Joe,
Yes, you are going to need to be flexible. My points were put forth to give you an idea of how complex it can be, even in the world of edutainment eikaiwa, but especially in your situation where you are coming in cold. Get that TEFL certification even if all it does is open your eyes to some of the things mentioned here. I treat myself as a professional, but I came at the same age as you roughly and without the language-related degree that many have. I studied at a brick and mortar school to get certification before coming, and it was not enough, but I persisted at learning what I had to do every single day in order to get the most out of my job. I have not stopped trying to learn many years later (and many people my age and younger do the same).
A good TEFL course will help you understand what books you need as well as how to use them. It should also give you some kind of foundation into theory and how to make and conduct a lesson plan. Everything falls apart when you open your mouth at the beginning of the classroom, but that's life and you need to know how to adapt to situations. Tape recorders fail. Students don't get the instructions you try to teach. Pair work is disrupted with an odd number of students. The list goes on.
What exactly do you mean when you say "familiarize yourself" with them? If you can't look inside, just knowing some titles won't help. So, yes, get as many sample copies as you can, including the teacher manual if possible (not always, though). I have boxes of sample textbooks reserved for posterity, and after almost 20 years at this, I found early on that there are no really good ones. The eikaiwa I started at used 2 or 3, and one sucked & the other was lukewarm. If you have the freedom to adopt a textbook of your own, it has to suit your style and the needs of students
both. This will take you a while to determine after you have actually taught.
If you work for an eikaiwa, yes, you might be given a book to use and some instructions, or none at all (like me), so you would have to know how to use it. There may be a schedule to follow (finish chapter 5 by May, for example). Students might repeat the course, in which case you have to know what to do so they aren't bored. Eikaiwas in the sticks are usually looking for people with some level of experience or inkling of knowing what to do in a classroom, too, especially if they are small.
In case you didn't know, eikaiwa students are not the most stellar attendees. Housewives and retirees come mostly to socialize. Businessmen falsely believe they will learn in a once-a-week lesson without homework. Kiddies really young have zero attention span, and kiddies slightly older may be yanked out if parents suspect they aren't learning what they want (which could include stuff as petty as an accent). Most adult (over 21) students attend largely just to meet a foreigner and hear their stories of exotic lands.
Some eikaiwa operate by allowing students to take classes with a different teacher routinely every week, so you might have new students joining en masse and lose coherency in a group. Oh, and in case you hadn't heard, eikaiwas operate until 9pm or so, and you may have "weekends" split like on Sunday and Tuesday (or get lucky like I did and have Sat/Sun off).
Sometimes yes. It depends on what your students are hoping to learn. If they are into TOEIC/TOEFL prep, they may have only reading/listening to contend with, or writing/speaking, depending on the type of exam. If your class is focused on teaching reading, that's a given that you'll have emphasis on only one skill.
One thing you need to know is that Japanese students (of all ages) don't know how to study. Period. They are spoonfed in school from K-12 and even beyond. It's not the mindset you are used to, and I can't emphasize more the fact that you need to learn what it's about (as well as what eikaiwa is all about from the students' POV). Students expect to learn a lot by osmosis or just listening passively to a lecture. They are scared to make mistakes, so many will remain silent. You can't succeed well by asking direct questions in front of the class. Students (even those in fields which will require English) might have zero awareness of how they will have to use English down the road, and those same students may have no more aspiration than learning just enough to make "friends" with foreigners. My own motivation research supports this. Plus, they might have a vague language goal but absolutely no concept of how to achieve it, and when they finally perceive (or are told) that it will take a long time with various laborious steps, they tend to cave in.
But they are often persistent, and I've been amazed at how patient they are. These are often not positive traits, by the way. Example: kids who sit through a college class they hate and refuse to do the work even minimally to pass at the standard 60% score. They will attend other subject classes and sleep or play with phones while the math, geography, social studies, etc. teacher drones on, and then cram like hell the night before the test. But they endure (gaman suru) like crazy. You have to mix good teaching with charisma, charm, fun, and relevant activities to keep them the least bit interested.
johnnyG wrote:
True, and if he fails at that, he runs the risk of losing his job. I've been on the discussion forums for 15 years or more and have heard this a lot. Students are learners to you and paid customers to your boss. Never forget that!
johnnyG also wrote:
Learn! Ask your wife in many long sessions to relate her experiences. Ask others. Read about it.
EDUCATION
FSI | SPICE - Daily Life in Japanese High Schools
1985
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED265741.pdf
1996
Kitao-Why Do We Teach English? (ITESLJ)
Globalization is a Challenge for Japan
http://www.charlie-browne.com/wp-content/downloadable-files/English Educational Policy.pdf
vids
see more by Jhonny Gb
comparison to Australia HS
