Can you speak English? In Japan we study English at least 6years, from junior high school to high school. 6 years is really long periods, but despite of this fact many people can’t speak English. Why not? I think this is because of the content of English classes. I believe it’s time to change English education in Japan.
What is Japanese English education at the moment?I say it is just for the entrance examinations of Universities. We have to pass those exams to enter universities. In those exams we don’t need speaking skills just we need reading or writing skills. so we don’t practice speaking so much. That’s why we can’t speak English. We don’t get used to speak English. I believe speaking skills are needed the most for everything such as working, taking communication.
Nowadays the government is trying to change this situation. From this spring, fifth and sixth graders have to take English class as a required subject. It is good to learn English from a younger age but the problem is the teachers. In Japanese elementary schools each class have one teacher, so the teacher teaches every subject. In this case those teachers also teach English to children. Of course those teachers also can’t speak English like other people. According to a Japan times article more than 70% of teachers worry about teaching English. In this case it doesn’t seem worthwhile to teach English to children. Those teachers don’t have confidence with English, how children have confidence.
I believe we should take English lessons from native speakers or someone who specializes English. We need to speak English more than writing or reading. It’s time to think about this problem right now.