383

Looking In, Looking Out

Challenging Assumptions

JALT2007

Elementary to Secondary English
Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs
Yuji Kojima
Nishio Junior High School
Kazuyoshi Sato
Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
Reference Data:
Kojima, Y., & Sato, K. (2008). Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs.
In K. Bradford Watts, T. Muller, & M. Swanson (Eds.), JALT2007 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT.
Although the Japanese government has been discussing the introduction of English as a subject into elementary schools, there is no
documentation as to how those who had learned English in elementary schools continued to learn in junior high schools. Using multiple
data sources, this study offers implications as to how to strengthen English curriculum articulation between elementary and high schools
so that students will be better English learners. It also sheds light on how teacher beliefs influence student learning.
日本では、教科として英語を小学校に導入することが検討されてきたが、実際にこれまで小学校で英語教育を受けた生徒が中学校でどうなったのかはほとんど研究されていない。
さらに、中学校の英語教員が英語教育についてどのように考え、小学校で英語を学習してきた生徒をどう伸ばしているのかはほとんど知られていない。
この研究は、複合的調査方法を用い、教師の英語教育観（beliefs）、授業実践、英語学習に対する生徒の態度と結果を明らかにする。

K

leinsasser (2001) argues “articulation in foreign (second) language instruction refers to how
an educational program efficiently and effectively attains its goals in an environment wherestudents are involved in foreign (second) language learning” (p. 193-194). Although the Japanese
government has been discussing the introduction of English as a subject into elementary schools, there is no
documentation as to how those who had learned English in elementary schools continued to learn English injunior high schools. Moreover, little is known about how junior high school English teachers view English
language teaching and how they actually improve the abilities of students who have already learned English

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JALT2007 ­ — Challenging Assumptions

Kojima & Sato: Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs
in their elementary schools. Using multiple data sources,
the study revealed teachers’ beliefs about English language
teaching, their practices, students’ attitudes about learning
English, and outcomes.

Literature review
We first review studies on early foreign language educationin other countries to identify issues and then move on to
two recent studies in Japan which focus on the issue ofarticulation.

Issues of early foreign language education in othercountries
Heining-Boynton (1990) reviewed foreign language
education in elementary schools in the USA which had
been conducted in the 1960s and identified six issues. These
included: (1) lack of qualified teachers, (2) few clear goals,(3) traditional teaching methods, (4) weak articulation,(5) lack of assessment, (6) lack of support from parents.
Additionally, Rhodes and Oxford (1987) conducted a nationwide survey looking at the results of foreign language
teaching in elementary and secondary schools in the USA.
They found the following six issues: (1) lack of funds, (2)lack of qualified teachers, (3) lack of teaching materials, (4)weak articulation, (5) poor academic counseling, (6) lackof opportunities for teacher training. Curtain & Dahlberg(2004) conclude that the same kind of issues have not beensolved during the last 40 years in the USA.
Similarly, studies in other countries such as Korea(Kobayashi, 1997), Australia (Fujiwara, 1997), Netherlands

384(Matsuka, 1997) point out lack of qualified teachers, lackof teaching materials, and weak articulation between
elementary schools and middle schools. In short, among
several issues, the American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages (ACTFL) selected articulation as a
curriculum priority for the 1990s (Byrnes, 1990).

Research in Japan
Regarding the issue of articulation, only a few studies havebeen done in Japan.
Shirahata (2001) compared two groups of students—those
who studied English for three years at their elementary
school and those who did not after entering the same juniorhigh school. He used three tests to assess their abilities fordiscrimination of phoneme, pronunciation, and fluency. He
found no difference between the two groups.
Matsukawa (1997) compared two groups of students—
those who studied English for two years, twice a week, attheir elementary school and those who did not after entering
the same junior high school. She used two kinds of tests. In
the first test, she asked 14 personal questions such as “Whois your favorite actor?” and measured student response time,
accuracy, and fluency. In the second test, students lookedat pictures and graphs, and spoke freely for 3 minutes. She
found that those who studied English in their elementary
school did better in the two tests. They answered quickly,
accurately, and tried to answer some questions by guessing
unknown words. Besides, they used more words in a
sentence, spoke with confidence, and answered questions
smoothly.

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Kojima & Sato: Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs
In short, these two studies are not conclusive. While
Shirahata (2001) did not find any difference between those
who studied English in elementary school and those who did
not after both groups entered the same junior high school,
Matsukawa (1997) found that those who studied English inelementary school outperformed those who did not in theirjunior high school.

Research Issues and questions
Previous studies on early foreign language education
reveal that articulation between elementary schools andmiddle schools is one of the major issues in foreign
language teaching throughout the world. As for the issue
of articulation in Japan, only two studies were conducted,
but the results were not conclusive. Furthermore, these twostudies have weaknesses in terms of method as follows.
(1) Previous studies mainly relied on quantitative data
including surveys and a couple of tests.
(2) More qualitative data including interviews andobservations need to be collected to investigate
how teachers understand language teaching andhow they actually teach.
(3) These studies were conducted only on first-year
junior high school students, Thus, a longitudinal
study is necessary to understand how students’attitude change over three years.
Mindful of those issues, three research questions were
formulated for this study.

385(1) How do junior high school teachers understandEnglish language teaching?
(2) How do they actually teach English?
(3) How do students change their attitude toward
English learning over three years? Consequently,
do their English communication abilities improve?

MethodSelecting a junior high school for research
Goto (2004) researched English classes and compared
programs among three elementary school (X, Y, Z), whichwere located in the Toukai region. She found that students in Z
Elementary School stood out in their abilities to use English. In
this school, 1st and 2nd grade students received two-20 minuteclasses a week, while students from 3rd to 6th grade did one
45 minute class a week. In addition, they watched a 15-minuteEnglish TV program twice a week, and the content of English
class was related to other subjects (e.g., mathematics). What ismore, teachers had a regular meeting to discuss English class,and junior high school teachers taught some of the classes.
For this research, S Junior High School was chosen, which
consists of Z elementary school graduates who received
English instruction for six years and W elementary school
graduates who only received a few English lessons in Sogo
class. The first and the third grade level had five classes(33 to 38 students per class) and the second grade level had
four classes (38 to 39 students per class). The total numberof students was 513. The research period was from June to
October 2004.

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Kojima & Sato: Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs

386

Table 1. English teachers
Sex

Age

Length ofteaching

Teaching
grade level

SurveyClassobservation

Interview

Teacher A

Female40

15 years

Teacher B

Female36

12 years

3rd

X

X

X

1st and 2ndX

X

Teacher C

Male

28

X

7 years

1st

X

Teacher D

Female26

2 years

1st and 2nd

X

Table 1 describes four English teachers in S Junior HighSchool. The average age was 32.5 with 9 years of teachingexperience. In addition, two 1st-year classes were teamtaught three times a week; twice by two junior high school
teachers and once by a junior high school teacher and a Zelementary school English teacher. Three other classes wereteam-taught twice by two junior high school teachers, but thethird class was taught only by one junior high school teacher,which was called a regular class. All second and thirdyear classes were taught three times a week by one teacher(regular classes). An assistant language teacher (ALT) visited
each class about once a month. Also, one of the junior highschool English teachers sometimes went to Z Elementary
School as a volunteer English teacher (VET).

Data collection and analysis
Multiple data sources, including interviews, class observations,and questionnaires, were used to describe how teachers viewed
English language teaching (in both elementary schools andjunior high schools), how they actually taught, and what
students thought about the English language instruction theyreceived (both in elementary schools and S Junior High School).

X
X

X

As Table 1 shows, a teacher survey was conducted inJune. 25 questions were developed regarding English
language teaching, assessment, differences between those
who learned English and those who did not, and English
language teaching in elementary schools. A student survey
was conducted twice (June, September). In the first survey,
12 questions were asked of students (those who graduatedfrom Z Elementary School) from two classes in each gradelevel. Questions included students’ attitudes about learning
English in Z Elementary School and S Junior High School,
purpose of studying English, likes and dislikes of activities,
and so on. In the second survey in October, those students
were asked to evaluate their abilities in four skills comparedto those in April.
Two classes from each grade level were observed threetimes (twice from June to July, and once from September to
October). In total, 18 class observations were conducted by
the first researcher. Following McDonough & McDonough(1998), the researcher usually sat at the back of theclassroom, occasionally walking around and taking notesin the field note. All the classroom observations were taperecorded. The researcher listened to the tape and added moredetails to the field note later on.

JALT2007 ­ — Challenging Assumptions

Kojima & Sato: Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs
Interviews were conducted with all four teachers in
October 2004. Based on Sato (2000), 15 questions weremade regarding the goals of English language teachingat S Junior High School, beliefs about English language
teaching, assessment, textbooks, issues of English language
teaching in junior high schools, teaching English inelementary schools. Six students from each grade level (intotal 18 students who graduated from Z Elementary School)
were interviewed in each group in July and October. Eachgroup interview lasted 30 to 40 minutes. Based on Sato &Takahashi (2003), six questions were asked of these students.
All the interviews were tape-recorded with permission, andtranscribed by the first researcher for data analysis.
Both qualitative data (interviews, observations) andqualitative data (surveys) from teachers and students wereanalyzed and integrated to create evidence of teachers’
assumptions and beliefs about English language teaching,
their practices, students’ attitudes about learning English,
and outcomes.

Results
Teachers’ views about English language teaching
About early English language teaching
All English teachers in S Junior High School agreed withstarting English education in elementary schools on someconditions. For example, two teachers reported that English
should be an official subject in elementary schools. Teacher
A said:387

I don’t agree with English activity in elementary
school because it is a game, playing with English,
singing an English song, and so on. It is different
from English in junior high school as a subject.
Students in junior high learn English grammar
and vocabulary through the textbook. (Interview,
Teacher A)
In addition, three teachers claimed that the standardized
curriculum should be made. For instance, Teacher C reported:
Teachers in both Z and W elementary schools
should teach the same activities (teach the same
expressions and words) and should have the same
curriculum. If they are different, English teachers
in junior high school have to bridge the gap.
(Interview- Teacher C)
In short, these four junior high school teachers agreed to
introduce English into elementary schools on condition that
English should be a subject and its curriculum should be
developed. Nonetheless, they further revealed problems ofearly English language teaching.

Problems of early English language teaching
These four teachers reported the six problems of English
language teaching in elementary schools. They were (1)curriculum, (2) evaluation, (3) introducing words, (4)articulation between elementary schools and junior highschools, (5) English language teaching license in elementary
schools, (6) burden to students. To take an example, Teacher
B pointed out the issue of articulation between elementary
schools and junior high schools.

JALT2007 ­ — Challenging Assumptions

Kojima & Sato: Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs
I’m looking after my students, teaching English,
counseling my students, and coaching students in aclub. I’m very busy every day. So I cannot afford toarticulate the curriculum between elementary schooland junior high school. It is impossible. I think a
special person who can articulate the curriculum
should be hired. (Interview- Teacher B)
Teacher D reported in his interview that “If English is taught
as a subject, students have to learn a lot of things. It will be aburden to students.”
In brief, junior high school teachers revealed these six
problems regarding the introduction of English language
teaching in elementary schools.

Teacher’s views about English teaching in JHS
When these teachers were asked about the goals ofEnglish language teaching in their junior high school, they
implied that they did understand the importance of oral
communication skills (listening and speaking). However,they reported that reading and writing skills are more
important for junior high school students. Teacher C’s
comment represents these teachers’ views.
I want to teach English to improve students’communicative skills like English classes in theirelementary school. But I must develop students’skills to recognize English words through reading
and writing. (Interview- Teacher C)
Moreover, Teacher A insisted that junior high school students
should not study in the same way as elementary school
students.

388

Listening is not enough for junior high school
students. Having them read and write helps themlearn English. They should not study in the same
way as elementary school students. (InterviewTeacher A)
According to the guidelines by MEXT (Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)
in 2003, the main goal of English language teaching is
to develop students’ attitude to actively participate incommunication in English with the main focus on thedevelopment of practical oral communication skills.
However, these teachers placed more emphasis on reading
and writing over listening and speaking. It seems that they
stress the importance of teaching English to prepare students
for high school entrance exams.

Class Observation
Teacher A, B, and D’s classes and the TT’s class (Teacher
B and an English teacher from Z Elementary School) wereobserved. In total, 18 classes (two classes from each gradelevel, three times during the period) were observed. In
TT class for the first-year students, an elementary teacher
and a junior high school teacher collaborated and focusedon a communicative activity. However, in regular classes
regardless of the grade level, teachers mainly used atextbook and there were few opportunities for students to
use English communicatively. In particular, the second andthe third-year teachers put more emphasis on reading andwriting, which corresponds to their views about English
language teaching. The following data were taken from the
filed note.

JALT2007 ­ — Challenging Assumptions

Kojima & Sato: Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs

1st-year Team-teaching class (Teacher B and English Tfrom Z elementary school)(1)

Greeting (Good morning. / How is the weather today?)(2)

Warm-up (Ss sang an English song<Mori nokumasan>) = 5 mins

(3)

Review (Ss repeated some words to review
grammar<plural>) = 8 mins
cats /s/, dogs /z/, books /th/, dishes /iz/ …etc

(4)

Introducing new material and practice pronunciation(T explained how to do the activity) = 10 minse.g., Please answer my question. 11 dogs – 1 dog + 8
dogs = what?

(5)

Activity (Ss made Qs of calculation, let their partners
answer Qs.) = 20 mins

(6)

Review of the activity (Ss wrote a formula ofcalculation by themselves) = 5 mins

(7)

Evaluation (Ss evaluated themselves) = 2 mins

(8)

Greeting (That’s all for today. Good bye everyone.)

2nd-year regular class (Teacher D)(1) Greeting (Good morning. How are you? How is theweather today? etc.) = 3mins(2) Pair talking (Ss talked with their partners, “What will you
do this weekend?”) = 10 mins

389

(3)

Oral introduction <textbook>(T explained some pictures in English, Ss guessed what
they were.) = 10 mins

(4)

Pronunciation of 11 new words (Ss repeated after T
about 5 times each(1)) = 10 mins

(5)

Check the meaning of key expressions (in pairs and T)= 10 mins
T: ～について教えてくれませんかは？ S: Can you tellme about~?

(6)

Chorus reading of the textbook (Ss repeated after Tread) = 7 mins

(7)

Greeting (That’s all for today. Good bye, everyone. Seeyou.)

As the observation data above indicate, except for teamtaught classes for first-year students, there were few genuine
communications among students. Instead, teachers in regularclasses regardless of the grade level relied heavily on the
textbook with more emphasis on grammar, reading, andtranslation (either orally or in writing).

Students’attitude toward English learning over threeyears
The first student survey was conducted in June. 12 questions
were asked of students (those who graduated from Z
Elementary School) from two classes in each grade level.
Questions included students’ attitudes about learning English
in Z Elementary School and S Junior High School, purposesof studying English, likes and dislikes of activities, andJALT2007 ­ — Challenging Assumptions

Kojima & Sato: Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs
so on. Table 2 shows the percentage of students of each
grade level who enjoyed English at S Junior High School.
Similarly, Table 2 indicates the percentage of those students
who liked or disliked English.

Table 2. Do you enjoy English class?
Do you enjoy English class? (Z element)
90
80
70
60
50
(%)
40
30
20
10
0

Table 3. Do you like English?
Do you like English? (Z element)
80
70
60
50
(%) 4030
20
100Not enjoy

Enjoy

Enjoy verymuch%

Not enjoy
at allNot enjoy

Enjoy

Enjoy verymuch

1st year

0.5

5

77.5

15

2nd year

15.5

37.7

44.4

2.2

3rd year

6.6

44.4

46.6

2.2

1st year
2nd year
3rd year

Dislike verymuch

1st year
2nd year
3rd yearNot enjoy
at all390

Dislike

Like

Like verymuch%

Dislikevery much

Dislike

Like

Like verymuch

1st year

2

5

76

16

2nd year

13

37

35

15

3rd year

12

30

47

12

The results above clearly show that more than half of thesecond and third-year students did not enjoy English classes
and many of them came to dislike English.
Furthermore, students’ comments indicate that the second
and the third-year teachers emphasized memorization ofgrammatical points for tests at the expense of communicative
activities. For example, two second-year students
commented in a group interview. They reported that they
did not like English because class was teacher- centered andboring.

JALT2007 ­ — Challenging Assumptions

Kojima & Sato: Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs
I don’t like the way the teacher teaches. I am boredof listening to teacher talk. I want to think and dosomething by myself. When I was in elementary
school, English class was student-centered. Now
we are forced to do everything by the teacher. It
is a teacher-centered class. (Interview, 2nd-year
student)
I am totally bored. We did the same thing every day
like a conversation—“What did you do yesterday?
(Interview, 2nd-year student)
Third-year students reported that they had to study for tests
in junior high school while they enjoyed free conversation inelementary school.
I hate English. English in junior high school isfor studying. English should be for a means ofcommunication. (Interview, 3rd-year student)
I don’t know. I enjoy learning through games. But
I don’t like just learning grammar or reading the
textbook. (Interview, 3rd-year student)
We are obliged to memorize a lot of things for tests
in junior high school. When I was in elementary,
we had freedom. (Interview, 3rd-year student)
In summary, 2nd and 3rd-year students implied why theycame to dislike English in this junior high school. As one
student responded, students seem to want more opportunities
to use English as a means of communication as they did in
their elementary school.

391

Change of perceived English abilities
In the second survey, students in all three grade levels wereasked to self-evaluate their English abilities in four skills.
Surprisingly, the results indicate that students did not thinkthey improved their English abilities much. Only somestudents reported that they improved their writing skills.
Table 4 shows how much they think they improved theirspeaking skills. In a similar manner, Table 5 indicate howmuch they think they improved their writing skills.

Table 4. Speaking skills (Progress in speaking skill
for 3 years)
Progress in Speaking Skill for 3 years (Z element)
80
70
60
50
(%) 4030
20
10
0

1st year (October)2nd year (October)
3rd year (October)

I can
I can speak I can speak I can speak
introduce
about
about
about
myself &familiarfamiliarfamiliar
greet.
things athingsthingslittle.
enough. accurately.

%

I can
debate&discuss.

I canintroduce
myself &greet.

I can speak
about familiarthings a little.

I can speak
about familiarthings enough.

I can speak
about familiarthingsaccurately.

I candebate &discuss.

1st year(October)

7

15

68

10

0

2nd year(October)

7

14

63

14

2

3rd year(October)

7

22

50

13

7

JALT2007 ­ — Challenging Assumptions

Kojima & Sato: Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs

Table 5. Writing skills (Progress in writing skill for 3
years)
Progress in Writing Skill for 3 years (Z element)
80
70
60
50
(%) 4030
20
10
0

1st year (October)2nd year (October)
3rd year (October)I can writealphabet &easy words.

%

I can write
familiarthings alittle.

I can write
familiarthingsenough.

I can write
familiarthingsaccuratelty.

I can write
personal
opinion insomesentences.

I can
write
alphabet& easywords.

I canwrite
familiarthings alittle.

I can
write
familiarthingsenough.

I can write
familiarthingsaccurately.

I can write
personal
opinionin somesentences.

1st year(October)

7

15

68

10

0

2nd year(October)

7

14

63

14

2

3rd year(October)

7

22

50

13

7

392

As one of the 3rd-year students commented, they did notlearn how to write in English in their elementary school.
Considering the fact, it makes sense why only writing skills
show some difference among four skills.

Implications
This study revealed that students who received English
instruction for six years in their elementary school failed to
improve their communication abilities in their junior highschool due to weak articulation. In particular, junior high school
teachers’ assumptions and beliefs about English language
teaching prevented their students from developing theircommunication abilities. The results from multiple data sources
showed that these teachers relied on traditional practices toprepare students for tests except for team-taught classes forfirst-year students. As a result, many students came to dislike
English and felt that they did not improve their communication
skills. This study offers the following implications.
(1) Without articulation, students’ continual progress inlanguage learning is not attainable.

In addition, some students gave reasons why they thought
they improved their writing skills in this junior high school.

(2)

Especially I can improve writing skills that I
didn’t learn in elementary school. Also I could
learn some meanings of new words. (Interview,
3rd-year students)

Teachers are resistant to a curriculum change toward
communication—oriented English and rely on theirfamiliar practices (see Sato & Kleinsasser, 1999; 2004).

(3)

JHS teachers need to develop a coherent curriculum
to improve students’ communication abilities over thethree years (see Sato & Takahashi, in press).

(4)

Teachers need more opportunities for continuous
teacher development to change their beliefs andpractices (see Sato & Kleinsasser, 1999; 2004).

I could improve writing skills. I could communicate
by writing. And also I could express my feelings
and opinions by myself. I consulted a dictionary or
asked my teacher. (Interview, 3rd-year students)

JALT2007 ­ — Challenging Assumptions

Kojima & Sato: Elementary to Secondary English Articulation: Challenging Teacher Beliefs
In conclusion, Lange (1997) states that “It is for the
student that articulation is important. It is our moral
obligation to provide a program that allows for continual
progress in language learning” (p. 40). When English is
introduced into elementary schools in 2011, the whole
English curricula from elementary schools to senior highschools need to be revised to strengthen articulation for ourstudents.
Kazuyoshi Sato teaches at Nagoya University of Foreign
Studies. He holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics fromthe University of Queensland, Australia. He has written
several papers on communicative language teaching andteacher education. His research interests include teacher
development, language learning strategies, and curriculum
development.
Yuji Kojima is a Aichi Prefectural Junior High School
teacher. He holds an MA in English language teaching from
Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, Japan. His researchinterests include English language teaching in junior highschool and elementary school.

393

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