Module 3

Well, it's official. Paper #3 has been submitted; mistakes, typos, and all! Well, hopefully there aren't too many of those, but I'm sure I missed something. But I think it's my best paper yet! Let's see what 'the grader' thinks!

The good news: I'm officially on academic hiatus until January! I'll continue the MA course on campus. Being a distance student has been interesting and challenging, the best part--the people I've met! Thanks guys! I couldn't have made it this far without you!!

Now...time to clean the apartment and start packing!

Birmingham, here I come!! Are you ready??

Kairyudo Publishing

In preparation for my next paper I've been doing some research on the Sunshine textbook from Kairyudo Publishing. Kairyudo has been publishing English textbooks for over 50 years, since just after WWII. The first English series was called Jack & Betty. I'd love to see a copy of it, to see how English texts have changed in 50 years. I contacted Kairyudo Publishing and they directed me to the Textbook Research Center in Tokyo. I will be in Tokyo next weekend, if it's open on Saturday maybe I'll try to check it out!


Everyone is quick to judge how horrible the textbooks are in JHS, but because I haven't seen anything better in use, and nothing more innovative in approach, I'm really very skeptical that a more innovative (i.e. learner-centered) style text/syllabus would work in a JHS 3phw (3 hours per week) context (Legislation by Hypothesis: The Case of Task-based Instruction by M. Swan, 2005 ).

The standard government textbooks are developed to meet the standards of MEXT, the organization responsible for the national educational curriculum. The English curriculum is supposed to Develop Japanese with English Abilities.