901 Write up

Report on First Week Feedback - Japanese Functional English Course

This report summarizes feedback received during the first week of the Japanese Functional English Course. The course is a 9-week program designed to equip engineering students with practical communication skills for an upcoming year abroad.

Student Feedback and Course Focus

Students expressed a desire to utilize authentic learning materials like jargon, jokes, idioms, and content from real-world sources such as lyrics, movies, and articles on serious topics like health, lifestyle, society, finance, environment, and design. Their primary focus was on improving fluency through increased exposure to input materials (reading and listening). Additionally, students found interruptions caused by classroom management to be disruptive to their learning.

Proposed Adjustments

Based on this feedback, the instructor proposes to introduce project-based learning that incorporates the "serious" content students requested. This approach aims to increase engagement and provide a more authentic learning experience. The instructor plans to minimize interruptions by allowing minor inattentiveness while addressing disruptive behavior.  This will allow for a smoother learning experience.  The five required assessment areas will still be addressed. All five required assessment areas will still be covered throughout the course.

Course Background and Expectations

The Functional English course prioritizes practical communication skills for engineers, focusing on using English for tasks like information sharing, idea exchange, and collaboration, rather than formal grammar or vocabulary instruction. This program prepares students for a year-long program in a different cultural environment with a distinct teaching style. This includes experiencing a wider range of teaching styles, a shift in focus from form to content, and an emphasis on independent learning and self-evaluation, which is common practice in Western education systems.

It is important to note that most instructors in this program expect students to maintain orderly conduct, actively participate in class discussions, and take initiative in their learning.

900 Feedback notes

Feedback from first week

Japanese students 

• Wish for authentic materials (jargon, jokes, idioms, lyrics, movies). 
• Wish for 'serious' content i.e. health, lifestyle, society, finance, environment, design. 
• Want more input (reading, listening) rather than output. 
• Wish to increase fluency. 
• Wish less interruptions due to teacher stopping to silence/command attention from inattentive students.

Therefore teacher proposes

• Clearly give aims
• To introduce serious content via project work.
• Ignore inattention (yet will ask disruptive students to leave)
• Address the 5 assessment course requirement. 

Functional English 

• Is a 9 weeks course concentrating on usage of English in an Engineering context i.e. appropriate communication of ideas, information, cooperation, not formal grammar and vocabulary teaching. 
• Sets students up for a year in different culture classroom with different set of values, foci etc. E.g. teacher variation of teaching styles. 
• Content rather than form. 
• Research and initiate rather than being fed knowhow. 
• Also self, colleague, teacher and course evaluation is common in Western culture education system.
• Most teachers require 3 things: orderly conduct, responsive interaction, initiative.