How SELHi has changed our students

Matsushita Norie and Chiba Atsuko

Since 2005, Seinan Jo Gakuin has been designated as a SELHi (Super English High School) by the Ministry of Education and Science. For the last three years, our task has been to try and improve students’ English skills within the remit of a SELHi research and development project entitled: Research for developing students’ integrated ability for self- expression: The development of a step-by-step teaching and evaluation method for communication and writing ability.

In this research project, we aimed to improve students’ ability of self-expression and communication. To this end, our main focus was on the following aspects:-

• The development of a step-by-step teaching method for improving students’ ability in oral self expression and communication.

• The development of writing ability by using a process-writing approach as a means of self-expression, and creation of an evaluation method for this.

• The development of reading ability as an input for self-expression.

The results have been much more successful than expected. The increase in students’ motivation through the integrated teaching of four skills was outstanding and the GTEC (graded test of English Communication) scores have improved considerably.

We will explain how we practically improved our classes over the three years, and how our students have changed as a result.

Matsushita Norie and Chiba Atsuko teach English at Seinan Jo Gakuin Junior & Senior High School in Kitayushu.