THE CURRENT SITUATION AND ISSUES WITH ENGLISH LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN JAPAN AFTER SIX YEARS OF IMPLEMENTATION

Article History ABSTRACT English education in public primary schools in Japan started in 2011 not as a subject but as an area of foreign language activities in Japan. However, the preparation was poor and homeroom teachers without proper training were required to teach English. Since then, the issue has become highly controversial in Japan. To clarify the actual situation, we conducted surveys three times between 2012 and 2017 and found many problems. Nevertheless, English will become a compulsory subject from April, 2020, but before we see any major improvements by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), more careful study on the problems is an urgent need and therefore, we would like to utilize the results of our research. This paper attempts to study the changing situation and to point out the necessary conditions for possible reforms by comparing and analyzing the results of the latter two surveys. Received: December 18, 2019 Accepted: February 02, 2020 Published: March 30, 2020

Secondly, a private think-tank researched about the EL activities and it also showed the possibility of using ICT (Eiken Foundation of Japan, 2015). This research asked for comments on the methods and the contents of EL Activities, but did not inform us about the actual situations of the lessons and teachers. Moreover, even though the research was conducted among not only public primary schools but also private primary schools and national primary schools, it did not mention correlations between teaching environments of those schools and results.
Benesse Education General Institute also researched about English education in primary schools in Japan in 2015. They questioned more than 1500 pairs of primary school students and their parents, but did not include primary school teachers.
In contrast, Yonezaki, Tara and Tsukuda (2016) researched primary school teachers' anxiety about teaching English and provided specific recurring examples of their anxieties. This was informative and useful to confirm our research results.
We also studied one of the latest research papers on the issue "Insights from Elementary School Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in Japan" (Kano & Ozeki, 2018). This study analyzed ALT's' descriptive answers reported in the large-scale research (Yoshida, et al. 2015). When focusing solely on ALTs' situations, their analysis is greatly suggestive.
However, unlike the above, our research dealt with the situations of primary school teachers, ALTs and English Activity supporters (EASs). Furthermore, we attempted to find out how their situations were evolving by conducting the same surveys in 2014 and 2017.
In addition to the above-mentioned, we referred to a monthly magazine, New English Classroom (Koubunken) that has often featured the problem.

METHODS AND RESULTS
We used almost the same questions as in 2014 and added questions, taking into consideration the 6 th year of implementation. We researched schools, assistant language teachers (ALTs) and English Activity supporters (EASs). We sent research papers to one of the schools in every city throughout Japan. All the research data was returned by fax. The response rate and other basic data are as follows: We asked about the structure and composition of the English Activity lessons and who was teaching the classes. Basically, more than 60 % of classes were taught by classroom teachers together with ALTs. Classes where lessons were taught only by a classroom teacher comprised 14.6%. And classes taught by an English teacher alone made up 0.9% of classes, which was the ideal that was hoped for by teachers. MEXT prepared "Hi, friends!" as the textbook for EL Activities in 2012 to enrich English Activity lessons and distributed it to every primary school in Japan. When we researched in 2014, there were still some schools that used original materials but in 2017 almost all the schools used only "Hi, friends!". They used only the manual plan that MEXT had made.

Teaching Materials and Lesson plans
The research in 2014 indicated that the originality of each school was being lost rapidly and the tendency has been increasing year by year. However, it is also pointed out that there were still a few public primary schools using their own original materials. "Hi, friends!" dealt with letters and teachers used letters in their lessons. However, MEXT insisted that teachers should not use letters when they teach English to children in primary schools. In the lessons, children wanted to read and write letters eagerly and the MOE changed the method. The tendency was the same as 3 years before. The percentage of classes using phonics greatly increased because they were taken from the textbook, "Hi, friends!". Other foreign languages were not being used much in the lessons. 18.4 6.1 According to the official course of study for primary school, classroom teachers or teachers of English had to write the teaching plans. However, it is a little hard for classroom teachers to make their own lesson plans because most of them have no experience teaching English. They have to create their teaching plans in English when they teach English to children, alongside the ALTs.

Teachers in Charge of the Lesson Planning
The ratio of classroom teachers that make teaching plans was increasing and also the ratio of ALTs was increasing although the course of study did not indicate the role of the ALTs in making teaching plans. Many local boards of education contracted with staffing agencies and the agencies made teaching plans for the schools, and so the English lessons were done according to those plans.

Results of the ALT Research and Considerations
We asked ALTs 8 questions and they answered sincerely with a lot of comments and opinions in English. We translated them into Japanese and summarized them. 13.5 ⑥ includes the answers of those hired by their board of education and they are the same answers as ②. The numbers of cities that hired ALTs through staffing agencies increased. There were a lot of problems regarding the contracts. 12.4 ⑤ contained the ALTs who worked at several schools in a week. They had no time to talk with teachers. More than 60 % of ALTs had little time to discuss their classes. 7 More than 60% of the schools, classroom teachers and ALTs prepared for lessons beforehand, but around 20% of ALTs prepared for some just minutes before the lessons. 13.0 ④ Others answered that it depended on the schools. The ALTs visited two or three schools a week and helped the classroom teachers. In many schools, the classroom teachers had to lead their classes. 3 Half of the schools taught EL Activities in a TT setting. But more than 30% of ALTs mainly taught EL Activities themselves and around 10% of ALTs taught the English lessons completely by himself or herself. This showed that the government forced classroom teachers to teach but in actuality, locally it was a little difficult for teachers to do so.

Results of the English Supporter Research and Considerations
We also asked English Activity supporters (EASs) about their work. The answer rate was 4.9% and this number was almost the same as the situation throughout Japan. It meant that only 5% of local governments hired EASs. The state of the preliminary meeting was almost the same as 3 years before. In this situation, almost all EASs were good at English. They could prepare the lessons themselves. Hence they could have preliminary meetings for a short time in Japanese.

Results of the EL Activities Research and Consideration
We asked principals, ALTs and EASs about the results of the EL Activities. ⑨ Difficult to get parents' understanding 0.6 0 ⑩ Others 7.5 8.0 The percentage of answers in almost all categories increased. This meant that questions and problems were being actualized year by year. Especially the differences of ability among teachers was becoming greater and greater. The relations between ALTs and classroom teachers were becoming better but the attitude of classroom teachers towards EL Activities and the control of the classroom were becoming worse for ALTs. The success or failure of teaching depended on classroom teachers. 'The Report of Study Research on the Situation of ALTs in Primary, Secondary and High schools in Japan' (Yoshida, et al. 2015(Yoshida, et al. & 2017 showed this problem as the highest percentage. As a whole, the relations between classroom teachers and English Activity supporters were becoming better. However, they thought that the role of assistants was becoming unclear. Some classroom teachers did well with them but others entrusted them and shifted their work onto assistants.

How to Make Improvements
We asked principals, ALTs and EASs about how to make improvements on such problems. As a whole, they answered according to their practical experiences. ⑱ Use better materials 0 7.2 ⑲ ALTs should learn how to teach 0 5.1 ⑳ Put importance on students' self-respect 0 2 ALTs also thought it was better to increase the number of teachers who have the ability to teach English. Another point of improvement would be to make the curriculum and materials better. 30.0 ⑥ Others 0.0 5.0 EASs were almost always hired as part-time workers. They had to move to other schools every year according to the schools' needs. They knew English well, but did not know how to teach English to primary students. They also wanted to teach as licensed teachers. 8 To hire teachers of English was the most urgent desire for primary schools in Japan followed by offering teaching materials.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
According to the research above, we explained the characteristics of EL Activities implemented between 2014 and 2017. Here we chose 7 points to outline the problems of EL Activities in Japanese primary schools and analyze the research results. All these points were taken from the research.

Points to consider: 4.1. English Activities Should Be Taught by Classroom Teachers or Teachers of English
The course of study by MEXT required that classroom teachers or teachers of English should teach English Activities. The Ministry's director always said in the training sessions that classroom teachers were best because they knew their students through spending time with them teaching multiple subjects. However, teaching English is totally different from teaching other subjects. They need specific training for that and, a matter of course, English language skills. The research showed that the more EL Activities were practiced, the more teachers of English were wanted by not only classroom teachers but also principals, ALTs and EASs. However, there are not enough well-prepared teachers at all. Therefore, even EASs were expected to act as the main teachers, because of their English language skills and capability in communicating with classroom teachers, ALTs and administrative staff in both English and Japanese.

The Role of ALTs and How to Best Use Them
The course of study also said that teachers should cooperate with ALTs according to the situational needs of each lesson. Many local governments hired ALTs as per their budgets only, while more than 80% of schools adopted ALTs into their English Activity lessons. It was a good way for students to make contact with foreign peoples and different cultures. Research from 2014 already showed that students were greatly motivated to learn foreign languages. Moreover, the rate of children who enjoyed the opportunity to communicate in a foreign language increased almost 10%. On that point, the significance of ALT was great. However, the number of ALTs who felt unable to control students increased significantly, and the rate of the ALTs who had difficulty in responding to students who lack confidence or motivation is still high. In addition to that, the answers from the principals showed that primary schools ultimately preferred teachers of English and EASs. Local governments hired ALTs yearly and schools had to correspond to this. They had to discuss teaching in English even though they were not good at English. They wanted the same ALTs to come back every year.

The Role of English Supporters
Many of ALTs could not speak Japanese well and it was difficult to teach English Activities using Japanese. That made them difficult to correspond with students well. They were also supposed to use only English. But this research showed that ALTs felt the necessity to use Japanese in their lessons and the importance of smooth and sufficient communication between classroom teachers and them. Herein EASs could play the important role of a coordinator utilizing their language skills in both Japanese and English.
However, they were hired as part-time supporters and their status was unclear. Some classroom teachers asked them to mainly teach the lessons and others asked to them to only make materials. That could have made them unmotivated through no fault of their own. This was also due to financial problems. Only 5% of local governments hired EASs.

Students Who "Hate" English in Primary School
About 80 % of the Japanese primary students appeared to eagerly learn English (Benesse, 2015). However, in our research, teachers and ALTs who were actually teaching classes revealed that the reality was not so positive and there were a lot of students who "hated" English even from the beginning of primary school. Moreover, there were a lot of problems such as the huge gap among students' skills and willingness and teachers' abilities to motivate them. If the current situations did not improve, the number of the students who "hated" English would increase. The research showed that not only principals but ALTs were troubled by this problem. Public schools should cultivate all students' abilities and interests in language learning. Urgent improvement is strongly required.

Textbooks and Materials
MEXT prepared the textbooks "Hi, friends! 1" and "Hi, friends! 2" for EL Activities in 2012. However, the research shows that classroom teachers and ALTs were not satisfied with the textbooks, commenting on their insufficient contents and the need for other teaching materials. Therefore, some local boards of education prepared their own textbooks and used them.
In 2018, MEXT provided every primary school with the second textbooks "We can! 1" and "We can! 2." It seemed to be a step forward, however, the teachers still had difficulties to utilize them in their lessons. In addition to that, from April 2020, new authorized textbooks will be used. Every local board of education has already chosen one textbook among seven offered. These textbooks will not be used for the EL Activities but only for English study as an academic subject. The EL Activities will start from the third grade of primary schools. We should explore how these new textbooks will work.

Appointment of Teachers of English
The research in 2014 showed that primary schools wanted teachers of English and the research in 2017 speeded up the necessity of it. This tendency was also shown in another study. (Eiken Foundation of Japan, 2015). English is a foreign language different from other subjects. If it is hard for classroom teachers to speak English, how much harder it must be to actually teach English.
Although principals are aware of the great capabilities classroom teachers have, when it comes to teaching English as a required subject, it is indispensable for schools to have specialized English teachers. That is what has been claimed throughout the six years of implementation of EL Activities.

Early EL Activities and Curriculum
In the survey, we asked about the introduction of the subject of English from the fifth grade and the start of the EL Activities from the third grade. Many principals in primary schools had anxieties and doubts about that especially because of the lack of teaching competencies and sufficient time for preparations, and the difficulty in communicating with ALTs, the result showed. Since there have been no concrete and major improvements on the problems of foreign language education in primary schools in Japan, the principals represent those who take part in EL Activities who hope to cultivate every student's willingness to learn a foreign language and communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds.
Since the introduction of English Education into public primary schools was suggested by The Provisional Education Council in 1986, there have been revisions of the course of study and implementations of different forms of English education. However, our research has revealed that MEXT has not adequately discussed their consequences, nor allotted the necessary budget for precise and satisfying preparations for proper implementation. To our regret, despite such current conditions, the primary school English curriculum as an academic subject will commence from April, 2020.
This research is a little behind the times, however, currently, it is apparent that we still have the same problems that need urgent solutions in many of the ways we mentioned above. At this point we should conduct an even more detailed research study on the issues and continue to require concrete reforms.