2014/01/11

Title: Ready or Not, Here it Comes! High School English Curriculum Changes 2013

Speaker: Cory Koby

We always hear how the MEXT Course of Study is not meeting the needs of students in our classrooms. So it was a refreshing change to hear Cory Koby’s perspective. We were shown how the current curricular reforms at the high school level might be missing the mark because of the dichotomy created by the MEXT urging teachers to use more Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and the traditional Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) approach that he sees continuing in classrooms across Japan. While admitting that he saw hope in the Course of Study’s increased vocabulary list, Mr. Koby shared his dismay at their lack of substantive change. The presentation provided ample data to show that there are significant discrepancies between the three main parties in the EFL classroom - teachers (both Japanese Teachers of English and Native Teachers of English), Assistant Language Teachers and students themselves. Examples were given of why the policy, as it stands, is not garnering anticipated results. But ultimately, as Mr. Koby pointed out, the government can propose policies, but education policy is implemented at the classroom level. Until teachers buy into it, these policies will remain ineffective.

Cory Koby is a long-term faculty member at Sendai Shirayuri Gakuen High School and serves as JALT Sendai's president. He is currently in-progress on his MA in ELT from the University of East London. His research interests are focused keenly on the topic he is presenting, and is presently preparing his Master’s Thesis which investigates the gap between MEXT guidelines and teacher practice, with specific attention paid to MEXT approved textbooks and how well they lend themselves to the objective of communicative competence.