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japan times forum on elementary school english teaching

Questions remain as once-a-week compulsory ‘foreign-language activities’ lessons are set to start this spring for Japan’s fifth and sixth graders

Experts weigh import of elementary school EnglishHidetoshi SakaiSPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

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Debate lingers on whether English education is trulynecessary for children in Japan despite the imminent startof compulsory English teaching at public elementaryschools. But the participants at a recent panel discussionsounded cautiously optimistic about the fate of thelandmark project.

Most of about 25,000 public elementary schools acrossJapan have introduced foreign-language education,mainly English, during a three-year experimental period.This will be followed by once-a-week compulsory lessonsset to start for fifth and sixth graders at the beginning offiscal 2011 this April. English teaching will be introduced inthe form of ‘‘foreign-language activities,’’ not as a formalcurriculum with evaluations given for pupils.

English education at public schools in Japan starts fromthe junior high school level, but there are few countries inneighboring areas and other parts of the world that startpublic English education at so late an age, said a universityprofessor invited to join the panel discussion. If thesituation is not addressed, ‘‘Japan will be further leftbehind in the current trend toward globalization,’’ he said.

Organized by The Japan Times, the panel discussionwas attended by Kazuhiro Nakai, director of theInternational Education Division of the Elementary andSecondary Education Bureau, the Ministry of Education,Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), andthree advocates of English teaching for small children.They were Kensaku Yoshida, a professor of SophiaUniversity, Kaz Yatsugi, chairman of the JapanAssociation for the Study of Teaching English to Children(JASTEC), and Ann Mayeda, a lecturer at KonanWomen’s University of Kobe and a former member of theBoard of Directors of the Japan Association for LanguageTeaching (JALT). Keisuke Okada, former managing editorof The Japan Times, served as the moderator.

Their discussion is as follows:

Moderator: The planned Englishteaching at public elementaryschools is drawing attention notjust from interested domestic par-ties but also from foreign countries.This panel discussion is very time-ly, I think, because it is meaningfulto correctly tell foreign people whatis happening at Japanese elemen-tary schools. Mr. Nakai, could youexplain the history of discussionsat the government’s related coun-cils that have led to the start of Eng-lish teaching at public elementaryschools?

Kazuhiro Nakai: Activities in vari-ous parts of Japanese society havebecome global and as a result, re-quests have increased in recent yearsthat public schools will strive to fosterchildren interested in foreign languag-es, especially English. Following theCentral Education Council’s recom-mendations for studying the possibilityof introducing foreign-language activi-ties at public elementary schools, westarted revising the ‘‘course of study,’’the teaching guidelines for elementaryschools in 2008. Some schools havestarted English teaching as part of cur-

ricula for the ‘‘integrated studies’’classes, but there has been a disparityin the progress of English teachingfrom school to school or from area toarea. When we started revising the re-lated systems and policies, we paid at-tention to how to provide equal oppor-tunities in English education to chil-dren, and how to ensure smoothrelations between elementary schoolsand junior high schools in their Eng-lish-teaching programs. The forth-coming English teaching at elementa-ry schools is not aimed at front-loadingpart of English lessons at junior highschools. It is aimed at laying thegroundwork for elementary school pu-pils to learn the English languagewhile getting them interested in Eng-lish, and making them familiar with ba-sic pronunciations and expressions.

Kensaku Yoshida: Japan hasmade efforts for many decades in Eng-lish education from the junior highschool to university levels, but theEnglish skills of Japanese students re-main generally poor. If their Englishskills must be improved, a new ap-proach should be considered. Somepeople call for increasing the periodsfor English teaching at junior highschools, but I don’t think this wouldsolve anything. The increased periodsfor English education, if any, would beused for students to better prepare forhigh school entrance exams, ratherthan improving their communicationskills in English. A certain special Eng-lish-teaching project for senior highschools has contributed to fosteringmany students who can speak Englishfluently. The project has also enabledmany educators to teach in English.But when they become third graders,their English classes suddenly changeto lessons to prepare for university en-

trance exams. It will be difficult to trulyimprove the English skills of Japanesestudents within the current framework.In the meantime, there is no need tothink about preparations for entranceexams for elementary school children.They can have an opportunity to trulyenjoy English for communication andexperience various activities by usingthe English language. The elementaryschool age is the most appropriatetime to nurture children’s motivationsto learn English and cultivate theirsense of the language, I think. Ofcourse, we have to think about specificissues such as whether the fifth andsixth grades are an appropriate age tostart, and whether the frequency ofEnglish teaching should be increasedfrom once a week. But we have tomove forward toward a first step any-way.

Kaz Yatsugi: We at JASTEC havepersistently proposed introducingEnglish teaching at public elementaryschools, adopting appeals to this endin 1995 and 2004. We proposed fromthe beginning that English teachingshould start from the first grade, butthe forthcoming English-teaching sys-tem starts at the fifth and sixth grades.This age is perhaps the hardest periodin the elementary school age for peo-ple who handle children, I think. Eng-lish teaching can be continuedsmoothly for pupils who learned Eng-lish from the first grade, but those whostarted at a later age tend to dislikeEnglish. But this time, I understandthat English teaching will be intro-duced as a compulsory education andif so, an attitude to listen to English isexpected to emerge among these pu-pils, too, in view of the results of Eng-lish teaching at pilot schools in thepast 20 years.

Yoshid a : Attention focuses on howEnglish education at junior and seniorhigh schools will change after compul-sory English teaching starts at ele-mentary schools. If the situation doesnot change and if the English skills ofJapanese students remain poor evenafter graduating from university, thenpeople may ask, ‘‘What was the pur-pose of English teaching for elementa-ry school children anyway?’’ Somepeople understand the introduction ofEnglish teaching at elementaryschools is a problem that concerns on-ly elementary schools, but this iswrong. English teaching at elementaryschools must be a starting point for Ja-pan’s integrated English education.By introducing English teaching at ele-mentary schools, English education atjunior and senior high schools must al-so change. English teaching at ele-mentary schools will serve as a test ofthe significance of Japan’s English-language education as a whole, Ithink.

Yatsu g i : The start of the compulso-ry English teaching at elementaryschools is of great significance, butpeople actually engaged in Englishteaching for children are faced withsuch problems as a lack of fully trainedEnglish teachers. There is also a legalbarrier that bars classroom teachersfrom consulting with natives as assis-tant language teachers, or ALTs, incertain cases. Classroom teachersare definitely good with children, andthey have an ability to lure children in-to learning something. So, a guidelineshould be given to teachers specifical-ly showing them what to teach andhow to teach it.

Ann Mayeda: I have been involvedin the English program at a particularpublic elementary school since clas-ses began there in 2000. This schoolbegan English lessons from the thirdgrade every week over 10 years agoas a part of their integrated studiesclasses because the then principal ex-pected English to become a compul-sory subject in elementary schools inthe near future. The current schoolstaff has been discussing what to dowith the English curriculum for fifthand sixth graders under the new sys-tem. Should they keep their existingprogram ‘‘as is’’ or should they inte-

grate their curricula from grade 3 to se-gue into the new compulsory pro-gram? The existing program is quitedependent on teaching by ALTs (as-sistant language teachers), one ofwhom is a JET (the Japan Exchangeand Teaching program administeredby the nonprofit Council of Local Au-thorities for International Relations incooperation with central governmentdepartments concerned and local gov-ernment organizations) assigned tothe local junior high school. Beginningin April, the JET ALT will be assignedto all four local elementary schoolsand the junior high school in the area,making it difficult to have an ALT in allthe classes. This situation was some-what remedied when the local board ofeducation secured more ALTs for allthe elementary schools in preparationfor the new school year. The schooladministration and teachers then be-gan discussions on what to do with‘‘Eigo Note,’’ the officially preparedcourse material for unified Englishteaching. They feared that the materi-al would be too easy for the studentswho have had weekly lessons sincegrade 3. In the end, they have decidedto use ‘‘Eigo Note,’’ as it is sanc-tioned by the ministry and there ispressure to adhere to the material thatprepares the students for the Englishthat is taught in junior high school.

Another issue at this school hasbeen its excessive dependency onALTs to conduct all the classes. Whilethe classroom teachers should even-tually lead the English classes, thecurrent school environment has donelittle to foster this. Many years of ALT-led classes have resulted in compla-cent homeroom teachers. In addition,the ALTs also have their own hurdles.Many, if not most, ALTs do not have aclear picture of the goals of the com-pulsory English activities. It has beendifficult for them to understand andsee how the homeroom teachers canundertake what they have been doingfor quite some time. This can be attrib-uted in part to a lack of communicationbetween ALTs and school staff. Butwe must also remember that it alsotook quite some time for most schoolofficials and classroom teachers to ful-ly understand the new course of study,CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

Kazuyo Yatsugi Ann Mayeda

Teaching collaboration: Calvin Silva de los Reyes (center, standing), a 30-year-old Filipino part-time researcher at the state-run Osaka University, teaches English to fifthgrade students at a public elementary school in Toyonaka City, Osaka Prefecture, in collaboration with Keiko Amano (extreme right, standing), an English teacher at a localpublic junior high school. Reyes is serving as a gsupporterh for English teaching at the elementary school at the request of the Toyonaka Association of InterculturalActivities and Communication. KYODO PHOTO

Kensaku YoshidaKazuhiro Nakai

Profiles of Japan Timesforum participantsKazuhiro Nakai: Nakai joined the ForeignMinistry in April 1985. After serving at theJapanese embassies in Britain, Cambodia,Canada and Pakistan, he assumed suchpositions as director of the Biological andChemical Weapons Conventions Divisionof the Arms Control and DisarmamentDivision of the Foreign Policy Bureau, anddirector of the Cultural Exchange Division ofthe Public Relations and Cultural ExchangeDivision of the Ministerfs Secretariat. SinceJuly 2009, he has been director of theInternational Education Division of theElementary and Secondary EducationBureau, the Ministry of Education, Culture,Sports, Science and Technology.

Kensaku Yoshida: Born in Kyoto, Yoshidagraduated from the Graduate School ofForeign Studies at Sophia University andthe Graduate School of Michigan StateUniversity. As a professor of theDepartment of English Language andStudies, Sophia University, he is director ofthe university’s Center for the Teaching ofForeign Languages in General Educationand the Sophia Linguistic Institute forInternational Communication. Yoshida hasbeen involved in various research programsrelated to the MEXT-initiated project to‘‘foster Japanese capable of using English’’and chairs MEXT’s special study group for

the improvement of foreign languagecapabilities.

Kazuyo Yatsugi: Yatsugi, who formerlytaught English at St. Cecilia ElementarySchool in Kanagawa Prefecture for manyyears, is president of the Japan Associationfor the Study of English to Children(JASTEC). Yatsugi is also director of theInstitute for Research in LanguageTeaching (GOKEN) and CISV Japan(former International Trustee for CISVJapan) while serving as a member of theadvisory board for Youth Theatre Japan.

Ann Mayeda: Born and raised in Seattle,Mayeda is a third-generation American ofJapanese descent. She graduated fromthe University of Washington andreceived her M.A. from the University ofBirmingham in Britain.She lectures at Konan Women’sUniversity in Kobe. She is a former directorof the Japan Association for LanguageTeaching (JALT). She has been involved incoordinating and teaching in aMEXT-funded teacher-training program forelementary school teachers. She is ateacher-trainer, and consultant for severalpublic elementary schools in the Osaka andNara areas, and has conducted workshopsfor the Osaka Education Center.

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japan times forum on elementary school english teachingCONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

and what it means in terms of actualclassroom practice. That this has notbeen clearly communicated to ALTs orany native teachers involved in Englishactivities should not come as a surprise.One of our roles as a language teachingorganization has been to disseminatethe proper information to all concernedparties.

Yatsu g i : The compulsory Englishteaching should not be a frontloadedpart of English lessons at junior highschools. This is true, but pupils of thefifth and sixth grades have a strong de-sire to learn and they want to write famil-iar alphabetical words in English. It isimportant to draw their desire to learnEnglish. The forthcoming Englishteaching should not be a study, andevaluations should not be made tojudge each pupil’s ability. I’m relieved tohear that the three-grade evaluationsystem, which is in use for other sub-jects at public elementary schools, willnot be introduced for English teaching.Moderator: Mr. Nakai. Could you tellus why the fifth and sixth gradeshave been selected as the startingage for compulsory English teach-ing?

Nakai: There were a variety of opin-ions among members of the Central Ed-ucation Council about how to start andwhen to start English education at ele-mentary schools. They also had a longdiscussion on whether English teachingitself is truly necessary for elementaryschool pupils. There remain concernsabout the advisability of starting Englishteaching at elementary schools in vari-ous fields. But a broad consensus hasbeen reached that English educationshould be started earlier than the juniorhigh school stage, so that motivations tolearn English will be nurtured amongchildren. Junior high school studentsinitially show interest in learning Eng-lish, but many of them come to have dif-ficulty continuing their English studies.Repetition is necessary to learn any for-eign languages, but this is hard. Thisbeing the case, it is said to be advisableto start English teaching at an earlierage to nurture pupils’ willingness tostudy English. This notion was relativelyeasy to accept even for opponents ofEnglish teaching at elementary schools.We are introducing the new system af-ter a three-year transitional period thatstarted in 2009, and it will start in theform of foreign language activities.

Yoshid a : Experts who oppose Eng-lish teaching at elementary schoolsusually focus on how Japanese peopleshould be and how our identity shouldbe maintained. They are concerned thatour identity as Japanese nationals is be-ing threatened, at a time when there arean increasing number of Japanese whocannot use the Japanese languageproperly and they believe efforts mustbe made first of all to strengthen theJapanese language education. Theirargument sometimes sounds ideologi-cal. But when we carefully listen to theirrecent discussion, they do not neces-sarily oppose English teaching for chil-dren itself. I know some of them and wetalk to each other. They just fear that theEnglish education at elementaryschools may fail because it is ill-pre-pared. They never expect that the Japa-nese language skills of young Japanesepeople would be jeopardized only by theplanned once-a-week English teachingat elementary schools.

Nakai : The Japanese language asour mother tongue is the very base ofevery kind of intellectual activity to ex-press our thoughts and emotions. In thenew course of study Japanese lan-guage lessons will also be strengthenedthis time at elementary schools.

Yoshi d a : I understand that oppo-nents among members of the CentralEducation Council also understood theneed to start English teaching at ele-mentary schools, but they tended totake a priority-based approach callingfor strengthening Japanese-languageeducation before English teaching at el-ementary schools. Of course, we knowthat preparations have not been fullymade for the forthcoming program, butwe have to start anyway. Unless westep forward, no budget will be ob-tained. Proponents of English educa-tion at elementary schools, includingmyself, are not entirely confident thatthe compulsory English teaching willbe successful, but it must be started.Nothing will be started as long as wecontinue to wait until preparations arecomplete.

Yatsugi : People who are teachers atelementary schools experienced Eng-lish education from their days at juniorhigh schools. They have knowledgeabout English itself, but they just lackedactual opportunities to speak English.As a result, some of them came to dis-like English. But the English skills ofpublic elementary school teachers, in-cluding those who had disliked English,have definitely improved compared with

1992 when we started calling for the in-troduction of English teaching for ele-mentary school children.Moderator: Ms. Mayeda, what do youthink about the importance or diffi-culty of teaching English to Japa-nese children?

Mayeda: As mentioned in the ele-mentary school English guidelines, it isimportant to nurture children’s ‘‘willing-ness to communicate.’’ I would arguethat every child comes to school withthis desire and curiosity intact. This isevident when one sees children quicklygather around ALTs or other guests attheir schools, talking with them in Japa-nese or using any English they know.This is exactly what the ‘‘willingness tocommunicate’’ is. How to maintain andstrengthen this within the English class-room environment is key, but it is chal-lenging to train nonlanguage specialistteachers in how to do this. Why? Be-cause elementary school teachers aretrained to teach subjects, such as math,social studies and science where thelearning goals are quite clear. But thegoal in English classes at elementaryschools is to nurture the willingness tocommunicate through experiential ac-tivities. So what exactly would that be?There is no rubric to go by to evaluatethis for each class. Some schools mayhave already failed in this regard but arenot even aware of it. On-going training isnecessary for classroom teachers andALTs. We often hear that English clas-ses for fifth and sixth graders are moredifficult to teach because they tend to bemore self-conscious, less willing tomake mistakes and have a desire to un-derstand things more fully. But I don’tthink it is any more difficult to teach Eng-lish in this type of classroom environ-ment if that were the goal. I think thechallenge lies in implementing theguidelines as they stand without on-go-ing teacher training.Moderator: We’d like to turn to theactual situation at schools preparingto start the compulsory Englishteaching as well as the challengesfacing them. We’ve seen the surveyby Benesse Corp. about elementaryschool teachers and the resultslooked a little bit negative to me. Mr.Nakai. How do you evaluate the cur-rent situation?

Nakai: We were very much interest-ed in the survey, but the results were not

so surprising to us. The compulsoryEnglish teaching is the first ever under-taking for elementary schools and thelessons will be made by classroomteachers, not teachers who cover spe-cific subjects such as music, physicaleducation, and class room teachershave not been necessarily fully trainedfor English teaching. So, the finding thatmany teachers were worried aboutteaching English was not surprising tous. Taking this concern into consider-ation, we have taken several measuresto help them be well prepared for the fullimplementation of the elementary Eng-lish education. First of all, we havemade a standard teaching materialcalled ‘‘Eigo-Note,’’ ‘‘English note-books,’’ which was mentioned by Ms.Mayeda earlier, and distributed it to allschools since 2009. Teachers training,using English notebooks has been heldnationwide. The DVD that illustratesseveral model English elementary les-sons is also distributed to all schools.Let me also point out that we have intro-duced the three-year trial period from2009 and as a result, 99 percent of theelementary schools have already start-ed English teaching. Preparations aremaking headway in due course. TheBenesse survey was carried out lastsummer, but our survey at the end oflast year showed much more encourag-ing results. The full implementation ofelementary English is almost with us. Ifyou ask us the current status, ‘‘so far, sogood’’ is our assessment. Some confu-sion may be inevitable. But owing to‘‘English notebook,’’ teachers’ trainingand the three-year trial experience, I amconfident that we can manage it.

Yoshid a : A similar survey by Be-nesse Corp. was carried out four yearsago and the latest survey was the sec-ond one. The situation has considerablychanged since the initial survey. When Isaw the result of the latest survey, I feltthat preparations were making progressmore smoothly than expected. But asmore efforts are made, shortcomings orchallenges become clearer. It is truethat teachers are concerned that time isnot enough for them to consult withALTs and prepare teaching materials.Challenges regarding how to effectively

link English teaching at elementaryschools to English lessons at junior highschools have become clearer than fouryears ago. But the findings do not meanthat the situation has worsened. Con-versely, the survey results indicate thatas teachers tried hard to grasp the situa-tion, they have become more aware ofthe concrete problems that need to betackled. As the challenges becomeclearer, it becomes easier for teachersto deal with the situation. I did not takethe latest results negatively. I was gladto see classroom teachers making hardefforts for the start of English teaching.Moderator: Is there any gap betweenthe role to be performed by ALTs un-der the new system and what theywant to do? What do you think, Ms.Mayeda?

M a yeda: Certainly in some situationsthere is a gap, but I don’t think it shouldbe blamed on ALTs. Classroom teach-ers have been hesitant in leading Eng-lish classes because they lack confi-dence in their English skills. So often-times the ALTs have been thrust into the

role of conducting all the classes ontheir own and even planning all the les-sons. It should be a more collaborativeprocess, but in the real world it hasn’t al-ways happened this way. When ALTsare now told they are no longer the‘main’ English teacher, but rather the‘assistant’ to the non-English speakingclassroom teacher and must now followtheir lead, well, you can see how theremight be a disconnect. This is the pointwhere everyone needs to clearly under-stand the course goals, and preciselywhy the classroom teachers need totake on a more active and leading role inthe classrooms. So while communica-tion must be open, I can see where itdoesn’t always happen with such trans-parency. Many classroom teachers arevery serious about starting English ac-tivities under the new system and areworking hard to not only convey thechanges to their ALTs but also eager toimplement the changes necessary with-in themselves in order to accommodatea smoother transition.

Nakai: The forthcoming system is notaimed at teaching children English skillsthemselves. Teachers will be requiredto nurture children’s willingness to com-municate in English. So, they will beable to teach English with the help ofALTs. If teachers try hard to communi-cate with ALTs in English and demon-strate this to children, then their willing-ness to communicate will be nurtured.

Y atsugi: If children see their teach-ers trying hard to communicate with na-tives in English, this will encouragethem to join the lesson more actively.Teachers do not need to speak fluentEnglish.

Yoshida: Children are aware that theEnglish speaking model is natives, butthey also know that the model as a com-municator is their Japanese teacher. Themodels for English speaking and com-munication will be played by differentpeople. Children are aware of this, be-cause they know they just can’t be Amer-icans. When natives speak in English,children think it only natural that they doso, but when their Japanese teachersuse English to communicate with theALTs, they feel proud of them, and wantto emulate them—not the native speaker.

M ayeda: The progress made in Eng-lish is quite different from class to classdepending on classroom teachers’ atti-tudes. I observed two fourth grade clas-ses yesterday. In the first class the class-room teacher was an active participantand learner. He spoke with the ALT, andengaged in all the activities sometimesas a team-teacher and at times as a fel-low student. In the second class, theteacher took a step back, away from thering of communication and mostly ob-served the class conducted entirely bythe ALT, and only sporadically disci-plined the unruly students. There was somuch more English heard in the firstclass. The students were randomlyspeaking and using English much liketheir classroom teacher. They were notalways making sense nor getting theright answers but they did have the rightattitude. This was in sharp contrast to thesecond class where there was less Eng-lish spoken and the goal seemed to fo-cus more on winning the game thancommunicating with each other or theALT. So you can see that the classroom

teacher has a huge part to play as a rolemodel for communication.

Nakai : There are currently 4,000ALTs introduced under the govern-ment-financed Japan Exchange andTeaching (JET) Program, but the num-ber is quite insufficient. There are over20,000 elementary schools across thecountry, and JET ALTs also have tocover 10,000 junior high schools and5,000 senior high schools. So, manyschools have secured additional nativespeakers on a contract basis and fromtemporary staffing companies. Roughlyspeaking, the number of these ALTs isslightly less than 10,000. There is a le-gal barrier regarding the use of nativespeakers introduced on a contract ba-sis. In these cases, teachers sometimescannot consult with ALTs before theclass or talk to them during the class.Local labor commissions examine eachcase and there are some cases in whichschools have been instructed to correctthe way of using these ALTs.Moderator: In addition to ALTs, theeducation ministry is advocatingparticipation of English-speakingJapanese in the community in Eng-lish teaching at elementary schools,isn’t it? I understand there are Japa-nese English instructors with certifi-cates authorized by nonprofit orga-nization (NPO) J-SHINE, whichstands for Japan-Shogakko (elemen-tary school) Instructors of English.

Naka i : It is true that the new course ofthe study encourages schools to coop-erate with such people, but the percent-age of classes joined by them wasabout 10 percent in the latest survey.

Yoshi d a : I personally serve as aboard member of J-SHINE and it autho-rizes interested organizations whenthey satisfy our requirements for curric-ula in educating Japanese Englishteachers. The certificates are issued bythese organizations, not by J-SHINE it-self. I know there are complaints that it iscostly to acquire certificates as Japa-nese English instructors. These prob-lems must be addressed by the organi-zations to which individuals pay tuition.When we find inappropriate practices,we instruct the organizations involved tocorrect them.

Moderator: It is often said that theseJ-SHINE-certified English instruc-tors are not fully utilized, isn’t it?

Yoshida: In the case of J-Shine,which is a nonprofit organization (NPO)to accreditation organization for peoplewho want to teach English in the ele-mentary schools, there are over 20,000Japanese accredited as qualified ele-mentary school English instructors, butonly several thousand people are actu-ally engaged in English teaching at ele-mentary schools. Local boards of edu-cation have not recognized these teach-ers as they seek native speakers.Usually, these teachers have to work ona voluntary basis and they cannot makea living only with this job. The number ofsuch Japanese English instructors isgradually increasing. Unlike ALTs, theyare Japanese and they can communi-cate with classroom teachers during theactivity or out of the class, and this helpssmooth their English teaching. The useof English speaking people in the com-munity must be a very effective means,but their roles are yet to be fully recog-nized. If the use of ALTs becomes diffi-cult from now on, opportunities will in-crease for these teachers to help Eng-lish teaching, I think.Moderator: Another problem is whatto do with collaboration between ele-mentary schools and junior highschools. English teaching at elemen-tary schools is aimed at nurturingcommunicating abilities, but I justwonder what must be done to contin-ue to develop the English skillsseamlessly from the elementaryschool to the junior high school.

Nakai : How to ensure a smooth linkbetween the elementary school and thejunior high school is a major issue thatmust be studied. A pilot project is underway at 22 elementary and junior highschools to ensure the continuity of ele-mentary to junior high school education.While watching the progress of this pro-ject, we are making a study on relatedmatters.

Y o shida: I was on the advisory com-mittee for one of these three-year pro-jects several years ago for the integra-tion of English teaching between ele-mentary schools and junior highschools. Initially, junior high schoolteachers were unenthusiastic abouthow to link their English education to el-ementary schools. Attendants from thejunior high school side were limited tothe main English teachers of junior highschools. In the second three-year pro-ject, however, the number of teachersfrom the junior high school side in-creased and at that time, we hoped theywould take a look at how seriously theirelementary school colleagues wereteaching English. But their experiencewas little reflected in English teaching atthe junior high school. Junior highschool teachers just didn’t know how tointegrate their English lessons withEnglish teaching at elementary schools.Some parts of the English Note are in-cluded in most of the new English text-books for the first grade of the juniorhigh school. As far as teaching materi-als are concerned, some efforts havebeen made for integration, but theteaching method itself must bechanged. More efforts must be done toensure effective cooperation betweenthe two sides.

Yatsu g i : We have received reportsthat English activities earlier introducedas part of the integrated studies periodshave had favorable influence on chil-dren’s attitude toward the traditional sub-jects. Children who were less interestedin subjects other than English are said tohave shown greater interest in thesesubjects after they experienced English.

Moderator: Professor Yoshida. Yourtheory is that English educationmust be integrated from the elemen-tary school to the university.

Yoshida : Experiential learning is themost important part of elementaryschool education. Elementary schoolchildren learn through experience theworkings of society and nature. For ex-ample, they learn about society byworking with the people in their commu-nities, doing clean-up activities, visitingfactories, etc. Then, they learn aboutmore intellectual and abstract ideas atjunior high school. Whether childrenhave gone through experiential learningbefore learning difficult matters at the ju-nior high school greatly influences thelevel of their understanding of abstractdiscussions. Under the existing Englishteaching system, abstract matters havebeen taught from the beginning of ju-nior high school without giving childrenbasic knowledge and experience aboutEnglish. As a result, children have diffi-culty understanding English. This time,experiential learning through communi-cation will be introduced for Englishteaching at elementary schools. This ishoped to help facilitate their under-standing of more abstract aspects relat-ed to the English language at junior highschool.Moderator: Now, I would like to seeka few words from Mr. Nakai to closeour discussion.

Nakai: Under the newly revisedcourse of study, the teaching hours ofEnglish will be extended, and the in-creased vocabulary will be made man-datory for the students of junior and se-nior high schools, whereas Englishteaching for the fifth and sixth graders atpublic elementary schools will be madecompulsory. The course of study is upfor a full-fledged review and revisiononce in 10 years, but this does not meanthat the newly launched English teach-ing scheme for elementary school pu-pils will remain unchanged for the next10 years. We will closely observe howthe new scheme will be implementedand its achievements, and if necessary,additional or new measures to improveor enhance the scheme would be takenahead of the next revision of the courseof study.

I should also refer to the newly estab-lished special study group of expertscommissioned by the education minis-try to examine how to improve the for-eign language abilities of students at ju-nior and senior high schools under thenewly revised course of study. Hitherto,we have made it a rule to seek the opin-ions of education experts like professorYoshida on how to change the curricu-lum for English teaching at schools.However, there prevails a strong voice,especially in the business world, thatpoints to the shortcomings of Englisheducation at schools. This is why we ap-pointed representatives of trading com-panies, manufacturing businesses, fi-nancial service corporations, mass me-dia and even the sport world asmembers of the special study group bylimiting education experts to half of itsmembers.

Our ultimate goal is to nurture youthswho are able to use English in a practi-cal manner by the time they graduatefrom senior high schools and to fosteryouths who will be active in the interna-tional community.

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These pages have been produced with thesupport of the Ogasawara Foundation for thePromotion of Science and Engineering, whichwas founded by Toshiaki Ogasawara, thechairman and publisher of The Japan Timesand the chairman of Nifco Inc.------------------------------------------------------

Heated debate: Three educators and a senior education administrator attend a recent Japan Times round-table discussion, moderated by former Japan Times ManagingEditor Keisuke Okada (center), on the significance of, and challenges for, compulsory English teaching for elementary school students, due to start in April. They are (fromleft) Kensaku Yoshida, a professor of Sophia University, Kazuhiro Nakai of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Kazuyo Yatsugi of theJapan Association for the Study of Teaching English to Children (JASTEC) and Ann Mayeda of Konan Womenfs University Kobe. YOSHIAKI MIURA

‘Our ultimate goal is to nurture youths who are able to useEnglish in a practical manner by the time they graduate fromsenior high school and to foster youths who will be active inthe international community.’