Elementary School English Education in Japan: Changing Policies ...

Elementary School English Education in Japan: Changing Policies, Issues and Challenges 1）

日本の小学校英語教育政策の変容と課題 WAKITA Hirofumi

脇　田　博　文 Abstract English language education at an early age has become a heated and pressing issue, particularly in EFL countries in Asia. In Thailand, English education became a compulsory subject from the 1st grade of elementary school in 1996, in Korea from the 3rd grade in 1997, and in Taiwan in the 5th and 6th grades in 2001, to name but a few examples. More recently, in countries like Korea and Taiwan, English education policy (henceforth, EEP) has been rigorously expanded to the extent that teaching hours of English have been increased and English is supposed to be taught as early as in the 1st and 2nd grades. These changes in Asian countries as well as calls from the business world are clearly strong driving forces for Japan to take action for the official implementation of English education in elementary schools. In April 2011 English was implemented for 5th and 6th graders in Japan ; however, English is not a required subject and is instead incorporated into the curriculum as part of international understanding studies. The primary focus of this paper is an overview of EEP in Japan at the elementary school level and a discussion of its critical features and issues, along with some thoughts and implications regarding challenges for the future. Keywords：English education policy in Japan, elementary schools, foreign language activities, critical issues and challenges

概　　要　新学習指導要領の実施に伴い、2011 年 4 月から、小学校 5・6 年生での英語活動が必修化される運びとなった。しかし、これまで同様に「外国語活動」の一環であり、「教科」としての扱いではない。韓国・台湾等の東アジア諸外国の英語教育政策と比較する時、カリキュラム、教員、教材、授業時間、実施学年等、多くの政策的課題が曖昧なままに残る。一方で、学校現場では、実態として、低・中学年からの英語教育が拡大しつつあり、政策は後手に回っている。本稿は、これまでの日本の小学校英語教育の変化を４つの時期に分けて概観しながら、日本の英語教育政策としての特徴と問題点を明らかにすることを目的とする。併せて、今後の英

Elementary School English Education in Japan 3

語教育政策の方向性について示唆を行う。キーワード：英語教育政策、小学校、外国語活動、課題と方向性

1. An Overview of EEP Changes in Elementary Schools A chronological overview of EEP changes in Japanese public elementary schools (See Appendix) allows for a clarification as to where the idea of early age English education was derived, what changes have been made and in what direction it may be headed. The process can be roughly divided into four stages.

1.1 Full-fledged discussions about English education at an early age (1986-) In 1986, the Central Council for Education (henceforth, the Council), an advisory body belonging to the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (henceforth, MEXT) criticized the then prevailing grammar-translation approach to English education at secondary school levels, and proposed that English education should be geared towards a more communication-oriented approach. The Council also noted the need for early-age English education.

1.2 An experimental study of English education in elementary schools as part of international understanding studies (1992-) In 1992, when the new national curriculum for compulsory education was implemented, an experimental study was commenced at several designated public elementary schools, where English was taught under the rubric of English activities. The government began to allow local governments to formulate their own policies for English education. In 1996, the Council set guidelines for the nationwide implementation of foreign language teaching in elementary schools. The guidelines stated that it was appropriate to implement foreign language education as part of international understanding studies in

integrated study hours

or

special activities,

for a

maximum of two hours a week. It was expected that this would give students an opportunity to familiarize themselves with conversation using a foreign language and thereby different ways of life and culture in foreign countries. To achieve these objectives, the Council also advised that native English speakers and Englishspeaking Japanese who had lived abroad be employed toward this end. Accordingly, the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program, which was launched in 1987, was expected to play an important role when carrying out English education in line with this advice. 2）

1.3 The new national strategic concept and the action plan to cultivate “Japanese with English abilities” (2002-) In 2002, MEXT presented a new strategic concept with which to improve students oral communication ability in English, followed by an action plan in 2003. MEXT put forward more practical objectives and goals for English education than they had in the past, so as to cultivate Eigo ga tsukaeru Nihonjin (Japanese with English abilities) and proposed concrete numerical targets for all Japanese nationals to achieve in standardized tests (e.g., 550 points on the TOEFL test, 730 points on the TOEIC test). Subsequently, the 2003 action plan included a series of specific strategies to realize the 2002 concept as follows: establishing

4 国際文化研究　第17号（2013）

continuity in English education from elementary through lower and upper secondary levels, and comprehensive pre- and in-service training for English teachers at all school levels. All these strategies were a response to strong demands from the business community and from researchers who had been alarmed at the ineffectiveness of English education in Japan. Interestingly, the demands were well received, but MEXT carefully avoided incorporating the teaching of English as a required subject into the elementary school curriculum, considering many sociopolitical and educational factors such as the fact that the curriculum implemented in 2002 underwent an approximately 20% reduction of teaching content due to the introduction of the five‒day week; and MEXT was not yet ready, due to lack of resources such as adequate textbooks, financial support and, most importantly, qualified, well-trained teachers. Also there were heated debates which centered around such issues as the necessity and feasibility of elementary school English education as a required subject, the purpose and goals of English education at an early age and the validity of a critical period in language learning.

1.4 The new national curriculum in 2008, and the implementation of English Education in elementary schools as “foreign language activities” from 2011 onwards (2008-) In 2008, MEXT revised the national curriculum and an important decision was made to introduce English education as

foreign language activities

in the 5th- and 6th-grade curriculums from the 2011 school

year onward. Prior to the inception of this EEP, MEXT launched nationwide projects in 2007 for in-service training for elementary school teachers within and outside of schools and chose about 550 schools to serve as pilot schools. In 2009, MEXT also distributed two levels of the English textbook, English Note, to all elementary schools for use in the 5th and 6th grades with detailed teaching manuals and CDs. However, it was not mandatory to use them.

2. Status of English and Objectives of “Foreign Language Activities” in the National Curriculum In the 2008 revised national curriculum, MEXT disseminated uniform guidelines for activities

foreign language

in elementary schools, which stated the following: in principle, “a foreign language” refers to

English and 35 teaching hours are required to be set aside per year for 5th and 6th grades. The objectives are related to three main concepts: (1) to deepen pupils’ understanding about language and culture through the

experience of foreign language learning; (2) to develop a positive attitude towards communicating in a foreign language; and (3) to allow pupils to familiarize themselves with sounds and basic expressions of a foreign language. The guidelines also stated a summary objective: (4) to foster a base for communication ability by experiencing English activities based upon the three above-mentioned objectives in an integrated manner, which may create a link with future studies in junior high schools. After careful consideration, MEXT did not incorporate the teaching of English as a required subject into the elementary school curriculum. The primary focus of English learning was placed upon international understanding and a basis of communication ability, rather than the acquisition of skills in English at the elementary school level.


3. Decentralization of EEP in Elementary Schools and Ensuing Problems English Activities

were expanded in public elementary schools over a 20-year period. In 1992, an

experimental study at designated schools was started. As of 1994, 87.7% of private schools and 22.1% of public schools were offering English lessons as part of international understanding studies in various ways (Honna & Takeshita 2004). It turned out that 88% of public schools were more or less conducting English activities in 2003 and almost all public schools (97%) in 2007 (MEXT 2008b). The government practically allowed local governments and individual schools to formulate their own policies for English education. This could be characterized as a decentralization of foreign language education.3） There arose many problems as a result of decentralizing the EEP. Since each school (as many as 22,420 public schools as of 2007) was free to decide its own teaching hours and content considering local circumstances, pupils interests and learning environment, what was actually taught differed from school to school. Naturally, due to differences in implementation, a gap in English proficiency and motivation resulted when pupils from different elementary schools were later pooled together to study English at junior high schools. Consequently, uniform guidelines for teaching English in elementary schools were instituted in the 2008 revised national curriculum to mitigate the gap or to guarantee equity in public education.

4. The Situation of English Education in Elementary Schools (as of 2010) Prior to the implementation of the new EEP in 2011, several nationwide surveys were conducted by MEXT and private institutions (Obunsya, Benesse). These surveys provided interesting results about the situation of English education in elementary schools. The following are the main results from the latest survey conducted by Benesse in 2010: In 2010, approximately 67% of schools were more or less conducting English activities in the 1st and 2nd grades as extracurricular activities, and almost 80% of schools in the 3rd and 4th grades in integrated study hours. Compared to this result, the first survey conducted in 2006 showed a much higher prevalence: 80% in the 1st and 2nd grades and 97% in the 3rd and 4th grades. After the revision of the th

th

national curriculum in 2008, schools shifted their focus to a greater emphasis on the 5 and 6 grades. In almost all cases, those responsible for teaching English were homeroom teachers (97.5%) and native English speakers, so-called

assistant language teachers (ALTs)

(93.0%), but only 3% of the

homeroom teachers were certified to teach English. As far as team-teaching with ALTs was concerned, approximately 54.6% of schools were more or less satisfied with the frequency of ALT s visits to their schools. In addition, over 70% percent of teachers believed that English should be taught by specialists, not by general teachers. Popular activities are practice in greeting people (98.7%), games (98.5%), songs and chants (91.9%), English conversation practice (87.7%), pronunciation practice (82.9%) and simple question and answer quizes (72.3%). Over 70% of schools regarded the following issues as conspicuously problematic: (1) lack of time


available for planning classes and preparing teaching materials, (2) lack of good cooperation or adequate connection with neighboring elementary and junior high schools to exchange useful information, (3) insufficient financial support from the local government, and (4) inadequate English ability of homeroom teachers.

5. Conclusion: Critical issues and Challenges EEP in elementary schools is an issue of top priority since it may become a key factor in determining the future orientation of English education in Japan from the elementary through tertiary levels. However, the central government s involvement in this issue has not been clearly defined and many critical issues have arisen and various problems have remained.4） Nonetheless, English will become more highly valued in the near future and the expansion of English education in the early grades will continue. Disparities or gaps among elementary schools, local districts, and students will widen in many respects. Outside of school, there will be rapid growth in the English education industry as exemplified by the popularity of private language schools. This is what happened at the first stage of implementation where decision-making was mainly in the hands of local governments and individual schools. English education at elementary schools expanded in a rather unplanned manner. Given these circumstances, MEXT will have to carefully formulate its new language policy and planning, and as a result, English will begin to be taught as a required subject, in the early grades and for more hours, just as has recently occurred in Korea and Taiwan. The chronological overview of EEP changes (See Appendix) seems to show that roughly speaking, Japan is lagging ten years behind Korea and Taiwan. Interestingly enough, it also suggests that as Chen (2003) indicated about the EEP in elementary schools, the new nation-wide formal implementation may improve the situation, but it will allow a tremendous amount of inconsistency because each city, district and school already has its own resources and its own goals. Thus, this would pose a threat to MEXT in their aim to meet the stated goals of offering quality of English language education to all elementary schools in Japan. In this context, a key to success is to establish a more clearly defined and well-planned language education policy and the requisite action plans for it in a comprehensive manner. The main challenges would involve, (1) setting clear goals for learning foreign languages, including English, in the national curriculum in accordance with language proficiency standards and benchmarks which are equivalent to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), (2) establishing a continuum of the curriculum in English education from elementary through lower and upper secondary levels, and (3) developing an effective teaching methodology and adequate textbooks.5） In addition, as long as classroom teaching is the main arena of English education, the quality of the teacher as a

reflective practitioner who teaches English to students is a critical issue. If the approach

taken by teachers is impractical and uninteresting, more students would be

turned off,

which is an

inherent danger involved in introducing English education at an early age. Therefore, the most important challenge is, (4) establishing an effective system of pre- and in-service training for elementary school teachers of English as well as a recruitment system for quality teachers.

6）

To meet these challenges for the future, two prerequisites, which may seem peripheral but provide


essential clues, should also be emphasized. First, among researchers and administrators concerned, a consensus on English Education planning and policy in Japan should be established, and coordination and cooperation should be further strengthened as seen in Korea. Second, the public budget for education should be increased. Surprisingly, Japan s educational investment falls considerably behind that of many other OECD countries and as of 2007, the share of the public budget for education was only 3.3% of GDP, the lowest among 32 OECD countries. These two inadequacies must be overcome in order to meet the dire challenges. Notes １）This is a revised version of a paper initially presented at Professor Liang Shi-qiu Memorial Conference in Taiwan, National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), October 22, 2011, and Matsumura & Wakita (2011).

２）For the 2009 school year, about 4,400 ALTs from 36 countries were invited to assist in teaching English in the Japanese school system.

３）The same decision-making process can be found in Korea. Elementary school English education started as an extracurricular activity in 1982; in 1995 the percentage of students learning English reached about 95%; and in 1997 English became a required subject in the 3rd grade and above.

４）In contrast, the Korean government has taken the initiative in overseeing English language education, which is demonstratively indicated by the present government s ELT policy: to achieve perfection for public education in English. Taiwan falls between the Korean and Japanese approaches in terms of the degree of central government involvement (Butler 2003).

５）In Korea, the 10-year integrated curriculum and in Taiwan the 9-year integrated curriculum were created in 1997 and 2001 respectively, when English education as a required subject was introduced in elementary schools.

６）A teaching certificate is required to become an English teacher at the secondary level. There is no such certificate requirement for teaching English at elementary school levels, nor is there an official elementary-level English teaching certification program in Japanese universities.

References Benesse (2011). Dai 2kai Shougakko eigo nikansuru kihon cyousa (The 2nd Basic Survey of Elementary School English). Retrieved on September 5th, 2011, from the World Wide Web: http://benesse.jp/berd/center/open/report/syo_ eigo/2010/hon2_1_02.html Butler, G. Y. (2003). The Role of Teachers in English Language Education at the Elementary School Level in Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Selected Papers from the Twelfth International Symposium on English Teaching, pp.1-16. Taiwan: English Teachers Association/ROC. Chen, S. (2003). The Spread of English in Taiwan: Changing Uses and Shifting Attitudes. Taipei: Crane Publishing. Chern, C. (2010). An Overview of English Language Education at Primary Levels in Taiwan. Retrieved on September 2nd, 2011, from the World Wide Web: http://www.isca-speech.org/archive/L2WS_2010/papers/lw10_S-3.pdf Honna, N. and Takeshita, Y. (2004). English Education in Japan Today: The Impact of Changing Policies. English

Language Teaching in East Asia Today: Changing Policies and Practices, pp.195-220. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press. Matsumura, S. & Wakita, H. (2011). What s Wrong with Elementary School English Education in Japan? Proceedings of the 2011 Korea Association of Primary English Education (KAPEE) International Conference, Chungbuk, Korea, pp.97-106. Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, Sports and Technology (MEXT) (2008a). Shougakko gakusyu shidouyouryo kaisetsu:

gaikokugo katsudou hen (National Curriculum Guidelines for Elementary Schools: Foreign Language Activities). Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, Sports and Technology (MEXT) (2008b). Shougakko eigokatsudou jisshi jyoukyou cyousa (The Survey of the Implementation Status of Elementary School English Activities). Retrieved on September 2nd, 2011, from the World Wide Web: http://warp.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/286794/www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/ houdou/20/03/08031920/001.htm Morita, L. (2010). The Sociolinguistic Context of English Language Education in Japan and Singapore. Retrieved on


September 5th, 2011, from the World Wide Web: http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/2010/Morita. html Yamada, Y. (2004). Gengokyouiku toshiteno Eigokyouiku (English Education as Language Education). Tokyo:Tansuisya.

【Appendix】 Policy Changes in Elementary School English Education in Japan, Korea and Taiwan

Japan

Korea

Taiwan

The 6th national curriculum 1980 (-1991) ■

The 4th national curriculum (-1987) ■

1981

●Teaching English in extracurricula activities

1982

Revision of the national curriculum for elementary schools ■

1983 1984

○Discussions about teaching English in elementary schools started.

1985 The Council for Education noted

○

1986 the need to closely examine earlyage English education.

The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program (-present) *4,436 participants from 36 countries in 2009/10

*Martial law was ended.

●

1987

The 5th National curriculum (-1991) ■

1988

*The Seoul Olympic Games

1989 1990 The first report on English

○

1991 education in elementary school by the governmental advisory body


1992

●Experimental study as English activities at designated public elementary schools


Teaching English at the 5th and 6th grades-not as a required subject

●

*Introduction of CSAT

Revision of the national curriculum for elementary schools ■

*Expansion of English:71.1% of pupils in Taipei learn English outside of schools.

1993

1994

*22.1% of public schools were offering English classes as part of international understanding studies.

●Teaching English in extracurricular activities. *Local authorities and schools were free to choose their own English textbooks. *Discussions on educational reforms started.

●The EPIK Program (-present) *4,818 participants in 2010

1995

1996

*Listening test was included in CSAT.

○First guidelines for implementing the teaching of a foreign language in elementary schools

*60-70% of pupils nationwide learn English outside of schools. *Taipei and Kaoshung started to teach English twice a week for 5th graders.


Japan

Korea The 7th national curriculum (-2008) ■

●English as a required subject at the 3rd grade and above: one hour a week at the 3rd and 4th grades, two hours a week at the 5th and 6th grades ○ICT-based English Instruction ○In-service training ○10-year integrated curriculum

1997

Taiwan *Decision to teach English nationwide at the 5th and 6th grades

1998

*Taipei and Kaoshung started to teach from the 3rd grade and above.

1999

●Recruitment of about 3,500 English teachers as specialists

2000 *Teaching English in English(TEE) was adopted.

●Teaching English as a required subject at the 5th and 6th grades (two hours a week) *Second foreign language in junior high schools.

2001

*Taipei started teaching English from the 1st grade and above.


2002

2003

●The new national strategic concept to improve Japanese English ability

● The action plans including a series of criteria *88% of public elementary schools were conducting English activities in the integrated study hours.

9-year integrated curriculum for compulosry education ■

*Decision to teach English from the 3rd grade and above *Started to employ native English speakers-5 Canadians. *Taiwan Assessment of Student Achievement (TASA) was introduced.

2004

2005

*Listening was included in Japanese CSAT.

Teaching English from the 3rd grade and above

●

●Experimental English teaching at the 1st and 2nd grades

2006 *97% of public elementary schools

2007 were conducting English activities in the integrated study hours.

2008

●The revision of the national curriculum for compulsory education was publicized:English education as foreign language activities in the 5th and 6th grades from the 2011 school year onward.

Distribution of English textbooks, English Note, for use in the 5th and 6th grades with detailed teaching manuals and CDs

The revised 7th national curriculum (-present) ■

●The concept of EIL was adopted in the new national curriculum. ○The government ELT policy: to achieve perfection for public education in English ○The TaLK （Teach and Learn Korea）program

●

2009

●National action plan for development:Challenge 2008

*The first speaking test in TASA for 6th graders

Teaching English 2 hours a week at the 3rd and 4th grades

●

2010 2011

Provisional 9-year integrated curriculum for compulsory education was publicized. ■

The 9th national curriculum

■

Teaching English 3 hours a week at the 5th and 6th grades

●

*This chronological list was created by Hirofumi Wakita.
