Comments on: National curriculum issues in Japan http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/03/12/national-curriculum-issues-in-japan/ From kimono to keitai; research Japanese facts and figures through translated opinion polls and surveys. Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:35:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Charles Jannuzi http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/03/12/national-curriculum-issues-in-japan/#comment-84699 Charles Jannuzi Sat, 10 May 2008 04:39:22 +0000 http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/03/12/national-curriculum-issues-in-japan/#comment-84699 They ought not to ask anyone what they think of such things EXCEPT students now in school and their teachers. And in the case of 5th graders, let them have one session of pair practice in English with a textbook called Fuzzy from Gondwanaland (or something like that from one of the ELT publi$her$), and then let them decide if they really want to learn English at that age. If you add the too early negatives with the too late negatives, you can see most respondents could be said to be against English at the elementary schools. They ought not to ask anyone what they think of such things EXCEPT students now in school and their teachers. And in the case of 5th graders, let them have one session of pair practice in English with a textbook called Fuzzy from Gondwanaland (or something like that from one of the ELT publi$her$), and then let them decide if they really want to learn English at that age.

If you add the too early negatives with the too late negatives, you can see most respondents could be said to be against English at the elementary schools.

]]> By: TokyoDevil http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/03/12/national-curriculum-issues-in-japan/#comment-73350 TokyoDevil Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:21:09 +0000 http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/03/12/national-curriculum-issues-in-japan/#comment-73350 Hmm ... Be nice to have a breakdown of why people think 5th grade is too early, just right or too late. From a physiological standpoint -- i.e. the manner in which language is processed in the human brain -- study of a second language should begin by age 3. I believe this has to do with the way brains process grammar. Since Japanese and English grammar are significantly different, study of English should be undertaken when brains are still quite malleable (yeah, yeah, I know). By the time children have reached age 11-12 (5th grade), Japanese grammar is firmly established as the template upon which language is learned, making it more of a challenge to get the brain to accept English grammar. Nice to see that people want to go back to 3.14. As for teacher quality ... my children are enrolled in Japanese elementary school, and the teaching staff is crap. Good news for the juku industry, bad news for everyone else. Hmm … Be nice to have a breakdown of why people think 5th grade is too early, just right or too late. From a physiological standpoint — i.e. the manner in which language is processed in the human brain — study of a second language should begin by age 3. I believe this has to do with the way brains process grammar. Since Japanese and English grammar are significantly different, study of English should be undertaken when brains are still quite malleable (yeah, yeah, I know). By the time children have reached age 11-12 (5th grade), Japanese grammar is firmly established as the template upon which language is learned, making it more of a challenge to get the brain to accept English grammar.

Nice to see that people want to go back to 3.14.

As for teacher quality … my children are enrolled in Japanese elementary school, and the teaching staff is crap. Good news for the juku industry, bad news for everyone else.

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