The Language Teacher
July 2000

English Language Education in Japan: Past, Present and Future

Torikai Kumiko


It is quite striking to see that almost anybody teaching English in Japan finds it not exactly an easy task to teach a foreign language to Japanese students, especially to get them to speak. It is both frustrating and discouraging to language teachers. In order to avoid this kind of feeling from leading to counter-productive results, it is helpful to understand the attitudes of Japanese learners of English toward language, especially English. In order to do this, a holistic view of the English language education in this country is vital, with a historical overview as well as cultural and social implications, and to be aware of problems and issues vis-a-vis English.

Traditionally, as in other countries of the world, the most prevalent method in teaching and learning a foreign language in Japan has been the Grammar-Translation Method. For centuries, the purpose of the study of a foreign language, whether it was Chinese, Dutch, French, German or English, was primarily to understand and learn a foreign culture and civilization, along with science and technology. In order to satisfy this objective, what was most important was to read and comprehend foreign texts, and as such, the Grammar-Translation Method served well for the progress of Japanese society.

Therefore, it is not entirely without reason that the Japanese tend to focus on receptive aspects of a foreign language, especially reading, rather than active skills such as speaking. Even with the native language, the Japanese tend to value written language much more than spoken language, and fundamentally, speech is silver, silence is golden in this country. It is perfectly natural to see this attitude being fostered in a tightly knit and highly contextualized society. There just is not any need for people to speak up; rather, a listener of a dialogue is expected to infer and understand the true meaning of a speaker's message from the minimum amount of her utterance. It is not surprising, then, that communicative competence in a foreign language was not overly emphasized.

However, gradually, with increasing need for communication with the outside world, people became more conscious of the need to speak a foreign language and thus various methods and approaches were introduced in the hope of finding an optimal way to acquire oral abilities, not just reading and writing, but listening and speaking. Even before World War II, there were pioneers such as Harold Palmer and A. S. Hornby, but the trend became sharper especially after the war. Right after the war, a radio program was started with its instructor singing, "Come, come everybody!" inviting people to learn to speak English. Probably for the first time in Japanese history, people became keen on learning to speak foreign languages and language schools flourished all over the country. It is significant to note here that it was mainly these private language institutions which offered classes specifically to improve speaking. Much of what was taught at schools did not change drastically. All through high school and college years, what students did mostly was to read a text and translate it with grammatical analysis. It has been common in high school to prepare students to pass the entrance examinations to get into universities, because most colleges include English as an entrance examination subject. Students would study grammar and memorize vocabulary in English, not really for authentic usage, but for entrance exams. And once they got into college, the average English classes were mostly translating literary works, such as Shakespeare, because traditionally, it was customary for literature professors, not language teachers, to teach English.

Back in 1970s, a congressman named Hiraizumi Wataru questioned the validity of the English language education at that time and pressed the need for a more practical approach to English language education. It was immediately rebuffed by Watanabe Shouichi of Sophia University, advocating the need to teach a foreign language as an intellectual endeavor, and the famous debate continued on for several years, with neither side giving in.

However, the situation started to change somewhat with the advent of the Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching, which in many ways answered the needs of contemporary globalization. Although this whole new method did meet some resistance, social needs and demands from the business sector for English for communicative purposes was much stronger, and in the early 1990s the Ministry of Education announced an epoch-making Course of Study for foreign language teaching. The 1993 version of the Course of Study for junior high schools stated that the objective of foreign language teaching is "to cultivate attitudes to actively communicate," and in 1994 the new Course of Study for senior high school stated that the goal of foreign language teaching is "to cultivate practical communicative competence." In order to attain this goal, a new subject of English was introduced in high school curriculum, namely Oral Communication A, B and C.

The Ministry of Education is planning to revise the Course of Study for the year 2002. It has announced that they are going to introduce teaching of International Understanding in the elementary school curriculum. Many elementary schools are already contemplating using this rubric to teach English conversation to children.

Tertiary education is not an exception in this wave of changes, or paradigm shift, in language teaching. The first element that prompted curriculum innovation at universities was a deregulation policy announced by the Ministry of Education in 1991, lifting many regulations that have controlled university curricula until then. The second element is a social one, perhaps more fundamental than the first one: a sharp decline in the Japanese birth rate in past decades, leading to a recent sharp decline in the college-age population. Universities and colleges in Japan are faced with a situation where they have to virtually fight for students who apply and enter college. These two factors urged most of the universities throughout the country to innovate their curricula to meet the needs of society, or to be more accurate, the needs of the students themselves. In terms of language education, universities were obliged to change their language programs from the traditional, literature-oriented grammar-translation method to communicative language teaching. Rikkyo University, for example, instituted a completely new language curriculum in 1997, for the first time in its 125-year history, and the objective of the innovated English language program is to equip students with communicative competence and with the knowledge of intercultural communication to prepare them for a globalized and multicultural society.

This trend will undoubtedly continue for now, as well as in the future, although the future is not exactly issue-free. Among the many issues that are being raised and discussed at present in Japan are the teaching of English to elementary school children, raising the TOEFL score of Japanese learners of English, improving college entrance exams, the possibility of making English Japan's second official language, and the basic question of the purpose of English language education in Japan. To address these issues, a special committee was set up by the Minister of Education in January, 2000. Although a variety of opinions are expressed at the monthly committee meetings, there seems to be a consensus on the need to create some coherence in language teaching in different levels of education: primary, secondary and tertiary. In order to have some consistency in our language teaching, it is of vital importance to discuss why Japanese people need to learn English in the first place. What really is the reason for teaching English? Does every Japanese need to be fluent in English? If so, why? Let's say we do need English, what kind of English do Japanese need?

About three decades ago, Nakatsu Ryoko published an award winning book and gave it a provocative title: Nande Eigo Yaruno? (Why Study English?). Although this became a bestseller, nobody really answered her question, even to this day. As language teachers, it is part of our responsibility to step back and ponder for a moment in search of an answer. Yes, English is a global language, a de facto lingua franca, and undoubtedly it is convenient if we know the language and can use it. At the same time, however, it is also true that the present world is moving toward multiculturalism and multilingualism, as was prophesied by Samuel Huntington in his controversial book, The Clash of Civilizations. If that is the case, what kind of role will English play in the 21st century? All Japanese you meet will say they would like to speak English and deplore the fact that they don't or can't, but the fact of the matter is the majority of the population in this country survive day-to-day living without English. You can enjoy all sorts of TV programs in Japanese, appreciate American movies with Japanese subtitles, and the bestsellers are translated into Japanese immediately. No wonder it is hard for some Japanese to be strongly motivated to study English. So, why do we teach English in Japan? And when we do, what kind of English should we teach? Unless we can answer these basic questions, teaching English, let alone its success, will have a long way to go.

References

Suzuki, T. & T. Kawasumi (Eds. ) (1999). Nihon eigaku-shi. Tokyo: Taishuukan.

Suzuki, Y., K. Yoshida, M. Shimozaki & S. Tanaka. (1997). Communication to shiteno eigo kyouiku-ron. Tokyo: ALC.

Tanabe, Y. (1990). Gakkou eigo. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobou.

Tanaka, S. (1994). Dokoe iku? Daigaku no gaikokugo kyouiku. Tokyo: Sanshuusha.

Torikai, K. (1996). Daigaku eigo kyouiku no kaikaku. Tokyo: Sanshuusha.


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