For too long, schools in Japan have done a poor job of preparing English language learners for the real world.
Although Japanese students learn English for six years starting in junior high school, too many still can’t speak the language. A closer look at instruction reveals the reasons.
Almost all lessons are designed to help students pass the written university entrance exams. These measure only writing and grammar, rather than conversation. There’s nothing at all wrong with learning the former, but it’s highly unlikely that they will transfer to the latter.
That’s because they violate what in athletics is known as “specificity of training.” The closer what happens in the gymnasium mimics what happens on the playing field, the higher the likelihood of transfer. Therefore, if the goal is for students to speak English, students should be given appropriate practice in the classroom speaking English.
Proficiency in speaking any foreign language is directly dependent on the number of hours spent speaking the language in question.The hours devoted to learning grammar have little carryover to speaking.
It was altogether predictable, therefore, that the education ministry’s targets for reading, listening, writing, and speaking English by junior high and high school students were not reached.