In this podcast (播客), an American young teacher gave an account of his experience of teaching English in Japan, which was quite shocking and unique for him.
As we know, like in China, English is taught in the traditional way in many countries like China and Japan, which emphasizes ( 強調) grammar analysis, translation. The teachers, as well as students use their native language (e.g. Japanese) instead of the target language in class, and the teachers keep correcting students’ mistakes, which seems to be ridiculous (荒唐的) to some foreign teachers, because they don’t believe English can be taught and learnt in such a way. They prefer to use the so-called “communicative approach (交際法)” ，in which the students only use the target language in communicating and the teachers do not correct students. They stress the ability to communicate.
In my opinion, both methods have pros and cons. We need to adapt to the real situation. For example, I think doing some translation exercises reciting texts (背誦課文) proven to be highly proficient for some Chinese students.
What do you thnk of these two different approaches? Please put forward your opinions by replying to this posting.
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