Category Archives: English Lesson Plans

Discussions of lesson plan theory and application.

スミス英会話高円寺 Living in Japan

Over the last five or so years I’ve often been asked why I live in Japan when Australia is such a beautiful country with many clean beaches &  mountain retreats close at hand. In addition it has a climate that encourages outdoor activities including a large variety of sport such as golf, tennis, cricket, soccer, [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 Temples of Tokyo-Tennoji

Located in Nippori, Tennoji Temple is a very peaceful small secluded temple, no doubt in part because it is located inYanaka cemetery, which by the way has many lovely trees, lots of which are cherry trees that when are in full bloom encourage scores of people to view them & in traditional Japanese fashion sit under [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 Tokyo Edo Museum

スミス英会話高円寺  Tokyo-Edo Museum “The Edo-Tokyo Museum was founded on March 28,1993, as the place where visitors come to learn more about Tokyo’s history and culture , and which also serves as a projection onto the city and the living of the future. In the Permanent Exhibition area, there can be found original and replicated exhibits, [...]

English Has Teinei… Really!

Sometimes when I teach English here at Smith School of English in Ikoma, students ask if there is a special way to be polite in English, like there is in Japanese.  I used to have trouble answering them.  I started to mention ‘would’ or ‘could’ but they say those are not only for politeness.  And [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 The Sport of Kings

The Race that Stops a Nation – the Melbourne Cup. Horse racing is referred to as “The Sport of Kings” (Queen Elizabeth II is a ardent follower & owner) Horse racing brings people from all walks of life together placing them on an equal footing.You don’t need to be rich to buy a racehorse as [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 The Changing Face of Japan

Over the last few years I have noticed many changes taking place here in Japan. the ever changing skyline, the introduction of many new abbreviated English katakana words (no wonder the Japanese cannot be understood when they travel overseas and use such words thinking that they are everyday English words) and the way women appear to [...]

Vocabulary Lessons are Fun Too!

Last week I had three students and decided to use the vocabulary lessons. These are an interesting part of the Smith’s curriculum.  They consist of many units each comprising 12 words. The words are random and unrelated for the most part.  Some are nouns.  Some are verbs and some are adjectives.  Some can be used [...]

We are Working Hard and So are Our Students!

This week one of my students showed up and showed me her new homework folder. Since she started in April she has been diligently doing the homework, watching the videos and preparing for the lesson.  She has saved all the homework sheets in this new folder. She has filled up this folder and will start [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 A Royal Experience

As you know we Smith’s School of English coaches of communicative confidence regularly have fun meeting and greeting students and prospective students in the morning. Over a period of time many things happen that make the start to our day quite often an unique experience and certainly one that is never mundane. I had an [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 What is an Oxymoron?

I recently received an unsolicited email in which there was a list of oxymorons (or oxymora) and it prompted me to share them with my ESL pupils at Smith’s School of English in Koenji part of the Smith’s School of English,pay by the month, franchise English conversation schools throughout Japan. An oxymoron is a figure [...]

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