Behind the Introduction of Foreign Language Educationin Japanese Elementary Schools
OTANI, Yuko

「小学校外国語」導入の経緯を概観して
大谷由布子

大分大学教育学部研究紀要
2023 年 9 月

第 45 巻第 1 号

別刷

Reprinted FromRESEARCH BULLETIN OF THE
FACULTY OF EDUCATIONOITA UNIVERSITY
Vol. 45, No. 1, September 2023
OITA, JAPAN大分大学教育学部研究紀要（Res. Bull. Fac. Educ., Oita Univ.）

13

Behind the Introduction of Foreign Language Educationin Japanese Elementary Schools
OTANI, Yuko＊

Abstract
The official implementation of an elementary school course called“Gaikokugo” marked an important milestone in the history of Japanese
education.

Behind this decision had been the demand for adequate

English proficiency among Japanese nationals in the global society.
However, the debate over the revision of the content and timing of the startof English language education in Japan did not proceed easily, and there
were considerable ideological conflicts over early English language policy.
This paper, therefore, overviews the history of foreign language
introduction in Japanese elementary schools and discusses how social,political, and ideological factors have contributed to this decision.
【 Key words 】

Foreign Language Education, Foreign Language

Activities, English at Elementary Schools, Courses of Study

The early English language education started flourishing in Europe, and quickly
gained popularity throughout the world.

In Asia, South Korea had a head start in 1997,

followed by China and Taiwan in 2001.

Compared to these countries, which exercised

strong top-down leadership to their decisions, Japan took “careful and slow steps” (Butler,2007) and it was not until 2020 that a foreign language course was finally introduced inJapanese elementary schools.

“Foreign” language education is, effectively “English”

language education, which avoids treating English as the only important language thatshould be introduced in Japanese schools.

However, there was considerable debate about

whether this course should be a foreign language course or a course on international
understanding.

In addition, if the course was going to be a language course, then there

was not unanimity of opinion on which language should be taught.

In order to explain how

these complex factors contributed to the realization of the new academic subject, this paper
discusses the introduction of foreign language education in Japan with reference to socialand political factors, language policies and policy-making processes.
Received May 10, 2023.
＊大谷

由布子（おおたに・ゆうこ） 大分大学教育学部言語教育講座（英語教育）Department of

Education, Oita University, 700 Dannoharu, Oita 870-1192, Japan.

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OTANI

The implementation of English language educationin Japanese elementary schools
The history of English at elementary schools (EES) in Japan dates back to 1986 when
the Central Council for Education (CCE), the advisory council for the Ministry of Education(MOE), first made a proposal to revise the timing of the introduction of English language
education in Japan (Oshiro & Naoyama, 2008).
significant changes.

Since then, Japanese EES has undergone

In this section, the more than 35-year history of the Japanese EES is

discussed, dividing it into four subcategories; (1) the pre-dawn period of the Japanese EES(from the 1980s to 1998), (2) the dawn period (from 1998 to 2008), (3) the start-up period(from 2008 to 2016), and (4) the transitional period (from 2017 to present).

To do so, therelevant Courses of Study, the minutes from CCE, and other related official government
documents are analyzed.

Note that the subcategories adopted here are not official but are

named by the author to better explain its history.

Before The Dawn of EES in Japan (From the 1980s to 1998)
In the 1980s, Japan experienced rapid economic growth and joined the global economy.
Given the importance of English in global communication, there were calls for sufficient
practical communicative competence in English.

There followed criticism of traditional

grammar based English language teaching because it had not trained expected proficiency
among Japanese nationals (Butler, 2007, Yoshida, 2009, among others).

In response tothese growing needs, the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program was launched in thelate 1980s, and English-speaking foreign nationals were dispatched to Japanese secondary
schools as assistant language teachers.

Behind this decision was strong support fromJapanese business community, a key stakeholder in education: In 1984, an Ad Hoc CCE
convened by the Nakasone cabinet recommended reforms to foreign language education.

Keidanren, the Japan Business Federation also made a recommendation to incorporate
English into the elementary school curriculum (Keidanren, 2000, 2013).

Thus began thedebate to review the content and timing of the introduction of English education in Japanese
schools.
In the 1990s, “globalization” progressed, with the trade of goods, information, money,
and people across borders.
reaffirmed.

As a result, the importance of English as a lingua franca was

Meanwhile, MOE introduced an experimental English activity program in

1992, assigning two public elementary schools in Osaka as pilot schools.

This pilot casewas extended to one school in each prefecture in 1996, with 33 schools participating overthe next five years. EES quickly spread throughout the country.
Meanwhile, CCE issued a report titled “21 Seiki wo Tenboushita Wagakuni no Kyoiku
no Arikata nitsuite (The Education of Our Country in the 21st Century)” (CCE, 1996) that
discussed how Japanese education should be prepared for the twenty first century.

The

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Behind the Introduction of EES in Japan

report suggested introducing foreign language education at elementary schools as a part of
the “Kokusaika (internationalization)” program that aims to familiarize students with otherlanguages and cultures.
Despite the ideological conflict of “international understanding” versus “English
language education,” Japanese version of EES finally set off.

In response to this proposal,

the Course of Study (CS) was revised in 1998, allowing “foreign language activities” for“international understanding” to be implemented by local governments and individual
elementary schools (MEXT, 2012).

Although practical aspects such as “eikaiwa tou(English conversation or equivalent)” were pointed out, “foreign language activities”
remained separate from English language education.

This revision of the CS was notofficially implemented until 2002, which means that the start of EES in Japan had to wait
for the new century.

The Dawn Period (From 1998 to 2008)
With the collapse of the bubble economy in the late 1990s, Japan experienced economic
downturn, which required solutions to overcome the causes of its stagnant economy.

Toboost Japan’s position in the international economy, raising the ability to communicate withforeign nationals was judged to be the most plausible answer.

As such, the need to revise

English language education in Japan was, once again, widely recognized.

In the meantime,the idea of officializing English as Japan’s second language was proposed in the Prime
Minister’s Commission on Japan’s Goals in the 21st Century (2000).

The report was

intended to affirm the country’s fundamental values, present challenges and solutions forthe new century, but “the shift to English as an official language did not materialize”(Hashimoto, 2009).

In 2002, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology (MEXT)* released a plan called, “Developing a Strategic Plan to Cultivate‘Japanese with English Abilities’,” followed by a five-year Action Plan (2003).

This plan,

titled “Regarding the Establishment of an Action Plan to Cultivate ‘Japanese with English
Abilities’” proposed enhancement of English language education and was implemented
immediately (2003-2008).

It presented various measures, including specifying the levelsof English to be achieved, standardized assessment to measure the above achievement, as
well as introducing a listening test in university entrance examinations (MEXT, 2003).

Atthe elementary school level, it was suggested to more utilize personnel with higher English
proficiency such as native speakers, or junior high school English teachers, or local residents
who are proficient in English.

The top-down implementation of this Action Plan required

reviewing teacher recruitment and teacher training systems as well as reforming theexamination system.

At the same time, its bottom-up implementation process remained to

be a major challenge.

The plan triggered collaborative efforts to develop curriculum,

teaching methods and teaching materials at the local level.

*Note: Monbusyo (MOE) was renamed Monbukagakusyo (MEXT) in 2001.

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OTANI

In 2006, “Kyoiku Saisei Kaigi (Education Rebuilding Council),” an advisory body toPrime Minister, was established by then Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.
has a history of leading Japanese educational reform.

In Japan, the CCE

MEXT acknowledged the “Education

Rebuilding Council” would perform an examination of education, based on the Prime
Minister’s instructions, after which CCE would discuss educational reform (MEXT, 2006).
Meanwhile, the CCE and the Curriculum Subcommittee continued discussions for the
introduction of English language education at the elementary school level. In the proposal“Atarashii Jidai no Gimukyoiku wo Sozosuru (To Create New Compulsory Education in the
New Times)” (MEXT, 2005), the enhancement of EES was suggested for the following
reasons:

93.6 % of elementary schools across the nation provide some form of English
education, which needs to be standardized.



Globalization, the development of information technology, and global issues
require international cooperation and global literacy.

The reported flexibility of children in communicating and learning foreign
languages is a strength.

In 2007, the Curriculum Subcommitee examined the EES pilot cases and reached theconclusion that elementary schools need to develop children’s language skills and a positive
attitude toward foreign cultures through age appropriate communicative and international
activities (MEXT, 2007).

It also suggested practical solutions such as introducing English

about once a week in “integrated studies” and “special activities” for grades one throughfour and “Gaikokugo Katsudo” for grades five through six (MEXT, 2007).

Following this trend, “Gaikokugo Katsudo” was officially included for the first time in

the 2008 revision of the CS for elementary schools.

This allowed local boards of education

or elementary schools to introduce “foreign language activities” at their own discretion aspart of the broader goal of enhancing international education, which was officially
implemented in 2011.

The Start-up Period (From 2008 to 2016)
Under the new version of the CS in 2008, more than 97% of elementary schools acrossthe nation introduced some form of English language education during the three years of
the transition period, according to MEXT (2009).

To help elementary school teachers who

had not been trained to teach “foreign language activities,” MEXT developed a teachingmaterial titled Eigo Note and distributed it to schools across the country to provide a certain
level of instruction.

(Although it was titled, “foreign” language activities, it was, in reality,“English” language education, as the title of the material suggests.)

EES was not an

official academic subject at that time; therefore, Eigo Note was not regarded as a prescribed17

Behind the Introduction of EES in Japan

textbook by Article 34 of the School Education Law.

Although each school had thediscretion to decide whether to use it, Eigo Note was used in most of the schools nationwide
and was highly evaluated as an informative and helpful teaching aid (Sugiyama, 2018).
In 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake hit Japan in the middle of its worst andlongest economic recession, which adversely affected the Japanese education as well as
economy.

Although MEXT had been proposing to raise state spending on education to theOECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) average level, this was
shelved by the Ministry of Finance and the national expenditure on education was reduced.
At this time the then ruling Democratic Party of Japan conducted a review of educational
policies and decided to abolish Eigo Note.

As was discussed above, Eigo Note was notlegally required to be used in EES classrooms, but it had helped elementary school teachers
who had not yet officially mastered EES teaching methodologies.

of Eigo Note sent shock waves to local governments and schools.

The proposed abolition
However, within a shortperiod of time, MEXT created an inexpensive alternative textbook entitled Hi, friends! inthe spring of 2012, just before Eigo Note was discontinued.

The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake also brought about changes in the way people
think and act.

One such example was that people started placing more importance on

security and became less willing to take risks.

According to “Global Jinzai Ikusei Jigyo”(The Council on Promotion of Human Resources for Globalization Development, 2011),“inward-looking attitudes” became more common after the 3-11 earthquake, which led to adecrease in younger people wishing to study abroad or work abroad.
number of young people studying abroad dramatically plummeted.

As a result, theAccording to OECD

(2013), about 83,000 Japanese students studied abroad in 2004 but this number dropped to38,535 over the next seven years.
Against this backdrop, the need for adequate English command has, once again,increased and an official government report, “Five Recommendations and Specific Measuresfor Developing English Proficiency for International Communication” (Commission on theDevelopment of Foreign Language Proficiency, 2011) was released in response to meet suchneed.

This report discussed concrete measures to develop English proficiency among

Japanese students.


They are as follows:

Proposal 1. English ability required of students – assessment and verification of
attainment levelProposal 2. Promoting students’ awareness of necessity of English in the global
society, and stimulating motivation for English learningProposal 3. Providing students with more opportunities to use English througheffective utilization of ALTs, ICT and other meansProposal 4. Reinforcement of English skills and instruction abilities of English
teachers / Strategic improvement of English education at the level of schools andcommunities

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OTANI



Proposal 5. Modification of university entrance exams toward global society(pp. 2-13)

With this plan, specific goals and measures were proposed to improve the English
proficiency among Japanese nationals by the year 2016.

This was a major step towardachieving practical English proficiency in a tangible way.

More exposure to the target

language from the earlier stage was, therefore, the major key since second language
acquisition (SLA) studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between exposure to
English language and its acquisition (Muñoz, 2006).

In this way, official implementationof English language education from elementary school level proceeded steadily.
The year 2013 witnessed significant changes regarding English education policies inJapan.

According to the report submitted by “Kyoiku Saisei Jikko Kaigi (Education

Rebuilding Council)” (2013), “the government should consider drastically expanding
English education in elementary schools” (p. 6) and presented concrete examples, such as:・starting English instruction from an earlier grade・

increasing classroom hours for English

・

making English an official subject

・

assigning English teachers to elementary schools

etc.

Incorporating the suggestions in this report, MEXT announced the revised policy inthe following CS in 2017.

The Transitional Period (From 2017 - present)
The EES policy under the 2008 CS revision was thought of positively, according to
MEXT (2017), as it had enhanced students’ motivation and positive attitudes towards
English language study; however, the following issues were identified: (1) learning fromlistening/speaking has not been connected to systematic learning in literacy skills, (2) the
differences between Japanese and English sounds, speech, pronunciation, spelling, andsentence structures have not been adequately addressed, (3) for upper grade students whoare characterized by their increased abstract thinking, more systematic learning is required.
(MEXT, 2017, p. 63)
Based on these achievements and issues, the 2017 revision of CS lowered the age at

which “Gaikokugo Katsudo” was taught and implemented “Gaikokugo” in the upper grades.
Having taken into consideration the developmental stages of elementary school students,

the focus for middle grade students was on “listening” and “speaking” and in the upper
grades, comprehensive and systematic subject guidance was provided with the addition of“reading” and “writing.”

This was expected to connect elementary English language

instruction to secondary school English language instruction.

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Behind the Introduction of EES in Japan

The introduction of the new academic subject required some kind of teaching/learning

support to standardize its instruction across the nation. In this way, a textbook titled We
Can! was developed by MEXT in 2018. As a general practice, textbooks are produced by
textbook companies and screened by MEXT, but when a new subject is established, it does
not follow this practice.

Thus, We Can! was created by MEXT to embody the new

curriculum which was used in the upper grades during the two-year transition period.
After that, “Gaikokugo” textbooks were scheduled to be published by textbook companies

and replace We Can!.

Let’s Try! targeted at third grade and fourth grade students was also
developed by MEXT in 2018. Unlike We Can!, no textbook companies produce replacement
materials for Let’s Try! since “Gaikokugo Katsudo” is not an official subject. MEXT

continues to distribute the same material across the nation for middle grade elementary
school students.
With the establishment of the new subject, it became necessary to review and updateteacher training programs for practicing as well as preparing teachers, since the programs
had not been officially standardized previously.
discretion of individual universities.

EES teacher training had been left to the

Therefore, an English language education “corecurriculum” was developed by MEXT and Tokyo Gakugei University to ensure a degree of
uniformity, which was formulated in 2017.

In addition to general knowledge of the subject

matter, this curriculum requires elementary school teachers to acquire knowledge ofchildren’s language development, cognitive development, and teaching methods, as well as
natural spoken English (Tokyo Gakugei University, 2017).

Subsequently, curricula atvarious universities for the training of teachers of elementary school foreign languages havebeen revised and updated according to this core curriculum.
Now that teaching materials have been set in place, teacher training programs havebeen revised based on the standardized curriculum, and elementary foreign language
education has been successfully launched.

The next goal is to bridge a lack of continuity

between elementary school and middle school English education, which remains a problem(MEXT, 2017).

There had been no shared comprehensive picture of total English language

education in Japan.

However, the new version of the CS is characterized by its related

goals and objectives from elementary to secondary schools, taking a major step toward its
integration.
Now is the time to put this philosophy into practice.

Teachers in the same area canshare information by exchanging teaching materials, teaching methods and personnel.
Creating a consistent English curriculum from elementary to junior high school would be
the first step towards achieving consistent English language education.

Creating a

coherent Can-Do list would also be one way of bridging the gap between schools.

Empirical

studies at the local level, the accumulation of experiences and their dissemination are
expected.
Over the last more than three decades, there have been drastic changes in the field of
EES in Japan.

This section has provided an overview of its history.

The road to an official

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OTANI

implementation of English language education in Japanese elementary schools was not
smooth and more challenges are expected in the future.

EES in Japan is still young, andcontinued efforts are expected.

Conclusion
Over the past few decades, English language education in Japan has undergone
substantial changes.

One such change is the introduction of foreign language inelementary schools, which was implemented in 2017 and officially came into effectnationwide in 2020.

Through an overview of this implementation history, this paper has

revealed complicated socio-political, economic, and ideological factors interacted with eachother.
The implementation of foreign language in Japanese elementary schools is, however,not the goal.

It is necessary to build on and refine the practice and disseminate it throughteacher training across the country.

Working towards these challenges could improve

English language education not only at the primary level but also at the secondary andtertiary levels.
It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss whether the introduction of foreign
language instruction in Japanese elementary schools has contributed to an expected fluency
in English for Japanese students.

As was discussed, the need to develop Japanese people

with a strong command of English was the major drive for the English language education
reform in Japan.

On the other hand, the objectives of foreign language education

articulated in its policy are to broaden students’ perspectives through foreign languages andcultures; to enrich students’ lives by learning a new language; and to provide an opportunity
to gain a deeper understanding of Japanese.

Unless the objectives set out in the guidelines

and those expected by society share the same direction, English language education in
Japan may not be able to achieve the expected results, either in terms of English language
skills or in terms of a richer language and/or cultural experience.

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Behind the Introduction of EES in Japan「小学校外国語」導入の経緯を概観して
大谷
【要

旨】

由布子

日本の教育史において，公立小学校での「外国語」導入は重要な節目となったが，この決定にいたるまでの道のりは平坦ではなかった。
1980 年代以降，国際社会で活躍するための十分な英語力の涵養が求められるようになったことを背景に，日本でも英語教育の開始時期を見直す議論が始まったが，社会的な要因や政治・経済的要因等が複雑に関係し，英語教育政策をめぐってイデオロギーの対立が見られた。そこで本稿では，日本の小学校における外国語導入に至った経緯について，近年の学習指導要領や中央教育審議会の議事録，その他関連する政府の公文書等に基づき概観する。
【キーワード】

小学校外国語

外国語活動

小学校英語

学習指導要領