I am very proud to announce that I have a chapter in a recently published academic book about eikaiwa schools called, Teacher Narratives From the Eikaiwa Classroom: Moving Beyond McEnglish. My chapter shared my experiences over the years with trying to educate parents about developmentally appropriate practices. School owners in Japan (well, actually, all over Asia) sometimes feel pressured to have very young students do things too early, such as write with a pencil or take an assessment test designed for adults, because it looks impressive. However, pushing children to do things before they are ready can have consequences, such as a loss of motivation.

Usually research in the field of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) focuses on adults or university students, so I was really happy to be a part of this project. Usually academic books of this nature are very expensive, so I'm very pleased that this book will be a reasonable paperback that also is sold as an e-book. The book can be purchased here.