As English teachers in Japan get more experienced and confident in their role in the classroom (or if they work in an 英会話 conversation school), there may be a point when they move up from being an assistant language teacher (ALT) to taking command and becoming the 担当者 (person in charge) of the クラス. This can be intimidating because suddenly you are expected to know all of these Japanese words to make sure that the class flows smoothly.
First of all, you will want to perform 点呼, or roll call, although some schools may also use the term 出席を取る (attendance). Some may even use the English word ロールコール. In your roll book you will then likely fill in if students are 遅刻 (late), 欠席 (absent) or 出席 (present).
After that you will likely want to explain what you are about to teach to your eager learners. As a general rule, classes are divided into 口頭 (oral), 筆記 (written), 文法 (grammar),ドリル (a worksheet for those for drilling grammar points), 語彙 (vocabulary), 音読 (reading aloud) and 聴解 (comprehension) segments.
… you will likely want to explain what you are about to teach to your eager learners.
Of course, it’s also worth explaining what you want your students to get from these classes, too. For this purpose, teachers will want to remember a really useful kanji: 暗. Usually, this kanji is found in compounds that talk about darkness — 暗い, for example, but it is also intriguingly found in words related to memorizing in the classroom. 暗記 (memorization), 暗礁 (recitation) and 暗示 (implication) are all incredibly useful terms for classes that use the 暗 kanji.
From a teaching perspective, 暗示 is one of the most difficult skills to teach your students. This is not only difficult to explain, but also tricky to communicate to lower-level learners as the answers have to be understood from the context of the speech or text. For these types of higher-level skills, it’s worth learning a few complicated Japanese words to help the students understand what they should be doing with the text.
What a text is trying to say is its 主旨, or gist, and this often related to the 文脈 (context) that something is written in. Don’t forget to remind your students that: 単語の意味はそれが使われている文脈で決まる (“The meaning of a word depends on the context in which it is used”).
Another interesting kanji to add to your collection is 綴, which is used for the spelling of words (also written as 綴り). For an interesting classroom activity, you may want to ask the students to 綴りの誤りを指摘して (“point out each other’s spelling mistakes”) or to 綴りと句読法にもっと気を付けなくてはいけない (“be more careful about spelling and punctuation”).
This is an incredibly useful ending to verbs that means that something must be done: an essential phrase for teachers!
In the above sentence, you may notice the ～なくてはいけない ending to the verb. This is an incredibly useful ending to verbs that means that something must be done: an essential phrase for teachers! Both それは自分でしなくてはいけない (“do it yourself)” and — of course — every teacher’s favorite warning あなた方は単独単独で考えなくてはいけない (“you must think independently”) are just two of the useful phrases using this form.
If you have to increase the strength of your warning, you can change the verb to 禁じる, which describes behavior that is prohibited or verboten at school. As well as strongly enforced school rules, you may be surprised to discover that things such as 自転車通学を禁じる (“taking a bike to school is forbidden”) are far more widely enforced directives than many would expect.
After explaining the class components and the rules, you will then have to grade your students based on their ability. In this case, 基準 is the standard, 平均 is the average and 首席 is the top of the class. Something to aim for when teaching high school students is 偏差値 — the score needed to enter a particular university.
Our final word for your teaching glossary is 結び付く. It means the way that everything ties together. This is something to remember — not just for the students, but also for the teachers: 努力がいい結果に結び付く (“effort is tied together with results”).
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