The future of “foreign language activities” in Japanese elementary school : From sociocultural perspective

This paper discusses the problems and the future prospects of primary English education in Japan. The author reviews the history of primary school English education in Japan, analyze the current curriculum (the 9th curriculum), and explain the recent announcement of English education reform made by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The reviews and analysis will show the current problems that the Japanese elementary school teachers have encountered and the possible changes that they will likely make in the near future. The problems are both quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative problems such as financial difficulty or the lack of teacher training program won’t be discussed as they are more administrative/political than academic ones. The qualitative problems resides more in the classroom life of students and teachers. The lack of clear principles and goals in the curriculum makes their classroom life difficult. The proposal for possible solutions to the problem is made based on the classroom research previously conducted by various research groups. The classroom analyses from the perspective of Vygotskian perspective reveals that experience-based playful learning can contribute much to foreign language learning of primary school students.