Pen Pal Exchange
Jocelyn Nadeau
| GRADE LEVEL: | JHS any |
| SKILLS: | Reading and Writing |
| TIME: | Several classes |
| MATERIALS: | Letter template, Japanese-English dictionaries |
| YEAR: | 2007 |
OBJECTIVES:
1. To have students practice writing letters in English
2. To have students practice reading letters in English
3. To have students communicate with students in other schools/countries
PROCEDURE:
This project is best suited for students of similar level of English. Therefore, you should try to find a school, in your home country or anywhere else, where students are learning English as a second language. There are plenty of schools looking to implement an ESL letter exchange (e.g. language schools for recent immigrants in English speaking countries). In Canada, one might try to find a French school in Quebec. Anywhere else, everyone wants to learn and practice English so be resourceful and you should find a school in less than a week! Alternatively,get in touch with a fellow ALT from another part of Japan and set up the exchange between your Japanese students in English. This project meets all the objectives of the JET program: students are highly motivated to talk about their own lives in English when communicating with a fellow student from a foreign country; through their letters, students learn about a different country and culture (internationalisation); some students will even continue to exchange letters outside of the formal school assignments.
CONCLUSION:
I usually end up writing a letter template for my students but strongly encourage them to come up with their own ideas and expand on their own thoughts. It is a lot of work for you and requires a lot of organisation, but it will be worth it both for you and your students!
NOTES:
This has been the most rewarding activity of my teaching life in Japan, I strongly recommend you try to implement it at your school.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.