To the Teacher Since I first started writing about the pitfalls of English for Japanese learners, it has been suggested to me many times that the last thing Japanese people need is to have more attention focused on their English mistakes. It is my belief that teachers who take this approach do their students a disservice. Although you may well struggle to learn a foreign language if you worry too much about your mistakes, your progress is going to be just as limited if no one ever corrects them for you. The introduction for students beginning on page 8 relates a story about a time when I confused the Japanese words yasui (cheap) and yasai (vegetable). It explains how being laughed at by colleagues for making that mistake almost made me want to give up studying the language altogether. However, it then goes on to describe how I learned to use my mistakes as stepping stones to help me reach higher levels of proficiency. The aim of this book is to encourage Japanese learners to use their English errors in the same way. Many of the mistakes made by Japanese learners of English are predictable, and most can be avoided with explanations of the most common pitfalls. An A-Z of Common English Errors allows teachers to provide these explanations either in English with this book, or in the students’ language with the Japanese edition. Teachers who provide objective, non-judgmental feedback can use errors to create personalized learning opportunities by giving students access to the explanations they need as and when they need them, something that is not normally possible with large classes. Having the explanations written down also means that students can review the points they have learned whenever they need to. Encouraging students to discover for themselves how to correct their mistakes makes more efficient use of teachers’ time. It also helps to 4
promote a culture of independent learning. In particular, feedback on written reports becomes much more engaging when teachers simply write key words for the appropriate explanations (or highlight them on the List of Key Words, which can be downloaded from <www.btbpress.com>) and leave students to explore for themselves ways of correcting their mistakes. Beginning on page 11 is a section entitled How Do You Say This in English? This covers everyday expressions such as itadakimasu and yoroshiku onegaishimasu that Japanese people inevitably want to know how to say in English. As well as suggesting translations where appropriate, the explanation also draws learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; attention to cultural and other factors that can make a common expression in one language unnatural and redundant when translated into another. It also discusses reasons why English tends to use fewer fixed expressions than Japanese. Asking your students to read this section early on in the course will raise their awareness of the limitations of using direct translation as a means of learning a foreign language. If you speak Japanese, it will also save you a lot of time answering their questions later! Following the main body of this book is a workbook section with exercises grouped by theme and type. The exercises allow teachers and learners to focus on specific grammatical areas such as tenses, or specific themes such as self-introductions and describing places. A guide is provided to give teachers an indication of how much time students are likely to need in order to read the explanation and complete each exercise, and a full list of answers is available from the web page. Using the exercises as a diagnostic tool will allow more advanced learners to skip points they already know, but for most Japanese university English classes, the workbook section can be used as a basic grammar syllabus. The exercises are particularly suitable for use as homework assignments in classes where teachers
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