OBSTACLES FACING EFFORTS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN JAPANESE SCHOOLS

Our February meeting will be held on Sunday12th February from 1:30 PM to 4:00 PM in room 453 in Building 5 of Aichi University and will feature Robert Aspinall, Coordinator of PALE SIG, in a joint meeting with that group.

His presentation considers various explanations for the failure of the Japanese education system to provide the country with a number of citizens sufficiently skilled in the use of English, the global lingua franca, to enable Japan to "punch its weight" in international forums. Customs, expectations and beliefs that are suitable to achieving progress in subjects like science and mathematics cause serious problems in the communicative foreign language classroom. This factor, combined with the entrance exam system, helps to explain why Japan has achieved enviable records of achievement in subjects like mathematics and science but suffers from serious problems with English language learning. Finally the presentation will address various possible solutions to some of the problems raised.

Read about last month's meeting.