Copyright © 2011 Kanda Gaigo Alumni Association(KGAA). All rights reserved.
50th Anniversary -Interviews-
I believe that we are very privileged to be working in the Sano Foundation. I think that the Sano Foundation provides opportunities for us to become better teachers. We are given research money which enables us to conduct research and we should as teachers seize that opportunity to improve ourselves through our research.
I think teachers need to change their emphasis from teaching to learning. It's what the learner does the matters, not what the teacher does. And good teaching is not a person standing in front a room and using a good voice, speaking slowly and clearly and so on. That's not good teaching. Good teaching is measured by how much is learned by the learner. I think if we can spend our time thinking about that instead of improving our teaching techniques then I think we will make a great contribution.
The message to students is to seize the opportunity to learn how to learn. This is your last chance for English teaching to learn how to learn English. And you can do that by going to the SALC. The SALC will help you to learn independently. You can improve your English without having a teacher.
In 1986, I came to KUIS as replacement of Professor Richards. He may have been much better than me. But for me it was very good. For the first time, I have been able to practice what I have preached. So, I thought I wouldn't stay two years, but I stayed 20 years. Mr. Sano enabled me to put this into practice, so I'm eternally grateful to him for being able to do that. I hope that in return I would be able to help him with making Kanda a different university. I think the ELI has made KUIS a different university. Now, many other universities are starting to get an ELI like us, but this gives us great pride. I think it gives Mr. Sano great pride to say we started this a long time ago.
Our work is still not finished yet. As I emphasized at the beginning, our curriculum is one that you continually changing. It will never be finished. It will keep changing and improving based on our research.（6/6）
Francis C. Johnson
Francis. C. Johnson was born in Sydney, Australia in 1934, received Diploma of Education and Bachelor of Economics from Sydney University, Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching English as a Second Language from London University, MA and Doctor of Education degree from Columbia University, Teacher's College. He has been teaching at University of Papua New Guinea, University of Hawaii and Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 1986, came to Japan. From the beginning of Kanda University of International Studies, as a professor of English department and a director of the ELI, he developed Learner Autonomy System, SALC. In 2006, he was named Professor Emeritus. After his retirement, He lived in Australia but came to Japan three times a year to support the ELI as a consultant. He died in December 2013 at age 79.
Contact: Kimiyo WATANAE
PR department / Sano Educational Foundation
Telephone: +81-33258-5837
http://www.kandagaigo.ac.jp/
Photographer: Hideki SHIOZAWA
http://www.shiozawahideki.com/