English Teaching Treasure Trove
If you’re an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) or an English Teacher in Japan looking for new materials for your English classes in Japanese schools, here are some of the most engaging and effective resources I’ve found in 10 years of English teaching around Tokyo.
This is my personal master list plus academic research backing up the techniques.
Here's the list. Read below it for more information and research articles on how best to use the resources.
- The One English Teaching Resource in Japan to Rule Them All: https://www.altopedia.net/
- The Seductive Details Effect (the dangers of adding too many details to lesson materials): https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/seductive-details-effect/
- An American English Pronunciation Resource with visuals for mouth movement, throat movement, and tongue positioning: https://soundsamerican.net/
- An English Pronunciation Resource from the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/features/pronunciation
- Polished, adaptable, and engaging digital ESL activity templates: https://taysteachingtoolkit.com/
- The Let's Try 1 & 2 Digital Textbooks freely available for any web browser, plus games, and much: https://plip-plop-land.com/
- Videos, songs, and chants from many current and past Japanese textbooks (only works with Chrome on iPad): https://plip-plop-land.com/videoplayer
- Kumamoto's supplementary digital tools for the Let’s Try textbooks and some 5th and 6th grade lessons: https://www.kumamoto-kmm.ed.jp/kyouzai/web/tab_menu1.htm
- Eitake's curated textbook-based flashcard decks, class games, and individual English practice activities: https://eitake.app/activities (Blocked on some school iPads) -or- https://griffii.github.io/TaiyakiEduGames/ (A link that wasn’t blocked on some school iPads, with the same content.)
- A catchy, curated list of YouTube songs to suppliment the Let’s Try textbooks. https://abcdenglish-school.com/elementary-school-english-song-children-love/
- Upbeat supplimentary 3rd and 4th grade lesson videos showing students communicating in English with international English speakers, also includes chants, and a vegetable comedy anime centered on the target language: https://edu.web.nhk/school/eigo/beat2/
- Free, curated sets of printable English flashcards for a range of topics: https://www.mes-english.com/flashcards.php
- Cute, simplified, contextualized images of almost any noun, event, or action you can think of. You can find these stylized images posted and copied all over Japan: https://www.irasutoya.com/
- A dedicated academic journal created for langauge teachers in Japan: https://jalt-publications.org/jj
- A similar and insightful ongoing publication called The Language Teacher: https://jalt-publications.org/tlt
- Want a free, DIY masters' level course in language education based on the founding principles and original source material? https://backseatlinguist.com/blog/diy-masters-in-language-education/
- Celebrated scholar, Dr Steven Krashen, has posted nearly all of his career books and articles for free discussing all things second langauge acquisition or bilingual education: https://www.sdkrashen.com/
ALTopedia is the one English teaching resource in Japan to rule them all. I found many of these links and materials on this website first. There are countless materials that I could repost from this site that made my lessons much more effective.
Related research: When teachers are flexible using lesson plans from other teachers and are willing to adapt the given plans for their class, learning outcomes improve (Piper et al., 2018). I’m sure the ongoing and thoughtful use of ALTopedia will improve your lessons too.
InnerDrive
Beware the Seductive Details Effect (the InnerDrive team, 2024). By adding unnecessary images, sounds, or phrases teachers can distract students from truly engaging in the content. This is an educational principle showing that engagement does not always equal deep learning.
BBC Learning English
A 2025 study found that guiding students to practice English pronunciation was important to build their communicative skills (Cerda-Oñate et al., 2025). After realizing the importance of teaching pronunciation for effective communication and understanding, I made it a point to add pronunciation drills into the warmups and songs at the beginning of my lessons.
As a big bonus, the American English pronunciation resource animates the mouth positions in standard American English, which is really beneficial for showing students visually how to form English sounds. Hearing English doesn’t always translate to understanding how the form sounds physically. This is especially true for the phonemes (a language’s sounds) that exist in English but not in Japanese.
If you're interested in specific examples of the differences between English and Japanese that need to be taught, click below for samples from Gemini (Google, 2026). These are examples of the tricky phonemes in English for Japanese speakers:
Vowel Differences
English phoneme: /æ/
Example words: Cat, laugh
The issue for Japanese speakers: Flat, trapped "a". Japanese only has a bright, open /a/ (like father). Cat usually ends up sounding like kyatto or katto.
English phoneme: /ʌ/
Example words: Cup, butt
The issue for Japanese speakers: Short, stressed "uh" sound. Usually maps directly onto the Japanese /a/, making cop, cup, and cap sound incredibly similar.
English phoneme: /ə/ (The Schwa)
Example words: About, sofa
The issue for Japanese speakers: The most common, lazy, unstressed sound in English. Japanese doesn't do "lazy" vowels; every vowel gets full clarity, so this is usually forced into an /a/, /o/, or /u/.
English phoneme: /ɪ/
Example words: Sit, hit
The issue for Japanese speakers: Short, lax "ih". Japanese only has a tense /i/ (like the 'ee' in meet). This makes sit and seat tough to differentiate.
English phoneme: /ʊ/
Example words: Foot, putt
The issue for Japanese speakers: Lax, rounded vowel. The Japanese /u/ sound is unrounded [ɯ]—the lips stay completely flat.
English phoneme: /ɔː/ or /ɒ/
Example words: Law, cought, dog
The issue for Japanese speakers: Open "aw" sounds. These almost always default to the Japanese /o/.
English phoneme: /ɜː/
Example words: Bird, fern
The issue for Japanese speakers: R-colored vowel. Combining a missing vowel sound with a missing "R" sound makes this one of the hardest sounds to master.
Consonant Differences
English Phoneme: /ɹ/ (Alveolar approximant)
Example Words: Red, marry
What Japanese Has Instead: [ɾ] (A alveolar flap, like a light Spanish 'r' or a quick 'd')
The Common Substitution: The Japanese 'r'-sound is used for both L and R, which is why they sound identical to native Japanese ears.
English Phoneme: /l/ (Alveolar lateral)
Example Words: Led, fly
What Japanese Has Instead: [ɾ] (A alveolar flap, like a light Spanish 'r' or a quick 'd')
The Common Substitution: Used interchangeably with the Japanese 'r' flap.
English Phoneme: /θ/ (Voiceless dental fricative)
Example Words: Think, bath
What Japanese Has Instead: Nothing. (No teeth-on-tongue sounds)
The Common Substitution: Usually replaced by /s/ (sink) or /t/ (tink).
English Phoneme: /ð/ (Voiced dental fricative)
Example Words: This, brother
What Japanese Has Instead: Nothing.
The Common Substitution: Usually replaced by /z/ (zis) or /d/ (dis).
English Phoneme: /v/ (Voiced labiodental fricative)
Example Words: Van, save
What Japanese Has Instead: Nothing.
The Common Substitution: Usually replaced by /b/ (ban).
English Phoneme: /f/ (Voiceless labiodental fricative)
Example Words: Fan, staff
What Japanese Has Instead: [ɸ] (A bilabial fricative, like blowing out a candle, found only before 'u' as in fu).
The Common Substitution: Japanese speakers will use their bilabial fu sound, omitting the top-teeth-to-lower-lip contact.
English Phoneme: /ʒ/ (Voiced postalveolar fricative)
Example Words: Vision, pleasure
What Japanese Has Instead: Nothing as a standalone fricative.
The Common Substitution: Usually converted into a "j" sound /dʒ/ (vijan).
https://taysteachingtoolkit.com/
The ESL games and tools from Tays Teaching Toolkit are highly polished, branded with neat pop culture icons, and can be quite fun (but beware any Seductive Details). Many of the games are engaging in class and highly customizable to your lesson plans. This site introduces dozens of PowerPoint or Google Slides lesson ideas for fun reviews or communication lessons.
A study published in the TESOL Journal found using digital resources in classrooms improves academic performance for English language learners (Chaves‐Yuste & de‐la‐Peña, 2025).
If your school uses Let’s Try 1 & 2, the above resource is indispensable.
Plip-plop-land.com single-handedly saved my whole year of lessons by being the only Lets Try 1 & 2 digital textbook for an iPad. Thanks William!
This plip-plop-land player only works with Chrome on iPad, but it includes nearly all of the target language for the 5th and 6th grade lessons in catchy musical form. It more than justified my usage of Chrome in class. (The video player screen is initially blank when you arrive on the site. Don’t let that fool you into thinking there’s no content on the page!) Excellent musical English lesson material, taken directly from many previous textbooks, appears when you click the Material or Tag menu options.
https://www.kumamoto-kmm.ed.jp/kyouzai/web/tab_menu1.htm
Kumamoto created supplementary digital tools to go along with the Let’s Try textbooks and some of the 5th and 6th grade lessons. The customizable digital boards are great for students practicing conversations, with just enough customizable options but not too many distracting extra features.
In the Japanese Elementary context, self directed digital English study games were proven to provide positive results in learning (Bang et al, 2024).
EiTake is one of the newest additions to my list, and I found it on Altopedia. It has a growing list of helpful features for teachers and self-directed games for students. One of my favorite features in Eitake are the curated flashcards for a quick warmup. They have generously provided decks pre-created for most of the current Japanese textbooks organized by chapter. I also appreciated how your could transition immediately from a visual flashcard review to a quick warmup game. EFLCafe (2024) affirms using flashcard images to elicit English responses with picture flashcards is helpful learning reinforcement in the warmup segment.
https://eitake.app/activities (Blocked on some of the school iPads)
https://griffii.github.io/TaiyakiEduGames/ (A link that wasn’t blocked on some school iPads, with the same content.)
author
Using music to teach specific vocabulary in songs is shown to improve vocabulary learning for students (Mannarelli & Serrano, 2024). The site is in Japanese, but it's a catchy, curated list of YouTube songs to include in lessons alongside the Let’s Try textbooks.
https://edu.web.nhk/school/eigo/beat2/
Here is a fun series of NHK English educational videos showing Japanese students using English to communicate with foreign guests and chant with the host. It's a prime resource to show fellow students performing a fun communication activity with guest on screen, then as the teacher, bring that same activity into the classroom for the students to try. Showing the Eigo Beat 2 activity first eliminates a need for long explanations about the next lesson activity and building a desire to trying out the communication activity along with the hosts of the show. Watching this content builds momentum for students to try the language themselves.
Chung (2023) established that visual aids in EFL classes promote “comprehension, retention, and engagement.”
MES English hosts free curated sets of printable flashcards. They are handy if you’re looking to print a set.
https://doi.org/10.3390/app11136062
If you have access to them, the above study found that using a set of speakers, better than a pair of PC loudspeakers, to amplify the volume of the lesson was effective for Japanese learners of English. So, if you’re feeling brave, go for a nice set of speakers and a microphone in your lessons (Evans et al., 2021). The students sitting in the back of the classroom will appreciate your efforts
Looking for flashcard images or images that make sense in the Japanese mindset for a staggering number of activities, characters, and events? Look no further than Irasutoya! Everyone loves these images.
In terms of academic resources, if there was one regular academic journal that I would recommend, it would be the dedicated journal created for teachers in Japan.
It's known as the JALT Journal,
JALT also publishes an insightful online publication called The Language Teacher. If you're looking to get published for academic purposes in Japan these are great places to do it.
TBL
Here’s a link for those moments when you’re interested in linguistics and language education and want to take a deep dive. This academically vetted list of readings will take you much deeper in the craft, theory, and practice of modern classroom ESL.
In terms of figures to read up on in Second Language Acquisition, Dr. Stephen Krashen’s work is at the top of the list.
Best of all, nearly all his scholarly books and academic articles are available on his website free of charge.
He is a longtime and major contributor in the fields of second language acquisition and bilingual education. He’s attributed with major theories like the comprehensible input hypothesis and the affective filter hypothesis.
Incidentally Krashen (2020) promotes free reading and voluntary reading as one of the best methods to help students learn languages. If your students are able to read, consider taking a step back to let the students read through their favorite fiction stories for a couple classes. It's all about engaging comprhehnsible input just above your current level.
Let me how these links help or if you have any other treasured English teaching resources to share!
-Seth Quant
References
Bang, H. J., Setoguchi, E., Mackey, A., & Fujii, A. (2024). L2 learning outcomes of a research-based digital app for Japanese children. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 46(2), 504–534. doi:10.1017/S0272263124000147
Cerda-Oñate, K., Cisterna, T., & Norambuena, F., (2025). Impact of explicit and implicit instruction on EFL learners’ segmental pronunciation accuracy of transparent and non-transparent words. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 11(1), 217–228.
Chaves‐Yuste, B., & de‐la‐Peña, C. (2025). Impact of digital resources on ESP academic performance. TESOL Journal, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.70037
Chung, D. T. K. (2023). The efficacy of visual aids in enhancing vocabulary acquisition in EFL classes. International Journal of Social Science and Human Research, 6(10). https://doi.org/10.47191/ijsshr/v6-i10-80
EFL CAFE. (2024, June 22). Effective use of flashcards in EFL/ESL teaching. EFL Cafe, Apr.–Jun. 2024, no. 11. https://eflcafe.net/effective-use-of-flashcards-in-efl-esl-teaching
Evans, N., Kaneko, M., Seleznov, I., Shigematsu, T., & Kiyono, K. (2021). An acoustic way to support japanese children’s effective english learning in school classrooms. Applied Sciences, 11(13), 6062–6062. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11136062
Google. (2026, June 29). English phonemes not in Japanese [Generative AI chat]. Gemini 3.5 Thinking. google.com
Krashen, S. (2020). Self-selected fiction: The path to academic success? https://www.sdkrashen.com/content/articles/2020._self-selected_fiction_krashen__catesol.pdf
Mannarelli, P., & Serrano, R. (2024). “Thank you for the music”: Examining how songs can promote vocabulary learning in an EFL class. Language Learning Journal, 52(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2022.2092198
Piper, B., Sitabkhan, Y., Mejía, J., and Betts, K. (2018). Effectiveness of teachers’ guides in the Global South: Scripting, learning outcomes, and classroom utilization. RTI Press Publication No. OP-0053-1805. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI Press. https://doi.org/10.3768/rtipress.2018.op.0053.1805
the InnerDrive team. (2024, March 28). The seductive details effect: Everything you need to know | InnerDrive (B. Busch, Ed.). InnerDrive. https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/seductive-details-effect/