1. Introduction
On May 22, 2021, I participated in the 33rd Philippines Nihongo Teachers' forum organized by JFM (Japan Foundation Manila). I am very grateful to an adviser in JFM who carefully guided me one-on-one from the preparation stage.
As a member of the Japanese language education community in the Philippines, I am going to move actively to share what I have with Nihongo teachers in the Philippines.
In this blog, I would like to focus on two things:
- What I wanted to say the most about my presentation
- What needs for Nihongo education in the Philippines to develop it
Oh, I'll also share my presentation with speaker notes (you can also see the backside of my presentation like "speak slowly!").
Slides (Flipped Learning and Autonomy): https://bit.ly/341Xz7s
2. What I wanted to say in my presentation
There is more than one teaching material.
In most offline classes, the only resources were the teacher or the materials available in the classroom, because there was a rule against playing with cell phones or there were no devices, to begin with.
If you think that online classes are just a substitute for offline classes, you will end up doing the same things you did in offline classes without using the great resources that are available online. I think this is a considerable opportunity loss.
The importance of developing autonomous learners
If you don't do this, teachers will end up doing the hard work, and since we only have one body, there is a limit to the degree to which we can be involved in the learners' learning. If the degree to which the teacher is involved with the learner determines the learner's growth, what happens when the class is over?
Language learning is not completed in one session, so it is necessary to take a long view. For that, of course, you need to be able to study on your own even after the class is over and you are out of the teacher's hands.
Google won't help you with that. This is because there are many factors involved in becoming autonomous learners. I think it is only us as teachers to respond to and handle those factors and individual circumstances.
That's why I suggested and emphasized the importance of collecting learner status, comments, etc. for each learner through self-assessment and listening to them in 1-on-1 meetings as my practice on the day.
Teachers are the ones NOT who give answers BUT who support their learning process.
In order to support their autonomy, we need to work on the learning process itself.
As for giving knowledge, Google takes care of that, and we will never win if we compete on the amount of knowledge.
Of course, there are times when teachers give information (knowledge), but if we think that we are not transferring knowledge, but supplementing the process, the stimulus and reaction (next action) that the receiver (learner) receives will change.
Since we already have the beautiful scenery (resources), all we need to make a good trip (learning process) is a rail. I believe that the teacher is the one who maintains those rails and repairs them when they are broken. Of course, the driver is the learner him/herself.
3. What is needed for Japanese language education in the Philippines
Information on Japanese language education shared among Japanese-Nihongo teachers
On the day of the forum, a participant asked me if flipped classroom teaching could be done offline. I think this is a question that Japanese-Nihongo teachers would probably not ask. Of course, I don't mean to evaluate Japanese language education in the Philippines as a whole based on this one question, but I am sure that information is not shared as much as Japanese-Nihongo teachers.
If I were to give a reverse example, I would say that it is like something that is published internationally in English is coming to Japan late.
I think it is quite natural that what is shared in Japanese will not spread unless someone brings it to a country in its language to be easily accepted.
So who will do it in the Philippines? I felt a sense of mission on my own, so from now on I'd like to do it too (that's why I am writing this blog in English)
From Top-Down to Bottom-Up
Philippine society is basically top-down. I work at a language school in the Philippines, and I feel that way when I see the way Filipino staff members work together.
Because of this society, it is easy for the classroom to become like that as well. It is still common for the teacher to be on top and the learners on the bottom.
That's why they are not good at designing lessons based on the opinions of learners, or supporting them on an equal footing. Or rather, I think they are not used to it.
Autonomous learning and the military-style are contradictory, so we need to do something about this...
4. Summary
Through this forum, I realized that what we, Japanese-Nihongo teachers know as the norm is not the norm in Japanese language education in the Philippines.
Other presenters focused more on autonomous learning, but I think most of the participants were probably hearing about it for the first time (or had heard about it but didn't pay much attention to it).
Either way, I am sure that the people who attended this forum were updated. However, this forum only happens once a year, so I will do my best to bring information to Filipino Japanese teachers frequently through blogs and other means.
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