Hi Mystery 813,

You're right - 'months of the year' does appear to be a pretty boring lesson but don't be fooled by appearances, particularly in a country like Japan.

This is a great lesson for Japanese 1st grade junior high school kids, the ease and simplicity of it will build confidence in your students and it's a word set easy to remember - as lists often are - and as such fits nicely into the educational background of your target learners.

As you know, the Japanese kept months of the year pretty easy - even a linguistic fool like me has been able to learn it - the first month of the year is '1 month', the second is '2 month', the third is '3 months' and so on 'til the end (that's month 12!!). Our months, graciously provided by the Romans, were the same until the senate decided to honour Augustus and then Julius with months of the year and thus throw the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th months off sync. Anyway, the number system for naming months is a great place for you to start -

1. Presentation stage -

a. Elicit numbers 1-12 and write them on the blackboard, drill the numbers as a whole class twice (just to get the kids speaking!)

b. Point to the number one and say 'Ichi gatsu' - ask the whole class for the English. Probably you'll be met with shocked silence - don't worry, that's normal! Choose your best, most bright student and ask them directly for the English translation. If you still get nothing tell the students 'January', write the word clearly on the board and move on to the second month. Repeat this for all the months.

2. Controlled Speaking Practice stage-

a. Now drill the list. Point to the first month, say the word clearly and get the class to repeat after you. Do this a couple of times then rub out the words leaving only the numbers. Drill the months again. Now drill it once more but don't model it first. Do this a couple of times and then maybe do a few spot drills of particular students (choose the students carefully, this might be too much for some of them).

b. Point to one of your students (choose one of the strongest and most confident). You say the number them tell you the month, e.g. T = 3 St = March / T = 10 St = October
Continue this for about 16 class members.

c. Organise the students in pairs. Number each student in the pair A and B. Students repeat exercise b above - student A says a number, student B says the month. Monitor closely giving plenty of positive feedback. Allow the activity a few minutes and then the students change role, i.e. student B says the number, student A says the month.

3. Freer speaking practice - at this level and with this limited lexical set it's difficult to provide any real freer speaking practice but I think it's important and useful for your students to try and give them some kind of more meaningful way inwhich to use this language than just repeating lists.

a. Ask the class - 'do you like your birthday?' use any response to establish the meaning of birthday ('tanjoubi' in Japanese), if you get no response draw a cake with candles and a wrapped present on the board and write 'birthday'.

b. Write on the board - 'When is your birthday?' 'My Birthday is in June'. Drill this simple exchange a few times with the sentences on the board and then again with them removed. Select one student to ask you the question. Give your answer and ask another student the question. Once that student has given their answer they ask another student and so on around the class for about 10 or 12 students.

c. Handout a worksheet with the months of the year written in a column down the left side. Students stand up and mingle around the class asking their classmates the question 'when is your birthday?', they write the name of their classmate in the column on the right next to the correct month. Continue this for about 5 minutes, monitoring and giving feedback.

d. Class feedback. Stop the activity and tell the students to sit back down again. Select a few key students to stand up and tell the whole class which month some of their classmates birthdays are in.

4. Finish
a. Finally, elicit from the class one last time the months of the year in English and write them on the board. Also write the simple question / answer exchange conversation. Tell the students to copy this into their note books so they have a permanent copy.

The end!!