Community-Based English Learning

     How to organize English Expression classes, especially writing classes, is always an issue, sometimes it's a very controversial issue.  Some teachers take it seriously and try to have their students express themselves-----have them write letters, e-mails and as such.  Some other teachers take it positively but just are busy having their students ready for writing quizzes in university entrance examinations.  Some more others just concentrate on teaching English grammar.

 

     As I have had our students write English to express themselves, I have tried to provide them authentic opportunities to write and even speak English.

 

     I invited foreign students and visitors to our classes.  Many Japanese students are too shy to express themselves, so I got them prepared.  I asked my students to explore their local “attraction,” write about it in English beforehand, and make a presentation about it in front of the visitors.

 

     I organized a mailing list to have my students exchange mails in English with students abroad.  I even organized a mailing list in Japanese so as to make it a kind of “language exchange.”

 

     Their English writings could be short ones, but sometimes they were asked to write long ones.  For example, they reported their visits of universities in English as a part of their career education.

 

     Many of their writings have been, however, presented just once, and have gone to nowhere but in my PC.

 

     It is a kind of a waste of their important time and energy, although it helped brush up their English proficiency.  At least, they have not been made full use of.

 

     If their writings about their local attractions are to be posted on travel review sites, their time and energy could be recognized to be fully utilized.  Above all, many local attractions in Japan are waiting to be reviewed in English for the first time so as to be “discovered” by foreign visitors.

 

     Let me show one personal experience of mine:

 

   TripAdvisor, a travel review site, kindly reported to me, "47 travelers read your review of Kifune in the past week.”  So did:

36 travelers; Choryu Taiken Noto Suigun

24 travelers; Oyamazumi Shrine

21 travelers; Mt. Kiro Observatory Park

12 travelers; Nibukawa Onsen Hotel

12 travelers; Murakami Suigun Museum

12 travelers; Innoshima Suigun Castle

Those were the reviews I posted on TripAdvisor in English about the places I had visited during my trip along Shimanami Kaido Highway. My English reviews on Kifune and Choryu Taiken Noto (which should be pronounced or spelled Noshima, though) Suigun were the first English ones on TripAdvisor.  Kifune is a Japanese restaurant in front of Oyamazumi Shrine, one of the oldest and most widely respected shrines along the Seto Inland Sea.  Choryu Taiken Noto Suigun is a sightseeing boat trip of rapid tidal currents around Noshima Island, one of the bases of the Murakami Pirates, the most notorious medieval pirates in Japan.  You can easily find the appetite for historically meaningful authentic experience and for authentic Japanese food around historical sightseeing spots.