Japan Now

English Education System in Japan

In Japan, English education usually starts from the first year of junior high school.

Then most students study English until the last year of high school.

In total, six years of studying English are required of students.

English Educational Problems in Japan

It is often said that English education in Japan does not seem to be very useful for speaking or
communicating in English, while it does enable students to answer more or less difficult questions on
entrance examinations. In fact, most schools give a high priority only to reading and interpreting English
text and relatively little attention to speaking or listening to English (speaking and listening not
thought to be useful or necessary for passing the exams).

English Educational Reforms in Japan

Such problems in English education are encouraging some reforms of English education by the government or other volunteers.

Here are some examples:

<Action Plan to Cultivate"Japanese with English Abilities"(March 31, 2003)>

             published by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

1. Goals to Cultivate"Japanese with English Abilities"

2. Action to Improve English education

-1. Improvement of English classes

-2. Improving the teaching ability of English teachers and upgrading the teaching system

-3. Improving motivation for learning English

-4. Improvement in the evaluation system for selecting school and university applicants

-5. Support for English conversation activities in elementary schools

-6. Improvement of Japanese language abilities

-7. Promotion of practical research

For more information, see http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/15/03/03033101/001.pdf

Do you know about this?

 In this section, I will introduce some data and the results of a questionnare concerning Japanese children and education.

International Comparison of Life Cycle of children

This reserch compares the lifestyles of 10- or 11-year-old children in different countries.

Participants in this survey included children in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the US. It can be said that the earliest risers are children in Houston who get up at about 6:00 a.m. while children in Seoul get up at 7:00 a.m. In other countries most children get up at around 6:30 a.m. On the other hand, Seoul children show a tendency to stay up later than children in other countries,usually staying awake until 10:30 p.m. By contrast, children in the US go to bed by at least 9:30 p.m. Children in the rest of countries don't go to sleep until about 10:00 p.m. Children in each country seem to keep somewhat late hours .

The amount of time required from getting up to arriving at school is by and large between 40 minitues to one hour, except Seattle which is one and half hours. It seems that most children have a busy morning every day.

Table 1 Life Cycle of children

*Summer hours are kept starting in May

Reference:

Benesse Educational Research Institute, 1988, Kokusai Hikaku Chousa, Monografu Shogakusei Now, Vol. 8-10. Tokyo: Benesse Corporation.

Child Reserch Net

http://www.crn.or.jp/LIBRARY/HIKAKU/VOL810/CONTROL.HTM (Japanese)

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