Well, it is well past time that I got this blog going. It's not that I have just started thinking about what I am planning, but that I haven't got anything out of my head onto the (electronic) page, so to begin with let me give a brief summary of my ideas so far.
The KTC students already have a certain amount of face-to-face pre-departure learning provided by KTC focusing on situational English and learning about
1) A collective activity perhaps in the form of a wiki, in which the students would compile a personal introduction to their city of
Reasons for choosing this activity include:
- Improve students' English ability– I could moderate the site and add some language notes so that it could become a language-learning activity. Students would be expected to follow up on feedback and make appropriate changes.
- Encourage them to become more familiar with their home town (which many students know surprisingly little about), and provide them with a tool for making conversation with their host families when they arrive.
- Introduce students to online collaborative learning through the wiki tool, and encourage students to see the potential in online learning.
- Give the students an opportunity to use the internet to search for information about their town, and perhaps the chance to critically read about it (because they may not agree with everything they read about their town.).
In addition to online information, I would hope they would be encouraged to go out and photograph some of their own favourite sites, shops etc. to personalise the view of their town. In this way, it would not just be another ‘tourist brochure’, but something that was personal to, and owned by the students. If the students are encouraged to take ownership of the site, it will hopefully give them an introduction to the idea of autonomous learning. At the same time, the wiki might become an information site in itself for young people interested in a different view of a Japanese city.
The aim of this blog would be to:
- help the students reflect on who they are, and how their identity fits / doesn't fit with the wider culture in which they live. Rather than just a simple self-introduction, which is what is provided at present, this activity would encourage the students to explore themselves in a broader context. What aspects of Japanese culture are important to them / do they relate to most? Who has influenced them most?
- Set realistic goals for themselves for their time in
- Take responsibility for reflecting on and measuring their own progress.
I am not sure whether this second activity would be better in English (?Do they have the vocabulary / grammar skills to express themselves??), or in Japanese? Something to think about over the next few weeks!
Looking back at my own blog, I can see that I have failed to mention the aspects of the programme that are working well at present. This is probably because I was focusing on adding a new component to the programme, rather than changing any of the existing content.
ReplyDeleteThe programme itslef has been running for six years now, and has been very successful. Many of the students have returned to become student leaders and gone on to further education or joined big engineering companies. The programme has been successful in blending project-based engineeering learning with supportive English classes and some theory based learning, and I hope to continue with this approach. New technologies such as a smartboard have been introduced into the classroom in the last year or two, and have added to the interactive experience and participation of students. The new online component, then, is not changing the existing successful structure, but rather adding a precursor to it, that will hopefully prepare students to take more from the programme itself. At the same time, I hope that aspects of the online component will be carried on through the programme, so that reflective blogs and webpages become a part of the whole programme, rather than just the preparation for it.