Japanese public English education
Mar 21st 2011 01:52
Last time, I posted a journal about public English education in elementary school.
Luckily, almost all my students come to like English gradually.
But it is said that there are some problems with public English education in Japan.
This coming school year starting from April, Education Ministry guidelines are to change dramatically.
Elementary school English education starts from next school year officially though almost all regions kicked it off a couple years ago.
That aims smooth transition for new form in junior high and high school English which is also going to change the guidelines. I understand that current principles for junior and junior high are focusing on understanding texts, grammars and audio materials of native speakers. New principle seems to aim to develop students’ ability to express themselves in English by speaking.
For this aim, in elementary school English, the principle contains that students are to be exposed to much English sound but should be taught without written letters and grammars. (I strongly believe that we need to teach them spelling and grammars together.) And interactive activities using conversation phrases are focused, too.
Therefore students start writing from junior high school for the first time.
Those who enjoyed English in elementary school are having problem in spelling including remembering according to a survey.
In fact, some of my students said to me “I may have difficulties in remembering spelling and grammars.”
I think other countries start English education much earlier of course with writing, grammar, speaking and listening.
It is hard to believe for you that before this renewed education guideline, public English education starts from junior high school which means 13 years old, and outcome of this renewed guideline is after many controversies for years which argued whether we need to have English education from as young as age of elementary school student.
Finally they settled new guideline, but no grammar! no spelling!
For me, that is ridiculous! That’s why people say that we Japanese can’t speak English even though we study it for years.
How do you think about this?
Please give me your countries English education.
Luckily, almost all my students come to like English gradually.
But it is said that there are some problems with public English education in Japan.
This coming school year starting from April, Education Ministry guidelines are to change dramatically.
Elementary school English education starts from next school year officially though almost all regions kicked it off a couple years ago.
That aims smooth transition for new form in junior high and high school English which is also going to change the guidelines. I understand that current principles for junior and junior high are focusing on understanding texts, grammars and audio materials of native speakers. New principle seems to aim to develop students’ ability to express themselves in English by speaking.
For this aim, in elementary school English, the principle contains that students are to be exposed to much English sound but should be taught without written letters and grammars. (I strongly believe that we need to teach them spelling and grammars together.) And interactive activities using conversation phrases are focused, too.
Therefore students start writing from junior high school for the first time.
Those who enjoyed English in elementary school are having problem in spelling including remembering according to a survey.
In fact, some of my students said to me “I may have difficulties in remembering spelling and grammars.”
I think other countries start English education much earlier of course with writing, grammar, speaking and listening.
It is hard to believe for you that before this renewed education guideline, public English education starts from junior high school which means 13 years old, and outcome of this renewed guideline is after many controversies for years which argued whether we need to have English education from as young as age of elementary school student.
Finally they settled new guideline, but no grammar! no spelling!
For me, that is ridiculous! That’s why people say that we Japanese can’t speak English even though we study it for years.
How do you think about this?
Please give me your countries English education.
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Japanese public English education - I think I would probably say "English in Japanese Public Education" (using capitals only because it is a title - if it wasn't a title I would say "English in Japanese public education) Why: because public education is a commonly used term, and it just sounds a little awkward to add something between those words, it becomes a bit of a mouthful.
But it is said that there are some problems with English in public education in Japan.
I understand that current principles for junior and junior high are focusing on understanding texts, grammar and audio materials of native speakers. Grammar does not have a plural, it is an uncountable noun.
This new principle seems to aim to develop students’ ability to express themselves in English by speaking.
For this aim, in elementary school English, the principle contains that students are to be exposed to much English sound but should be taught without written letters and grammar. (grammar not grammars - I would also be tempted to change letters to 'content' - 'taught without written content').
(I strongly believe that we need to teach them spelling and grammar together.) And interactive activities using conversation phrases are focused, too.
Those who enjoyed English in elementary school are having a problem in spelling including remembering according to a survey. I am not sure I understand what you mean when you say "a problem in spelling including remembering" do you mean "having problems remembering spellings"/having problems remembering how to spell words." Maybe you mean "are having problems remembering spellings and grammar."
In fact, some of my students said to me “I may have difficulties in remembering spelling and grammar.”
It is hard to believe for you that before this renewed education guideline, English education starts from junior high school which means 13 years old, and outcome of this renewed guideline is after many controversies for years which argued whether we need to have English education from as young as age of in elementary school student. I would consider turning this into several short sentences rather than one long sentence.
Finally they settled on a new guideline, but no grammar!
I very much see the importance of grammar - but I also know that you can teach grammar through spoken activities and through listening exercises... However, as a student, I very much like to have a rule written down on paper. If I have a rule on paper I can quickly read when I have forgotten what I previously heard.
When I learned Irish, I think there was less of an emphasis on grammar, they just assumed that we would know it all. However, we also studied Irish in primary school. I feel I would have liked to have learned the grammar in secondary school again - I was more mature in secondary school, more motivated, and still very confused. At the same time I was learning German for the first time, and doing much better with it. German class was very comprehensive and very varied. We learned via many listening exercises, many texts, and a reasonable amount of grammar. Looking back I only regret that they did not teach through German and that we did not speak German in class. I did once go to a German camp where we could only speak German and everything was in German, and that was FANTASTIC. Unfortunately, the disadvantage was that all the other students were Irish too, so it did not help my accent.
For Japanese, I studied the Kanji first mostly - after a few previous attempts learning vocabulary, phrases and grammar. Then I started using smart.fm and loved listening to all the phrases as I was learning vocabulary. Then I started to learn a bit of grammar, but found I already knew a lot of it from having heard it over and over again on smart.fm. I think learning from listening to smart.fm sentences was really good, but it also meant that I while I was able to understand a little bit, I wasn't able to speak or express myself for a long time. I think in the long term it might be very beneficial, but it is not good if you only ever have 100 hours of class, and come out unable to speak - you might really need the extra 100 hours afterwards before you really learn to speak for yourself. 100 hours focusing on production and grammar. Building confidence speaking/writing is very important. However, I think my Japanese pronunciation will be much better than my German pronunciation in the end.
Sorry that this is a very long response. :)
I understand what you said that hearing phrases and vocabularies over and over is really important before learning grammar. We have heard so much of what my parents speaking since we were born. Then we came to be a native speaker.
So when students are much younger, I mean younger than 5th and 6th grader, they would really enjoy the shower of English sound purely.
I hope that the theory goes to those who are 11 or 12 years old.
But unfortunately, in my experience, they want to know how the sentence structures are made. They don’t seem that they like to say the sentences or phrases that they don’t understand what they are. They are smart enough not to repeat what teachers say. So I hope that we start studying English much earlier, for example at age 6 or 7.
>Looking back I only regret that they did not teach through German and that we did not speak German in class.
Is this mean that you wanted to learn German with spoken German? (Sorry my poor understanding.)
Japanese Education authorities instructs that teaching English with spoken easy English, not to use Japanese.
I think it is very important and I want to do so, but practically students want Japanese explanation. I have tried not to use Japanese thorough out one hour several times, but students’ faces expressed “I completely don’t understand what you are saying!”
If they were much younger, I might have got them to understand English in English like babies.
Do you teach English to German in English?
I will write about English education sometimes, so I hope you could give me some advice.
The aim is a smooth transition for new forms in junior high and high school English which is also going to change the guidelines.
To me, that is ridiculous!
What do you think about this?
Please tell me about your country's English education.
Here in Japan also there doesn't seem to have any learning Japanese grammar system.
But English is the second language for us.
We are strugling with it now in Japan XD.
コメントありがとうございます。
ALTをされていたのですね。私も今、ALTと一緒に働いています。
そのALTも説明は日本語でした方がいいと言っています。私も現場に立って実感するのは、やっぱり英語でわからせるには無理があると思います。しかし「英語で分からせるのが理想」となぜだか上からは言われています。
子供たちが楽しく身に着けられることが一番理想だと思います。子供たちの理解度などに合わせて、自分なりに考えながら進めていきたいと思います。
日本語を教えていらっしゃるのですね。すごく日本語、上手ですね。
がんばって下さいね！