Overview
April was a busy month for BumbleB English as we welcomed new students to the school and expanded the materials we are using for our advanced classes. As always, we find that students who spend an additional 30-60 minutes a week using English either by doing the homework completely or by watching English language videos, really progress quickly. Finally, the weather turned warmer, and the cherry blossom trees were in full bloom. Unfortunately, it rained on the few days I planned to see the trees at our local park. However, I could see several cherry blossom trees in Yoga and enjoyed seeing the beautiful trees.
In March, we finalized our lesson schedule and added another beginner class on Fridays at 4pm. We still have space for elementary and junior high school students. Please contact us directly at: staff@bumblebenglish.com for information on the availability of lessons.
General Notice: Our teacher does not wear a mask in school, and we will strongly encourage students to remove their mask during the lesson. Of course, students who are ill or have pollen allergies may continue wearing masks in class.
Group Lessons - Kids
We had a trial lesson for a 4th-grade elementary school student. This student’s parents speak English well, and there is motivation for their son to improve his English. The father inquired about group adult lessons, and though we would like to hold these lessons, unfortunately, we have not enough interest to create a group adult class. Ideally, we could create a lesson for work colleagues or adults living in the local area. However up until now, all our adult lessons have been private lessons.
For our group kids lessons, we have been using more and more advanced materials and have worked hard to improve our student’s reading comprehension skills. In addition we still do self-introduction training, so students can remember to use various regular verbs such as can, do, like, have, want, etc…
Private Lessons - Kids
This month, we focused on beginning sounds for our youngest private student, who is five years old. The main goal was to concentrate on the clear pronunciation of the beginning sounds by repeating them regularly and by providing visual aids. The visual aids we used were from the textbook, Sounds Fun! Phonics for Children by Sophie Holmes and Liana Robinson. This book is useful as it teaches specific letter or letter combinations associated with the beginning sound. For example, the sound /b/ is represented by the letter “b.” We introduced writing and grammar using the “Scholastic Success with…” workbook series for our elementary school students.
A new student joined our school in April. This student attends a local private junior/senior high school and will study abroad in Canada from September. We have used Eiken Pre-2 level materials and news articles to encourage discussion and improve conversational English.
Private Lessons - Adults
A new adult student joined in April. He is the father of one of our current elementary school students. The father has a successful restaurant in Yoyogi-Uehara and sometimes needs to talk with foreign customers. Since I have known his daughter for several years, I have known the father too, but not well. Teaching the father will be a good chance to improve his practical English skills, especially his pronunciation and listening skills. Although the father’s English is at an elementary level, he is eager to improve and is keen to practice. We will use a generic adult-level English textbook that provides a lot of role-play dialogue and chances to use relevant vocabulary.
Summary
While there was interest in group adult lessons, the school could not create a class due to insufficient demand. Kids group lessons focused on reading comprehension and self-introduction using regular verbs. Visual aids and specific textbooks have aided in teaching beginning sounds to young private students. Additionally, the school added another private adult lesson, with one student being a restaurant owner eager to enhance his practical English skills through role-playing and vocabulary exercises.
Although our Spring 10% Off Campaign ended, students paying by SetaPay will receive a 5% point discount until September 2023. We encourage anyone interested in our school to contact us for a free trial lesson. Online lessons are available to students not in the Yoga vicinity.
As always, please get in touch with us directly for information about our school: staff@bumblebenglish.com
