Acknowledgments

Firstly, I would like to thank the people who provided me with advice, insight, resource materials, editing assistance, translation work and a supportive hand while writing this book. They include: Ian Robinson, John Huff, Helen Preston, Natasha Free, Andreas Knobel, Kip Cates, George Jacobs, and Francine Kelly-Hooper.

I would also like to thank the Japanese teachers who allowed me to test some of my lessons in class. I was grateful for their patience and flexibility: Sanada-sensei and Kamimura-sensei from Kajiki JHS; Yoshinaga-sensei and Fukushima-sensei from Kirishima JHS in Kagoshima-ken.

Thank you to the contributors of this book: Anne Thompson, Cindy Drukier, Katharine Isbell, Ruth Meyer, and Lyn Sheppard.

Thank you also to the AJET National Council for their support and financial assistance.

A final thanks goes to Cindy Drukier and Oriana Parenti, Yokohama ALTs from 1996-98, who originally came up with the idea for this project. We are glad that we could turn their vision into a reality.

—Samantha Berman

Down to Earth English On-line

Down to Earth English was compiled in the first instance by Samantha Berman in 1999. We wanted to make it an easily accessible and updateable source of information and advice. We were also concerned about saving paper and other resources involved in printing books. As BEE SIG developed a web presence in 2000 we transformed this book into a HTML document and put it on-line. We hope that you find it useful and relevant.

Thanks to Washimiya High School in Saitama for generously allowing me to use their new computer equipment to make this book.

—Christina Reitano, November 2000