世論 What Japan Thinks

With Japanese primary schools about to start compulsory English lessons, this survey from iShare took a look at people’s English ability and children’s English lessons. As it’s rather a long survey and lends itself into splitting into two, I’ll do just that.

Demographics

Over the 17th and 18th of January 2011 1,722 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service in full-time employment completed a private internet-based survey. 579 people had children of primary school age or younger, 62.0% of the sample were male, 52.2% in their thirties, and 47.8% in their forties.

I recently saw a program where they sent a guy to join an elementary school English class to see how he’d fare. It did seem rather useless, with a native English teacher leading the class in songs and roleplay but a Japanese teacher on hand to command the class. The roleplay feature was that essential skill for life, ordering fast food, with the opening line being a stereotypically Japanese pronunciation of “Harro!”; the kids however seemed to enjoy it and had a relatively good command of the rest of the script.

Research results

Q6: Did you know that from this coming school year (2011) children in 5th and 6th year of elementary school will be required to have one class per week on “Foreign language activities”, making English compulsory? (Sample size=1,722)

	All	Male N=1,067	Female N=655
Yes	44.6%	46.6%	41.4%
No	55.4%	53.4%	58.6%

Q7: How do you think Japan’s English ability will improve with English becoming compulsory for children in 5th and 6th year of elementary school? (Sample size=1,722)

	All	Male N=1,067	Female N=655
Improve a lot	1.9%	2.5%	0.9%
Improve a little	49.0%	49.6%	48.1%
Not improve	49.1%	47.9%	51.0%

Q8: With children in 5th and 6th year of elementary school learning English, do you think that English study outside of school will also be needed? (Sample size=1,722)

	All	Male N=1,067	Female N=655
Needed a lot (to SQ)	31.6%	33.1%	29.2%
Needed a little (to SQ)	45.2%	43.1%	48.7%
Not at all needed	23.2%	23.8%	22.1%

Q8SQ: What kinds of study outside of school will be necessary? (Sample size=1,323, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=813	Female N=510
Short-term study abroad, homestay	52.8%	51.0%	55.5%
English cram school, conversation classes	43.2%	42.9%	43.7%
Watching DVDs, other video	28.0%	25.2%	32.4%
Studying through games, computer software	21.8%	20.4%	23.9%
Listening to CDs, other audio	21.5%	18.1%	26.9%
Studying through internet	18.6%	18.7%	18.4%
Being taught by parents at home	9.8%	10.2%	9.2%
Other	8.2%	7.1%	9.8%

The next question was for those with children in elementary school or younger.

Q9: Is your child studying English outside of school? (Sample size=579)

	All	Male N=486	Female N=93
Yes (to SQs)	28.2%	28.0%	29.0%
No	71.8%	72.0%	71.0%

Q9SQ1: How is your child studying English outside of school? (Sample size=163, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=136	Female N=27
English cram school, conversation classes	49.1%	52.9%	29.6%
Watching DVDs, other video	33.7%	30.1%	51.9%
Listening to CDs, other audio	24.5%	25.7%	18.5%
Studying through games, computer software	23.9%	22.8%	29.6%
Being taught by parents at home	20.9%	21.3%	18.5%
Studying through internet	8.6%	8.8%	7.4%
Being taught by a friend who can speak English	3.1%	3.7%	0.0%
Short-term study abroad, homestay	1.8%	2.2%	0.0%
Other	8.0%	7.4%	11.1%

Q9SQ2: How is your child’s attitude towards studying English outside of school? (Sample size=163)

	All	Male N=136	Female N=27
Very positive	16.6%	16.9%	14.8%
Somewhat positive	59.5%	59.6%	59.3%
Not positive at all	23.9%	23.5%	25.9%

Q9SQ3: Do you see any improvements from your child’s studying English outside of school? (Sample size=163)

	All	Male N=136	Female N=27
Very much so	10.4%	10.3%	11.1%
A little	74.2%	75.7%	66.7%
Not at all	15.3%	14.0%	22.2%

Q10: How many people around you are good at teaching English? (Sample size=1,722)

	All	Male N=1,067	Female N=655
Nobody	70.3%	71.4%	68.5%
One person	12.4%	11.9%	13.1%
Two people	7.4%	6.5%	8.9%
Three people	2.6%	2.2%	3.2%
Four people	0.2%	0.1%	0.3%
Five or more people	7.1%	7.9%	6.0%

Q11: Do you think there are currently enough English teachers in elementary schools? (Sample size=1,722)

	All	Male N=1,067	Female N=655
Yes	14.3%	13.8%	15.3%
No	85.7%	86.2%	84.7%