The Latest News in ELT

August 2002

If You Can't Take the Heat...
...stay out of the classroom. Many teachers complain about the stiflingly hot classroom conditions that can make teaching a nightmare. The education ministry now has a ten-year plan to introduce air-conditioning in 300,000 classrooms at the 37,000 elementary, junior and senior high schools around the country. The plan calls for spending 10 billion yen in the first year. Up to now only schools which had to keep their windows closed because of noise or pollution concerns were entitled to subsidies. This covered only 5% of regular classrooms. A survey by the All Japan Teachers and Staff Union showed that temperatures exceeded 30 degrees in more than 70% of classrooms in Tokyo's public schools in mid-July 2000. Some local governments, such as Tokyo's Chiyoda and Chuo Wards, have taken the initiative and paid for air-conditioning in their schools. (August 30, 2002 )

More Money For English Education
The education ministry yesterday submitted a budget request of slightly more than 7 trillion yen for fiscal 2003, an increase of 6.7% from last year. The budget includes an eight-fold increase in funds for English education, bringing that amount to almost 2.5 billion yen. "We want to improve the current English education by providing more money," said ministry budget spokesman Yasutaka Moriguchi. He said the extra funds would be used for intensive retraining programs fo the nation's 60,000 junior and senior high school English teachers, and include funds to increase the number of Super English Language High Schools from 16 to 58. (August 29, 2002 )

English Picture Books in Demand
Imports of English picture books hit an all-time high of 10,720,000 in 2001, according to Tokyo customs authorities. The figure has shown a consistent 10% annual rise since 1998. The increase was earlier attributed to mothers wanting to give their young children a head start in their English studies. But now that English is being taught even in elementary schools, many of the imports have been by the schools themselves. (August 27, 2002 )

Berlitz Targets Kids
Amidst the ongoing economic gloom, eikaiwa, or English conversation, schools are targeting the healthy and growing children's market. Mahmoud S. Kashani, executive vice president of Berlitz Japan Inc., said that hi firm see the young market as having the greatest potential for growth. The idea is to get them while they're young and keep them. In 2000, the company launched a program called Sesame English, using the popular Sesame Street TV series to teach children between 4 and 12. The program has from 7,000 to 10,000 children and makes up about 5% of Berlitz sales. The company hopes to double the number of its language centers from the current 62 by 2005. (August 26, 2002 )

State Funding for Foreign Study
The government is to begin a program next fiscal year that will send 1,000 high school students and 100 teachers to study English abroad. It is the first time for the state to fund such studies by civilians abroad. Students who participate in an exchange program in an English-speaking country for at least three months will receive 400,000 yen. Teachers who take a leave of absence to study at a foreign graduate school for at least a year will have half their tuition paid. The two to three million yen annual cost of such tuition has been a major hurdle for many teachers. The program is related to the education ministry's 2-billion-yen English education reform plan that also includes re-training of the nation's 60,000 English teachers, increasing the number of Super English Language High Schools from 18 to 100 in fiscal 2004, and holding speech contests at schools in 100 designated cities nationwide. (August 22, 2002 )

New Graduate School to Use English
A new 70-billion-yen graduate university is planned for Okinawa. Planned to open within the next four years, it will have a total staff of 500. Its goal is to study the interaction of life sciences and information technology and to put Okinawa at the forefront of Japan's push to shift its focus from that of a manufacturing nation to one of a world leader in technology. What is truly groundbreaking about the new university is that half of its faculty and student body are to be made up of non-Japanese and lectures are to be given in English. Generous "ex-pat" packages are expected to be used to attract the best of foreign staff. Also, both the administration and the filling of teaching posts are to be in keeping with recent moves to reform national universities. Though the government is providing funds to the tune of 15 billion yen plus another billion a year for research, lecturers will be hired under contract, rather than being technically bureaucrats as at other public institutions. There are those who question the project however. Critics of the university project say it is destined to be just another infrastructure white elephant. Previous efforts to help bridge the gap between Okinawa's economy and that of the mainland, such as hosting the G8 Summit there in 2000, have had little impact. (August 21, 2002 )

Mutant Gene Linked to Language Development
New findings to be published in the journal Nature show that two critical genetic mutations appeared roughly 200,000 years ago and swept through the human population at around the time they began to dominate the planet. The gene is linked to language and the researchers believe the mutation gave humans greater control over muscles of the mouth and throat, possibly giving them a rich new palette of sounds that became the foundations of language. The research was led by Svante Paabo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The gene, FOXP2, was located in a study of 16 people in the UK, most of whom were members of a large family that suffered from an inherited speech disorder. The exact function of the gene is still unclear but it is present in some form in all mammals and is believed to be involved in fetal brain development. It differs by only two molecules, out of 715, from that of the chimpanzee and by three from that of the mouse. But even such a miniscule variation, when it appeared, gave humans such an evolutionary edge that it spread to the whole race within 500 to 1,000 generations, or 10,000 to 20,000 years. The next step would be to create a research animal, probably a mouse. This would be followed by analysis of the animal to see how its brain and behavior are altered. "If the mouse talks, then the circumstantial evidence will be pretty good," joked Wolfgang Enard, Leipzig graduate student and lead author on the new paper. "It's unlikely, I would say." (August 20, 2002 )

Weeding out loan words
The government's at it again. A panel of experts recently convened to come up with "native" Japanese words to replace the increasing number of loan words, mostly from English, that have entered the language recently. The panel consisted of such people as dictionary editors, translators and journalists. While words like "hamubaagaa" and "chiketto" are probably here to stay, many people are stumped when it comes to the likes of "gurobaru herusukea apurikeishon purojekutto" (that's global healthcare application project). The latter was an example chosen in an education ministry White Paper on the issue. (August 15, 2002 )

Teachers Needed In Aghanistan
While in Washington for a reconstruction sumit recently, the Afghan minister for higher education called for the US to help set up a nationwide program to teach English to the Afghan people. Stating that it was a project that "only the United States can do", Sharief Fayez said, "We need thousands of teachers. You don't need a master's degree. You can be a graduate of 12th grade." (August 14, 2002 )

Truancy On The Increase
An education ministry survey has shown that over 138,000 elementary and junior high school students were absent for 30 days or more without good reason during the last school year. The figure shows a ten-fold increase since 1990 and doesn't include students who attend school but spend their time in the infirmary, a common solution for students with problems. The report called the survey results "alarming" and said (surprise, surprise) a panel of experts would be set up to look at the problem. (August 13, 2002 )

Textbook Rules Eased
The education ministry has announced that publishers will be allowed to stray to some extent from its guidelines for the content of textbooks at the nations elementary, junior and senior high schools. This will affect books coming into use in 2005. The relaxed stance stems from concerns about declining academic performance following cuts of 30% in the content of this year's texts. (August 08, 2002 )

Universities to Test E-learning Market
In September, six Japanese universities are to test the Southeast Asian e-learning market. Tokyo Institute of Technology and Aoyama Gakuin, Tokyo, Waseda, Keio and Kyoto Universities will provide courses such as IT management and law entirely in English, in conjunction with corporate partners such as Hitachi and IBM Japan, to students in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore. The test will simulate an actual classroom experience, with related course materials shown on the screen when instructors begin to speak. Basic tests will be offered in the middle of courses to prevent users from getting bored. The Trade Ministry is developing the e-learning system as part of the government's "e-Japan initiative" to promote the use of IT, aiming to create an e-learning market in Asia. Japanese universities, which are suffering from a decline in students due to the falling birthrate, are trying to attract the elderly or expand operations overseas. (August 07, 2002 )

English in the Business Front Line
A recent seminar organized by the Japan Association for the Promotion of Foreign Language Education was attended by some 100 participants, including businesspeople, students and representatives of foreign language schools. The seminar's theme was "What Kind of English Ability Is Needed at the Business Front Line?" Echoing the opinions of many participants in his keynote address, Masumi Muramatsu, a veteran simultaneous interpreter, emphasized the ability to make enjoyable conversation rather than worrying about good pronunciation. (August 06, 2002 )

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