My approach as an English teacher begins with encouraging the students to think for themselves,
to recognize patterns and structure in English and use this knowledge to communicate. 
No matter how old the students are, they have to be able to form their own ideas about
how English works, to develo

p and test theories about usage in real communication situations. 
By "real" I mean giving students a chance to express themselves;
Asking students "What's your name?" is not real communication because I already know the
 students' names,and the students don't have to think about the answer. 
Instead, asking "Do you like your name?" gives the students a chance to think and express 
themselves in a real communication situation. 
Motivating students to learn requires giving them a chance to talk about themselves,
to say what they want to say.

Developing pronunciation skills is equally important, and this process begins by 
learning and practicing each of the individual sounds that are used in English -- far
more than exist in Japanese!  In order to clearly distinguish between sounds, to 
reproduce those sounds and use them to form words, it's important to learn each sound 
by associating it with individual letters. 
Understanding the way these sounds combine to form words is a natural process when you 
can see how the letters combine to form words. 
This is called "phonics", and it's essential for learning how to pronounce
the English language.

Finally, students have to be enjoying their English lessons. 
If it's not fun for the students, they will lose interest, then lose motivation,
and I will have failed as a teacher.  Every lesson has to be enjoyed, or it's not 
a useful lesson.  Learning requires having fun, but that's not often taught in 
Japanese schools, either.

Ted Ekering
Okayama, Japan

Ted先生は1998年10月〜3月パートタイム
1999年4月以来フルタイムティーチャーとして
Kids' Languageで指導しています。
高い英語文章力、語彙，綴り力、理解力には
信頼をよせています。
英語力のある日本人であれば、きっと、彼の
英語講師としての有能さをを認めていただけることでしょう。