Assistant Language Teacher, often abbreviated to ALT, is a term that was created by the
Japanese Ministry of Education at the time of the creation of the
JET Programme as a translation of the term (外国語指導助手)"gaikokugo shido joshu" or literally "foreign language instruction assistant." It is used primarily by the Ministry, local Boards of Education (BOEs) and schools to refer to native language speakers who assist teaching languages in
elementary,
junior high and
high schools. In practice, the ALTs assist with the
teaching of English.
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