So when I first started out more than ten years a group of mothers kind of pushed me into doing an eiken (英検） class. Since then I have done several eiken classes with results that led me to believe it might be better to just leave the eiken to the schools. I can motivate, give an authentic cultural exchange, teach pronunciation, change conceptions of what language does, and much more. I can also teach the 英検 and I can teach TOEFL as well. BUT doing these things at the same time is not natural. I think it's infinitely easier to study for the eiken using Japanese freely. I don't use Japanese in my classes because we focus on conversation and through years of experience I have found speaking Japanese in the class to be a motivation killer. Admittedly, I'd like to use it sometimes, but when a student discovers that I speak Japanese, the communication medium invariably becomes Japanese and I have lost my power to insist that the student try to use Japanese.
Anyway, the test that the mother's from ten years ago insisted on me administering to their kids was the 児童英検．Although the test was rather colorful and fun in appearance and the language presented was rather congruent with the language I often used and studied in the classroom, there were some drawbacks.
1. Stress
The test was a listening only affair but sitting and listening to a tape can be stressful when you are 4 years old.
2. Timing
We need to pressure ourselves to achieve things I suppose. Do we all feel that way on the same date and time? Is it important that we do? I don't know.
3. Comparisons
Kids won't compare the results, but mothers will. They may make a rash decision based on their child's ability or inability when in fact the problem was the timing of the test to begin with.
It has been such a long time since I've done that test. Now, a mother of two of my cutest little students has decided to pull her kids because she wants her kids to do the jidou eiken. You know... the one all the other kids are doing.
Good Luck with that...
Regrettably,
Pat
