Pronunciation Teaching in Elementary English Education

論文

Pronunciation Teachingin Elementary English Education

AIBA Yoshiteru

要旨

周知の通り 2020年，日本では小学校での英語教育が大きく変わろうとしている。それを目前に，スウェーデンに本社を置くグローバル企業 EF
EPI が88カ国を対象に実施した世界最大英語能力ランキング（2018 年）
で日本は 49位，前年の 37位（80カ国中）よりさらに後退した。また能力レベルは「標準的」（2015 年）から，「低い」（2016 年〜2018 年）へと後退したままであった。文科省では「小学校外国語活動・外国語研修ガイド
ブック」を作成し，音声面を中心としたコミュニケーション体験を推奨しているが，実際に現場で指導にあたる教員の英語力の問題など課題は多いと考えられる。国際社会おいて日本人の英語力，とくにオーラル面を向上させるには，これからはじまろうとしている小学校の英語教育において何が必要であろうか。現在，勤務する大学で英米語学科の学生142 人の協力のもとに行ったアンケート結果を踏まえつつ，脳科学の視点も取り入れながら，音声学的な考察を試みた。

キーワード：世界英語能力ランキング，小学校初等英語教育，日本語脳，
英語脳，臨界期，発音記号

Introduction
Education First (EF) reported the 8th edition of the rankings of English skills which

115

愛知大学

言語と文化

No. 41has been conducting the tests for millions of adults all over the world, found the data fromover one million people in 88 countries in 2017.
It showed that the 1st place was Sweden, 2nd place the Netherlands, 3rd place
Norway, and 49th place was Japan as a result. In Asia, the 1st position was Singapore,
2nd position the Philippines, 3rd position Malaysia, and 11th position was Japan. But it isshocking rather than these rankings, Japan was stepped back as ‘low’ in the evaluationof the EF EPI 6th edition for the first time although it has been ‘standard’ since 2011, andagain it remained as ‘low’ in the 7th and 8th editions. And it went back from the 35th (the6th edition) to the 37th (the 7th edition), the 49 (the 8th edition) in the world rankings.
For holding Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020, the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology (the Ministry, later) under the policy, the facts of thisterm are there when we emphasize for the skills of English of Japanese people more andreceive them more seriously. And in 2020, the English education in a Japanese primaryschool will be changed largely. Within this situation, to make their skills higher, what
do we need? This paper will discuss from the points of views as the brain science, theprimary school English education, the phonetic teaching (phonetics), the future premisesof the English education in Japan.

Materials and Methods
The Difference of the English Skills in Japan and the World
Table 1 EF EPI SCORES (8th Edition) in Asia and the World1
Average and countries

Scores of EF EPI

EF EPI Average

53.49

No. 1 in the world

Sweden70.72

No. 2 in the world

Netherlands

70.31

No. 3 in the world

Norway68.38

No. 1 in Asia

Singapore

68.63

No. 2 in Asia

The Philippines

61.84

No. 49 in Asia

Japan

51.80

116

Pronunciation Teaching in Elementary English Education

The scores of English abilities of Japanese people were 51.80 points, and unfortunately,
they didn’t reach the average scores of EF EPI 53.49. In the executive summary of EF EPI,
it says briefly about the problems of the Japanese English education as below.
English learning of the needs of memorization is small compared to the mathand science, they don’t emphasize on the correctness like those subjects. The English
education in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong focuses on the grammatical rules rather thanpractical and communicative styles, so their grades are not so good. To realize theEnglish skills higher, they have to change the directions of effective educational systems
of communicative skills, increasing the conversational practices rather than grammar
and vocabularies. (2017 EF EPI EF Scores of English Abilities, p. 23)

A Questionnaire about English from the 1st Year Students to the 4th Year
Students
In English, there are 4 skills = (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing), before thatthough, the Japanese English education was that grammar and reading centered, due totheir communicative skills don’t rise up. About the comments of EF, it’s a vital role toemphasize their communitive skills and effective education.
Now, what do the examinees, the university students think about their English
abilities (4 skills)? I asked a questionnaire to the 142 students from the 1st year to the
4th year in the University where I am working for. With the cooperation of the students
belonging to the Department of English in the Faculty of Foreign Studies, their major isEnglish, and at least they have a certain confidence and interests of the language morethan other students at other departments of their faculties.
Q1. In the 4 skills of English, what is the weakest one?
Listening

27 people

Speaking

42 people

Reading

34 people

Writing

38 people

Figure 1.

117

愛知大学

言語と文化

No. 41Q2. In the 4 skills of English, what is the most favorite one?
Listening
Speaking

62 people
13 people

Reading
Writing

41 people
25 people

Figure 2.

Q3. In the 4 skills of English, please put a number from 1 to 4 in which you want toimprove.
Listening

230 points

Speaking

324 points

Reading

192 points

Writing

189 points

Figure 3. Note. 1 to 4 points, point 2 to 3, 3 to 2 points,
aggregate 4 in 1 point.

Q4. You have learned English through high school, have you ever received a pronunciation
guidance by providing a special time?

Yes

36 people

No

107 people

Figure 4.
Note. The people who answered ‘Yes’, the time of the instruction
was at elementary school 13, junior high school 12, and highschool 21 (Multiple answers allowed). Among the 28 people
from native speakers of English, 5 people who responded, andlearned the phonetic symbols, and others who learned about thedifference between British and American pronunciation were 0.
Other 5 (English conversation school, from a Japanese, frompeople with many opportunities to talk with foreigners at work,
etc.)

118

Pronunciation Teaching in Elementary English Education

Q5. What do you think about accurate and beautiful English pronunciation?

(Multiple

answers allowed)
1. I think the rightpronunciation is important
to raise the skills of
1
communication.
2. I was praised since I havethe beautiful
pronunciation.

2

81 people
24 people

3. I am always careful about
the pronunciation.

3

4. I want to have the rightpronunciation.

4

5. I don’t care about the
pronunciation.

5

6 people

6. I am not interested in the
pronunciation.

6

3 people

41 people
118 people

Figure 5.

“An English Brain” and “A Japanese Brain” from the Brain Science
According to Kenichi Uemura, Emeritus Professor at Hamamatsu Medical
University, Honorary Chairman of Japanese Medical English Education Association,bilingual people have independent linguistic areas in their brain that responds to English
and Japanese.
As shown in FIG. 1, for example, it is the part of “the Japanese Brain” when you arelistening to the NHK news, and when you are listening to the news of CNN, the part of“the English Brain” is activated. (Uemura, 2009, p. 26)

Figure 6.2

119

愛知大学

言語と文化

No. 41

He says also as below:
The early childhood to the basic form of the neural network is completed basedon the learning experience, the brain cells that have not been used up to thattime believed to be a loss, then not possible to be active, this time is the critical
period. (p. 25)
A newborn baby has the ability to learn any language in the world, learning
the pronunciation is close to being impossible of the language that was notlearned after it passed the critical period. The critical period of 5 to 6 years of
the language ability to learn to become fully bilingual, the language up to all
critical period is the kindergarten of a complete mastery of such as music, art,
languages, a Japanese chess, the subsequent learning ability rapidly during
the elementary school drops, is stated as too late in junior high school. (2009,
Uemura, p. 25)

Apart from making a complete bilingual when a pupil entering a junior high school,‘the English Ears’ which can hear the difference of special sounds that you cannot findin the Japanese, ‘the English Mouth’ which can talk, and ‘the English Brain’ thinks in
English, are all important teaching ways.

Elementary School English Education from 2020
The Japanese elementary school education as we know will be changed largely from2020. And in the 5th and 6th grades taught as ‘the language activities’ once a week will
be a ‘formal subject’ and that will be taught 3 times a week. In addition to the fact ‘thelanguage activities conducted by mainly a self-governing body and a school’ will beobligatory for the 3rd and 4th grades as the language activities.
It’s a little old data, but the comparative charts are easy to know in the Yomiuri
Newspaper (Heisei 25) 2013 shown.

120

Pronunciation Teaching in Elementary English Education

Present

Getting into Practice for 2020

The 5th grade and 6th grade

The Language Activities

Formal Subject• Class meeting is once a week.
• Learning the language throughsongs and games.
• The class teacher is teaching.

• Class meeting is three times aweek.
• A learning content ofjunior high school is in theadvancement of the schedule.
• Instructing them with reading
and writing• Teachers with English major
are teaching⇒
The 3rd grade and 4th grade

The Language Activities• Conducted by mainly a selfgoverning body and a school.

• A required English course.
• Class meeting is once and twicea week.

Figure 7. The Comparative Charts of the Former and Latter Changes from 20203

It’s worried that the English ability of ‘the classroom teacher’ who will teach the
3rd and 4th grades including his/her pronunciation. From ‘the classroom teacher ‘to‘the teacher with English major’ to teach the 5th grades and 6th grades, the teacher’s‘pronunciation’ should be real as a native speaker of English.
Kenichi Uemura (2009) says:
Because the teacher is not bilingual, his/her pronunciation is not correct, therecorded Tapes, MDs, CDs, DVDs and Videos by the native English speakers
can be good vehicles to instruct them to learn the right pronunciation. (2009,
Uemura, p. 27)
The phonetic symbols should be taught from the beginning, and they must
not use the katakana phonetic symbols. (2009, Uemura, p. 37)

121

愛知大学

言語と文化

No. 41The Situations for the Use of ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) in the Public
Primary Schools
English, especially its pronunciation ideally can be taught by the actual native
speakers of English, how is the educational situation in Japan? Heisei 27, the Ministry forthe “English education implementation status survey (elementary school)” has publishedthe results as follows. Among the public elementary schools 19,931(Heisei 27 December
1) in the survey, the ALT’s total number (assistant language teachers) is 11,439 people,
one person to 1.7 schools as a simple calculation. And the features of ALTs are divided
as ‘JET program’ 18.6% ‘the self-governing body’ 15.5%, ‘the worker dispatch contract’
10.8%, ‘the contract work’ 13.8%, ‘others’ 41.4% is the most common, they are native
speakers of English and good English speakers in the region included.

JET program 18.6%

others41.4%

the self-governing
body 15.5%

the contract work
13.8%

the worker dispatch
contract 10.8%

Figure 8. The Use of ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers)

It’s pointed out the problem of the number of ALTs and qualities of them inadvanced studies (Tejima, 2011). Not all the ALTs are trained but the fact that they arenative speakers of English, so they stand on the teaching places without the knowledge ofphonetics.

Pronunciation Teaching to the Japanese Learners Who Passed the Critical
PeriodAnd how do we teach phonetics to the Japanese learners and the teachers of English
who don’t have confidence?
When I came back from studying phonetics at the postgraduate course at University
College London, I taught a junior high school student privately. I taught him English

122Pronunciation Teaching in Elementary English Education

conversations as well as the way to pronounce the phonetic symbols. One day when I
was teaching him English as usual. I got a phone call from a British friend, and had amischievous mind, switched to the junior high school student to take the phone, and said
to him, ‘Say some greetings’, and he said, “How do you do?” Then taking his phone
back, the British said, ‘Has an English child come to play?’ What I taught was English
pronunciation. The British friend might think he was not American and Canadian, but
was ‘an English child’ precisely. And by large, the pronunciation could be heard by anative speaker of English, I told the junior high school student about that, and he was very
pleased, and motivated to learn, which was true.
There is a slight difference in pronouncing “How do you do?” in British English. /haʊ duː juː duː/ in American English /haʊ dʊ jʊ dʊ/.
And in the University where I am teaching part-time, I make general classes raiseup the 4 skills of English. At these classes, there were 60 students. I have put them into
practice to use phonetic symbols since 2018. The students at the two classes, they havenever experienced the way of pronouncing rightly with the phonetic symbols.
In this situation, the way of teaching is as follows. At every class, I taught how topronounce the vowels and consonants. Then showing the way to pronounce the segments,
they repeated a few times.
e.g.) How to Pronounce Vowels*B=British English *A=American English【ɒ】My dog is not dodgy.
(B)maɪ dɒg ɪz nɒt dɒʤi(A)maɪ dɑːg ɪz nɑːt dɑːʤi(A)hiz ə lʌvli jʌŋ wʌn(A)ðæt gərɪlə ɪz iɾɪŋ ə bənænə(A)

duː ju hæpən tu hæv ə mæk【ʌ】He’s a lovely young one.
(B)

hiːz ə lʌvli jʌŋ wʌn【ə】

That gorilla is eating a banana.
(B)ðæt gərɪlə ɪz iːtɪŋ ə bənɑːnə【æ】

Do you happen to have a mac?
(B)duː juː hæpən tə hæv ə mæk

123

愛知大学

言語と文化

No. 41

The time range of the teaching was 15 minutes, and 11 times out of 15 as a total. To
combine with the visual effectiveness and examples of teaching (hearing certainty) theright pronunciation was paid attention, the attitude of pronouncing the words was done
properly.
At the end of the second semester, the presentations were made, let the students put
the phonetic symbols in his/ her essay, and read aloud.
This was done as a part of the lessons, so I didn’t analyze the detailed data in eachsegment, but as the result of the tests, I found the improvement of their pronunciationindividually started from 0 exercise.
Table 2 The Results of the Oral Tests of A・B Classes
A class (31 people totally)

B class (32 people totally)S

0 peopleS

5 peopleA

25 people

A

27 people

B

6 peopleB

0 peopleC

0 peopleC

0 people

Especially the 5 students who took S(A+) grades made small pronunciation mistakes
less than 5% in 10 sentences in an essay.
Because there was a task of a test, other students made some efforts, so they werequite good. That was a level of a former prediction before the pronunciation teaching
was done for about 15 minutes of all 11 lessons, so I was very glad for the results. It is
an individual difference, but it could be an evidence that the pronunciation teaching iseffective. From now on, to think of the examination methods, and take a detailed data,
make it clear for the effectiveness and facial tasks. And through this pronunciationteaching, I found the uniqueness of the new task which is intonation. Intonation has somepatterns depending on a cognitive approach one by one, it’s very difficult to master.
Especially the Japanese language is flat in its intonation, the shyness of the Japaneselearners bothers here, too. At the two classes, after the pronunciation teaching, I taught
intonation to them, I would like to step further in studying the effectiveness and teaching
method. The pronunciation teaching I did at the two classes was easy and close to theright pronunciation for them to acquire in a short sentence repeatedly.

124

Pronunciation Teaching in Elementary English Education

Results and Discussion
First, through the questionnaire, I found the fact that at least 26% of the students eventhough they are with English major, had experienced the pronunciation teaching before
the entry to the University. The pre-study was the difference of teaching pronunciation
using the textbooks in junior high school (Ueda, Ootsuka, 2010), it is reported that theeducational environment which cannot provide the time of pronunciation teaching withthe teachers there. And from the questionnaire, many students think about the rightpronunciation is important, and they want to have the right pronunciation.
It’s necessary that surely for the students with English major and people engaged in
the fields of medicine and science who will be leading in the world, and therefore, it isimportant to raise the ability of English of Japanese people.
And it’s very important for the students with English major to improve the skillsof speaking for the development although they feel they are not good at it, and for theeducational system in which ‘the English Brain’ during the critical period is advanced.
For acquiring the right pronunciation not trained at present, I think it is quite
important to train the children in elementary school. Japanese students are ‘shy’, so they
won’t try to get closer to the right pronunciation.
But during the primary school to speak English with right pronunciation is ‘normal’,
you can abolish the cognitive walls as ‘being shy.’
And again as Uemura, a brain scientist and bilingual says that in the places forEnglish education in a primary school, we make the children touch the right pronunciationin use of ALTs, CDs and DVDs, quite often. And at the same time, to teach phonetic
symbols, and how to pronounce from not only the ears but also the visions. The period
to form ‘the English ears’, ‘the English Mouth’ and ‘the English Brain’, we cannot force
them to memorize the wrong pronunciation.
The Ministry shows us in “The Elementary School English Foreign Language
Activity / Foreign Language Training Guide Book”:
The language activities in the new learning and teaching method, we arefocusing on growing the basis for communicating with the language from thesounds as well as the language activities in the beginning before the change.’ (p.

125

愛知大学

言語と文化

No. 41

12) And it says, too,it’s important for the teachers to listen to English and pronounce it with theCDs affiliated to this guide book. And not only in school training but also in an
exchanging meeting in the morning, it’s good to listen to a part every time, inthe decided days, and pronounce English would lead to the motivations of theteachers for raising the practical skills of them. In addition, it is important thatevery teacher uses the CDs, and practice it. (p. 9)

But the issues are whether a single teacher has ‘the English Ears’ and ‘the English
Brain’ to hear the right pronunciation or not. If they don’t have these characters, those
who have passed the critical period, to say to practice with CDs, it is questionable thatthey can be effective or not.
But to use the native speaker of English, this has a certain limitation.
And I would like the teachers and students who passed the critical period use “thephonetic symbols.”
For example, let me introduce the instance to get closer to the native speakers ofEnglish through the phonetic symbols how to pronounce rightly although they havepassed the critical period. It is effective to get closer to the pronunciation, which is
ambiguous from the ears, to ensure the visions and training.
The Ministry made ‘The Elementary School Foreign Language Activity / Foreign
Language Training Guide Book’ in their practice, there is a page ‘Classroom English.’(pp. 118–123) The phrases used are taken up in Japanese and English. I think we addphonetic symbols here. And at lease for English used in the classrooms, we can teach theright pronunciation close to the native speakers of English. In ‘the classroom English’
these below phrases are shown, and if you put the phonetic symbols, you can read as
follows. (* B)=British English A)=American English)
1)

Good morning.
B) gʊd mɔ:ning

2)

How are you today?
B) haʊ ɑː juː tədeɪ3)A) haʊ ɑ:r јʊ tədeɪIt’s time for English class.
B) ɪts taɪm fə ɪŋglɪʃ klɑːs4)A) ɡʊd mɔːrningA) ɪts taɪm fɔːr ɪŋɡlɪʃ klæsAre you ready?

126

Pronunciation Teaching in Elementary English EducationB) ɑː juː redɪ5)

Let’s play a game.
B) lets pleɪ ə geɪm6)A) lеts pleɪ ə ɡeɪm

Let’s sing a song.
B) lets sɪŋ ə sɒŋ7)A) ɑːr juː redɪA) lets sɪŋ ə sɑːŋ

Make pairs. ／ Get into pairs.
B) meɪk peəz ／ get intə peəzA) meɪk peərz ／ɡet intə peərz

To practice saying these short sentences in phonetic symbols thoroughly.
I think we don’t care about American/British or other pronunciation of othercountries if we can make ourselves understood in them. But if you speak with British
pronunciation as a superb English to a native speaker of English, he/she will be surprised
to hear it. I think personally that teaching the British English is relatively easy for theJapanese, which is a good method.
English learning and English education is equal to the proverb ‘Rome was not built
in a day.’ But it takes longer if Japan will be ranking highly in the world. But for example,
the primary English education in the Netherland ranked No. 1 in 2016, No. 2 in 2017 in
the world, started 30 years ago. The primary Japanese English education will be startingrightly from now. Through the brain science, we can begin from Listening for the English
education. We recognize the importance of the skills of the English teachers who teachfor the children to touch the language for the first time.
At the same time, we can create the environment for the children to get interested
in the language shall be taught as an unknown future language for them. And when thechildren become the university students, the skills of Japanese for the communicating
language will be improved more than the present.
Latter Notes
1
2
3

The table was made from the data of EF (2017) English Proficiency Index 8th Edition.
This figure was changed and reprinted with a permission from Uemura Kenichi (2015). English
Education from the Viewpoint of the Brain’s System -PROGRESS IN ENGLISH-.
It’s a little old but was easy to compare to show *the figure made from ‘2013 October 23 Yomiuri
Newspaper’.

127

愛知大学

言語と文化

No. 41

References
Education First (EF) (2015). English Proficiency Index 6th Edition. Retrieved from http://www.
efjapan.co.jp/epi/
Education First (EF) (2016). English Proficiency Index 7th Edition. Retrieved from http://www.
efjapan.co.jp/epi/
EF EPI (2017). Scores of English Skills. Retrieved from https://www.efjapan.co.jp/epi/about-epi/
executive-summary/English lessons from 3rd grade, formal subject from 5th grade (2013.11. 23) Yomiuri Newspaper.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2015). Education Implementation
Status Survey (Elementary School). Retrieved from http://www.mext.go.jp/component/a_menu/
education/detail/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2016/04/05/1369254_1_1.pdf
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Elementary School・Foreign
Language Activity / Foreign Language Training Guide Book. Retrieved from http://www.mext.
go.jp/a_menu/kokusai/gaikokugo/1387503.htm
Teshima Makoto (2011). On Teaching English Pronunciation in Japanese Secondary Education: How
It Is And How It Should Be. Journal of Phonetic Society of Japan. Vol. 15, No. 1. pp. 31–43.
Ueda Hiroko, Tomomi Otsuka (2010). An Analysis of Pronunciation Instruction in Japanese JuniorHigh School English Textbooks: Indications from the Early Stage of Input. Journal of Osaka
Joshigakuin University (7th edition) pp. 15–32.
Uemura Kenichi (2009). Tips for Effective Multilingual Acquisition from Brain Science. Cognitive
Neuroscience Vol. 11, No. 1. pp. 23–29.
Uemura Kenichi (2015). English Education from the Viewpoint of the Brain’s System PROGRESS IN
ENGLISH. EDEC Corporation.

128