Teach English in Dachaidan Zhen - Haixi Mengguzu Zangzu Zizhizhou

Problems for Learners in a Country of your Choice Despite being one of the world's most developed nations, Japan lacks English fluency. According to the Education Testing Service, which administers English proficiency exams, out of the 30 Asian countries that took TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exams in 2015, Japan ranked fifth from the bottom, and as for speaking ability, Japan was first at the bottom of the list (Yokogawa, 2017). Japanese people often have a hard time in achieving even the daily conversation level of English. One of the reasons for this is the number of hours they reserve for studying English language. English language courses are only extracurricular activities (Foreign Language Activity) at public elementary schools in Japan. Children are only expected to experiment with English by speaking and listening. The number of hours for learning a foreign language increased this year as part of the transition and preparation for the 2020 where English will be taught as a formal subject from the fifth grade. Fifth and sixth graders will be taught from 50 hours per year, third and fourth graders will get lessons for 15 hours, and then 10 hours per year for first and second graders. Junior high school students will have four 50 minute lessons per week for 35 weeks a year, a total of 350 hours. Senior high school students will have five 50 minute per week for 35 weeks a year, for a total of 437 hours. The grand total adds up to 787 hours, which is not enough to acquire fluency or the productive skills (Tsuboya-Newell, 2017). One factor to consider in learning a second language in Japan is their academic grading system. The public elementary school level is categorized as “Compulsory Education.” This means that every Japanese child has to go to school up until middle school. English classes are mandatory in junior high school, the student will pass the course regardless of grades on tests. Whether they have learned or not, the grades on tests have no effect on schooling until they take entrance exams to get into high school. “English is difficult and boring,” are the words I often hear from Japanese junior high school students inside the class, and “I am a Japanese, I will never use English in the future,” would be the response from elementary students. It is obvious that they do not understand the benefits of learning English. For them, English learning is strictly for exams, not for career prospects, or personal enrichment. Some common causes of the problems in learning English on the part of the learners are overcoming of students’ natural shyness and reluctance to speak, the cultural characteristic of “too afraid to commit mistake,” the confusion with the odd sounds of letters R and L, B and V when they speak, and the confusion in understanding the nature of English. EIKEN, a program that tests for proficiency in English, is the most widely used in Japan. Any Japanese teacher who has an EIKEN Grade 2 can take part in social, professional, and educational situations. As an ALT (Assistance Language Teacher) in Japan, I have noticed that many public school teachers who taught English do not have adequate English communication skills which is very important for the students in developing their listening skills. Japanese teachers do not need to fulfill an English proficiency requirement in obtaining teaching certification. Also, English is taught with too much focus on grammar and no enough time reserved for practicing conversations in English. ALTs are regulated to human tape recorders, for listening and for repeating. But repeating is not the same as speaking. Another problem is that the emphasis is mainly on reading skills and writing skills for the sake of a test. Tsuboya-Newell,I. (2017, October 29), Why do Japanese have trouble learning English? Japan Times. Retrieved from https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/ Yokogawa,A. (2017, December 18). Can Japan,with the Asia's lowest TOEFL speaking score,change? Meiji University