Columns

Discussions

Columns

Features

Features

Useful Links

Teaching Organizations

  • ETJ English Teachers in Japan
  • JALT Japan Association For Language Teaching
  • IATEFL International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language
  • TESOL Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
  • BC JapanThe British Council, Japan
  • LATEM Little America Teaching English Methods

Unions

ELT Events

Kanji of the Day

辺


Visit Our Sponsors

International

Japan

ELT News Archive

Many junior high school teachers are worried about the introduction of English into elementary school

March 16, 2010

child_reading_arkworld_flickr.jpgAccording to a new survey published in the Asahi Shimbun, 47% of junior high school teachers think the earlier students start to learn a foreign language, the earlier they may come to dislike it. Only 29% of elementary school teachers, who will be the ones actually managing the classes, think this way. 2,530 teachers replied to the survey, of whom 830 were junior high school teachers. Click here for the article (in Japanese)

English activity classes will be officially introduced into the 5th grade and 6th grade of elementary schools in April 2011. About 97% of elementary schools have been having some English classes since 2002, and 82.9% of these classes start in the 1st grade. Elementary school teachers generally teach all subjects, so all teachers, regardless of their ability or interest in English, can expect to be involved in teaching English.

Recent Headlines

>>View All Archives