【日程】：・火曜日19:40-20:30 銀座校/・土曜日14:00-14:50表参道校/・日曜日11:00-11:50銀座校

【対象】：カプランレベル初級(Introductory & Basic)

【内容】：まずは、今、すぐにでも使える英語会話の表現を身につけたい生徒さんのために、基本的な慣用表現を短いスキットの中で覚えていただきます。
クラスでは、正しい発音で話すことができるように、個々の音の発音から、アクセント、イントネーション、音の連結や省略にいたるまで、自然にできるように指導していきます。

【使用教材】（以下２冊の教材からひとつを選んで、各自、書店やオンラインで購入してクラスに備えて下さい。）：

①旺文社「英会話110番　日常生活編（東後勝明著）」
　定価：1,890円（税込）　ISBN-13: 978-4010526910

②旺文社「英会話110番　海外旅行編（東後勝明著）」
　定価：1,890円（税込）　ISBN-13: 978-4010526927

【学習方法】：１クラスで４～５のスキットを目標に、付録のCDをよく聴いて、何度も繰り返して音読することにより、自然に覚えてしまいましょう。
ポータブルプレーヤーを日常的に携帯して、練習して下さい。練習する際には、決して日本語（カタカナ）読みにならないように、自分なりにネイティブスピーカーになりきって、英語らしく発音することを意識して、楽しんで下さい。
日本語訳もついていますが、英語のスキットを見る前に参考にするのは良しとしても、英語のスキットを練習する際には、決して一語一語を比較したりしないようにしましょう。また、暗記をするのは、クラスでチェックを受ける直前で十分です。自然にスラスラと出てくるくらいまで練習することが大切です。
日常の会話というものは、普段は文字で書かれたスクリプトなどなくして行われているものです。テキストは音声の確認のためにあるものと考えて、まずは音声を第一に考えて練習することを心がけてみましょう。

【クラスでの指導方法】：クラス参加前に上記の「学習方法」を参考に、繰り返し練習をしてきて下さい。どうしてもお忙しい生徒さんは、それが最善なことではないにしても、とにかくテキストとポータブルプレーヤーを持ってクラスに参加して、その場でひとつでも、ふたつでも、しっかりと練習してみましょう。
　ひとつのスキットごとに、正しい発音で暗記できるように、列に並んで練習しながら順番を待ち、自分の順番が来たらテキストを担当講師に手渡し、暗記のチェックと発音矯正の指導を受け、パスしたら次のスキットのチェックに進みます。

Name: Keiichi KatoTitle: Instructor
Education: BA in Economics
School of Political Science and Economics
Waseda University
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Matsumoto School of English
Tokyo, Japan
Kaplan Courses:
Team Presentation Project,
Active Listening and Learning, SPECIAL

松本英語、フィニックス、そして、カプランと
いつも輝いている先輩（石渡代表）と、ふたたび
一緒に頑張ってみたいと思い、カプランに来ました。

まずはKATO SPECIALで、基礎レベルの生徒さんの
フォローをしっかりとしていきたいと思っています。

また、校内英語の環境を最大限に活かせるように、
ＴＰＰのドラマ、アカデミック／ビジネス・プレゼンテーション、
そしてディベートをさらに魅力的なものにしていきたいです。

一緒に頑張りましょう！

加藤 圭一

I just came back from a Mission to Jordan few days ago.
That was my 6th mission to Jordan for assisting Japanese NGOs, which are implementing various projects of supporting Iraqi "temporary guests" and other people in needs.


This time, I had opportunities to visits 2 English classes organized by 2 Japanese NGOs as a part of their informal education activities. In general, many Iraqi people in Jordan are highly educated, but some of them have been suffering from different education systems and levels between Iraq and Jordan. For example, I heard that children in Iraq start studying English from 5th grade in public education system and those in Jordan do from 1st grade. With financial and other difficulties (including psychological ones), some Iraqi and Jordanian children could drop out from schools or could not catch up with English classes in Jordan as well.


In addition, many people staying in Jordan seems to think learning English is a significant step for obtaining jobs and start new life in other countries (especially for refugees hoping to resettle in 3rd countries). Although they face harsh reality that most of them have little possibility to resettle in 3rd countries in near future, they keep their hopes and continue to study.


One of classes I visited was for youth up to 18 years old, and the other was for adults.
Atmosphere of those two classes were quite different, but both of them were very energetic.

Students in a youth class not shy at all, and everyone tried to say something in the class.
I was afraid that it was a bit cold day in Jordan, so everyone in the class was wearing warm clothes...even in the class. The classroom conditions are not great - small spaces, poor heating, photocopied text books - but their motivation to study was very high.


In Jordan, I heard many people were saying "working for our children is working for our future."
In emergency time, such as after regional conflict and/or natural disaster, the needs of education are sometimes overlooked compared to the needs of food and water. However, because of emergency time, people need to have some kinds of education support. Providing opportunities and spaces for children could prevent them from approaching problems including drugs and violence. Some of Iraqi children escaped from their place of origin were reported to have psychological trauma by experiencing violence. I hope studying English together with friends will work for their psychosocial care as well.


▼▽▼▼【受講生】椎名さんのバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【High motivation is a key of success?!】2008.10.20 (Mon)
・【Iraqi refugees in Jordan- part one】2008.11.17 (Mon)
・【Iraqi refugees in Jordan- part two】2008.12.08 (Mon)
・【India as my school】2008.12.15 (Mon)
・【Conversation in coach】2009.01.26 (Mon)
・【Learning English in pubs】2009.03.02 (Mon)

As many of you have already heard, my mother came to Tokyo during the second week of March. (Some of you were even able to meet her when she visited Kaplan!) This was her second trip to Japan, and from what she's told me, it was even better than her first trip.


I had really been looking forward to her visit; Tokyo is my home now, and I wanted my mom to be able to experience it from that same perspective. I know that my mom had been looking forward to her visit for reasons similar to mine. She really wanted to have a chance to meet some of the people that I spend so much time with. In that respect, I think her visit was successful. We were able to spend time with my Japanese host family, some of my non-Japanese friends, and even a few students!


The first time my mom visited Japan was in May of 2007. She came with my dad and my sister for a one-week vacation. At that time, I had only been living in Japan for about 8 months. There were even a lot of things that were new to me at that point as well. We essentially spent the entire week as tourists. Furthermore, I wasn't living with my host family then, so my parents and sister didn't have many opportunities to meet Japanese people. This time was different, and I think it is one of the reasons that my mom enjoyed her visit so much.


We still did quite a bit of sightseeing while she was here, though. Before arriving in Japan, my mom had made a list of things that she wanted to do or try while she was here. We were very busy every day. Among other things, we managed to see a couple of gardens, take a ferry ride to Asakusa, have a foot bath at the Open Air Museum in Hakone, go to a museum in Ueno, visit Yoyogi Park on a Sunday, and even admire the "aka-pants" in Sugamo! In fact, my mom had seen pictures from my last trip to Sugamo with Kaplan students and wanted to check it out for herself. She even ate a grasshopper!



My mom returned to Portland nearly two weeks ago, and every time I have spoken to her since then, she has mentioned what a good time she had during her visit. I was really sad that she had to leave after only a week because it just didn't feel like enough time. After all, I only get to see her once or twice a year. But at the same time, her visit is made more special by the fact that we had to make the most of our time together every day. I am thankful that she got to come and experience what my life is like in Japan and also meet the people who mean so much to me.


Thank you again to those of you who made her feel welcome when she stopped by the Omotesando Center to take a look around! I know my mom is already looking forward to the next time she can come back.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Melanie先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Fun With Morphemes】2008.10.17 (Fri)
・【More About Morphemes】2008.11.21 (Fri)
・【Happy Holidays!!】2008.12.26 (Fri)
・【My 2009 "To Do" List】2009.01.30 (Fri)
・【The Superb Owl】2009.02.27 (Fri)

KAPLAN事務局よりNewsweek List更新のお知らせです。

来週のワークショップNewsweek Reading/Discussionでは
"What Does It Mean to Be Irish?" "The New Shopping Superpower" "Going Back to School""Curling Up With a Good Screen"などの記事を取り上げReading&Discussionしていきます。

3/30(MON)からのニューズウィークリストダウンロードはコチラからどうぞ！

◆ワークショップスケジュールはコチラからどうぞ。
◆今週分(3/23-3/29)のニューズウィークリストダウンロードはコチラです。

Although cause and effect, and misunderstandings about cause and effect, are most prevelant on the LSAT, they are a major part of the SAT, GRE, and GMAT as well. Each of these tests is concerned with the candidate's ability to critically analyze information in order to form valid conclusions. That skill, as I have often said in class, is one of the cornerstones of intellectually challenging professions like law, medicine, and business management.


There are at least two other reasons, though, besides it's importance to critical thinking, that cause and effect (let's call it C&E henceforth for convenience's sake) is so frequently tested on higher-level academic stardardized tests: For one thing, C&E is frequently misunderstood, even by otherwise intelligent and well-educated people who have not been trained in critical thinking. For another, the English language is fluid and flexible enough to allow testmakers to create dozens and dozens of different--and intentionally confusing--ways of saying the same things. That last fact, especially, makes C&E a tempting subject ground for testmakers, who have to construct not only challenging questions, but also vague, confusing answer choices to deceive test-takers.


As to the first reason, why and how is C&E frequently misunderstood? The most common error, probably, that is easy to make is to confuse CORRESPONDENCE (the fact that two different things happen, either at the same time or one after the other) with CAUSATION (one thing actually bringing the other about). Correspondence is evidence that C&E might exist, but it's not enough to establish that relationship. What you think is the effect might be the cause, or some other, unknown quantity may be creating your effect.


For instance, if I observe that "Employees who have worked at a company the longest are the ones who report being the happiest with their jobs." Then from that, I conclude "Therefore, staying at a job for a long time will cause you, over time, to grow to love that job and be happy at the company." It seems more likely that, in fact, the fact that I like my job might be the CAUSE, and staying for a long time at my company would be the EFFECT. One would have to do more research to determine whether happiness was causing the long stays, or vice-versa, or whether some other, unrelated factor was causing both.


On the other hand, let's say I observe that twenty people who ate dinner at this restaurant last night got sick. "Therefore," I conclude, "the food at the restaurant must have caused the illnesses." Certainly, it's not likely that, as in the example about job satisfaction, the cause and effect were reversed. That would mean that the fact that the people were ill caused them to go eat at the same restaurant, which doesn't make sense either chronologically or in terms of common sense. However, I might be overlooking important intervening causes. For instance, were more people than usual in this particular city ill last night? Maybe there is a flu or other virus running through the general population, and people are getting sick all over the place. Absent that, maybe there was something about the restaurant other than the food that made those who ate there sick. Perhaps a gas leak or chemicals stored in the basement caused the patrons to fall ill.


Even tougher, though, than learning to screen C&E arguments for flaws like those above, is learning to decipher the vague, intentionally-confusing language used by testmakers to complicate questions and answer choices. For instance, all of these phrases mean the same thing:


"My car will only run if it has gas."
"My car won't run unless it has gas."
"Without gas, my car won't run."
"Unless it has gas, my car will not run."
"When it doesn't have gas, my car can't run."
"I can't run my car unless I put gas in it."
"Absent gas, my car can not run."


Those are just a few examples; given time I could probably come up with 20 or so more. It's difficult enough to use and understand English when the people with whom you're communicating are trying to make themselves understood, but it's really tough when they're trying to trick you. That's what the LSAT and tests like it do.


One trick that I use often to help myself figure out complicated logical statements is to ask myself, "Which thing will cause the other thing NOT to happen?" For some reason, it often helps me get the correct phrase, which I can then translate into the contrapositive. For instance, in my examples above, I would think "Well, if my car doesn't have gas, it won't run. Therefore NO GAS then NO RUN, so if my car RUNs it must have GAS." This is especially helpful, because once you have a phrase that works, and that you intuitively understand, you can apply it to other phrases. We've all been in cars that have gas, but which for some reason or other will not run. Therefore, not all cars that have gas will run, but all cars that run must have gas.

The ability to understand C&E is among the most important of all the skills you need to master for the LSAT, GRE, GMAT, and even the SAT. I'll talk more about it in future blogs, and discuss more ways to make complicated phrases easier to understand.



▼▽▼▼【講師】Douglas先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Smoke and Makuuchi】2008.10.01(Wed)
･【It's Always Something】2008.10.22 (Wed)
・【Working the Corners】2008.11.12 (Wed)
・【Logic Games】2008.12.03 (Wed)
・【A Truth about Application Essays】2008.12.24 (Wed)
・【The Real Score】2009.01.21 (Wed)
・【Think Honestly】2009.02.11 (Wed)
・【Fall Seven, Stand Eight】2009.03.04 (Wed)