The Importance Of Japanese English Education

How would it be like if every Japanese could use English without hardship? Since Japanese people have poor English skills, they are not only losing confidence in speaking English, but also dropping in global competitiveness. These problems did not start recently: they arose a few centuries ago. Although English was primarily taught by foreign teachers, after a while, Japanese teachers, who hardly spoke English, started to teach English not to come in touch with Western cultures, but to prepare for college entrance examinations. Japanese English education should be ameliorated by reforms in university entrance examinations, a greater focus on nourishing teachers’ English abilities, and introducing English education at an early age.
In the first place, Japanese university examinations should be altered to improve English education in

Some argue that even if the government suddenly sets a high goal to increase teachers’ English abilities, teachers cannot attain the goal in a short period of time. Nonetheless, the Japanese government is making a move to reform English teachers. According to Hosoki, MEXT is offering domestic as well as overseas English training so that teachers can gain confidence on communicative English in a short period of time. (211) This means that more teachers who wanted to strengthen their English can have training approved by the government. Furthermore, introducing a trained ALT to elementary and junior high school will benefit the students. According to Aoki (TIMES), ALTs are a representation of the West. Most of the students have no access to the Western culture, it will be an excellent time to learn facts that students cannot learn from Japanese English teachers, such as how Western people make body languages. All of this shows that improving English teachers’ ability will benefit both the students and