Vision Quest (No seriously guys don't focus on grammar gawd)

[Jiggit]

Vision Quest 1:



Reading and listening exercise starts each chapter. This is actually one of the better ones, later chapters have barely any relevance to the grammar.

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Followed by four pages of grammar and fill in the blank exercises for that grammar. Many chapters have 6 pages of this.

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The "expressing" exercise, the only part of the chapter that apparently has anything to do with speaking. Ugh. Explained entirely in Japanese. I'm not sure why you couldn't write "Where, When, etc" in English rather than write "場所，時期, etc", especially when you write examples directly opposite. Then when it comes to conversation the entire script is written out below. Finally you transfer the same words into the 2nd person script. How rewarding Note that the whole thing is based around copy-pasting from the numbers in each step, so students only input 6 words for the entire activity. Frankly this is one of the better activities.

Now, what Vision Quest does have (that is good) is some "optional" activities in the back. Some of them are... ehh, not great but not so terrible either. I'm pretty sure any half decent ALT could come up with better, but that's beside the point. These are, however, shoved in the back and not really obvious. And again, they are very hand-holdy. This textbook also does the complete bullshit in later chapters of saying "students will discuss in a pair/group" without giving any other guidance or setup as to how they will do so when you've given them a script for every other lesson. Amazing.

Vision Quest II just throws the pretense that they've paid any attention to the MEXT guidelines completely out of the window:

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Lessons are just two pages filled with grammar and a "goal" for them to write 60 words about the related topic. No guidance on how to do this however, just a big list of vocab for them to use in the back of the textbook. It doesn't seem there's a team teaching guide for this at all. If there is, my school didn't buy it. If anything the one strength of Vision Quest I was the team teaching guide.

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Hilariously these two pages are entitled "Grammar Focus". And the regular "Lessons" are focusing on what, exactly? There are 5 of these for the whole year.

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Finally we get to the "expressing" part. 2 pages of which 1 is just an example. So 1 page with any nod to speaking or even using English at all. There are 5 of these too, so in total 10 pages for speaking, with half of those being examples. I mean Jesus, was there any selection process at all for these? What was this selected over?

Vision Quest II continues into the 3rd grade too, at which point the lessons are about making presentations and debating, again with no build up or guidance as to how to wean them into it, just "alright debate, go". I mean... has anyone in this company ever been to a Japanese school? After two years of doing barely any speaking (according to your own textbook) you want them to suddenly be capable of making presentations and arguments in English? At this point you're lucky if they can say what they did last weekend (not exaggerating, I had a 3rd grade girl say "I went go to is shopping last weekend" just the other day and was completely unsurprised... by 3rd grade their knowledge of English is just a huge CF inside their addled sleep-deprived brains)

So yes, just another one of many reasons why the declared intentions of MEXT mean absolutely nothing. This textbook shouldn't be allowed in schools, let alone adopted by a majority of BoEs in my prefecture.

[Gizmotech]

Vision quest two is rubbish except for the back part no teacher will ever teach. One is alright if the teacher makes the kids buy the explanation book and references back to it constantly in other classes.
But there is nothing in the books for stair stepping the kids into an 80% English class.

[Ini]

you have the rough, calloused thumbs of a common laborer

[Jiggit]

Vision quest two is rubbish except for the back part no teacher will ever teach. One is alright if the teacher makes the kids buy the explanation book and references back to it constantly in other classes.
But there is nothing in the books for stair stepping the kids into an 80% English class.

I'm really just uploading it because someone asked about the book being full of grammar and Japanese.

[coop52]

Crown for English Expression is worse. It doesn't even have the decency to have the lesson titles in English, except for the rare "speaking" lesson. I asked one of my JTEs why it was called "expresson" class if all the kids do is learn grammar, and she responded "it's a tatemae thing."

[Jiggit]

Crown for English Expression is worse. It doesn't even have the decency to have the lesson titles in English, except for the rare "speaking" lesson. I asked one of my JTEs why it was called "expresson" class if all the kids do is learn grammar, and she responded "it's a tatemae thing."

[coop52]

You do really have a K-pop gif for everything

[therealwindycity]

That's the best one so far.

[Jiggit]

I'm running out actually. That was my ace in the hole.

[Gizmotech]

Crown is a piece of shit. I have the books at work and they are terrible.

[BeckyJones]

What is funny. MOST of what I am seeing here is "covered" in JHS English classes. My 3rd year JHS students "should" be able to say, "I went shopping yesterday".

[Jiggit]

Well there are plenty of things students "should" be able to do. The problem is all they ever have to do is rearrange things or choose one of 4 answers or maybe fill in the blanks. The teachers talk at them for 45 minutes, make them do homework and then when they can't actually use or understand what they're supposed to have learned (which is pretty rare outside of ALT lessons tbh) they shake their heads and say "oh no whatever shall we do?"

Frankly I'm happy with them redoing stuff like this. Teaching them something one time and expecting them to have an eidetic memory obviously doesn't work. Language acquisition comes with repetition and reinforcement, not cramming. At least this way they get some semblance of review.

[BeckyJones]

Frankly I'm happy with them redoing stuff like this. Teaching them something one time and expecting them to have an eidetic memory obviously doesn't work. Language acquisition comes with repetition and reinforcement, not cramming. At least this way they get some semblance of review.

You know, and I know that if this was a "review" in the traditional sense we wouldn't be having this conversation. This material will be presented as "new" and come complete with more cramming, only to be told to forget it cause it isn't important for the next test.

[Gizmotech]

Depends on the teacher BJ. Some know how to stagger it into every new lesson as a reinforcement. Others teach it once and proceed to forget about it entirely.

You basically have to do a review of JHS at SHS because the kids come from so many different types of educational systems that you sorta have to standardize shit. Also you get classes where kids CANNOT write I gave sally a pen yesterday, and only got into the school on science/math marks.

[BeckyJones]

You basically have to do a review of JHS at SHS because the kids come from so many different types of educational systems that you sorta have to standardize shit. Also you get classes where kids CANNOT write I gave sally a pen yesterday, and only got into the school on science/math marks.

yea i know. I am forever miffed at the idea that we let students graduate without learning how to read/write the alphabet. So I understand that a HS has to impose some standards, cause JHS doesn't seem to give a shit about them.

[Jiggit]

You know, and I know that if this was a "review" in the traditional sense we wouldn't be having this conversation. This material will be presented as "new" and come complete with more cramming, only to be told to forget it cause it isn't important for the next test.

Yeah I dunno most of my teacers start with "I'm sure you learned this" and I try to show it as a "reminder" so kids who are clueless aren't so embarassed. Even at my school though there sre those who have given up... Just want to slap their faces.

[uthinkimlost?]

Even at my school though there sre those who have given up... Just want to slap their faces.

Might as well, still gonna get a passing grade.