On Tuesday, March 11, I had the opportunity to teach an English class to a group of 3rd year students from Showa Women’s University Junior High School. The main focus of the class was question forms, such as when meeting people for the first time or asking about recent past experiences. After giving and eliciting example questions, I introduced activities to generate both yes / no questions and “wh” questions (e.g. “When is your spring vacation”; What did you do last summer?” etc.). The students also asked each other in English about their activities the previous summer.
When focusing on recent past experiences, I told the students about my recent trip to Showa Boston and elicited questions about it, and I also had questions for them about their own school trip to Boston taken in their 2nd year.
Overall, the students’ listening comprehension was fairly impressive, and the level of participation was more than one might expect from a typical group of junior high school students. I think their solid performance in the class is a reflection of the effectiveness of the English program at the junior high school, and it’s good to see that the students are well-prepared for the English curriculum in subsequent school grades.
Okeef