All Japanese junior and senior high school students study English, but these classes are for learning “test English” not for real communication. The purpose of this course is to help you to talk in English with each other. In this class, I will be your “coach.”

Objectives

In this class, you will:

• Learn how to keep a conversation alive and interesting,
• Develop confidence in speaking about a wide range of topics,
• Improve pronunciation,
• Build up useful English vocabulary and natural expressions.

Course Outline

Our class will work this way:

1.  I will give you some questions in Japanese about a certain topic.
2. You will translate them into English and I will fix things here and there.
3. You will use those questions to talk to one another.
4. You will have the chance to talk to everybody in this class many many times. You might even find your new best friend in this class. It’s very noisy and fun class!

Requirements

There is no textbook for you to buy in this class. We will make our own textbook together, day by day. You must always have a notebook to write in and pens and pencils to write with. Using your keitai for the dictionary is fine, but please be responsible. Also, attendance is very important. If you miss more than 5 classes, you will fail (“akaten”). Don’t miss class and don’t be late.

“I can’t speak English”

• Native English speakers: ~5% of world population
• People who use English everyday: 25% of world population
• Therefore: Most English is used by non-native speakers.
• What can you do in English?

Testing and Grading

1st test (after about  8 classes):  30%

2nd test (after about 16 classes): 30%

3rd test (Finals week):                 30%

Attendance & Participation:          10%

Pass: 60%, Average: 70%, Better than Average: 80%; Superior 90%+

[Note: Please understand the grading policy of the Oral Communication program. The highest grade the lower level classes can give is a B (79). But I promise you, that if you try sincerely, you will pass this class and you will definitely be able to speak English at the end of this semester.]