Assistant Language Teachers making a difference

My partner, a Japanese company employee now in his late 40s, remembers his experience of junior high school English language learning fondly. He was one of the first cohorts to receive instruction from a team of teachers, Japanese English Language Teachers (JTEs), and visiting Americans and British who were brought to serve as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs).

My partner is not fluent in English, but he has a good facility with reading and a keen interest in learning the language. During his high school education, he says that he excelled at English as a subject, and credits the ALT who assisted in his English lessons. Those of you who work as ALTs may not immediately know, but your efforts have an impact on generations of Japanese young people.

The implementation of ALTs in schools started over 30 years ago and has resulted in a variety of manifestations. The program continues to bring JET Program participants. There are now municipal city programs, direct municipal hires, and dispatch company ALTs.

As an ALT, you may be relegated to “T2”, an assistant to the Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) in junior high schools. You may be engaged as an ALT at elementary schools with a homeroom teacher (HRT). For some of you, you’re essentially the “T1”, the primary teacher, especially in elementary schools where HRTs are not conversant in English and depend on the ALT for a model of communicative English.

There have been many grass-roots efforts at the local level to help ALTs grow into their positions as assistants and informants to their Japanese colleagues. I had the good fortune to cooperate with JTEs and ALTs in a city-wide effort to develop skills and knowledge base, but it disappeared as ALTs left, and JTEs were assigned to different schools.

The good news is, recently, some national-level initiatives have started in an effort to support ALTs with meaningful, research-supported guidance.

A student at the University of Fukui’s Graduate School of Professional Development of Teachers has spearheaded a program, engaging ALTs in the experience of professional development.

ALTs, JTEs, and HRTs are invited to an online monthly café to discuss issues relevant to your teaching context. Each month, the facilitators post a synopsis of the previous month’s discussion so you can stay on top of the topics they cover. In the February session, Wang Linfeng and guest Nicholas Wilson talk about the Giga School initiative.

Another project specifically for ALTs is ALT Agora, a platform to provide all ALTs a place to discuss their experiences and grow as professionals. You can read more about and join ALT Agora.

The takeaway is you can help yourself to the professional development resources out there. For those who are hooked on English education, there are opportunities to build networks and skillsets in cooperation with fellow educators.