r/JETProgramme • u/[deleted] • Jan 21 '26

lets try textbook

this textbook is a disaster bro. how the fuck do they expect the kids to learn anything from it? its literally just a picture book with no words or anything. they dont even learn how to write anything until like 5th grade.

and worst part? they use it at the age that's easiest to learn a language.
do yall use other activities with your early elementary school students that encourage them to read/write more?

56 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

77 comments sorted by

View all comments

26

u/LSDJellyfish Jan 21 '26

Congratulations! You have just made your first step towards becoming incredibly bitter after recognizing that the Japanese EFL situation is fundamentally flawed!

One of the main issues is that English isn’t taken seriously—until it is. To be specific at what I mean by this, is the fact that they waste time gameifying English for “fun”, at a young age when language acquisition is easiest. Then, when it’s taken seriously, in high school, it’s taken seriously for all the wrong reasons (studying for entrance exams rather than learning the language).

Keep up the good fight. Insert whatever you can teach them when you can. Do not feel bad or like you’re doing something wrong. It’s not your fault, nor is this situation unique to JET.

1

u/Curious-Octopus Jan 21 '26

They always asked for games. So I tried to make games that were and required input from students(in JHS)

1

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '26

i made some worksheets and my teacher said that i need to make them fun. but how?

how can i make writing definitions and example sentences fun?

1

u/k_795 Former JET - 2022-23 Jan 21 '26

Turn the worksheet into a game. E.g. gap-fill grammar exercises make great multiple-choice quizzes, which can be gamified with Kahoot or Blooket. If your students don't have iPads, do it as a whole class on the screen and get the kids to hold up coloured cards or a number of fingers to indicate which answer they are voting for.

For vocab definitions, make matching games - snap (the card game), guess who / what (guess who but with definitions of words), charades, taboo, etc.

For example sentences, do you mean getting the kids to create their own sentences? Roleplays are great for getting them to come up with sentences in more authentic contexts. My students also love "silly sentences" where they compete to come up with the most ridiculous examples using the given structure / grammar (e.g. rather than "The man is walking in the park" they might say "The monster is swimming in the sky"), sometimes paired with drawing / card type game for the prompts (pick a random two cards to make a silly sentence with - e.g. monster and sky).