English Language Programs

Almost every night, you can see some kind of program for English students on TV. This might surprise you, but I watch them too. My favorite is the Columbia University ESL show on Tuesdays on NHK. Unfortunately, there are many bad English programs as well. Usually, these shows have a professor who explains grammar points, a young woman who listens to him and sometimes repeats after people, and also a native speaker of English who helps people with pronunciation.

I don't like these shows because they usually have too much lecturing by the professor, and not enough actual English. There is a short skit, and then 10 minutes of boring grammar explanation. That's not really much English, is it? The grammar points might be useful, but the shows have too much explaining and analysis in Japanese, and not enough of people actually speaking English. If you watch these shows, try to practice the grammar point yourself instead of just listening to the professor talk about it.