Team teaching English in Japan

In Japan, the team teaching of English language classes has been a growing phenomenon since the late 1980s. Team teaching typically involves two teachers: a Japanese teacher of English who has a university degree in English or education and a teaching qualification, and an assistant English teacher who is usually an untrained recent university graduate from Britain, the United States, or another country whose citizens are primarily native English speakers. The goal of team teaching is to improve Japanese students' English abilities by having a native English speaking assistant in the class as a model of the target language. These assistants are often popular with students, their parents and administrators, primarily because they are seen to provide motivation for language learning. Japanese teachers may also appreciate assistants, especially as co-workers with whom the workload can be shared. However, there are also problems which are sometimes ignored in surface-level discussions of team teaching. This book describes the origins team teaching in relation to the growth of English as a lingua franca.