The Necessity of English Education Training for Japanese Primary School Teachers

In April 2008, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology (MEXT) announced that “English activities” would be introduced as a compulsory subject from 2011 in primary schools. Prior to 2008, there have been long and considerable controversies with respect to teaching English in primary schools. The full implementation of the new Course of Study starts in 2011 after transitional periods. Several issues have to be discussed regarding the implementation of teaching English in the primary school. The most critical problem is the teachers’ challenges for teaching English. Primary school teachers do not know how to formally teach English because they did not take courses for the language teaching pedagogy at university, as there was not language teaching in the curriculum in primary schools. According to Obunsha’s 2009 survey, 53% of primary school teachers (500 primary school teachers participated in the survey) answered, “there remain problems which have to be solved, and teachers are anxious about the introduction of English” (Asahi). The survey shows that teachers feel uneasy about what they teach and how to teach English in classes. Until now, schools have been hiring Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) and asking for help from people who are experienced retired teachers in the community to assist teachers. However, we have to consider English education in primary schools in the long term. To succeed the full implementation of English as a compulsory subject, the urgent task is to think about improving the quality of teachers’ training for teaching English. In British Columbia (BC), Canada, general home-room teachers teach French, and like Japanese primary school teachers, they also do not have the background knowledge for teaching a foreign language. However, BC universities offer optional courses for in-service teachers to learn how to formally teach French to their students. In this paper, I offer a suggestion of in-service teachers’ education in Japan by referring to the optional French courses for in-service teachers in BC.