Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
When learning a foreign language, developing strong linguistic skills is a challenge.
In Japan, English language teaching is heavily funded and introduced at an early stage in the school curriculum. However, many students still complete their studies without confidence in their ability to hold a conversation. This is actually not surprising. Tackling written assignments allows time for reflection and editing, but the on-the-spot nature of communicating verbally leaves the speaker vulnerable to embarrassing mistakes.
It’s not helpful that the assessment of English at schools normally focuses on grammar, while building competence in spoken English can be neglected. It is true that native speakers are often made available in the classroom, but their presence alone is unlikely to spark the sort of conversational tennis that the student will encounter in the English-speaking world.
When you lack confidence in speaking a language, it can affect your enjoyment of the subject. After all, what’s the point of cramming seemingly endless arcane grammatical constructions into your brain if you still can’t make a conversation with a native speaker? This may be why 60% of the Japanese students surveyed for this article said they didn’t enjoy learning English.
The problem is far from unique to Japan. In Britain, speaking and listening is a compulsory aspect of language learning. Yet 75% of UK adults are unable to hold even a basic conversation in a second language. This begs the question, "Where are we going wrong with our language learning?"
In my view, what the teaching of languages currently seems to lack is the necessary context for what language is. Namely, that language is a social tool through which we express ourselves and create bonds with other humans. We need to move away from textbooks and appreciate that the spoken word is more rebellious, more fluid and needs to be experienced, not just studied.
As has been discussed within language-learning literature for decades, finding a sense of self in a second language is difficult. Our ability to fully express ourselves through speech is what shapes our character. With a gift for self-expression, we can demonstrate wit and empathy and develop those little language quirks that our friends recognise as being unique to us. Learning a second language is often described as learning a new identity. But conversing about the weather or providing directions to the train station are hardly topics that can define the speaker as an individual.
The very nature of the classroom environment -- blackboards, textbooks, diligent students huddled over their notes -- is conducive to teaching written comprehension. And there are many tools for producing written learning materials. But what about tools for ensuring that speaking and listening skills develop at the same pace as writing?
One solution is for teachers to encourage students to tap into pop culture, in the form of freely accessible online podcasts, music, films, and TV programs in the target language. (Incidentally, is it a coincidence that the conversational English of learners in Scandinavia, where American TV shows are subtitled, is generally excellent, whereas, from my experience most shows on Japanese TV are dubbed?) Hearing the language used for its intended purpose would open a student’s eyes (and ears!) to how native English speakers manipulate language to express themselves, create social connections and explore their personality. Most importantly, it would make language-learning fun again by tying learning back into students’ interests and passions.
As I found during my own degree, audio resources are key to unlocking the enigma of spoken language proficiency. By proactively studying from recordings of speech, students can familiarise themselves with natural pronunciation, phrasing and intonation. They can understand the context for employing certain colloquialisms and how to utilize them to express their personality in a second language. After all, more often than not, how a native speaker communicates in speech is very different to how they write.
Furthermore, by recording practice conversations either by themselves or with a trusted peer, students can combat the fear of embarrassment at speaking in front of their fellow classmates. And with visual audio annotation software they can review recordings, and highlight and annotate where people drop articles, abbreviate, flip sentence structure or see how they use slang. Such tools can enable students to dig deeper into spoken language and truly study it effectively.
Ultimately, teachers of English must find ways to empower students to find their voice in order to transform language learning from an academic subject into a part of who they are. In doing so, teachers will bestow a valuable gift on their students. To paraphrase the novelist Edmund de Waal, with a confident grasp of languages, you are at home anywhere.
© Japan Today
9 Comments
Login to comment
katsu78
I welcome companies providing increased audio-video ESL/EFL resources, particularly those who can provide a well-indexed resource list (sorting clips by linguistic purpose, grammatical content, theme, etc), because finding the right video clip when I need it is often my biggest barrier to using them in class.
But to suggest that studying written English is anything less than an excellent way to learn self-expression or that the problem with English in Japan is the textbook medium (and not the way Japanese publishers arrange their content within the textbook medium) well, let's just say that deeply worries me about the expertise Tucker is really able to bring to bear on this problem. I've learned to be pretty suspicious of people who sell educational materials who can't reference language acquisition literature and instead talk about their own experience learning a language.
PTownsend
I have no firsthand knowledge of the way English is taught in Japanese schools, but from what I’ve heard it sounds like classes are an ordeal for most students. A reality is many people are not good language learners and many Japanese students will probably never need to use any language other than Japanese, so why force them to do something they don’t want or need to do? Secondary school education should not be based on a one-size-fits-all model.
I understand that English is lingua franca worldwide and believe that it will long remain so, but question why all (most?) Japanese students are required to take courses in it. Why can’t it be an elective course? If it were an elective, then most likely only students interested in learning to use the language would take it, perhaps resulting in better speakers overall.
If companies need some of their employees to use English, then the companies should set up specialised English training programmes to suit their specific requirements.
I agree with this, but humans also use language for a variety of purposes, the most obvious example being air-traffic controllers to pilots, a strictly functional use of language. Maybe the approach in Japan should be based on an as-needed basis; perhaps English should be taught primarily for specific purposes.
If Japan wants to further develop its tourist industry, and if Japan wants to be seen by the rest of the world as a good Rugby World Cup and Olympics Games host, then more effective ways of teaching languages to those who want to speak it need to be found. Most tourists I know come away from Japan disappointed in their ability to communicate with Japanese people.
shonanbb
Language learning is easy if you do it through food. Menus, recipes...hands on approach. It never ever fails. Believe me.
Same as teaching someone how to swim. Open your eyes under the water and see a new world.
Language is fun.
sighclops
Agreed. I am a teacher myself and always recommend my students to embrace 'foreign media' and find something to their tastes, be it an English cartoon or TV show. I learnt a lot of my Japanese from watching tonnes of Japanese anime, starting from the really basic (eg. Dragon Ball) to the super-difficult (Initial D, Evangelion etc.).
The problem is, Japan is such a 'closed' country that encouraging students (especially those of younger ages) to enjoy music, media & other resources from abroad is akin to extracting blood from a stone. You only have to look at the Japanese entertainment industry, TV in particular, to see Japan's real insularity. I've been here almost a decade and it still baffles me.
Asakura Cowboy
I agree that English should be optional and an elective, certainly at high school and university. Why force Japanese students to learn it if they have no chance/ plans to use it in the future? The same could be said for other subjects as well mind you. As PTownsend says, that way you would get far more motivated students in class and English teachers wouldn't have to deal with total indifference to English so much. I don't blame them for their attitude, because that's how I felt about some subjects at school too - difference was I could drop those subjects eventually, even math(s). Who cares if English is the Lingua Franca? They certainly don't. I have to teach compulsory English conversation to first year students at a national university, and feel sorry for the ones who dislike English, because they don't have a choice in the matter, even if they are shit at English and hate it with a passion. Most of them just see it purely as another class to gain credits, that's all.
Kabukilover
These are sincere and well meant sentiments. Unfortunately I have heard and read similar sentiments for years and years, and uttered such sentiments myself when I was an upstart in Japan. The reason these sentiments continue to be repeated is because English education has been a failure in this country. We have had something like half a century of TESOL, which was supposed to be the antidote to the grammar-translation dinosaur. We have seen every gimmick thrown at the English classroom: conversation, fun and games, the silent way, total physical response, CALL, exams, drills, rote memorization and study abroad. Yet today fewer Japanese are interested in English and want to study at foreign universities. When was the last time some pesky stranger came up to you and said, "May I speak English with you?" If you can remember a time you are likely way over 30.
Today, as before, people who need to learn English learn it and usually learn it well. The people who don't need English forget everything they have learned once they have passed their university entrance exams. There is no magic pill that can cure this.
Once there is a necessity for the populace to learn English everyone in Japan will know English.
lostrune2
English is a core class in other Asian countries, and they do just fine.
turbotsat
In the old days it was pen pals. Now the kids could have vid-pals, one-on-one videoconferencing with close-in-age friends wanting to learn Japanese, and switch off languages week-by-week.