Assistant Language Teacher

An Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) is a foreign national serving as an assistant teacher (paraprofessional educator) in a Japanese classroom, particularly for English.

The term 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 shidō joshu) or literally "foreign language instruction assistant". The terms AET (Assistant English Teacher), ELT (English Language Teacher) and NESA (Native English Speaking Assistant) are also in use. The term is used by the Ministry of Education, local Boards of Education (BOEs) and schools in Japan primarily to refer to English language speakers who assist with teaching of English in elementary, junior high and senior high schools. However, some ALTs help teach languages other than English.

ALTs are required to be university graduates, but they are usually not certified teachers like their Japanese colleagues.

The JET Programme set the general prerequisites imposed by Japanese immigration (bachelor's degree, health, nationality) and the characteristics that can be considered to be sought by the Japanese government, boards of education (BOEs), and schools.

In the case of ALTs from private language teaching companies, further requirements may include items such as TEFL certification, Japanese language ability (at least spoken) at a communicative level, teaching experience (both within Japan and in other countries) and other specialized skills (foreign languages other than English, IT, etc.) However, as a basic rule, the standards that are expected of JET Programme are still considered as norms among private language teaching companies that provide ALTs to BOEs, although agreements between BOEs and private companies often allow for a relaxing on some of these rules.

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