What’s the frequency, Kenneth?

The role of ALTs is constantly changing, just as Japan as a country is changing. ALTs are often based at more than one school. Since ALTs must then travel between multiple schools depending on the number of schools it may be impossible for the ALTs to become deeply involved in school life, or make a deep impression on the respective schools. Being a good ALT is almost always dependent on being the kind of ALT your BOE or base school wants. For a long time that meant being deeply involved with your school. However, I believe that the role of the ALT is broadening beyond the school and moving further out into the community itself.

If an ALT works at a base school then the ALT can get involved at that school beyond class activities. Even if there are other school visits, the ALT's primary obligation is to the base school largely due to the majority of his/her time being spent at that specific school. The ALT can have an English board. He/She can start an English club. He/She can join in with club activities and help around the school. Some things can still be accomplished among many schools, such as helping kids practice for speech contests or prepare for the Eiken, a national exam that tests English level. Unfortunately, anything beyond that is often difficult to accomplish.

If an ALT works at many different schools then their in-school options for being a better ALT are more limited. When I first started work as an ALT I worked at six junior high schools and eleven elementary schools. I had to be very careful to balance all of the schools equally. Unless I could start an English club at every school it would look as if I were favoring some schools over others. Requesting and maintaining English boards would have been the same. 17 different boards would have been almost impossible to manage, especially taking into account the different resources of each school. Some schools are bigger than other and have more bulletin boards; others are smaller. Would I be squeezing another teacher or subject out by requesting my own board? School A has a color printer but School B doesn't; why does School A get a fancy English board with color pictures and School B only has pixel-y printed or hand drawn illustrations? ALTs go to School C every week, but they only go to School D once every two months; why is School D's English board always so out-of-date?

Now, I wasn't worried about the teachers or students complaining; I was worried about the parents. Although this is slowly changing, Japan is still a very tracked society. Where someone goes to high school is usually instrumental in tracking where they go to university, or if they go at all. To get into high school and college all children must pass entrance exams. Parents are naturally very invested in their children's futures, so they focus quite strongly on schoolwork. The two subjects that children get the lowest scores in are currently Math and English, so there is a lot of pressure on these departments. Subsequently, there's a lot of pressure on ALTs to be more effective. Giving one school more English instruction than another could very well start a revolt as parents see their sons and daughters being given short shrift.

All in all, we do what we can. Every ALT has a different base school or BOE and a different community. Some are able to start up English clubs or maintain English boards. My coworker and I do adult eikaiwa (English Conversation) classes twice a week. We often stay after hours to help students study or help teachers with fiddly grammar points. I hope it makes a difference.