Many JTEs speak Japanese for most of their English lessons. What is your opinion of this?
There is no doubt that learners cannot learn the four skills in a new language without hearing the language as much as possible both in the classroom and outside (if possible) AND having opportunities to speak it. In a classroom context the main provider of the Target Language (TL) is the teacher and therefore the teacher must be consciously aware of when he or she is or is not using it AND why. FL teachers should strive to use the target language as much as possible in their classrooms because the use of the TL in the classroom greatly increases the students' exposure to the language.
Several years ago I visited many EFL classes in Japan. I analyzed the English lessons of approximately 40 teachers—either live or on videotape—according to the amount and use of English in each lesson and then compared all lessons. I found that the lesson structures proved to be remarkably alike: textbook and teacher centered. With considerable teacher talk, opportunities for students to hear or use English in each 50-minute lesson amounted to approximately 6 minutes (See Figure 1***).
Figure 1: Amount of English Spoken in a Typical High School English Lesson in Japan
| Greeting to signal the beginning of class | 3-5 seconds |
| Pronunciation practice | 50 seconds |
| Listen to song or dialogue (2 times) | 1 minute |
| Vocabulary repetition | 1 minute |
| Structured pair work | 1 minute |
| More vocabulary repetition | 1 minute |
| More structured pair work | 1 minute |
| Farewell to signal the end of class | 3-5 seconds |
| TOTAL | 6 minutes 12% of 50 minutes |
The remaining 42 minutes involved use of Japanese, with the instructor providing grammar explanations, translations of words and phrases in the reader or textbook, assigning homework, instructions for activities, and occasionally checking for understanding.
Total instructional time in junior high: 105 classes of 50 minutes each = 5,250 minutes, or 87.5 hours per grade (× 3 = 262.5 hours over 3 years)
Total instructional time in senior high: 175 classes of 50 minutes each = 8.750 minutes, or 145.83 hours per grade (× 3 = 437.5 hours over 3 years)
Six minutes a day accumulates to 18 minutes a week (72 minutes per month), or less than 11 hours a year. Over 3 years of junior high school, students hear only 33 hours of English, out of a potential 262.5 hours of exposure in scheduled English classes. At the senior high level, students probably hear or use English for approximately 17.5 hours per year (52.5 hours over 3 years). In 6 years of English classes, the average student of English hears only 85 hours of English. According to Liskin-Gasparro (1982), at this rate learners would be relegated to remain “beginner communicators” for decades! (See Rates of Learning for more information on this research.)
Furthermore, by using the TL in the classroom, students are receiving more comprehensible input(Krashen) thus leading to exposure to, modeling of and eventual learning of more complex language structures. Using the TL in the classroom can also increase the students’ production of the FL (speaking and writing) and enhance the attitude toward the language (thus minimizing issues around classroom management and student discipline.