How I teach - in each lesson every good teacher does:

  1. Revision / warm up
  2. Introduction of new material

  3. Drilling / practice

    4. In addition, I do the following ：

  4. Setting goals

    5. First I identify for each student short- , mid- and long-term goals.
    The overall aim is to enable each student to reach his/her goals in the shortest possible time.
    In addition, each lesson is organized so that each student is challenged to use what he/she has learned so far. In this respect, every lesson is seen as a full revision of the past lessons.

  5. Make students aware of weaknesses before they develop into a real problem

    6. Students almost inevitably make mistakes and get embarrassed about this but this is an important part of learning. Whether these mistakes are related to pronunciation, grammar or word-usage, I always point out several of the most recurrent mistakes.
    Some mistakes are easily dealt with, but others cannot be eliminated until the student has started to think in the Japanese way as with the use of adjective clauses: Yamada san ga tabeta sushi wa yasukute oishikatta (The sushi that Mr Yamada had was inexpensive and good. ). In Japanese the clause that modifies 'sushi' precedes the noun whereas in English the clause is placed after the noun. Students can get motivated to study at home by knowing their short -, medium-, and long - term goals and with clear guidance from their teacher.
    Those who are going to sit exams on a specific date realize their weaknesses after doing several mock exams. On the other hand, those who go to Japan on business (shuchoo), might remember specific problems from a previous business trip, and hope to perform better in these areas on the next trip.
    I have a database for each student that contains their weaknesses, and at one stroke, all the major weaknesses that each student has so far made will come up onto the screen of my powerful computer. I start every class with an awareness of these mistakes in mind.
    Some teachers argue that focusing on weaknesses too much discourages students because they lose confidence, but I do not agree.
    I find that each student is very sensible and would like to know the nature of their problems, so they can improve.
    It is common for students to repeat mistakes over and over again and to get upset and embarrassed about this especially if the nasty teacher keeps pointing it out.
    However, feeling embarrassed is usually a very good sign because it motivates the student to eradicate this feeling.
    Students are also sometimes uncomfortable when I use grammatical terms. Japanese grammar books often contain such terms as passive/active voice, transitive/intransitive verbs, time vs tense, or relative pronoun / pronoun, etc. Some students fear their unfamiliarity with these terms would reveal their ignorance, and make them feel stupid.
    I can usually tell this from their body language, in which case I stop using these terms and discuss these problems with them.

  6. Tailor the pace of the lesson to each student

    7. How much a student can learn in one lesson is an individual matter.
    Some, especially those who volunteer to do a lot of self-study between lessons, learn four times as much as other students.
    A few exceptional students make quantum leaps because they are dedicated - they study a minimum of one hour every day after supper under no influence of alcohol and four to six hours every weekend with self-made vocabulary/kanji cards. However, some students are exceptionally busy and cannot afford to do this kind of study.
    Each student has his/her own capacity to learn, and this cannot be altered over the short term, but regular home study certainly helps them learn more in a limited amount of time.
    I can adjust my pace of teaching for each student so everybody can make progress at their own pace.

  7. Put a lesson summary and other useful material on my website

    8. Whenever necessary, I make a brief summary of lessons and put it up on my website, so that my students can have access to it whenever/wherever they are.
    One of my students said that the summary certainly made him think.
    This kind of website is almost unique and I am sure it benefits my students.

  8. Use of Japanese in lessons ( emersion )

    9. Apart from when teaching complete beginners, I speak Japanese or try to do so all the time despite resistance from some students, especially post-beginners. These students tend to feel that total immersion does not suit them at all times even though they generally agreed with the use of this approach beforehand. Whenever they do not understand, they switch to English without making much effort to express their questions in their target language.
    Over the long run, this is not beneficial to students because they do not exploit the chance to use Japanese. Moreover, these struggles reflect a genuine reality - the struggle that they are likely to face in communicating with Japanese people.
    These students justify the use of English by arguing that there is a need to confirm the points.
    However, my experience says that the effort not to switch to English is worthwhile in developing proficiency in Japanese.
    Alternatively, with prior agreement with these students, the use of English is allowed for the last 10 to 15 minutes. This encourages students to continuously talk and listen in Japanese. This process hopefully contributes to developing their ability to think in Japanese, and eventually enables them to switch from the use of English-Japanese/Japanese-English dictionary to a Japanese-Japanese dictionary.
    With some beginners, I never speak in English in class or never respond when English is spoken, but communicate in English by email to clarify some points.

  9. Expect students to work - Many say I am a very demanding teacher

    10. My assignment is to give good lessons to my students, and the student's role is to learn.
    This is an agreement that both students and I should honour because it will benefit both parties.
    I come out to each class based on the assumption that students did their homework, therefore they are well-aware of what they have already learned.
    I do not feel happy when students come out with endless excuses to justify their laziness.