An Analysis of Assistant Language Teachers' Perceptions of their Working Relationships with Japanese Teachers of English

要旨

While the pedagogical aspects of team teaching were investigated in the early years of the JET Program, far less research has been conducted on intercultural communication between ALTs and JTEs or between ALTs and Japanese people in general, particularly students.In order to grasp some intercultural issues between ALTs and JTEs, two of the authors were involved in studies focused on one particular prefecture in the western part of Japan (Prefecture A).In Tsuido (1997) and Tsuido (2000), a questionnaire survey was used to explore ALTs' responses to open questions on problems they had experienced and also their responses to ten hypothetical situations involving potential conflict at school.Otani & Van Loh (1998) focused on ALTs' work relationships with JTEs through an analysis of some cross-cultural problems that ALTs face.These studies clearly show that similar problems are identified repeatedly both by ALTs and by JTEs: ALTs sometimes feel lost because they are not given enough information on their roles, and because JTEs are so busy that they can find no time to communicate with ALTs, even though they wish to do so.These factors, when combined with others, such as students' attitude, school size, and school atmosphere, can lead ALTs to feel isolated at school.The problem of communication between ALTs and Japanese teachers has been made more complex by new factors.Recently, there have been two major changes, one concerning

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