The Teachers TV website has put up two videos of how MFL ( modern foreign languages) are taught in UK schools. As you can see the situation is very much similar to those in Japan.

The most useful aspect of the videos is that the reactions the UK teachers are having is exactly the same as Japanese classroom teachers. If you don’t speak Japanese it can sometimes be tricky to get a sense for what they are thinking, but here you can really pick up on the sense of nervousness and need of the teachers for someone to just help them out and more importantly show them where they are going wrong or right.

Over here this role is filled by ASTs or Advanced Skills Teachers. They are used in a similar way to ALTs in Japan – just that the government doesn’t leave the training up to Genki English! The way the AST deals with the classroom teachers is a good role model for elementary school ALTs.

There’s also one more video called “Activity Based Learning“. It wouldn’t seem to be the most exciting thing on the planet, and a few of the ideas are considered a little old fashioned, but you can see how kids do indeed get a great deal from language classes and are really focussed on the lesson – or maybe this is the influence of the TV cameras?? ; )