ge, whereas 15% thought their children needed English so they could prepare for junior or senior high schools. Could it be that the Japanese people are coming out of their insularity?
As to the children's motivations, they were as one should have expected from children, viz. "I want to talk to foreigners" and "It is fun to learn a new language" (p. 21). Indeed, integrative variables (52%) were considerably more valued than instrumental ones (12%). Children, by nature, are concerned with the here and now and with exploring the world--qualities which dramatically differentiate them from adults, and which give them the impetus to learn (unless suppressed by a punishing school).
Ritsuko Nakata's "The MAT Method: Getting Students to Talk"
To teach young children, total organic involvement has been proven again and again to beat all other didactic approaches. Nakata was impressed by Asher's Tota
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