New Plan For Primary School English Lessons

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Primary schools to teach 285 English words in '11
Fifth- and sixth-year primary school students will learn a total of 285 English words and 50 expressions in compulsory English classes to be introduced in the 2011 school year, the Education, Science and Technology Ministry said Thursday. The students are expected to learn the words and expressions with textbooks compiled by the ministry titled "Eigo Noto," (English Notes), according to ministry officials. The 50 expressions are currently taught in the first year of middle school. The ministry has distributed a preliminary version of the textbooks--one each for fifth-graders and sixth-graders--to about 550 schools nationwide to be used on a trial basis in the school year that started this month. The textbooks are designed to enable students to play games and introduce themselves in English by the time they graduate from primary school. The students, however, will not be taught English grammar or spelling, they added. To help teachers who have no experience in teaching English, the ministry has also made available CDs to be used for listening comprehension along with guidance for teachers that includes key points in helping students give speeches in English. During the school year, both fifth- and sixth-grade students will receive a total of 35 English lessons, lasting 45 minutes each, according to the officials. The English classes will focus on speaking and listening, but not on reading and writing, they said...In Lesson 9--the last chapter in the textbook--sixth graders will learn how to speak about their dreams in English, using expressions such as "I want to be a teacher"...more...

[Big Booger]

focus on speaking and listening, but not on reading and writing

The plan has already failed.

[klimmer]

"Eigo Noto"
'nuff said.

[MrUltimateGaijin]

don't they realize how painfully unintelligent most japanese elementary teachers are???

[Takechanpoo]

[American Oyaji]

[Greji]

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]Yomiuri: School boards grappling with compulsory English
Local education boards are taking different approaches to primary school English education, with some already offering fifth- and sixth-graders the 35 lessons per year that will become compulsory in 2011 under a revised curriculum, while others are offering far fewer lessons due to shortages of foreign teachers. The disparities in English education between schools could become even more pronounced over the next three years. Experts are calling on schools to take appropriate measures to prevent the disparities from growing...According to a ministry survey, the average number of English lessons offered to fifth- and sixth-graders a year is 15, while only 4 percent of primary schools across the nation offered 35 or more lessons in the 2007 school year. About 10 percent of primary schools offered three lessons or less. The biggest problem is securing budgets to hire assistant language teachers. The ministry suggested it would be desirable if ALTs could assist teachers in about one-third of the 35 lessons. However, local governments must secure budgets to hire ALTs, and many financially strapped municipalities are finding it difficult to do so. The Osaka Municipal Board of Education allocated 20 million yen for primary school ALT salaries in the budget for this school year, enough to hire only seven ALTs...Some municipalities have resorted to using local citizens to teach English.The Matsue Municipal Board of Education has appointed citizens who are fluent in English as English instructor associates since academic 1998...Nineteen people, including Japanese who have lived abroad and foreigners living in the city, have registered as associates. They get 5,500 yen for half a day, costing the education board less than the ALTs...more..

[james]

the jet / alt programme is one of the biggest boondoggles going on in this country after the construction industry. i've heard from first-hand sources that the expenditure for a jet for the first year amounts to at least 6 million yen (obviously not all of this being salary).

i reside in a recently amalgamated municipality of roughly 16,000 people (and dropping precipitously). my pre-amalgamation town has seen the population plummet from slightly over 9,000 people to under 7,400 in the span of 10 years. while the number of children continues to decrease, the young people leave and the old people die off (3 funerals in my neighbourhood just in the last few weeks), the b.o.e does absolutely nothing to rein in costs. our municipality has no fewer than 11 elementary schools, some of which have as few as 14 students and a ratio of adults to children close to 1:1. we have one elementary alt here and they have him going to all 11 schools so he sees each group of students maybe once every two months. completely ineffective.

the moral - at least out here - is not that money doesn't exist, it's just misappropriated. if i were running things here, we'd have two or three schools, a bus or two and the savings made from closing the other eight schools could be allocated to better opportunites for all students out here. such pragmatism of course would amount to heresy.

it's also frustrating that as a taxpayer, i see them continue to waste this money when i have offered myself for full-time work to teach a comprehensive english curriculum that would have these kids really learning and speaking the language with decent pronunciation - likely at a fraction of the cost. i guess having been here going on 10 years now, there's no novelty involved in having me go to these schools.

until japan and the monbusho change their attitude of wanting little more than a fresh gaijin face every couple of years to do jikoshoukai for two months out of the year, they're just going to continue to wallow in this ineffective paradigm that leads to a national attitude of "eigo ga dekinai".

besides, they should be learning chinese.

[ttjereth]

the jet / alt programme is one of the biggest boondoggles going on in this country after the construction industry. i've heard from first-hand sources that the expenditure for a jet for the first year amounts to at least 6 million yen (obviously not all of this being salary).

i reside in a recently amalgamated municipality of roughly 16,000 people (and dropping precipitously). my pre-amalgamation town has seen the population plummet from slightly over 9,000 people to under 7,400 in the span of 10 years. while the number of children continues to decrease, the young people leave and the old people die off (3 funerals in my neighbourhood just in the last few weeks), the b.o.e does absolutely nothing to rein in costs. our municipality has no fewer than 11 elementary schools, some of which have as few as 14 students and a ratio of adults to children close to 1:1. we have one elementary alt here and they have him going to all 11 schools so he sees each group of students maybe once every two months. completely ineffective.

the moral - at least out here - is not that money doesn't exist, it's just misappropriated. if i were running things here, we'd have two or three schools, a bus or two and the savings made from closing the other eight schools could be allocated to better opportunites for all students out here. such pragmatism of course would amount to heresy.

it's also frustrating that as a taxpayer, i see them continue to waste this money when i have offered myself for full-time work to teach a comprehensive english curriculum that would have these kids really learning and speaking the language with decent pronunciation - likely at a fraction of the cost. i guess having been here going on 10 years now, there's no novelty involved in having me go to these schools.

until japan and the monbusho change their attitude of wanting little more than a fresh gaijin face every couple of years to do jikoshoukai for two months out of the year, they're just going to continue to wallow in this ineffective paradigm that leads to a national attitude of "eigo ga dekinai".

besides, they should be learning chinese.

JET is by no means a mandatory program. It's 100% opt in, and recently a lot of places have been dropping out because of the costs. The ALT program in Osaka for example, is completely unrelated to JET.

JET does cost a chunk of money for the host institutions, especially because many of them pay/offer perks above and beyond what they are required to.

Salary is 3.6 million yen a year, plus the host institution pays for airfare to and from Japan (both one way tickets making them more expensive, plus JET has a tendency to use JAL which makes things even more ridiculously expensive), the host institution has to secure a living space for the JETs and in most cases the host institution forks out everything other than the monthly rent (key money, deposit, first and last, etc.) and sometimes even the monthly rent or a percentage of it (my host institution paid half my rent, furnished the apartment including all kitchen tools, tv, vcr etc., they also paid for a newspaper subscription, which I didn't want and didn't even read, and paid all my taxes for me. I know for the current guy in the position they also pay for satellite TV), so it could reach 6 million yen for the first year an institution has a JET, but subsequent years tend to work out cheaper (they reuse the same apartments so no more deposits, etc.), but it is probably one of the most expensive ways of securing English teachers.

I wasn't an ALT, but occasionally visited schools in the town I worked in (I didn't do normal English lessons, I either taught English lessons in Japanese, or more often did cultural/international relations type crap) and I used to think my town was a bit loopy with the number of schools. They had 18 elementary schools for a town of 60,000, but about 1/3rd of the schools had less then 100 students (1 only had 40 or so, there were only 3 classes: 1/2 grade, 3/4 grade and 5/6 grade).

I do have to say that there was a huge difference in the abilities/behavior of the kids at the bigger schools and those at the small (low student number) schools. The kids at the smaller schools were consistently better behaved and understood material better than the kids at the larger schools (even the two schools with mixed grade classes where the teachers had to teach two curriculums simultaneously).

That being said, they could have saved a ton of money by closing a few of the schools and expanding some of the others and using buses, but it will never happen. The BOE was always too concerned about liability issues and such, it never made sense to me since all the kindergartens in the town had their own buses, but I guess that's why I'm not a government official

That town did have JET ALTs as well, but they stopped using JET for ALTs my last year there (ALTs were handled by the BOE, I was in the international relations section) and ended up contracting out to an Eikaiwa school who had ALTs come in from a larger nearby town, which ended up cheaper, but didn't have particularly wonderful results (especially since the eikaiwa school in question was Nova ), the JETs weren't the best teachers in the world or anything, but they were at least under the direct control of the BOE, whereas the "bussed in" ALTs never so much as set foot in the BOE.

The first year I moved to Tokyo I worked as an ALT for Edogawa-ku elementary schools for 9 months or something while looking for other work/getting married, etc. I worked for an eikaiwa school which had a contract with the BOE to send ALTs to the elementary schools and that was an all around nightmare.

Even putting aside the fact that Tokyo students are to countryside students what Hitler is to Ghandi, the BOE used to award the ALT contracts every year based on bidding by eikaiwa schools, and they would award the contract to the lowest bidder (gotta save them ward funds for the fireworks and the boat races!) so we actually ended up in a situation where the eikaiwa school was making less money from the contract than it was paying the ALTs to work at the schools, so the eikaiwa school would try to get the ALTs to go to elementary schools in edogawa ku during the day, then haul ass to shinjuku and teach eikaiwa classes at night, with the occasional weekend visits for special events or to kindergartens as far as friggin hachioji.

[Big Booger]

Word to the Engrish teacher wannabes... get the fuck out of Japan. This place is going down the shitter for those who want to come over and seriously teach here. For all you other fucktards, you can come but you're gonna be broke *thanks Intercrack et al*

I used to be serious about teaching here but I have since given up on that idea. It's time to go back to America and get the Engineering degree. Fuck this shit.

The BOEs are cash strapped because they allocated money for stupid ass shit... like designing characters for their cities to draw in people like that stupid fucking samurai character and in my area the fucking Habatan!

What qualification do you need to teach kids as an ALT.... it's a bollocked scheme.

Instead of ALTs... they need fucking ESL teachers who are certified and trained to teach kids English. They don't need 20 something retards who are here for booze and flooze.

Each school should hire a full-time permanently placed teacher with the proper skills and education. And considering Japan spends about the same amount on Education as TURKEY at 3.5% of GDP:

http://www.oclc.org/reports/escan/images/edpercent.swf

Well you can then understand why they have such limited budgets.
http://www.oclc.org/reports/escan/economic/educationlibraryspending.htm

I wonder if sometimes Japanese law makers are intentionally fucking the JET program up just so kids never learn to speak English properly due to preserving Japaneseness? Or some shit like that.

[Mock Cockpit]

[james]

Instead of ALTs... they need fucking ESL teachers who are certified and trained to teach kids English. They don't need 20 something retards who are here for booze and flooze.

Each school should hire a full-time permanently placed teacher with the proper skills and education.

exactly what i've been trying to convey to the morons here, with of course zero success. just suck.

[james]

Personally, I'd love to teach at the local primary schools, much prefer that than older kids but you're pissing in the wind to get anyone to see any benefit in it. They'll get some crusty old biddy who has spent 3 weeks in "gaikoku" and is a self styled expert. I can just imagine my kids there wondering what the fuck she's cackling on about.

The teachers understand. One said to me "MC, how am I supposed to teach your kids English when they already speak better than I do"....all I could was shrug my shoulders, repeat my offer of help and say "good fucking luck, you'll need it".*SIGH*

yup. deal with that bullshit here too. i've been running my school for some time now and many of my students have *excellent* pronunciation - far better than the 60 year old fuckwit they have "teaching". it irks me no end to hear them coming back to me, telling me their teacher has been "correcting" their pronunciation. it's hard not to just say "fuck it" and not give a shit anymore.

[Gilligan]

What qualification do you need to teach kids as an ALT.... it's a bollocked scheme.

Instead of ALTs... they need fucking ESL teachers who are certified and trained to teach kids English. They don't need 20 something retards who are here for booze and flooze.

You're right, but this presents a number of problems. First, if they actually hired trained native-speaking ESL teachers, those teachers would expect some say into designing and developing the curriculum. But who here honestly believes that anyone at your average Japanese public school wants foreigners designing and developing the curriculum? And even if they did, who here thinks that MEXT would allow it?

Another option would to be to hire trained Japanese ESL teachers--lord knows there are plenty of them around, many of whom are quite good. But this clearly runs counter to the commonly held misconception that you can only learn "real" English from a native-speaker. Even then, though, you'd still run into resistance from teachers who, while being unqualified to teach English, have seniority.

Add to this the fact that, at least in the cities where I've lived (Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya), teachers aren't allowed to stay in any one school long enough to make a real difference.

In the end, though, we're talking about 35 classes a year, which amounts to less that 1 class per school week--window dressing at best. As with every other subject, students learn outside of school, not in school (public schools, that is; I can't speak to private schools, which I assume are better but don't know).

Any REAL change in English curriculum in this country needs to start at the level of the university entrance exam--and at the top level universities; those changes would in turn have an impact on what is taught at the HS level and how it is taught, etc. Unfortunately, because of the farcical way university entrance exams are approached from an institutional perspective, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for those changes to occur. (And just to make it clear, the problems lie not so much with the people making the exams as with the institutionals constraints placed on them).

[Gilligan]

yup. deal with that bullshit here too. i've been running my school for some time now and many of my students have *excellent* pronunciation - far better than the 60 year old fuckwit they have "teaching". it irks me no end to hear them coming back to me, telling me their teacher has been "correcting" their pronunciation. it's hard not to just say "fuck it" and not give a shit anymore.

My son is always telling me about how bad his Jr. HS teachers' pronunciation is.

[Mock Cockpit]

yup. deal with that bullshit here too. i've been running my school for some time now and many of my students have *excellent* pronunciation - far better than the 60 year old fuckwit they have "teaching". it irks me no end to hear them coming back to me, telling me their teacher has been "correcting" their pronunciation. it's hard not to just say "fuck it" and not give a shit anymore.

I virtually don't bother with J Eigo teachers where I've worked. If they ask me a specific question I'll tell them but don't correct them ever as a) them losing face means I'm automatically a bigger cunt than I already am, and b) they're not going to listen anyway.
So far my kid's teachers have been bright enough to work the bleeding obvious when it comes to the English education of my kids and I've had no cause to go and see any of them to set things straight.

[ttjereth]

some crusty old biddy who has spent 3 weeks in "gaikoku" and is a self styled expert.

I think I know her.

[canman]

I know a teacher who is working at a local school with a grand total of 6 students. There are two teachers and one principle. What a fucking waste of resources. And I have to feel for the kids. When it comes to sports days and other events they get ferried over to a bigger school, that has 26 students, so they have enough people to have a few races etc. I asked why don't they close the school and combine the classes, but was told that Japanese children are suppossed to be able to walk to school. So, it must remain open. What a crock.
As for teaching at elementary schools, I had a really interesting experience about 5 years ago. At the time, one of my son's former teachers was put in charge of English at the school. He contacted me and asked me to help set up a program for the school. Of course it was all done voluntarily, as there was no budget available to pay me. But we got together for about 3 months twice a week, and drew up what I thought was a pretty good basic curriculum. He then took it to the BOE, and reported that they wanted to start using it as soon as possible. The BOE looked at it and liked it. That was when they thought the Japanese teacher had come up with this program on his own. When he informed them that he had asked me to set up the program, and it was mostly my input with some from him, they summerarily dismissed it, as it wasn't written by someone within the Japanese education system. The teacher came back to me and apologized for all the hard work, and nothing to show for it, but what could he do. I guess he should have lied and said he made it all himself.

[Charles]

I know a teacher who is working at a local school with a grand total of 6 students. There are two teachers and one principle. What a fucking waste of resources. And I have to feel for the kids. When it comes to sports days and other events they get ferried over to a bigger school, that has 26 students, so they have enough people to have a few races etc. I asked why don't they close the school and combine the classes, but was told that Japanese children are suppossed to be able to walk to school. So, it must remain open. What a crock.

I don't find this terribly surprising. An ex-GF of mine went to a 1 room schoolhouse with like 5 or 6 kids.

[james]

When he informed them that he had asked me to set up the program, and it was mostly my input with some from him, they summerarily dismissed it, as it wasn't written by someone within the Japanese education system. The teacher came back to me and apologized for all the hard work, and nothing to show for it, but what could he do. I guess he should have lied and said he made it all himself.

that's getting to the crux of the issue really - the parochial mentality and fascist mindset of this country is what's holding it back more than anything else. i say let it bite them in the arse.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Early-years English lessons seen ineffective

About 40 percent of parents of primary and middle school students have low expectations regarding the effectiveness of English classes for fifth- and sixth-grade primary schoolers, which will be made compulsory in the 2011 academic year, according to a survey by the National Congress of Parents and Teachers Associations of Japan. The survey showed many parents are concerned primary school teachers lack necessary English-teaching skills, with about 70 percent of the respondents saying professional English teachers are needed to ensure the language is taught effectively. "In past surveys, most parents supported the idea [of making English compulsory at primary school level], but from the results of the latest survey, I feel parents really want primary schools to have suitable teachers in charge of English classes and introduce effective English-teaching methods," said Masahiro Konno, vice president of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, who analyzed the survey results.

The survey was conducted in November and December on 4,800 parents of students in the fifth grade of primary school and in the second year of middle school. A combined 59 percent of parents of primary school students said they had "high expectations" or "fairly high expectations" for the English lessons. Of these, 18 percent said they had "high expectations." However, 37 percent said they expected either "little" or "nothing" from the classes; of which 33 percent said they did not expect "very much." The survey also showed disparities between parents' expectations and the government's education policy. Asked what they felt were the necessary requirements for English to be taught effectively, 71 percent cited professional English teachers; 67 percent said it was necessary to introduce teaching methods appropriate for primary school education; and 58 percent said they wanted native English speakers to teach at primary schools. On the other hand, less than 20 percent of respondents supported measures the Education, Science and Technology Ministry is considering introducing, such as educational CDs and DVDs and English-speaking volunteers who would act in a supporting role.

[Big Booger]

On the other hand, less than 20 percent of respondents supported measures the Education, Science and Technology Ministry is considering introducing, such as educational CDs and DVDs and English-speaking volunteers who would act in a supporting role

That is so fucked up on so many levels. It's like trying to plug the Titanic with toilet paper...

They should listen to the tax paying parents who are telling them what they feel would be right and do as they are told. But that has about the same chance of happening as would plugging said Titanic with said toilet paper.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Just a message for anybody teaching Engrish to kids, especially those of us who come from a Blitish-speaking background....
Apparently, the BBC is going wild with political correctness, making Humpty Dumpty "happy again" instead of "putting him back together again."
The Independent on Sunday has come out with some great new versions of poems that better reflect today's politically correct climate. They're in the story but I'll include them here for anybody who can't be bothered following the link.

* Seesaw Margery Daw, Johnny shall have a new master. He shall earn the minimum wage, because the Labour government made it legally binding.

* Rock a bye baby on the tree top, when the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will be safe because the tree has undergone a health and safety assessment.

* Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get her poor doggie a bone. When she got there, the cupboard was full because she just had a delivery from Ocado.

* London Bridge is undergoing planned engineering works. Please wait for further announcements.

* Three visually impaired mice, three visually impaired mice. See how they run, see how they run. They all ran after the farmer's wife, who handed them over to the RSPCA.

* Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep – but she knows how to find them because she has satnav.

Don't forget the updated versions for your classes.....

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Funding for primary school English booklet at risk

The budget for English-learning materials for primary schoolers, which the Education, Science and Technology Ministry has provided for free, may be scrapped following a decision by the government panel tasked with identifying wasteful spending. The decision has caused dismay among teachers across the country. There is no set English textbook for primary schoolers, and the two-booklet study guide being used, called Eigo Noto (English notebook), is regarded as one of the few useful English-language tools available to teachers. Primary school principals and authorities have urged the education ministry to continue issuing the booklets. The ministry also has received 350 phone calls and e-mails, many of them opposing the decision to cut the budget.

The ministry started distributing about 2.5 million copies of booklets to primary schools across the country this spring. Most publicly run primary schools have moved to introduce English classes prior to foreign-language-related activities being made mandatory for fifth- and sixth-graders in 2011, but many teachers remain unsure how best to teach the subject at primary level. There also is no established method for teaching English at primary school level. The purpose of the booklets was to ease teachers' concerns and ensure a degree of standardization regarding the teaching of English to this age group across the nation. When used with an electronic blackboard and the necessary software, the material can even let students to hear a recorded native English pronunciation of words. The budget requested for the booklets was 850 million yen.

But members of the Government Revitalization Unit's screening team came out against the project, even raising the fundamental question of why English should be taught at primary schools. Some said the material should be digitalized so schools could print the materials. After about 30 minutes of deliberation the panel scrapped the budget. Since Nov. 11, the day the panel reached the decision, the ministry has been inundated with inquiries from boards of education all over the country. In all, the ministry has received 350 opinions on the decision via phone calls and e-mail. About 300 of them were against the decision. English is taught at primary schools in China, South Korea and other Asian nations. In Japan, the government decided to make foreign-language-related activities mandatory after the Central Education Council submitted a report on the issue.

"After lengthy discussion, it was decided English should be taught at primary school. Why do they have to start all over again, asking why it's necessary?" said Reiko Matsukawa of the Gifu Prefectural Board of Education, who submitted a letter to the ministry asking for the program to be continued. She said she is angry that some panel members raised questions about the value of primary school English education. "The material is a must for teachers who have never taught English," said Yukio Mukoyama, the chairman of the Japan Federation of Primary School Principals Association, who made a plea for the continuation of the project to Toichi Sakata, the administrative vice education minister. "It is very important in regional areas, where it has proven an important guide [for teachers]."

"The effect [of scrapping the budget] would be immense," he said, speaking on behalf of teachers across the country.

[sublight]

"In past surveys, most parents supported the idea [of making English compulsory at primary school level], but from the results of the latest survey, I feel parents really want primary schools to have suitable teachers in charge of English classes and introduce effective English-teaching methods,"

I love how it sounds like he thinks that parents have changed their minds about what they really want. As though "teaching the subject" and "having any clue how to teach the subject or hiring anyone who's halfway competent" were completely unrelated concepts.

[Mock Cockpit]

My older boy is in grade 5 this year so he's taking the classes. Obviously it's mind-numbingly easy for him but (I think) he gets a kick out of all his mates asking him how to say this and that in English. Other kids I teach though also report back that the class are way too easy. I had a look at the book they're using and fuck me, no wonder the kids think it's easy, I've seen colouring books that are more difficult.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Though I do think that they should start teaching English at primary school if they really want kids to learn it, I can understand why the government thinks that having people who don't speak the language or know how to teach it do the teaching is a waste of resources.

[FG Lurker]

Though I do think that they should start teaching English at primary school if they really want kids to learn it, I can understand why the government thinks that having people who don't speak the language or know how to teach it do the teaching is a waste of resources.

Yes, I am a perfect example of this. I started studying French in grade 4 and had forced French all the way through to grade 11. I can speak about 10 words -- maybe. It's absolutely worthless to put kids in classes if they aren't being taught correctly.

[Greji]

I've seen colouring books that are more difficult.

Hey, bad example. colouring books have always been difficult. They got those damn lines that you got to keep the crayon inside of. Never could get the hang of that.....