We’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together. 
<— Vogue Fashion (its my kitty in a bandana)
( •_•) So it took me a looooonnnnnggggg time to think about how I wanted to go about this paper (and to be honest, I got pretty frustrated thinking about it yesterday and gave up). I thought about going the easy route and defaulting to a “spew back information” paper but I just was not happy with that choice. I’ve done enough of those papers and they bore me at this point. So I was thinking about something more relevant to myself and my future career. ( •_•)>⌐■-■ And I was pondering if it would be really cool (and okay) if I could take the readings and our discussions (which come from the view point of an American school standpoint) and compare that to a Japanese school/writing viewpoint since I want to teach English in Japan and see what can be applied to teaching over there. Not really sure if it would work out as an essay but it was the best idea I could come up with. (⌐■_■)
2 Replies to “<— Vogue Fashion (its my kitty in a bandana)”
Oh man, I also had a hard time thinking about what I could talk about for the upcoming paper on this week’s blog. In the end, I couldn’t think of anything ・゜・(ノД`), so I concentrated on the Nelson reading instead.
I think that doing a paper on the ways in which English classes in America and Japan differ would be super interesting to explore. I only know a little bit of this topic (so don’t quote me on this) as teaching English in Japan had also interested me at one point, but what I’ve come to understand is that the structure of English classes tend to rely more on the teacher talking at you and less student involvement. The structure is very test heavy and passing that test takes more priority over the students being able to communicate effectively in English. There is very little conversation being put into practice. This isn’t always the case for all schools, but from what I’ve read it leans more to the majority. There are also other contributing-culture and governmental- factors as well that really highlight the differences between American English classes and Japanese English Classes. I don’t know if these will help but here are some articles that maybe can help you get a sense of the obstacles with teaching English in Japan and the what makes English learning a different experience over there.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/mar/08/japan-launches-primary-english-push
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/02/national/study-explores-deafening-silence-japans-english-language-classes/#.WLIq5DsrKzc
https://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/whats-wrong-with-english-education-in-japan-pull-up-a-chair
http://thediplomat.com/2011/05/why-english-is-tough-in-japan/
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/kaleidoscope/volume3/cultureshock.html
This one is a more personal account/observation of a Japanese student’s experience in studying in an American school versus the schooling they did in Japan.
-Marie C.
Love this idea Ashley! And thanks for the great resources Marie! So kind!