Teach English in Songpanxian Muchang - Aba Zangzu Qiangzu Zizhizhou —

After facing defeat in 1945, Japan’s value on English education grew exponentially. People began incorporating English words to daily speech, businesses adopted English words for names and slogans, Japanese people competed to learn English, and katakana (Japanese syllabary for words in foreign language) began appearing everyone one looked. This popularity was mainly due to the belief that English education was necessary to maintaining Japan’s competitiveness and social status in the international world. Ever since the end of WWII, the Japanese government has worked towards the English education reforms we now see in Japanese schools. All in an attempt to encourage young people to become sufficiently familiar with the language to partake in the modern technology development taking place worldwide (Minoru, 2010). All schools in Japan today teach English as an official subject starting junior high school. Japanese have been learning English for a minimum of six years for decades but not much evident progress has been made. The average high school graduate identifies his/her language ability level at not higher than an A1 Basic User level despite years of English education. According to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) language level self-assessment chart, an A1 Basic User level learner can do the following. Understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type; he/she can introduce himself/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has; he/she can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. (Council of Europe, 2018) For those unfamiliar with the CEFR language level assessment, A1 is the lowest level of generative language use. Due to the overall lack of progress in English education, the Japanese government has implemented a new reform stating that in 2020 all schools must begin introductory English education to 3rd graders in Elementary school and make the subject compulsory starting the 5th grade (Miller, 2014). In my opinion, this change in the curriculum is not the solution to the ongoing English education crisis in the country. After living in Japan for nearly nine years and dedicating five of them to education in one form or another, I strongly believe that the roots of this issue lie much deeper than on lack of school education alone. The average Japanese learner struggles to gain an English level higher than an A1 Basic User level due to low quality and imbalanced school education, not enough exposure to the English language, and the socially embedded anxiety in the character of every Japanese learner for speaking one’s mind. According to the 2018 English Proficiency Index, Japan ranked 49th out of 88 countries in general proficiency level, whereas other Asian countries such as Singapore, Philippines, and Malaysia find themselves at 3rd, 14th and 22nd place (EF EPI, 2018). In the ITTT course, we have learnt that in every English lesson there should be a well-distributed balance between receptive skills (reading and listening) and productive skills (speaking and writing). The practice of these four language skills are necessary in language learning in order to improve. Japanese schools are known to focus English education on reading and writing; the skills needed for high school and university admission tests and general external examinations on language proficiency. This education imbalance is mainly due to the 2014 education reforms based on a government strategy to enhance the international compatibility and competitiveness of higher education in Japan (Torikai, 2018), causing Japanese universities to require certain scores in general external examinations, such as TOEFL, IELTS or TOEIC, in addition to the university admission test. Parents, teachers and independent learners began a frantic demand for higher English education which hasten the spreading of “eikaiwa” (English conversation) schools throughout Japan. Without consideration to English education quality, hundreds of privately operated eikaiwa schools, mainly located in major cities like Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, began accepting students of all ages in preparation for these future examinations. Unfortunately, most of these schools are small private companies begun by people who only saw a great business opportunity. These people are not teachers and have no basic knowledge on students’ needs and aspirations, so in order to succeed as growing businesses, these companies offered teaching jobs through the “Teach English in Japan!” online campaign operated by promoting organizations such as the JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching) program. The hiring of native English speakers to teach “real” English in Japanese schools is not a recent custom. Schools have been hiring native English speakers ever since the 1960's. However, the demand for native English speaking teachers became so high by 2010 that hiring requirements reached an all-time low. For instance, additionally from holding a Bachelor’s degree on any subject and have “excellent English communication skills”, the JET program requires teaching applicants the following criteria. “Be strongly motivated to learn about the teaching of English as a foreign language. To that end, possessing qualification will be a benefit on your application, although it is not required” (JET Program USA, 2018). It is worth mentioning that the JET program does not provide any teaching training for approved applicants before or after job placements. Famous eikawa schools, such as Aeon, Berlitz and Gaba, have similar hiring requirements. An American applicant with a college degree on visual and performing arts is more than qualified to work at one of these top notch schools. The majority of the less known eikaiwa schools however, only require a native-speaking level in English from applicants. The language criteria classifying this required “native” level are usually not indicated in the application form. Then, there are other schools which would hire a teacher simply because he/she looks foreign. I had the privilege to teach English at an eikaiwa school for a few years while living here in Japan. Back then, I had no teaching qualifications of any kind, but I was hired because, according to my employer, I “sounded great” during my English interview. One of my co-workers was a teacher from Thailand and like me she had no prior teaching training. However, unlike me, her English communication skill was very low. I cannot fathom any reason behind her employment other than her nationality. I will not divulge into the immorality of such actions in this paper, but I will add that such actions by school administrations are just plain unfair to learners. Poor development in English education is also due the materials English school teachers are given to work with in class. Many foreign English teachers have voiced their concerns on the low quality of textbooks in the classroom ranging from content and grammatical errors to the overall outdated language within the text. Teachers do not only have to rely on these textbooks, but use them on topics such as recycling plastic, people and animals dying in WWII, general Japanese history, etc. These and similar topics are required to be included in government approved textbooks (Miller, 2014). The average Japanese English teacher would not easily find faults with these textbooks. More than 70 percent of junior high school Japanese teachers have a TOEIC score lower than 730 (Tsuboya-Newell, 2017), so they do not have the language skill to recognize errors in grammar nor outdated texts. In terms of teaching methodology, most schools require their English teachers to follow the contents of a guide book. This guide book is usually provided by the school but there are situations in which the teacher must bring his/her own material. As long as the teacher is focusing on reading and writing and producing adequate results, school administration will not object to the choice of materials used in class. Exposure to the English language in Japanese schools consists of four to five 50-minute lessons per week from the first year of junior high school to the last year of high school. Schools curriculum dedicates a total of 787 hours of English education throughout these six years (Tsuboya-Newell, 2017). According to the data compiled by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in the United States to show the average number of hours of study required for a well-educated and highly-qualified native English speaker to gain a daily conversational level in the Japanese language are 2,400 to 2,760 hours. However, for a Japanese native speaker with similar qualifications it takes close to double that amount of hours studying English to achieve the same level (Tsuboya-Newell, 2017). This could be a possible indication that there are indeed additional difficulties, aside from those in the language itself, hindering progress among Japanese learners. The 787 hours an average student in exposed to English education is not even a quarter of the 4,000 to 5,000 hours dedicated learners invested to their English studies. This suggests that the average number of hours Japanese schools provide in English education is by standard far from sufficient. Thereby, taking extra English lessons at eikawa schools has become customary. The average student takes a 50-minute class a week. Eikawa lesson fees are usually paid monthly ranging from 5,000JPY to 10,000JPY (about $50 to $100 US) per student. If a student is fortunate to receive this extra exposure to English, he or she will be getting an additional 33 hours a year of English practice. Assuming that a student takes extra lessons every week at an eikaiwa school for six years, his or her total hours of English exposure would be 985; a total which is also far from the 4000 hours mark to gain a daily conversational level. Starting the year of 2020, the Japanese government will demand a B1 Independent User language level from all high school graduates. In order to achieve this level, the new English education reforms, previously mentioned in the introduction of this paper, will be implemented. The government considers the addition of four school years of English education sufficient to meet the following CEFR criteria for B1 language users. At this level the learner can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc.; he/she can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken; he/she can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest and can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. (Council of Europe, 2018) The total amount of hours per school year from the 3rd grade to the 6th grade of elementary school of government required English education remains undetermined. Although it is not yet mandatory, a few schools have already begun implementing this new reform by adding a 50-minute English lesson a week in the 3rd and 4th grades’ curriculum and two 50-minute lessons a week to the 5th and 6th grades. Assuming that this will be the standard number of lessons per week during these four years of elementary school, a high school graduate starting his/her English education in the 3rd grade, will have been exposed to English for a total of 985 hours throughout 10 years of education. In terms of improving language ability, increasing the number of hours of English exposure in Japanese schools will not be, by any means, counter-productive. However, how productive would these additional hours really be? What plans are being carried out to improve the overall quality of English lessons? How will school administrations allocate budget and time to ensure proper training for English educators? Without properly addressing these questions, how does the government expect students to actually benefit from these mandatory 985 hours of education? As long as no changes in lesson content and teacher training are made, no drastic improvement in language ability will be achieved, regardless of how many additional hours students are forced to endure English lessons. In addition to the issues in education hindering progress for learners previously discussed, there is one more factor causing Japanese learners to struggle with English communication. Japan is famous for its utterly quiet crowded trains, uncommonly clean streets and public courtesy. These are cultural habits originating from the highly valued ideology of “wa”, meaning harmony. The disruption of wa is not only frowned upon but, at times, even publicly condemned. Speaking one’s mind is generally discouraged in society for it could potentially cause disruption, so from an early age Japanese students are taught to keep thoughts private. Moreover, and controversially speaking, Japan has taken the phrase, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all” to a whole new level when communicating in English. Japanese learners believe that only proper English is acceptable and because they do not have the ability to produce it, they impose silence on themselves. In other words, they are simply terrified of making a mistake for it would only reflect badly on the spotless image they work so hard to maintain. Like that of their public streets. This has a strong negative impact in English education where speaking is an essential part of learning. Foreign English teachers, especially those from eikaiwa schools, struggle constantly with getting their Japanese students to speak during class. Most teachers are not trained to create a safe environment for communication, so this culture-rooted fear remains by far the most difficult obstacle to overcome in most English classrooms. Curiously enough however, this is not an issue for Japanese English teachers. Not speaking out is simply a part of culture so lesson structures are not made to require “free-speech” from the students. Most communication activities carried out in Japanese schools consist of following a written script. These controlled conversations are usually based on uninteresting topics, like the ones previously mentioned, and allow very little room for change. Students are not required to think during conversation practice. They only need to be able to read out loud and fill in the conversation gaps correctly to get full marks. Conducting lessons in such manner will not give English teachers cause of struggle for they, like their students, are just following the program. In conclusion, the average Japanese learner would improve his/her language ability if the issues argued in this paper are addressed and changes in English education are made. Unfortunately, the likelihood of this happening is very low. The same reasons that have kept Japan from making real progress in English education since the 1950's are still as present as ever. So does this mean that English education is Japan is hopeless? Not necessarily. By understanding the fundamental issues hindering progress in learning, we teachers become more capable of dealing with them. The social anxiety from speaking out really comes down to lack of self-confidence. The ITTT course provided several teaching techniques and activity ideas to help students build up on confidence. Teachers have the power of creating an environment where students feel they can safely practice self expression; a place where they can be totally imperfect. In this course, we also learned how to properly balance an English lesson and about the proper usage and application of materials in the classroom. Teachers can make boring topics more interesting with a bit of creativity and preparation. For example, teachers can ask follow-up questions to which students can relate to a personal level, carry out class debates, have the students play roles in a play without fixed dialogues, or any other activity that would allow and encourage students to contribute their personal thoughts. Creating opportunities for communication in the classroom requires training and practice. The general Japanese English teacher is in charge of three or more classes of about 40 students each a day, and with lessons taking place for a minimum of 4 to 5 times a week. It is understandable that only a few would be willing to take on extra work in order to improve his/her teaching ability under such demanding work. School administrations in general should be more supportive of English teachers and allocate budget and time to provide them with the training necessary to produce better results. In terms of English practice outside school, it is unlikely that Japanese learners would encounter situations in which English conversation is necessary while residing in Japan. In other words, life in Japan does not require the speaking of English at any degree. Thereby, it is important to help students “create” opportunities for English in their lives. Thanks to the Internet, teachers can much easily help students find English music, movies, books, podcasts, etc. that may appeal to their interests. Students in turn, should feel committed to access these English sources during their own time to improve their language ability on a daily basis. The solution provided by the Japanese government to increase the number of years students study English will most likely not be enough to gain the B1 Independent User language level that will be expected from all high school graduates. The standard content of English lessons should be reviewed and teachers, both Japanese and foreigners, should be trained properly. Despite the evident lack of progress from the government, I remain hopeful that these changes in reform will one day be made. References Council of Europe (2018). European Language Portfolio (ELP). Self-assessment Grids (CEFR). English official translation. Retrieved from https://www.coe.int/en/web/portfolio/self-assessment-grid EF Education First (2018). EPI English Proficiency Index Worldwide Results. Retrieved from https://www.efjapan.co.jp/epi/ Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program USA (2018). Eligibility Criteria. Retrieved from https://jetprogramusa.org/eligibility-criteria/ Miller, K.K. (2014). Japan Today. What’s wrong with English Education in Japan? Pull up a Chair. Retrieved from https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/whats-wrong-with-english-education-in-japan-pull-up-a-chair Shimizu, Minoru (2010). Educational Perspectives. Volume 43. Numbers 1 and 2. Teaching English in Japan. Japanese English Education and Learning: A History of Adapting Foreign Culture. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ912110.pdf Torikai, Kumiko (2018). Nippon Communications Foundations. Chronic Reforms and the Crisis in English Education. Retrieved from https://www.nippon.com/en/currents/d00412/chronic-reforms-and-the-crisis-in-english-education.html Tsuboya-Newell, Ikuko (2017). The Japan Times. Why do Japanese have trouble learning English? Retrieved from https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2017/10/29/commentary/japan-commentary/japanese-trouble-learning-english/#.XS_43-j7SUk