English in elementary school teaching materials collection 2013 the jet p rogr amme

TEACHING ENGLISH WITH JAPANESE STORIES
 
Submitted by Hiroyoshi Murasaki (Tonami City BOE) 
Target Group
: 6th year
Difficulty Level
: Fundamentals, Basic Conversation 
Activity Objective: 
This should be used as a midterm project in JHS or Final project in ES. The goal is to practice 
simple conversation and narration by reciting a well-known story. Final assignment option: put on a 
play. 
Procedure: 
Using a well known folk tale type story, the ALT creates a very simplified narrative version in 
English. As the students should already know the basic storyline, only key points should be 
translated to English. The students previous knowldedge and imagination will fill in any gaps. 
Sometimes, student text books may contain such a story, with accompanying media (DVD, CD, 
etc). This will be a long-term project, so the story should be then broken down into short easy to 
digest chapters, one used per lesson. Using the simplified English version of each chapter, the ALT 
then creates a worksheet with a table of two columns. In the column on the left is the simple 
English, with the right column remaining blank. From here, the ALT and JTE/ HR Teacher will 
work together to walk the students through the story. At the start of each lesson, the whole story is 
read through, to warm the kids' ears up (5 minutes). Next, that day's chapter is re-read (1-2 
minutes). By now, thanks to the enthusiastic acting by the teachers, character names (Momotaro, 
etc), creature types (Oni,etc), animal noises, etc. the kids should have an idea what part of the story 
is being covered. The meaning of the English parts should be easier to understand. Next, one at a 
time, each line is read by the ALT, repeated by the students, and then checked for meaning in 
Japanese (15-20 minutes). Before revealing the Japanese meaning, the students have a chance to 
guess, giving hints until they get it, revealing the answer only if they are completely stumped. Once 
every line is cleared using this method, each line is read by the ALT, repeated by the students, and 
the meaning checked in Japanese for anyone that missed any lines (5 minutes). The students then 
will try to read along with the teachers as they enthusiastically act out that days' chapter one last 
time (2 minutes). After 5 or so lessons, the student should have the story memorized, and there are 
several choices for final group presentations. After dividing the class into equal groups (size and 
English level), students can be told to perform the story. The amount of preparation depends on 
time left in the year, and enthusiasm of the JTE/ HR teacher/ ALT. This can range from simply 
reciting the story in groups without costume or any final preparation, to using costumes, to having 
the students develop semi-original stories based on the English provided with costumes, to having 
the best group perform a culture day original play. I used supplemented the Momotaro story in "Hi, 
Friends" ES 6th year, and it was very successful. Every level was able to participate and enjoyed the 
final group plays.