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The Japan Forum
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1) Earthquakes and volcanoes
Summary
The national curriculum in England has a section titled "The restless earth- earthquakes and volcanoes." It is studied at
year 7(11-12 year olds). Children are taught which parts of the world are subject to volcanic activity and what happens during
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The children also examine the effect of earthquakes on people's lives and ways of reducing the
damage they can cause. Geography teachers in England might ask their students to investigate the 1995 earthquake
in Kobe or find out about earthquake "drills" in Japan.
Although some of the vocabulary involved may be a little difficult, answering inquiries from students in England on this topic could
form the basis of some interesting English writing classes for Japanese students. Once they have finished the project, teachers should send some of their pupils' work to their Japanese counterparts.
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Online resources
The restless earth: earthquakes and volcanoes
http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_geography/geo02/?version=1
How to minimise the effect of earthquakes
http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_geography/geo02/02q8
What happened in the 1995 Kobe earthquake
http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_geography/geo02/02q7
Virtual volcanoes and internet earthquakes
http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_geography/geo21/?version=1
Earth's Crust
This page contains maps, diagrams and explanations on earthquakes and volcanoes suiatble for secondary school students in the UK. It also includes classroom worksheets and homework.
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2) Exploring Britain
Summary
In another unit of England's national curriculum, year 7 students (11-12 year olds) examine their perceptions of their own country. They also try to find out what perceptions people from other parts of the world have about England. An exchange project on this theme could be an interesting follow up to the project above on earthquakes and volcanoes.
English teachers in Japan could get their students to complete a project on the UK and send it to their e-link partners. This would give the pupils in Britain an idea of how their country appears to Japanese students.
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Activities for English teachers in Japan
1)Describing a picture
Ask your e-link partners to send some pictures from the UK and use the pictures as the basis for a speaking activity. Students could ask:
- Can you describe this picture?
- Would you like to live here?
- What do you think is on the left or the right of the picture? (get students to imagine what is outside the boundaries of the picture)
- Who do you think lives in a place like this?
2) Quiz
Get your students to make up a quiz about the UK to give to other students and teachers in your school. The quiz should be designed to get a good idea of the perceptions Japanese people have of the UK. Example questions:
- What is the weather like?
- How many seasons are there?
- Are there many mountains and lakes?
- What kind of houses do most people live in?
- Do most people in England live in the countryside or in towns?
- How many people live in England?
- Where do the people come from?
Send the results of your project to your partners. Where possible, include graphs and pictures as well as written work. |
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Online resources
Exploring England
http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_geography/geo05/?version=1
What images do we have of England?
http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_geography/geo05/05q2
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3) Passport to the world
This is an activity designed for year 7-9 geography students in the UK that can adapted for use in an English class in Japan. Pupils in e-link schools could do the activity at different times and then compare their results.
In the activity, pupils are asked to list all the places/countries that have had some impact on their lives during the last week. They think about where their clothes are made, where the food they ate is grown, where letters they receive come from and where peopole they have met are from. Pupils are asked to write a world diary for homework. |
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Activities for English teachers in Japan
This topic lends itself well to the practice of a number of different grammar points. Students can practice questions in the passive, such as
- Where is it made?
- Where is it grown?
- Where was it produced?
They can also practice questions in the present simple tense such as:
- What is it?
- Where is it from?
Once they have asked other students in the class questions like this they can write a short diary or draw a map (see example) to send to their partners.
Online resources
More details of this activity are available at http://www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_geography/geo24/24q3 |
