fluency is preferred to accuracy.
(f)Examples are practical and taken very much from everyday life.
(g)Reading aloud and recitation, too, are employed very often.
(5) Junior high school has indeed various tools or equipments to make classes effective.
For example, electronic boards are utilized in all classrooms for both teachers and students. Big size screens and plasma displays are necessarily furnished for projecting of images made by a personal computer.
(6)Learning level is very high.
Classes for elementary sixth-year students include how to use subjunctive, infinitive, past tense, passive mood and the like. The sixth-year students at a certain elementary school learn at least one thousand words and they can attain the level of being able to compose an essay by using 150 to 200 words in 40 minutes.
Other elementary schools don’t so much consider that writing is inevitable. While their students can speak and listen to pretty long sentences, judging from their workbooks, they can’t write so many correct words. Their teachers say that for elementary school students being familiar with sound of English is enough. Writing and grammar will be learned at junior high school.
But learning hours of English are conspicuously many. There are two or three classes a week and elective classes are added.
On the other hand, a certain junior high school has eight classes a day. It is as if a cram school were added to a regular school. In fact, optional learning generally seems to be limitedly performed at the week end. Many students are taking English or PC courses.
Conclusion
All of our visitors and inspecters could not help feeling there is an incredible big gap between Chinese English education and that of Japanese.
Principal Kageyama, the chief of our expedition, frankly confessed to us that, sadly, we Japanese don’t have any advantage to be able to be proud in our education.
He himself is attaining better results in Japanese education society, but the entire Japanese education is much lagging behind Chinese’.
Next time, I will thoroughly consider and explain the reason why our Japanese education has so completely failed.
That’s all.
Junior High School in Beijing
I visited Beijing in order to inspect the movement of English Education in Beijing, China with many people concerned with English education. The group was formed by centering Principal Kageyama who is very famous for his invention of so-called “Calculation Exercise by Using 100 Spaces. “
We attended English classes at highest-level elementary and junior high schools in Beijing such as an elementary school from which the current President Hu Jintao in China graduated.
I’ll step by step report as to fruits brought from those useful inspection and opinion-exchanging meetings.
(1) The common situation among English education in Beijing is that students are all vivacious and active in giving their opinions before strangers.
A university teacher who accompanied me told that it might be from soldiery as a state system for students to be very vivacious and disciplined in their classes. Furthermore, most of them strongly desire to speak. Many students want faster to speak the results of pair work than others and desperately raise their hands.
Such a culture or style is established in their classes as it’s better for students positively to speak their opinions.
It gave us very fresh and astonishing impression that almost all students spoke loudly without any hesitation.
(2) Both teachers and students can pronounce nearly like a native.
Most of them haven’t studied abroad. Nevertheless, their pronunciation is very good. All of them seemed to have made efforts to acquire such a good pronunciation by themselves.
When an observer asked to some teachers whether such a good pronunciation was been acquiring at some English conversation school or not, one teacher answered that he was learning at a graduate school. It means that teachers usually go to higher level schools in order to hone their abilities or teaching skills.
And people who want to acquire some licenses or conversation skills go to English conversation schools.
Moreover every teacher is given in a teacher’s room a personal computer which is connected to the Internet and he or she learns English through the Internet after regular work.
By the way, Chinese language is called one of the most difficult languages in the world in its pronunciation. While Chinese may surpass Japanese in pronunciation, we can't help feeling that Chinese teachers have greater passion and are more endeavoring to better their abilities and skills than Japanese.
Although they can pronounce well, they still ask eagerly how they can improve their abilities more and more. This straight or serious attitude to chase a higher goal was so much impressive.
(3)Teachers always teach English through English except such a time as students wouldn’t understand or teachers must use extremely difficult expressions.
Moreover, both asking and answering are very smoothly and naturally done.
But they couldn't answer so fluently for my questions after classes. It may mean that while they had completely prepared teaching materials before their performance, their ability isn’t so flexible outside classes.
(4)Teachers’ ability is prominently high and they are all professional even in elementary school.
The advantages are as follows.
(a)Teachers’ pronunciation is very good.
(b)Classes are performed very rhythmically.
© Pair work is very often employed.
(d)A communicative method is conspicuously adopted.
(e)Fluency is preferred to accuracy.
(f)Examples are practical and taken very much from everyday life.
(g)Reading aloud and recitation, too, are employed very often.
(5) Junior high school has indeed various tools or equipments to make classes effective.
For example, electronic boards are utilized in all classrooms for both teachers and students. Big size screens and plasma displays are necessarily furnished for projecting of images made by a personal computer.
(6)Learning level is very high.
Classes for elementary sixth-year students include how to use subjunctive, infinitive, past tense, passive mood and the like. The sixth-year students at a certain elementary school learn at least one thousand words and they can attain the level of being able to compose an essay by using 150 to 200 words in 40 minutes.
Other elementary schools don’t so much consider that writing is inevitable. While their students can speak and listen to pretty long sentences, judging from their workbooks, they can’t write so many correct words. Their teachers say that for elementary school students being familiar with sound of English is enough. Writing and grammar will be learned at junior high school.
But learning hours of English are conspicuously many. There are two or three classes a week and elective classes are added.
On the other hand, a certain junior high school has eight classes a day. It is as if a cram school were added to a regular school. In fact, optional learning generally seems to be limitedly performed at the week end. Many students are taking English or PC courses.
Conclusion
All of our visitors and inspecters could not help feeling there is an incredible big gap between Chinese English education and that of Japanese.
Principal Kageyama, the chief of our expedition, frankly confessed to us that, sadly, we Japanese don’t have any advantage to be able to be proud in our education.
He himself is attaining better results in Japanese education society, but the entire Japanese education is much lagging behind Chinese’.
Next time, I will thoroughly consider and explain the reason why our Japanese education has so completely failed.
That’s all.