The Internet TESL Journal

A Handout for the First Class Meeting

Charles Kelly & Larry Kelly
Aichi Institute of Technology (Toyota, Japan)

Introduction

What follows is a handout we have used for a few years with our freshman English classes at Aichi Institute of Technology. Over the years, we have fine-tuned it into concise easy-to-understand English (for Japanese) while at the same time covering what needs to be covered. A lot of freshman university students come to us with a six-year background of English study with little emphasis put on listening, so we find it useful to give them something which we can read to them while they follow what is written. Students who still cannot understand, can take the paper home and use a dictionary. We also encourage students to paste this handout to the inside back cover of their textbooks.

How to Use It

Save this page "as text", and edit it in a word processor to suit your own needs.

English Conversation Class

Introduction

This class is an important class for you. It will help you improve your English and will give you a chance to use your English with a native speaker. It is probably the most important English class you will ever take. If you work hard, your English will improve quickly.

You will study the four basic skills of English: Hearing, Speaking, Reading and Writing.

You are lucky. Many students in Japan never have the chance to use their English with a native speaker or to hear "live" spoken English. At this school you have a chance to improve your hearing and speaking. This class gives you the chance to learn to understand naturally spoken English and to make your spoken English understandable.

This class meets for ninety minutes once a week. There will be classroom work, homework, quizzes and tests.

How to Pass This Class

  1. You must come to class every time.
  2. Do not be late for class.
  3. You must finish all classroom work. If you do not finish classroom work during the class time, you must finish it before the next class time.
  4. You must finish all of your homework.
  5. You must take every test. If you are sick on a test day, talk to your teacher.

The Lessons

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. II, No. 4, April 1996
http://aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj