School pupils a protected species in Japan

Press, 9 March 1984, Page 18

School pupils a protected species in Japan

From

BRUCE ROSCOE

in Tokyo

"I looked over a boy’s shoulder and he was learning a list of words like ‘technology’ and ‘interaction.’ I said, 'Are you cold?’ "He replied: ‘What?’ t "I repeated: ‘Are you cold?' "He said: ‘Eh?’ ’’-

Carol McCready, a Canterbury University graduate and Taumarunui High School teacher, recalls this uncommunicative exchange with a Japanese student who had taken English for three years at middle school, as an example of many of the problems she encounters in coaxing Japanese students into expressing themselves in English. Carol is teaching at Takasaki North High School in Gunma Prefecture, near Tokyo, and will complete her one-year exchange programme next month. She takes each of the school’s 50-minute English classes once a week. The classes are packed; about 45 students. The student who knows how to spell “technology” yet cannot converse in simple language is more the rule than the exception. But Carol McCready, aged 27, blames neither students nor teachers for this apparent anomaly in a nation that prides itself on educational achievement. “The teachers are excellent. They’d like to do more speaking. They’re very positive towards English conversation,” Carol says. “But the university entrance examination format controls English education and the exams are entirely written; speaking and listening are not valued. Well, they are valued by the teachers, but the teachers do not have time to teach them.

“If you have an exam that is very demanding at the vocabulary and grammatical level, teachers must spend all their time on that. Students complain if the teacher goes off the course.” Teaching a foreign language by only written exercises may not be unique to Japan, though many other countries probably have discarded the method. Carol makes the comparison of French teaching in New Zealand. But she soon learned that teaching methods that get results in New Zealand classrooms are not necessarily as effective in Japan. Even a half-page play “was not really successful, strictly speaking, because the students are not used to doing that type of thing unsupervised,” says Carol. “Japanese lack confidence in themselves.” As a group, however, the

students tend to feel more secure. “If you ask a question, they will look around and compare their answer with their friends. Part of that is peer pressure, but part of it is also because the atmosphere of the classroom is more co-operative than competitive. “In New Zealand, you’d say, ‘I asked you, not your neighbour.’ Here, although I have said that, I have to accept a lot more talking in the classroom than I would usually be happy with.” Carol believes Japanese students may be hindered in making conversation in English by the dominance

of fixed patterns of speech in their own language.

Or, perhaps, by shyness? Or a cultural complex brought on by being unsure of how to approach foreigners? “A lot of Japanese conversation is set. Even if you stay here for 20 years they’re still going to ask if you can use chopsticks. They’re not actually terribly brilliant at making conversation,” says Carol. If Japan has little to offer in language teaching, there may be lessons it can teach in other areas. One in particular struck Carol as useful in a New Zealand context:

cleaning. “When I first arrived here I was amazed at how clean they keep the school without hiring any commercial cleaners. It must save an enormous amount of money.” All cleaning duties, from blackboards to toilets, are rostered among the students. As a result, Carol says, “basically the school stays very clean.” Carol McCready believes that this discipline — all cleaning is done in the students’ own time — could explain the high respect Japanese learn to pay to others’ property. Also, at Takasaki North High, there is very rarely any vandalism, and the same goes for graffiti. Naturally, students are not inclined to turn to naught the hours they have put into sprucing up their environment.

Carol holds that Japanese students are kept as children for longer and are “very protected.” They are not allowed to do parttime jobs, for example, and must inform the school when they leave the orefecture.

“li you delve into it, you find the school is held responsible for its students 24 hours a day. It is not all right to go home and smoke, or to go out and smoke with your friends.

“One form teacher’s student was caught shoplifting and the teacher had planned a holiday but had to cancel it to visit the student each day at home while he was suspended. “I’d characterise the Japanese attitude towards their students as protective. They almost encourage dependency rather than independency.” Corporal punishment? “In New Zealand it is a set thing. It must be recorded in a book. In Japan it’s a slap across the face or a clip over the ear. The slap seems to be done quite often. There is no formal punishment such as caning.”

Some teachers use humiliation, too. Carol recalls a* group of students who had been dodging lessons, being told to stand along the wall of the staffroom. They faced the staff with their heads bowed while two teachers stood in front of them telling them “what dreadful children they were.”

“But, on the whole, I don’t get a feeling of an unpleasant atmosphere. Students wander in and out of the staffroom freely, whereas in New Zealand the staffroom is a retreat. Here, students go in to ask teachers about things.”