Bus man's holiday - examining at Ueda Nishi High School

I had the pleasure a couple of weeks ago to conduct the speaking exams for students at Ueda Nishi High School (Nagano prefecture) at CEFR B1:Preliminary for Schools level, for our centre (JP004). I teamed up with a new colleague (John) who was good enough to drive (heavy snow the night before prevented me from doing the honours).

It was obvious that the students at this school had prepared themselves to exchange ideas and collaborate in their conversations, making our jobs relatively easy! The only disappointment for us was that there were so few candidates (from the English conversation club) when in fact the entire school studies English with a couple of full-time ALTs backing up the very competent and enthusiatic Japanese teachers. 

Maybe next year?!

A tale of Little Red Riding Hood and Momotaro!

Last Friday (10th of December) Sasabe held their annual play done fully in English! I was blown away, by the set, costumes, and the performance in general. It was done beautifully! It's amazing how the set and costumes were made fully by the teachers, they looked wonderful and well done!

Miriam-sensei and all the teachers at Sasabe did such an amazing job! I even got to see a student of mine perform. From recognisable songs tweaked to help students' memorisation to the confidence the students portrayed! They split the students into 2 groups, 1 group performed Momotaro while the other Red Riding Hood! Parents to teachers were proud. By the end of the performances, there were no dry eyes in the hall (me included!) 

        Momotaro

I was able to ask Miriam-sensei a few questions on how they prepared and how long did they practice it for! She said the teachers prepared it back in Spring, with the scripts and songs of choice while the students only started practicing at the beginning of November! With the help of Jim-sensei, students watched recorded videos of the play and they were exposed to the script in both Japanese and English early on! 

"Once the kids have an idea of what the play is we read it through line by line, students follow along and repeat until we get it right. We do this as a whole class, no roles are assigned as yet and once we have assigned roles, some lines are modified or shortened to help specific kids." - Miriam-sensei

Surprisingly, the roles are only decided two weeks before the play. Amazing how the students were able to be in character in such a short amount of time. With lots of encouragement and help from peers and teachers, students were able to stage a loud and big performance! To help with memory, songs are played in the background during lunchtime for easier practice afterward. 

Little Red Riding Hood

Miriam-sensei even shared her proudest moments throughout the whole production, just the students' determination in remembering their line made her extremely proud especially when they went on stage without any hiccups! I can definitely understand how proud she must have felt seeing her students on stage saying all the lines! 

Miriam-sensei told me that she was nervous from the start of practice (back in November!) and was worried if they will ever have time to finish everything. The students are practicing the whole day and exhausted from it. But once they got the hang of it, it was like a breeze just because the students were extremely motivated to stage a perfect play. It was a joy to watch the kids perform and their parents being able to witness the students' excitement as well as motivation. Miriam-sensei said "Overall, it was a great experience although a bit tiring for the kids I believe the students learned a lot and had so much fun in the process"

Was definitely a beautiful performance by the kids and was I happy to tag along to see it! Once again, great job, and congratulations to Miriam-sensei, Jim-sensei, the teachers at Sasabe, and the students! 

A big world for small equipment.

I wonder what percentage of my life is spent touching this small piece of equipment that sticks out a little in one hand and fits in both hands.

It's easy to connect with the world. Also, there is so much information in it. What's notable about the development of social networking is that it allows us, as ordinary people, to share information. 

For example, Twitter. They can tweet whatever they want. As you know, it has its pros and cons. Let's start with the pros.

First, you can talk about your hobbies and share your thoughts and opinions. Secondly, you can expose yourself to ideas that you have never encountered before. Furthermore, Twitter gives us more opportunities to learn about things. However,  as we all know, there is a good and bad side to everything in the world. 

The ease with which anyone can disseminate information is inextricably linked to the ease with which they can disseminate content that has not been scrutinized. Sometimes this is called misinformation or fake news. Whether it is intended or not, it's very difficult to correct misinformation that has been spread one by one. 

What's more, the most tricky part is the "like" reactions and follower responses. It instantly satisfies the need for approval, but it also creates a need for further approval. Are the statements we make to satisfy your need for approval really our own opinion? 

In my opinion, we need to find our own way of dealing with social media. In order to judge misinformation, a basic knowledge of the chemical sciences, the study of history from many different perspectives, writing skills, and the ability to read texts are required. And also, we have to learn how to deal with our own pschology. 

Written by Anna Koshi.

Helping kinesthetic students!

 Has it been 6 months since I started working in beautiful Matsumoto?!

Well, today I wanted to share an activity I did with my students (twins!) who are kinesthetic learners! They cannot sit still and if they do, eyes heavy! I learned it the hard way the first few months here!

The twins have school in the morning, football practice right after, and straight for English classes, no wonder they are exhausted! So changed it up this week! We played Twister (advisable to be only done for students from the same household only, sadly we are still in a pandemic!)

On a dark cold Tuesday, boy these kids were sleepy! A great day to conduct this activity! We assigned a colour and body part with a part of a sentence! We were learning chores and advert of frequency! So why not combine them! 

Red = always                                     Right hand = after school

Green = never                                    Left hand = before school

Blue = sometimes                              Right hand = after school

Yellow = usually                               Left hand = before school

Students are required to make a sentence following where their body parts land! 

Example : (Left hand on blue: I sometimes wash the car before school)

And the other student will ask: What are your chores?

Trust me, students were falling down easily and they had a blast! They practiced and made use of their target language well! The rest of the lesson went smoothly as students were perfectly energised and no more falling asleep!

Ueda Nishi High School Speaking Competition!

Was given the opportunity to judge an amazing selection of topics from students of Ueda Nishi High School! 

Now, this was my first time ever in Ueda and I can say the drive there was immaculate! It was breathtaking! The mountains were screaming with their golden amber leaves! I truly enjoyed that 2-hour drive back and forth! 

Back to the competition! We were given a list of topics from the presenters! The topics varied from traveling to storytelling! I thought I had an idea when I arrived but was I wrong, these students blew me off my seat! They were amazing! 

The first speaker told us about his favourite places in Nagano (and me being new here! took notes!) He had great and clean slideshows with pictures that definitely drew me in more! 

The 2nd topic was presented by a pair of students! This was interesting and the topic was unique! They reimagined the 12 Chinese zodiacs and retold the story if it began in America! Creative and definitely a good laugh! The students changed the animals to animals found in North America (kudos for doing your research well!) 

I would say the topics varied in this competition, it was split between Japan and its' culture to storytelling and fables with a modern twist! It was hard for us as judges to choose who was the best but with help from all of us, we decided on a student who talked about Flowers unique to Japan! Was a beautiful speech with a creative slideshow! Congratulations! 

To all the other students! Good job! Truly an amazing competition! Great job to the teachers for helping to prepare the students! 

Try to have fun!

Currently entering my 2 months of teaching at Luna International School set in the beautiful mountains of Nagano. Coming from a background teaching teenagers and only teenagers. When I got an offer to start teaching younger students, it definitely scared me. I always thought I could do it, it won't be that different from teaching high school (so I said!). Boy, was I wrong!

Barely a week in and I cracked. It was hard! I learned that kids especially younger ones had the attention span of a fly. I felt like a clown put to show and begged the kids for attention. My balloon tricks weren't doing the work here. Had to talk to Jim (my boss) on how to make the kids pay attention and what is too hard and too easy for them. Basically, his advice was to go back to the basics, alphabets, song, singing, and dancing. Acting silly with them. Try to have fun! 2 months in and he still reminds me of that, have fun with the kids and I do agree with that. Once I start enjoying my time with the kids, I start to relax and understand their needs better. 

I learned a lot, to be honest, I noticed how students pick up languages differently. Most kids require a hands-on approach while others are okay with learning by textbook. I felt a mix of emotions, more patience definitely. I learned different methods in approaching kids with help from Jim. I do want to be better for my students because I know they are silently struggling to understand a foreign language too. My heart cares for these kids a lot and I do agree that they deserve the best education possible and hopefully, with more guidance and learning on my side. I'm able to help them. l I still have a long road ahead and I am excited to see what else I learn! 

Young Learners & graded readers: win win!

Supplements to class books

I think graded readers have a place in every language learning environment; they certainly play an important part in our learning goals at Luna, and have proven their worth many times over as our students have blossomed from learning first words to biting off big chunks in Cambridge exams - be it entry level Young Learners (pre-A1Starters) to B2:First with us here at JP004.

Young Learners are rarely independent learners, so we use our readers in class to form good habits; get used to the format & style, find the audio or read along with the teacher narrating - we love correcting the teacher if he/she 'makes a mistake'! We exploit the artwork to predict or reflect, recycle & repeat. We get used to the kinds of tasks that are included in the puzzle pages, and understand that we absolutely can turn the pages back to find what we are looking for together (is it a team race? are we working in pairs? are the books on the table even? which pages do we need to look at?) Follow the directions (which are also in English). Stuck? Ask peers or the teacher for help, of course it's OK!

Exploit the glossary

Good choice of reader will mean you can easily suppliment/compliment your regular course books, be it in terms of vocabulary or target structure. Working on animals or numbers...prepositions or suggestions...culture, values, social studies or science? 

Use your readers for much more than 'just reading' and instead a launch pad for inquisitive minds & project work in all shapes and forms - a talking picture of a favourite character being interviewed maybe...a poster or illustration personalising vocabulary & self...scaffolded writing eg focussing on personification, localisation or prediction...use the 'hard' or new words imaginatively not as 'test' items.

Make a meal out of the level of language, and the repetitive nature of graded reader titles? Notice, for

pronunciation mining

example, when you can take advantage of regular past tense verbs. Make it a listening task & colour code your -ed endings and then organise them - organise them into sets in side the front cover (invariably blank real estate there!). Can your learners match up the (probably limited number of) irregular past tense verbs with their dictionary form - another reason to re-read (but this time scanning) & quickly.

Collaborating on a project

Reading out loud? I really think this is a bad idea for so many reasons (stage fright, fear of mistakes, "I'm too slow", not confident with big words, wasn't in class last week, didn't hear the audio etc)! Instead, narrate the story yourself (model good pronunciation/intonation, speed) and only have your students speak particular roles each. This encourages them to read ahead & identify direct speech and to figure out who is speaking...this can take time but let them do that together & agree! What words in the text help us do that? How does the speaker speak (cry? shout? whisper?)...it has meaning! But don't flog it - save more for next week and only give 'homework' if they can do it/know how to do it. Can they actually access the audio components, for example.

Lastly for now, with digital versions of readers available (OUP did a fantastic job in 2020 offering their reading bookshelf titles available for free) it is not hard to cater for online learners as well as our F2F cohort to stay on the same page. Takes a bit of thinking about, but the room for even more exploitation of the materials is there - US or British narration as well as fast/normal/slow choices. Most importantly, enjoy. Reading will yield the best results over time, at a regular, steady pace, at 'not-too-hard' levels and with meaningful engagement/activities. Keep track of progress - not just word count or number of books read, or obsess over reading speed...but build portfolios for your students, give them the confidence to skip tough words & come back later with an informed guess over meaning if they have to; don't translate everything, and don't stuff it all up by making it a test.

Enjoy reading :)

Cambridge speaking tests in Japan - an insight into staying safe

JP026 training Tokyo

JP026's solution to the Covid-19 risks has been to deploy these screens between speaking examiners (SEs) & candidates both, as well as SEs wearing masks & being 2m away from candidates. Each candidate has their own copy of materials, delivered by the interlocutor.

JP029 training Tokyo

JP029's solution to the Covid-19 situation has been to really keep distanced, again wear masks, and give candidates laminated materials which are disinfected after each use.




JP004's response to Covid-19 concerns has been clear screens, clear face masks as well as 2m distancing, separate materials for each candidate beneath clear mats, & disinfectance of these after each pair of candidates.

JP004 in Gunma

I think you will agree, Cambridge English Assessment Centres in Japan are taking the delivery & assessment of speaking tests in this country very seriously, and managing to do so very crediditably & safely.

Caveat - if you do not feel safe, please do not travel/sit your exam. Another exam will be available to you eventually, wherever you are. Your safety is our primary concern. Stay Safe.

Professional Development in Nagano with Luna International

April 25th, Nagano city - free (Ts & Cs apply).

Day-long PD session to train experienced and qualified teachers to be become Speaking Examiners (SEs). This workshop will cover the speaking tests for the A2:Key and B1:Preliminary, of Cambridge Assessment English examinations for adults.



The aims of the training session are: to make trainee examiners aware of the general responsibilities of a Cambridge Assessment English SE, likely problems/issues that may arise and how to manage them effectively; to familiarise trainee examiners with the procedure of the A2:Key and B1:Preliminary Speaking tests; to give trainee examiners the opportunity to conduct practice Speaking tests; to standardise the assessment of A2:Key and B1:Preliminary candidates: ensuring familiarity with Cambridge Assessment English criteria, with standards set by standardisation videos, and making sure SEs are able to carry out accurate assessments in accordance with these; to give trainee examiners the opportunity to discuss and ask questions about all aspects of the above.

Need a degree &/or teaching qual + recent, relevant FT experience. Must have visa (to work in Japan).

Contact Jim oyajim@gmail.com for an application form & further details/requirements. All enquiries welcome.

Cambridge Speaking Examiner Training - Upper Main Suite (FCE, CAE & CPE)

With 3 years of teaching experience under my belt, I like to think I'm starting to get the hang of this whole teaching malarkey, although still far from being the finished article. There's always room for improvement, and I'm keen to extend my skill sets in my work environment. Fortunately for me, I had the privilege of being invited down to Tokyo to do some speaking examiner training for the Cambridge English exams, with none other than Jim George at the helm. If you aren't aware, he knows a thing or two about these exams, to put it mildly. Plus he's my employer. No pressure then!

It began with an on-line induction, a brief introduction to Cambridge English Language Assessment and getting to grips with new terms, acronyms and examiner roles. A gentle nudge into the realm of speaking examiners. The real deal started on Sunday morning, with a few of us hopefuls milling around outside, waiting to get in as we'd arrived early. Not the promising start I was hoping for.

There was a big emphasis on collaboration throughout the day, especially when it came to assessment. There are always going to be disagreements but the idea was to overcome them to work towards a unified decision. More importantly however, was that our conclusion had to be in right ball park as the final grades awarded by Cambridge. Otherwise we were going home empty handed.

Having worked at a Cambridge Examining Centre for some time, I was already familiar with some aspects of the Cambridge English exams, and a vague idea of the roles of the interlocutor and assessor. With the aid of my peers, I was able to try my hand at being an interlocutor; between juggling sticking to the script, settling candidate nerves, keeping an eye on the time and assessing the candidate simultaneously,  amongst others, no easy feat. We were able to pick up on each other's weaknesses, point each other in the right direction and provide reassurance if something did go wrong.

Arguably the more challenging position however, is the role of the assessor. The main focus of the Cambridge Exams is to see what the candidates CAN do, with a strict assessment criteria to adhere to. It was daunting to begin with, and honestly the first set of results I was a fair way off. Being able to discuss and share thoughts with my peers got me on the right track, and each round of assessment added to my experience.

As the day progressed, I became more familiar with the materials and my confidence grew. Interacting with the other potential examiners did wonders for my own development, putting our decisions under the microscope and getting into the nitty-gritty of the responsibilities of a speaking examiner.

Now that I've got a taste for examiner training, I'm itching to get involved with future sessions for the YLE exams and completing the set with the lower main suite (KET & PET), and becoming a fully certified Cambridge Speaking Examiner.

A full on day, exhausting in fact, yet a truly rewarding experience. Plenty of things to take away, mull over and go over with a fine-tooth comb. Thanks to all those who participated, and Shinohara-san for organizing, and made it such a memorable occasion. Let's hope that our paths cross in the not so distant future.

Examining soon at a Centre near you?!

We Can Do - taking Young Learners in Matsumoto

Proud, once again, to be able to provide Young Learners for our students in Matsumoto - as well as continue our open door policy and welcome children from Okaya & Yamanashi as well.

Space not an issue, as we rented the big room at the Fukushi Kinroshya Centre this year. Nobody told us the bell was going to ring at twelve noon, which made us all jump! That apart, everything went very smoothly indeed; well-organised Yukari, thank you. Everyone knew where to sit, which colour pencils to sharpen etc.

Are you ready to start?

This year we had takers for Starters & Movers, so some first timers looking very small on the big chairs and a wee bit nervous - not a bad thing; handling pressure once in a while is an important achievement.

Also some children moving up a level, and coping with a sizable jump in level. Needed to hand out a tissue or two...important we are all smiles at the end of the day, and the promise of an ice cream seems like a decent bribe!

Thrilling to know the children in our care today are measuring themselves against a global benchmark in tests that again let them display what they 'can do' and rewards them for having a go. We do not teach to pass the exams at all - we teach English, with strategies built in which enable learners to operate independently & confidently.

Newest YLE venue in Tokyo

Delighted today to announce that "Hello Kids" in Miyogadani (Tokyo) has become Luna's newest venue for Young Learners, and run their very first Starters session today...which takes me back to our own very first YLE session and the amazing feeling of pride I had when the likes of Sayaka, Wakana, Yumeka, Tatzi came bouncing out of their speaking tests in 1999 into mummys' arms...

Thank you Greg, Jeff, Hitomi et al at the school today for undertaking very new roles; it was obvious you all have a very close relationship with your students and care deeply about their performances. Thank you for digging in to your roles weeks ago & being on top of the job today.

At Luna we expect every venue, every session, to meet the MAXIMUM requirements of an Inspection; regardless of an inspector turning up or not. To that end we do not allow any new venue to offer YLE (or any other exam), through JP004, without them proving to us first that they can & will get the job done as per rules & regulations. It is vital all candidates are taking their examination in the exact same circumstances as another around the world, otherwise the whole process is invalid.

Delighted to report all the children seemed to enjoy themselves, so everyone looking forward to getting their certificates back soon!

Passing Cambridge P.E.T. Our success story with JP004

My students in a Business English class were finally persuaded to prove to themselves how good their skills have become. They were obviously delighted to be presented with their certificates, and more than happy to share the secrets of their success.

I suggested they brainstorm ideas & map out a general plan on the board, and the video is the outcome. I think they're making superb progress, and passing P.E.T. (Cambridge Preliminary) a very solid milestone for them to chalk up.

Looking forward to them updating their profiles on LinkedIn! Comments very welcome - and why not subscribe to Luna's YouTube channel?

November came & went pretty quickly - here's what happened!

We finished planting loads of bulbs along the car park, so that we might get a dash of colour in spring - already some shoots showing but we think the sub-zero temperatures will slow everything down significantly now. Last count we had 20+ pushing through, but it already started snowing?!



Very importantly, our YLE exam results came back (very quickly, thank you Cambridge) and we were able to give the cool newly-designed Certificates to all the children who tried very hard in October. The new certificates have several security features embedded in them - which means they are impossible to copy or fake. Well done kids, you own your English achievements!

We are already preparing the Christmas party, everyone is invited! This year, we will be using the local kominkan - we do not have the space, obviously! New Luna is easy to keep warm, but we cannot have a party in 3 different rooms!

Hope you like the slideshow? Please download it, share with friends & relatives, and tell us what you think :)  We would love to share your photos too!

Better results from Cambridge English - at Luna

 Take your exam in 2015 at Luna JP004

Did you know Luna International, JP004, is Japan's longest established Cambridge English Language Assessment Centre in Japan?

Did you know Jim is the longest-serving & most active Speaking Examiner in the country?

Did you know JP004 offers exams all over Eastern Japan?

Changes to Cambridge English: Advanced from 2015 (video)

Luna YLE Certificates - lots of happy faces

I am delighted to report that Luna's Young Learners took Cambridge ESOL Young Learners (YLE) exams at the end of October, and that everyone really enjoyed themselves (bar one - bit of a crayon tantrum...) and even surprised themselves with what they COULD do!

Some students were taking Starters for the very first time, and were understandably nervous/not quite sure what was going to happen. Of course, we had had a run through of various tasks leading up to their big day (without making it a big deal - see no point in exam prep for the exam's sake) but that had always been co-operative & familiar. On the day, no looking around, peeping, surruptitious pencil dropping, reading out loud, putting hands up, gawping at the teacher etc!

Other students had done it before, and were quite aware (from mum, not us!) that they needed to improve on last year's scores...and I think by and large we all achieved that. Phew!!! Some of our older students moved up a level to have a go at Movers or Flyers, and they could see the difference. They had more time, for sure, but needed to be able to eg spell more, read longer passages, match vocabulary, tell a story...a big step up, and quite different to other tests they may take here in Japan (which, in my honest opinion, are basically exercises in translation/death by grammar and not worth the time/money wasted on them - purely intended to trick test-takers and pile on stress...not fair).

I was very happy that my students remembered 'how to' tips such as ignoring a question if they could not figure it out quickly. Always half a chance a light will go off later; if not, they have still answered all the other questions in time. What I also really like about the assessment of YLE (as in all other ESOL exams) is that the candidates are given the benefit of the doubt eg if their meaning is discernable but spelling a bit off, no real drama (unless spelling in eg listening is actually being tested).

We were very glad this year to welcome some candidates from Magnus' school in Okaya, and Rico's Organic English School in town. Thanks both of you for that, and for your help on the day.

You can see more happy YLE certificate holders on flickr, click here

Now we are busy pusing ahead, full of confidence and thinking about how much better we can do this year!

Examinations dates & venues for May, June, July

We are very excited to announce that we are offering ALL adult levels of Cambridge ESOL examinations in the first half of 2013.

Any and all enquiries should be made to Yukari, our Centre Examinations Manager here
All entries can be made online here , where you will also find schedules, fees etc

May 11th: Certificate of Proficiency in English (C.P.E./"Proficiency") at Luna - Matsumoto (map)

• Deadline for CPE entries is March 31st 

May 18th: morning. Preliminary English Test (P.E.T.) in Tokyo (map) and at Luna - Matsumoto (map)

and

May 18th: afternoon. Key English Test (K.E.T.) in Tokyo (map) and at Luna - Matsumoto (map)

•  Deadline for KET & PET entries is April 13th 

  June 8th: First Certificate in English (F.C.E./"First") in Tokyo (map) and in Nagoya (map)

•  Deadline for FCE entries is April 21st

 July 13th: Certificate in Advanced English (C.A.E./"Advanced") in Tokyo (map)

• Deadline for CAE entries is June 9th

 We are very grateful to our friends at King's Road School of English for their help and support.

Examining CAE - thoughts and materials

I had the pleasure of examining some candidates for C.A.E. (Cambridge Advanced) on Sunday, down in Tokyo at our regular venue King's Road in Akasaka. As usual, the examination was under very good control with Chie in charge.

CAE is a tough day for candidates - four sitting/writing papers without much chance to recharge brains in between. It really is very intense, and hats off to all candidates who are brave enough to try. Obviously, our candidates in Tokyo were not alone - the same exam was held worldwide. What I enjoyed about our session was the broad mix of nationalities besides Japanese (Peruvian, Brazilian, Russian) which reminded me just how important it is for my learners to make sure they can make themselves understood outside my classroom...pretty pointless if I am the only person that understand them!

If you are considering taking CAE, then when not have a rummage in this Livebinder, which I am adding to as/when I find relevant material (bookmark it & by all means leave comments).

• Next CAE exam session will be December 2 with Luna, likely in Tokyo and Nagoya. Contact us if you are interested (details not up on our website yet - shortly!)

Succesful Sari

Well done Sari - passing First Certificate at your first attempt is something you can be very proud of indeed.

We will be sad to say goodbye to you next month, but going to England is as good a reason as we can think of, and we are sure F.C.E. will be very useful to you.

Your classmates have some catching up to do, don't they?