<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html><!-- InstanceBegin template="/Templates/jsyle_top07a.dwt" codeOutsideHTMLIsLocked="false" --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en" /> <meta name="robots" content="all" /> <meta name="keywords" content="jstyle,japan,australia,japanese,food,living,style,beauty,news cinema,business,information,Sydney,GoldCoast,Brisbane,Perth,Melbourne,Cairns" /> <meta name="description" content="Nichigo Press jstyle is a quarterly English-language magazine that deals with a wide variety of Japan-related topics in an Australian context." /> <meta name="rating" content="general" /> <meta name="author" content="NICHIGO PRESS" /> <meta name="copyright" content="NICHIGO PRESS" /> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="doctitle" --> <title>jstyle -The Japan you were looking for is right here!-</title> <!-- InstanceEndEditable --> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript"> <!-- function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0 var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3) if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];} } function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0 var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc; } function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0 var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array(); var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++) if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}} } function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.01 var p,i,x; if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) { d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);} if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n]; for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document); if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x; } //--> </SCRIPT> <link href="../../../css/style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> </head> <body bgcolor=black> <table width="800" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <tr align="center"> <td width="180"><a href="../../../index.html"><img src="../../../img/title_s.gif.jpg" width="180" height="75" alt="jstyle top" border="0" /></a><br><br> </td> <td width="620"><div align="right"><a href="http://event.rakuten.co.jp/borderless/index_en.html" target="_blank"><img src="../../../img/rakuten-en.gif" alt="Nekoma" width="486" height="60" border="0"></a></div></td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td colspan="2"><hr size="2"></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="body" --> <div style="background-color:#FFFFFF"> <table width="800" border="0"> <tr> <td><center> <img src="http://jstyle.25today.com/topics/img/title.gif" width="762" height="31"> <img src="http://jstyle.25today.com/culture/title.gif" width="762" height="50"> <table width="762" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td> <div class="sec"> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="NewImg"> <table width="300" border="0" align="right" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td ><img src="img/J808_EDUC_H02.jpg" alt="education" width="300" height="200"></td> </tr> <tr> <td ><small>English education being taught in a primary school in Tahara, Aichi prefecture &copy;Tahara City</small></td> </tr> </table> </div> <h1><font color="blue">Elementary schools recruiting for early English education</font></h1> <p>A globally competitive country is one that has fostered &quot;listening&quot; and other key communication skills in its people. Elementary-level students are best placed to pick up such skills relatively easily and effectively, so the Japanese Government has moved to introduce weekly foreign-language activities in the fifth and sixth years of schooling.</p> <p>English will be the most common language taught, with individual schools to set goals for each year level that reflect its students and local community. Lesson plans will be created and implemented by classroom teachers with native English speakers involved where possible.</p> <div class="NewImg"> <table width="218" border="0" align="left" cellspacing="5"> <tr> <td width="218"><img src="img/J808_EDUC_E02.gif" alt="education" width="218" height="200" align="left"></td> </tr> </table> </div> <p>The new curriculum guidelines, introduced in March this year, will introduce many students to a foreign language for the first time. The aim is to take advantage of an age where students are most amenable to learning new sounds, helping to make the experience fun. Foreign-language activities will focus on learning greetings, introductions and expressions used when playing with friends. As well as developing familiarity with the pronunciation and rhythm of English, the activities are intended to prompt students to recognise key differences between Japanese and English and to appreciate the fun and richness of language. Another important theme will be to deepen understanding of other cultures.</p> <p>According to a survey on English activities in public elementary schools, around 80 per cent undertake English activities and as many as 93.6 per cent of schools have English activities in some other form. Of these schools, 97 per cent use songs and games to let students grow familiar with English, while 94.8 per cent use simple conversational activities such as learning English expressions, greetings and introductions. The survey also revealed 73 per cent of elementary schools are involved in English pronunciation practice, with the average time spent on such lessons through the year being 13.7 periods (each period is 45 minutes long).</p> <div class="NewImg"> <table width="267" border="0" align="right" cellspacing="5"> <tr> <td width="267"><img src="img/J808_EDUC_H01.jpg" alt="education" width="267" height="200"></td> </tr> </table> </div> <p>Parents and carers hope elementary English activities will positively affect children's attitudes to English studies. Key expectations of parents surveyed include their children having&quot;the ability to be comfortable communicating with foreigners&quot;, &quot;having an interest in foreign countries&quot; and &quot;enjoying English&quot; while cultivating real communication skills in another language. These may reflect the desire of parents for their children to increase their interest in English without developing a resistance to the subject, considering that elementary school lessons will now be one of the first entrance points for English study.</p> <p>Parents and carers surveyed also want their children to learn English from qualified, native-speaking foreigners. Until recently, simply being a foreigner had been deemed good enough but increasingly, there is a demand for higher-quality teachers who are adept in fostering children's skills and who have acquired knowledge or experience in education. This has resulted in a recent trend where foreigners are assigned to schools after meeting the requirements of local-government boards of education and undergoing some teacher training. There are around nine companies in Japan now recruiting ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers). The JET Program, a Japanese Government initiative to attract foreigners to Japan for teaching roles, is another source of ALTs.</p> </div></td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <!-- InstanceEndEditable --> <table width="100%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <tr> <td><img src="../../../img/spacer.gif" alt="space" width="20" height="20"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <tr> <td align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><a href="../../../index.html">Back to top page</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" bgcolor="#666666"><font color="#FFFFFF">Copyright &copy; 2006-2007 NICHIGO PRESS All rights reserved.</font></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body> <!-- InstanceEnd --></html>