As the world around us is changing, so are the classes offered by the English department.

English Level

This year we have increase our production (Speaking, Writing) and comprehension (読解) classes to three time a week.  Our aim is for students to learn a wider variety of styles and situation where English is useful.  The teachers are using textbooks that encourage students to research their own interests and learn fact to support their opinion.

English Interviews

Many Japanese universities are using English interviews as part of their Entrance Exam, so we have begun interviewing all students during each exam week.  We hope this will help our students feel confident answering questions in English when applying for university, and even jobs, in the future. The interviews will be similar to “IELTS” and “Cambridge First for Schools” interviews because they encourage communication between students.

New “English in Context” Classes

Many of our students, like others across the world, enjoy reading comics.  Therefore, we have started a class to enjoy this genre called Modern Readers. This class discusses how a story is created and developed to compare American or British storytelling with Japanese.

Knowing Presentation English has always been an important part of working in the business world. Our students have the opportunity to learn about and give a variety of presentation styles from informative to demonstrative. Using video, they are learning about the physical side of presentations (e.g. gesture), as well as the key language a presenter uses.

Learning a language consists of a lifetime of building vocabulary.  This can feel time-consuming and boring, so we have introduced a class, Vocabulary Building, to make this process more interesting.

Finally, our school teaches many internationally minded topics, but students rarely have the time to discuss their own interests in English. This year, in addition to Current Events in Japanese (時事問題) we have introduced a Current Events class in English. The textbook introduces a number of issues that are orientated around American society for students to debate.

For Artistic Students

Artistic Design is a new class that connects to the art taught in Japanese because it uses pencil sketches to build the foundation of a picture.  The emphasis is on using English to better understand artistic techniques and build a portfolio showcasing students’ talent.  Mr Stump, an art graduate from an American university who has an outstanding portfolio of his own, uses a number of tools to guide students through the techniques needed as well as allowing them use English in a context they are interested in.

These new courses have begun well and students are reacting well to the challenges they face. Long may it continue!

Gareth Warham

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