Students
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Soon after the Meiji Revolution in the mid-1800's, a public school system was instituted and English, identified as the language of internationalization, quickly became an important subject of study. At first, many native speakers were hired to teach and the language was taught with the aim of enabling the students to speak it.
Within a few decades, however, the educational system became more institutionalized; new rules prohibited non-Japanese from serving as teachers, and the importance placed on university entrance exams transformed the English language teaching system. This system has continued for almost a century now.
Despite the fact that almost every Japanese high school student is required to study English for six years, most students come out knowing only basic grammar, some reading and writing skills, and little else. Few will have had the chance to speak more than a few sentences with a native speaker, and almost all of what they studied was intended to help them pass entrance exams, and not to use the language (written or spoken) in an authentic manner.
As a result, you will often encounter students who already have a basic understanding of the language, probably know grammar better than you do, but cannot use it very well at all. Also, many students have become somewhat dependent on explicit grammar instruction; this goes against some modern teaching ideas that grammar should not be explained explicitly ("deductive grammar instruction"), but rather should be introduced via examples from which students must draw the grammar rule ("inductive grammar instruction"). However, many Japanese students do not feel like they are "learning" the language if there is no overt grammar lesson sometime in the lesson. Most teachers add overt grammar lessons (or "mini-lessons") to satisfy the students.
In addition, high school students will be used to studying in large classes (from 40 to 50 students), where they mostly just listened to the teacher lecture; their only chances to speak were likely when the teacher had them perform mechanical drills. Therefore, you can expect many students to be naturally quiet, hard to draw out and not very willing to take risks in the classroom. There are always exceptions, and there are growing numbers of high school programs and teachers that are trying to make the classrooms more communicative, but that movement is still small.
The level of students you are assigned in a class depends on how structured your school is. Many schools test students upon entering the school to place them in specific classes, but others will (often for the sake of money) throw whatever students they can get together into a single class despite differences in proficiency, leaving the teacher with the problem of teaching students who do not belong together.
Most schools have a system of classification for students levels; smaller schools may have a simple beginner/intermediate/advanced system, while larger schools may have carefully defined systems composed of many levels and sub-levels of proficiency, often based upon the students' mastery of specified skills. As a teacher, you will likely be asked to take part in placement of students once you have become used to the school's system.
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