GSA After School Program

Our English program is based on SUPER GLOBAL, developed by Global Step Academy.  SUPER GLOBAL offers high-quality international education that aims to build future possibilities and new educational opportunities for the global citizens of the 21st century.

They say it takes 2000 hours to learn English. To master English communication and acquire sound international awareness, it’s important to strengthen the four skills of “listening” “speaking” “reading” and “writing” for more than two hours, two times a week. By doing so, you can develop the necessary English skills for the two areas of “Production” (expressing one’s thinking into words) and “Interaction” (conversational exchange).

To know English means thinking in English, learning in English, and using English to move forward. In order to to do so, the most important skills to acquire are: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.

Develop an inquisitive mind with National Geographic Learning

National Geographic Learning materials are used in more than 180 countries all around the world by over 8 million students. It is an academic journal carrying contents about geography, anthropology, nature, environmental studies, popular science, history, and culture. In our after-school program, the first in Japan to focus on National Geographic Learning, you can hone your English skills in this innovative way.

Time to learn English: “between 3000 and 5000 hours”

As Professor Wako Nakashima from Toronto University and Professor Terence Odlin from Ohio State University demonstrated with their research, “between 3000 and 5000 hours” is the standard time needed to acquire English competence. In Japan, after the educational reform of 2020, in elementary schools English hours were increased to 630. What about the 2370 hours left to reach the standard 3000? That is why additional English learning opportunities are so important.

The importance of reading comprehension

Our program focuses on teaching how fun it is to read. In order to succeed in language learning, constant reading practice is extremely important. By reading, children will come across a richer vocabulary and deepen their understanding of English in relation to their mother tongue. During their learning journey, children will discover many new words. However, after developing their reading comprehension, it will become progressively easier to grasp the meaning of new words from the context. Reading aloud will give them confidence in their speaking and help with intonation and pronunciation. Listening to the teacher or other students reading will help them acquire active listening skills by remembering the content of a story, putting the events in sequence, and making guesses about the characters’ emotions and circumstances. Through reading practice, students will be able to acquire rich knowledge and find their favorite book genre. Having a conspicuous reading experience in childhood will bear fruits for their whole lifetime!

SRA Reading and BOB Books Reading Materials

SRA Readers are teaching materials by the company McGraw Hill, one of America’s largest schooling publishers. This series is an introduction to reading, which uses suitable and simple phrases, comprehension quizzes, and vocabulary composition questions. Using these materials, students will gradually advance in their Lexile score.

Our program combines SRA Readers with BOB Books. BOB Books use consonant, vowel, consonant words patterns to simplify the blending of sounds for children. Students who read BOB Books will get to know many sight words (recurring words that do not follow phonetic rules) and improve reading fluency and confidence.

Reading A-Z (Raz-Kids)

Raz-Kids is an online English library that offers “Listening”, “Reading”, and “Recording” tools. They are supplementary materials that students can use autonomously at home. Raz-kids has 29 levels and 500 books, and it is used all around the world. After selecting the appropriate level, students will be able to both read independently or listen to a native speaker reading stories. They will also be able to record and listen to their reading to improve pronunciation. 

Feedback on Seesaw

We use the “Seesaw” app to let parents know about lesson contents and the topics your child is learning about. Seesaw is used in 25,000 schools in the United States (¼ of American schools) to share lessons and projects between students, parents, and teachers. We will share reports and monthly assessments, together with the current Lexile score.