Ondoku training
What self-study methods did you try when you studied English back in high school?
Today I’d like to talk about the English training we are currently doing. It’s the ondoku training that my colleague introduced — he’s a living proof of this!
Needless to say, in Atrae, always improving is one of our values and this is applied to our English Program as well.
I’d like to focus on this because it’s something I haven’t tried teaching before, (well not really teaching it) but when doing this, it’s more like guiding and supporting the members. Not only will I share about this training itself but also share the things I observed and the impact on me to grow and improve professionally.
So what is ondoku training?
This training is designed and developed by a Japanese English Teacher Morisawa Yosuke for Japanese English learners improve their skills efficiently. “ondoku” literally translates “reading aloud” the material itself called the ondoku package is a series of steps of speaking aloud.
In my experience, I highly recommend speaking aloud and listening to authentic English materials in order to improve your English skills.
You will get to exercise this kind of practice in ondoku training.
Apparently in Japan, English taught in schools are focused more on reading and writing. They don’t put importance on speaking and listening that much. Hence, it’s one of the reasons why the Japanese people don’t get much chance to improve these major skills.
Here’s how it’s done:
As shown in the image below, this reading aloud exercise consists mainly of 4 steps.
First, repeat (audio) with text (5x)
Next, read aloud (15x)
Third, repeat (audio) without text (5x)
Last, shadowing (5x)
In total, it’s done 30 times that completes a whole cycle. Depending on your pace, one session lasts about 50–60 minutes.
What I observed
Repeating without text is the most challenging part especially at first. There will be long sentences to repeat so you will tend to forget some parts of it in this step (which is natural) but gradually you will be able to repeat it. The important thing is to focus and understand what is being listened to so that you will be likely to repeat just the way you hear it.
Is it effective?
When done properly, I can say it is definitely an effective training! Some learners might find it a little bit boring at first (but please don’t give up!) Being aware of this fact will help you become more patient and put more effort on this training knowing that the result will be great! Remember, practice and good practice is the key to success!
What I learned/improved as a language trainer
As I mentioned, this is may be new to me but during the ondoku class, my main task is to focus on their intonation, pronunciation, and word connections. To do this, I had to be more attentive and more focused when they read aloud. I can’t be thinking of other things like my next team meeting, or not wanting to go out to grab lunch on a rainy day, or perhaps what to write in this blog! — haha I became more patient (not to look bored at all) and still showed enthusiasm even though this training is repetitive. Patient in a sense that I need to point out the same mistakes without showing any frustrated look on my face. That I have to cheer them up because they still have to do 10 more times before they can finish this cycle, this is where I feel I should be a good motivator.
Even though what I do is kinda limited during this session, I tried to look on the bright side. I feel like being a coach here, let’s say a figure skating coach. When figure skaters are on the skating rink, their coaches are there watching from afar. Watching every move, every glide, every jump, or every turn. Pointing out which move to improve or how to make hand movements more gracefully. Similarly, I’m also there for them listening all throughout the session. Carefully watching whether the sound of their voices matches their lip movements, are they overdoing it? Are they curling their tongue when they’re not supposed to? Do they read smoothly or word by word? Are they saying /s/ sound instead of /sh/ sound? This is where I come in and the feedbacking part is vital for their improvement.
I hope that Morisawa san gets to read this article. Thank you for developing such learning material. I hope that one day I’d also be able to develop something effective for Japanese people to help them improve their English language skills.
Have you ever tried the ondoku training?
Thank you so much for reading! :)
