English Language Teaching in Japan

A Brief History of the English Language in Japan

The earliest record of the initial contact between the Japanese and a native English speaker took place around the 1600 when it's believed that Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Feudal Government, met with Englishman William Adams. Although it's reported that the only interpreter between the two men was only well-versed in Portuguese, it didn't stop Tokugawa Ieyasu from having a very positive relation with William Adams whom remained in Japan for the remainder of his life.

However, after the death of Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1616, a change in the foreign policy of the Bakufu ordered the closing of the English merchants' office in 1623, which consequently prompted the English to leave Japan. With the refusal of letting the English return in 1673 and the British ship "the Phaeton" seizing goods in Nagasaki in 1808, the Bakufu ordered the feudal lords to repell all foreign ships, except the Dutch and Chinese, by the year 1825.

The first translation of any English grammar book into Japanese was ironically accomplished by Shibukawa Rokuzo, a high-ranking official of the Bakufu who had studied Dutch, in 1841 when he translated Murray's English Grammar from Dutch into Japanese. Then in 1848, American Ranald MacDonald came to Japan, after pretending to be shipwrecked, and taught English to fourteen official Japanese interpreters of Dutch in Nagasaki under Bakufu orders. It would be one of MacDonald's sutdents named Moriyama who would act as interpreter between the United States and Japan in order to establish trade relations.

After being rescued from a shipwreck and studying in the United States for ten years, Nakahama Manjirō wrote an English textbook called Ei-Bei Taiwa Shokei (A Shortcut to Anglo-American Coversation), which used Japanese kana for pronunciation and the kanbun (Chinese classics) word-order system. This text would later become influential in shaping the methods of teaching and learning English in Japan.

Yokohama Academy, one of the first English schools, was founded in Japan by the Bakufu in 1865 where American missionaries such as James Curtis Hepburn taught there. By the year 1874, there were 91 foreign language schools in Japan, out of which 82 of them taught English. And in 1923, Englishman Harold E. Palmer was invited to Japan by the Ministry of Education, where he would later find the Institute for Research in English Teaching in Tokyo and introduce the aural-oral approach to teaching English.

However, beginning from the 1880s, when Japan was fastly becoming a modernized country, books such as Shiga Shigetaka's Nihon Jin (にほんじん or 日本人) (The Japanese People) began to surface in order to warn the Japanese public about the dangers of Western influences. Hence, up until the end of World War II, there was a growing tension between Western ideology and national pride amongst the Japanese people.

In modern Japan, there seems to be conflicting views over how the Japanese people view the English language. On one side, it appears that there is much interest in acquiring a working knowledge of the English language, which can be demonstrated by the annual rise in STEP Eiken applicants and the number of Japanese media outlets that have begun to incorporate English-language programs into their repertoire, in order to participate in the global economy and international community. While at the same time, writers such as Henry J. Hughes and Mike Guest points out, Japan maintains being one of the most independent nations on Earth due to its isolated geographic location and amazing translation industry requiring hardly any use of English in daily life.

The Japanese School System and English Classes

According to the Ministry of Finance (Japan), in the 2004 fiscal year (FY) the General Account expenditures for measures related to education and science were ¥6,133.0 billion (or roughly $70.8 billion). (In comparison, the United States Department of Education's FY2009 budget was $62.6 billion.) With Japan ranking alongside with Finland and South Korea for the number 1 position in having the highest literacy rate in reading, mathematics, and science, it has one of the world's best education system.

See the "Structures" section of Education in Japan, where you will find a very impressive schemetic chart, with accompanying detailed explanation, of how the Japanese school system is broken down. In addition, visit the MEXT website[1] and click on School System pdf link in order to read up on the latest information about the current structure of the Japanese school system.

Some key things to note about the Japanese education policy on English programs include: English is not mandatory for elementary students, although MEXT has taken steps beginning in 1998 for a select number of public primary schools to have mandatory English classes ; many Japanese parents send their childrens to Eikaiwa schools starting even before elementary school; and that according to 2003 statistics provided by MEXT[2] children from ages 12 to 14 spend roughly 90 hours annually in a school classroom setting.

Traditionally, the Japanese have been using the Grammar-Translation Method, thanks in part to Nakahama Manjirō's ''kanbun'' system, to teach their students how to learn the English language. However, there are now new innovative ways that have been adapted into and outside the classroom setting where cell phones and pop culture books such as "The Speeches of Barack Obama" have been used to teach Japanese students about the English language.

Language Teaching Methods

See the "Methods of teaching foreign languages" section of Language education and also SECOND-LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS - Principles & Procedures for further details of each approach.

Grammar Translation Method- Also known as the Prussian Method, where it was developed in Prussia (now referred to as Germany) toward the beginning of the 19th century, the Grammar Translation Method stresses reading and writing as the primary language skills. The teacher focuses on explaining the grammatic rules of the language and uses activities such as direct translation and fill-in-the-blanks in order to promote memorization and visual connections between the students' native lexicon and the foreign language.

Direct Method- The Direct Method, also known as the natural method, emerged from the late 19th century, where it stood in direct contrast to the Grammar Translation method by targeting the development of the student’s speaking and listening comprehension skills as the primary language skills. The goal of the Direct Method is to have the student learning to think and communicate in the target language by getting the student to use the new language spontaneously and in meaningful/realistic context. Grammar is usually learned inductively by the students when they practice speaking with one another, while the teacher goes around the classroom correcting any mistakes.

Audiolingualism- Audiolingualism, or the Audio-lingual method, came in part as a result from the 1950s based off of structural linguistics and behaviorist psychology research conducted during World War II. One of the key features to this language learning approach is that it is believed that language can be mechanistically taught through extensive mimicry, memorization and "overlearning" of language patterns and forms. The student can either learn from an instructor or audio recordings. Nevertheless, the end result is the same with both approaches utilizing a drilling technique to promote automaticity.

Total Physical Response- The Total Physical Response approach is based off the thought that an adult can learn a second language similarly to how a child learns his or her first language. In this respect, the teacher and student take on a parent-child role where the teacher will issue commands and the student will response either verbally or physically. This "humanistic" approach began to become popular in the late 1970s in response to the "mechanic" approach of Audiolingualism.

The Natural Approach- The Natural Approach focuses on developing language skills in a natural, realistic manner. It combines features of both the Direct Method and Total Physical Response in which speaking the foreign language in a meaningful manner is the ultimate goal. The instructor usually focuses on vocabularly that the student would might likely use in a real-life setting and tries to minimize error correction in order for the student to feel comfortable with learning the new language.

Suggestopedia- Suggestopedia, also known as Desuggestopedia, came about during the same time as the Total Physical Response. However, this particular style of teaching requires that the instructor plays sort of a "inquirer" role. Instead of simply providing an answer to a student's question, the instructor gives suggestive commentary in order to guide the student toward a correct answer. Thus, the student is taught to critically think and reason for him/herself through new learning material by making connections to previously taught material.

The Silent Way- The Silent Way was developed in the early 1970s before Suggestopedia, and it too had a radical approach toward teaching students. In this case, the teacher plays the role of an "observer" while the students either study individually or congregate together to teach themselves new materials. The teacher primarily prepares grammar and vocabulary exercies, props, and visual aids in which the students can use in order to perform and master specific language tasks. Although this technique is good for allowing the students to teach themselves, the major downfall to this method is that corrections to any mistakes are often overlooked.

Cybernautical Approach- The Cybernautical Approach, also referred to as Computer-assisted language learning, shifts away from the traditional classroom setting, teacher-centered teaching approach where individual attention is not always guaranteed to each student. The learning process is solely based off the use of a computer with the language learning program coming from commericial online/retail software, online schools, virtual worlds, and websites and blogs from either professional or public providers. Some of the major benefits to this approach include: immediate access to learning material, self-paced learning, reduced anxiety and fears of criticism, and ability to learn from virtually anywhere.

Types of Learning Styles

Also read up on Theory of multiple intelligences to examine the distinct types of intelligences, each with its own set of unique skills and abilities, that might reside in a learner.

Active Studial- The active studial learner is the self-sufficient type who can direct oneself to actively working out rules from examples and capable of working alone in order to learn new material.

Passive Studial- The passive studial learner on the other hand relies more on the teacher, likes to be told rules, and is less confident when it comes to taking initiative of the learning process.

Active Experimental- The active experimental learner is the type who likes to take risks and is not afraid of making mistakes. This type of learner primarily likes to perform and/or talk through an activity, rather than studying a set of rules, in order to understand something.

Passive Experimental- The passive experimental learner might enjoy the social aspects of learning, but prefers to learn from experiences acquired as an observer rather than as an active participatant.

Dynamic Learner- The type who likes to work either alone or in a group when completing an assigned task in order to self-discover how something works based mostly off of intuition.

Practical Learner- The "hands-on" type who needs to know how things work through knowledge acquried by firsthand experiences.

Innovative Learner- The type who needs to know “why” he or she is learning something, particularly connecting the learning material to personal experiences and establishing how the information is pertinent in daily life.

Helpful Tips for English Teachers

Besides being able to determine what types of learning style and multiple intelligence a student possesses, the teacher should also be aware of the following characteristics in his or her student:

1. Age
2. Cultural Background
3. Stage of L2 (second/foregin language) Learning
4. Extrinisic and Intrinsic Motivational Factors
5. Personal Goals
6. Amount of Self-Confidence
7. Amount of Doubt/Anxietiy/Fear
8. Amount of Determination/Initiative

Starting off with the matter of how old the student is, one can imagine how a child learns differently compared to an adult. Children are usually not afraid of making mistakes and are therefore more willing to experiment with a foreign language. While on the other hand, adults tend to be shy and afraid when it comes to trying to take a risk in practicing new language skills. In addition, children have limited concentration spans when compared to adults; however, children tend to learn a new language more quickly than adults.

Frequently when a student learns a foreign language, he or she must also learn about the social cultures associated with where that language resides in. Since it's very dificult to make connections between one's native culture and a foreign culture that may reside on the other side of the globe, students struggle to fully understand the syntax and nuance of a L2 language. Furthermore, when it comes to actually practicing and using the L2 language with a native L2 speaker, students tend to become anxious about possibly sounding weird, not making any sense, and having horrible pronunciation; therefore, they shy away from speaking the L2 language altogether.

However, by addressing the anxieties of the students, the English instructor can help to come up with cognitive, affective, and behavioral strategies in which students can use to cope with the anxiety they experience in English language classrooms. Since researchers like Joseph Falout and his colleagues point out, "demotivation can negatively influence the learner’s attitudes and behaviors, degrade classroom group dynamics and teacher’s motivation, and result in long-term and widespread negative learning outcomes." In addition to helping students out with their anxieties, the teacher should also have a good idea about the students' learning strategies and their motivation, in order that he or she can focus on "positive motivations [that] will be helpful to the students in acquiring new information and decrease the effects of negative motivations which can interfere with the students’ second language acquisition".

Resourceful Links for English Teachers

Please note that the following links are not intended for advertisement purposes, but rather, intended to be helpful sites for English educators.

Sounds of English

This first website would be particularly useful for any level ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, from the novice beginner to even the more experienced. The Sounds of English website offers printable handouts and online listening exercises among a vast array of teaching approaches that are aimed to create and execute effective lesson plans. Most of the exercises focus on the important aspects of phonology and language analysis in order to help teachers become better at introducing the English language to their students. Some of these activities include vowel and final constant recognition, word stress, and follow along pronunciation charts. More importantly, the website gives helpful suggestions on how to integrate fun classroom activities that strive to promote group activities, incorporate different learning styles and multiple intelligences, and increase student motivation. In addition to making recommendations on classroom activities and exercises, the website is a great source for English professionals to improve and/or self evaluate their own understanding of teaching the English language by looking over presentations from other teaching professionals around the world who have posted their thoughts onto the online community blog. In using this website as both a source to come up with effective lesson plans and assess one's own teaching approach, ESL teachers would be able to further develop positive traits which are seen in an effective teaching professional.

BBC Learning English

The second website is the Learning English section of the online BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) website. It is a great resource for both ESL teachers and students with an amazing selection of informative videos that show just how each English phoneme is pronounced by an actual human demonstration, online quizzes, downloadable podcasts and widgets, radio programs, and much more! Not only does the site help those learning English for either school and/or personal reasons, it also even has a section for those learning English particularly for business roles. Another aspect that is distinctively important is that the website incorporates real life media among its provided teaching tools. The inclusion of the main stream media is important because it allows specifically the ESL students to make a connection between what they learn in the classroom to what is practical in real life. The practicality of the English media allows for the students to become more interested and thus possibly more motivated to further developing their English skills so that they may be able to better understand and communicate with others around the world through online socializing networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, in which the BBC also provides links for on its online community. Therefore, the BBC section on Learning English can be used not only as a good tool for learning the English language but also to apply what one learns toward practical applications.

English Language Learning and Teaching

This third website comes from an individual by the name of Ted Power. He specifically created a website that could be used by individuals who are either generally interested in learning/teaching English and/or acqurining a TEFL/TESOL certificate. The site is well-organized for the most part and there are numerous topics that are covered about understanding and teaching the English language. Under most of these topics, there are recommended books that are listed for further analysis, helpful links to research papers about English studies, and easily navigable summaries and diagrams. Like the other previously mentioned websites, this one also provides an extensive amount of handout and activity suggestions in which an English instructor can base some of his or her classroom time around. For the most part, an individual using this website to learn more about the English language and approaches to teaching English should sparingly try to read about and understand everything that is provided. The reason being that some of the topics covered tend to be very lengthy and, quite frankly, irrelevant at times.

Resources for Teaching English in Japan

Dave's ESL Cafe - public and private postings of English teaching positions in Japan

JET - The Japanese Exchange and Teaching Progamme - governmental teaching position

Teaching English in Japan - provides great insight and links covering every aspect of teaching english in Japan

Teaching Abroad in Japan Resources - provides various links for finding a teaching position, acquiring a teaching certificate, living in Japan, etc.

Further Readings

• MEXT - Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
• Teaching English as a foreign language
• Glossary of language teaching terms and ideas