今日は、新しく英語のクラスを導入される、というある教育機関の方とのお話をしてきました。
Today, I met three people. They came from a certain educational institute.
This institute has a plan to introduce English class for junior high students.
The point is what kind of activities they should put into the class.
Asked about this, I told them that reading aloud is essential.
In fact, for junior high students, very basic sentences, such as “I study English at school,” and “How often do you study English?”
Probably, many of you feel disappointed.
“That’s too easy!”
Yes, it is. But don’t forget that they are going to teach junior high students!
And what they want is to make them feel at home when they speak in English.
It is often said that we should avoid Grammar.
I do not think that is the case.
Since we are non-native speakers, we need grammar.
Then why grammar is criticized?
They may misunderstand our problem.
We cannot speak in English not because we spend too much time on grammar, but because we do not practice speaking sentences.
In classroom, usually we say the sentences two or three times.
People think reading aloud is just a small part of study.
This is a wrong idea!
Why we can hardly speak in English?
Because we do not pronounce English sentences.
Remember how we mastered Japanese language.
We repeated what mother said, father said, brother and sister said over and over again.
Then we spoke out. Mother corrected me when I made some mistakes.
When we learn English, we should do the same thing.
Listen to good English, repeat it over and over again, and correct when we make mistakes.
So oral practice should be stressed.
I explained almost an hour, and three people finally understood what I said.
I expect their English class.
