Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Guest speaker: Jason Good
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AKITA - June 2005 - Bilingual Education in Asia -Jason Good (Asia representative
for English Exchange) Jason Good started his presentation with some important
questions. Is Japan lagging behind the rest of Asia with its English education?
What exactly is the rest of Asia doing with regards to English education,
especially for their kids? What is being taught at the bilingual schools?
Mr. Good divided bilingual education in Asia into two distinct categories,
the ‘Old’ - Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines; and the ‘New’
- Thailand, Taiwan, and Korea. He used the new Japanese government Bilingual
School in Gunma to represent the latest Japanese paradigm. He showed that
bilingual education in Asia was started by International schools, and then
fueled by returnees and the private school that catered to them. As the
Asian representative for Houghton Mifflin, Mr. Good explained the use of
materials made for Native Speaking school children in the USA, and how
these materials had been successfully employed in bilingual education in
Thailand, Taiwan and Korea. In the end, it was concluded that Japan really
isn’t serious about bilingual education, not in the same way as the ‘New’
bilingual countries in Asia. His presentation included many examples of
how texts originally intended for native speakers could be utilized in
Japan.
Reported by Stephen Shucart |
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