Category Archives: communicative method

How I Teach Kids ‘I have…’

I love to teach kids but it is certainly different from adults in some (not all) ways.  To begin with, they do not have any English experience.  Next, they have shallower experience levels than adults.  But they also are more inclined to try to guess what you want them to do.  You will find using [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 Teaching and Studying English

I recently watched a video about teaching English in Romania and was fascinated, in particular, to learn that the Romanian Education system has switched from focusing on English grammar and vocabulary to a more conversation based learning process to the detriment of learning grammar and developing vocabulary. In other words they have gone too far [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 Entertaining a Foreigner

The “Entertaining a Foreigner” lesson in the Smith’s School of English curriculm is not only a way for students, and teachers for that matter, to learn the English meaning of many everyday Japanese words but it is also a fantastic means by which to encourage them to speak, ask and answer questions and have a [...]

英語上達の為質問練習 Simple Question Practice is Good for Japanese Students

I got a nice comment from someone on my simple question practice video on YouTube.  I thought it might be nice to share it to Smith’s teachers and students or anyone looking for a simple practice tool when they do not have a real person to practice with. Comment from Viewer: I think this is [...]

Let’s say “well…” instead of “e—to”!

At Smith’s School of English Otsu, some students have a little difficult time, asking questions or saying anything such as “Really?” to keep the flow of conversation. Then, my thoughts flashed back to my high school days. I was taking English conversation lessons and every week I found myself stumbling over a word and decided [...]

What’s so hard about speaking English?

I often wonder why Japanese students have so much trouble to speak and understand spoken English. When I eat lunch at Cafe DECO, which is just below my school, and I can’t help but be required to listen to some conversations of young college girls. The cafe is not large and voices can be hearty. [...]

Two Students Believing in the Need for English Ability

Last night I had a fun lesson with two students who confess to really needing English ability. One works for a major Japanese pharmaceutical company in research and often has to meet with Americans and other foreigners and use English to discuss his research. The other student is a 4th year university student who recently [...]

Making Requests is an Important Lesson

My 6:00 p.m. Saturday lesson this week included two students. We worked on making requests and went through the normal lesson plan with no problems but when I asked them to think of and make requests on their own, they seemed to stumble. In some cases I give them a simple scenario such “you are [...]

楽しい英会話のレッスンはスミス英会話で必ずのことです。Smith’s Always Provides a Fun Lesson!

The laughs are abundant at Smith’s School of English. This week my Saturday 3pm lesson included three students who were tasked with miming some activities to get their partners to guess what they were doing and to use the past continuous tense. It never fails that one of the students does something really funny when [...]

What Is the Outcome?

Learning through the communicative approach means the learned language becomes a true means of expression. Even values and judgment can be articulated. Learners will gain a functional knowledge of the language that meets whatever specific or general communication needs they may have.

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