Are ALTs just fancy tape recorders?: Team teaching in Japan from the perspective of the ALTs, JTEs, and students

INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AREA Research Area: Team teaching in Japan

Important Terms ALT/AET (Assistant Laguage/English Teacher) JTE (Japanese Teachers of English) Team teaching (TT) Brumby and Wada (1990) define team teaching as: “a concerted endeavor made jointly by the Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) and the assistant English teacher (AET) in an English language classroom in which the students, the JTE and the AET are engaged in communicative activities” (as cited in Wada and Cuminos, 1994, p.14)

AIMS/JUSTIFICATION Although the TT paradigm has been present in Japan for over 30 years, there are still many problems. My research attempts to solve or provide insight on some of those problems and fill in the gaps from previous TT research. Most studies on TT are large scale studies that do not match the ALTs with the JTEs. Few studies consider the perspectives of the students.

Refrences Mahoney, S. (2004). Role controversy among team teachers in the JET programme.JALT Journal,6(2), Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (Monbusho). (1994). Handbook for team teaching. Tokyo: Gyosei Corporation. Scholefield, W. (1996). What do JTEs Really Want? JALT Journal (18)1, Tajino, A. & Walker, L. (1998) Perspectives on team teaching by students and teachers: Exploring foundations for team learning. Language, Culture and Curriculum (11), Wada, M (1994). Team teaching and the revised Course of Study. In M. Wada & T. Cominos (Eds), Studies in Team Teaching (pp.7-16). Tokyo: Kenkyusha.

Research Questions How do ALTs and JTEs percive team teaching? Is there a mismatch in how ALTs and JTEs perceive their own and their partner's roles? How do ALT and JTE's perceptions of their roles compare to actual classroom practice? How do students perceive team teaching and the roles of the ALT and the JTE?

Methodology Souces/Subjects Research site: High school in Japan Participants: 2 native speaking ALTs, 8 JTEs, 80 Japanese high school students ranging in age from 15-18

Materials/Instruments Questionnaire (for students, JTEs, ALTs) Individual interviews with ALTs and JTEs (audio-recorded) Focus group interviews with students (video- recorded) Class observations (video-recorded)

Procedure Pilot questionnaires Distribute questionnaires to students, ALTs, and JTEs (student questionnaires will only be distributed to Ss in two of ALT#1's classes and Ss in two of ALT#2's classes) Collect questionnaires and identify points that need to be elaborated on and clarified Interview JTEs, ALTs and students Observe team taught classes

Type of Data and Analysis The data will come from the questionnaires and transcriptions of the interviews and class observations. I will develop a coding system to help identify information pertaining to my research questions in the transcribed data and data from the questionnaires. I will compare my findings to the findings of previous TT studies to see how my results compare or differ from their results and attempt to offer possible explanations to account for those differences or similarities.

Expected Findings There will be some mismatches between JTEs and ALTs' perceptions of their own and their partner's roles. These mismatches occassionally lead to dissatisfaction with the way a class was conducted or with the overall attitude towards team teaching. Despite some confusion over roles, ALTs, JTEs and students generally have positive perceptions of team teaching.

Limitations My study has a small sample size and only focuses on one school so it will be difficult to determine if the results reflect conditions particular to that school or are representative of other TT situations. Teachers may be hesitant to express their true feelings on the questionnaire. Due to time constraints, not all the students can be interviewed so results might not be an accurate respresentations of all the students' perspectives.

Thank You!