If you’re trying to persuade your school or Board of Education to choose Genki English then you can’t really ask for more than the research from Harvard University on using Genki English & Genki Phonics.

“Based on a variety of analyses, it has been confirmed that the …. program had a significant, positive and robust impact on students’ learning outcomes“.
-Schlemmer, Emily.  Harvard Graduate School of Education

Quite a few people have asked me for the citations for the research, so here you go:

Schlemmer, Emily. (2012). Statistical Analysis of the ELT4Mafia pre and post testing data. Harvard
Graduate School of Education.

You can read more about the project in the report here.

(And do check out the US State Department logo on the cover)

Oxford University

There is also the UK’s Oxford University research into Genki English showing how the Genki English songs and stories were equally effective for teaching English.

Officially Certified to Cover Levels A1 & A2 in the European Union.

Genki English has also been officially certified to cover the Education Ministry and Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) requirements for A1 & A2 levels in the EU   ( Research: IALF-G14-7-8, 2014    Report of the main findings by Deparment of Language Pedagogy and Intercultural Studies, PF UKF, Nitra, Slovakia)

British Council: What is Genki English?

The British Council have also licensed Genki English around the world.   They have also produced their own branded version of the Genki English materials:

If you are wanting a description of Genki English to show your school, here is a Press Release that was released by the British Council (the UK’s public organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations.)

About Genki English

Richard Graham founded GenkiEnglish.com, a provider of teaching materials and training based on the Japanese concept of “Genki”. He is now working with the University of Newcastle in the UK to bring this “Genkiness” to schools for low income families in India, China and Africa as well as working with the British Council in Japan.

The Genki approach to learning English works by engaging all of the learners senses and appealing to a wide range of learning styles. Children are engaged visually through the simple but striking graphics, aurally/orally through the simple chants and songs and limited amounts of graded vocabulary input and kinaesthetically through the actions and games. Because all of the learning tasks are organised as game-like activities, children are immediately motivated to take part. Tasks are achievable and learners receive positive feedback throughout the learning process. It is important that teachers realise that just using the materials is not enough, the way the materials are used are just as important to fully engage learners and maximise learning.

University of Newcastle

The University of Newcastle have also done considerable research into Genki English, with really encouraging results.   I don’t think their research has been made public, but you can read about the projects in the Boston Times and we also got an acknowledgment in Professor James Tooley’s A Beautiful Tree – which is a fantastic read.

Combine this with TV shows, Movie Stars,  TEDx, governments (the government of Western Australia have also just adopted the GenkiJapan.net materials) , countless MA dissertations, plus all of you getting amazing results with Genki English each & every day, then how can your school resist! 🙂

We’ve still got a long way to go though,  so thank you all for all your support!

Be genki,

Richard

P.S.  If you are planning on doing any research into Genki English as part of your MA, PhD or undergraduate research then please do get in touch.  I’m always looking to learn where we can make things better,  and you might also persuade me to get cracking on with my own PhD!