4.Educating the Educators of Tomorrow

Abstract

Today’s students and tomorrow’s teachers are facing challenges that without proper preparation and support will face struggles at odds with what is required for teaching and learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in the Japanese context. Our jobs as educators at the University level requires so much more than just the transmission of the English language. As educators and more importantly role models or templates of EFL educators we must model, practice, and transmit to our students the best practices and theoretical basis of how and why we use certain pedological tools/methods in the classroom. These include the ideas of self-motivated learning, content learning methodology, student centered language lessons, assessment methods, and the idea of proximal learning between not only student and teacher, but peer groups as well (Vygotsky, 1978). Included in these ideas is the idea that language and culture are inseparable, constantly evolving and massively varied based on cultural context. Not to be forgotten is the current mandate for English education via English in principle. This has been an almost decade long call (MEXT, 2014) that all current and future teachers must be prepared to act on. The development of methods and tools our students can use to teach varying levels of students from junior high school (JHS) though high school (HS), using English as the primary communicative instrument is vital. As well as, the ability of young teachers to transmit these ideas to the already established teachers can make this idea of English education through English possible. To accomplish this educators and students must work together to produce, practice, and present (PPP) content in the classroom that can be applied directly or could be used to create content and lessons for use in their future careers. Only by learning not only the how, but the why behind these ideas can future educators apply these ideas to educate the next generation of EFL learners.