The MAT Method® is a perfect method for children
who have short attention spans, and love fun activities.
English opens up the world for children, and that’s clear to everyone. But with new technology that lets us communicate with anyone in the world without knowing their language, the question arises: what can we, as English teachers, do?
The most important thing for teachers is to make sure their students have a good first experience with English. This is because that initial experience significantly influences how they feel about English later on. Our role as teachers is to make learning English fun and easy for children and to help them quickly become proficient in using it.
However, for Japanese children learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL), mastering this language is still a challenging task in their environment.
The MAT Method®, created by Ritsuko Nakata based on her years of experience as a teacher of English to children, was designed with the desire to make English lessons enjoyable for children in the EFL environment in Japan. This method enables them to connect English with their own lives, think for themselves, and speak about it as their own, all while having fun learning the language. This teaching method, which is systematic, easy to teach, and effective for instructors, has been learned by over 3,000 teachers both domestically and internationally, and it is once again receiving positive feedback.
In an era where even adults quickly lose interest if things are not delivered rapidly, the MAT Method® is perfectly suited for children who have short attention spans and love fun activities. It’s the key to enabling maximum effective lessons in a minimum amount of time, with just 50 minutes a week.
We are pleased to announce that we have prepared the opportunity once again for teachers who wish to learn the MAT Method® to take part in our previously held programs. This video course is a unique chance to directly experience the lively tempo and atmosphere of the MAT Method®, as well as the essence that its creator, Ritsuko Nakata, intended to convey.
We hope you will watch the videos repeatedly, thoroughly absorbing the clear, enjoyable lectures and practical demonstrations by Nakata and our team of instructors. Moreover, the greatest benefit of this video course is that you can quickly use what you’ve learned in your own lessons.
We encourage you to learn this student-centered approach to teaching and to connect it to your own wonderful lessons.
True to the name IIEEC, we are committed to delivering a high-quality method, taking on the responsibility to ensure that the children of Japan can spread their wings with confidence and become bridges to the world.
To all the teachers who are using the MAT Method®, and to everyone we will meet in the future, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude. We are dedicated to continuing to fulfill this responsible role with all our effort.
Masayo Kuroda
CEO, IIEEC Teacher Training Center
Masayo Kuroda (2020-Present)
Lecturer for the IIEEC-Oxford University Press English Teacher Training Certificate Program 2018-2019.
I have been involved as a child English consultant for over 15 years, working with Ritsuko Nakata since the early days of Benesse’s “Kodomo Challenge English” and “Oyako Eigo.” Now, keeping the philosophy of the MAT Method® and the spirit of its original supervisor, Ritsuko Nakata, in my heart, I am involved in creating content for the “Digital English Plus” program.
As the founder of IIEEC and the person who introduced the efficient MAT Method® to the world, my mother, Ritsuko Nakata, inspired me to help children use their English learning as a stepping stone to develop interest in both the global community and our own country, Japan, and to become a bridge between them.
I am currently embracing the challenge of teaching English to elementary school students online using the MAT Method®.