genkilady78 comments

They would get better results if JETs worked in elementary schools rather than starting at the junior high/high school level. Having taught children of all ages during my first years in Japan, it was obvious that younger students absorb language much more easily than older students, and far mote easily than adults.

JET does place people at Elementary schools, as they now have mandatory lessons in English for all students, grade 1 up. I believe it is 19 hours a year in Grade 1, and steadily more until grade 5 and 6 where they have a textbook and classes once a week.

The problem with this article, is that it is treating JET like an employer. JET is not the employer. The individual contracting organization - be it the Board of Education, or the school itself, is the real problem here. CLAIR has some great ideas on how to utilize an ALT, but schools ignore them. I teach in 4 schools, not one of my homeroom teachers (I am in Elementary) has ever read the Team Teaching handbook. A memo is issued from my BOE every year telling the ALTs not to use Japanese in class, and that homeroom teachers are the main teacher. The problem with that? The homeroom teachers have not been effectively trained to teach English, and the BOE expects them to suddenly just know what to do. That isn't fair to the HRT, to the ALT or to the kids. This creates confusion and ineffective lessons. Again, not the fault of JET, but the fault of the individual school and BOE.

At my one JHS, yes, it was the same as most. I was a tape recorder. However, it is up to the ALT to be proactive and instead of sitting at their desk doing nothing, find ways to be a part of the classes. This is like any job. And yes, choosing people who are here on their first job and have no work ethic is a serious problem. One that CLAIR and the JET Programme are trying to find ways of dealing with through new hiring practices.