Page "Assistant Language Teacher" Paragraph 8

An ALT's primary duty is to assist Japanese teachers of English to deliver lessons in the classroom, and may be involved in lesson planning and other language teaching tasks.

However, the degree to which the Japanese teacher of English actually uses the ALT is usually decided at the discretion of the Japanese teacher.

Some allow ALTs to plan and lead language activities in class, sometimes for the entire class period, while others make minimal use of their ALT, such as limiting them to reading new vocabulary words for the students to repeat and having the ALT walk between the rows of students while the students do writing assignments.