Staff writer

In the future, high school students may be taught to gesture like foreigners while in language class, but the latest draft of teaching guidelines proposed by the Education Ministry will probably not be enough for them to feel at ease with their English-speaking skills anytime soon, critics say.

"Schools have a fundamentally different concept of English language education" compared with private-conversation schools, said Yukitomo Ishimatsu, a representative of Nova Corp., the nation's leading English school chain. "While we think of English as a form of communication, (regular) schools still focus on the reading, writing, grammar and pronunciation that appears in tests."

Ishimatsu estimates that about 20 percent of Nova's students are in junior high, high school or college, and he does not expect this to change under the new guidelines.

In its latest draft of guidelines for language classes released earlier this month, the ministry encourages teachers to focus on gestures and eye contact and use "a wide range of actual examples," such as e-mail, speeches, debates and skits.

The draft is seen as a clear attempt to hammer home the importance of communication ability and endorses the continuation of oral communication classes, which began appearing in high school English language curricula in 1994, when the current teaching guidelines took effect.

Created to help foster practical communication ability instead of memorization skills, these classes were a response to criticism that the nation is raising students brilliant in grammar but literally tongue-tied when it comes to speaking another language.

However, efforts to encourage students to embrace these lessons are often thwarted by the time-tested conviction of students and educators that rote memorization leads to quick rewards in university entrance exams.

"Unfortunately, oral communication class time is sometimes used for reviewing grammar points and entrance exam questions," admits Masao Niisato, a senior foreign language curriculum specialist at the ministry's Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau.

The ministry has tried to move students away from rote memorization in its proposed draft, by cutting the minimum number of vocabulary words taught in English I, a required high school course, from 500 to 400.

Coupled with new cuts in the vocabulary load in junior high school curricula guidelines released in January, students will theoretically graduate from high school knowing 1,300 English words, compared with the current 1,500. "We want educators to become more aware that just because fewer words are taught, it does not necessarily mean less (content) is taught," Niisato said. "We want students to be able to truly master the vocabulary and grammar they acquire."

But critics question the effectiveness of reducing vocabulary and emphasizing conversational English in class.

Naomitsu Kumabe, a professor of English literature at Tokyo's Otsuma Women's University, worries that common conversation often taught in oral communication classes is in fact failing to raise students' interest in English. "If you want to heighten interest, you have to teach students the vocabulary they need to exchange views on issues that really matter to them," said Kumabe, who also heads the Institute for Research in Language Teaching, a nonprofit organization based in Tokyo.

Kumabe is especially critical of the tendency of oral communication classes to focus on daily conversation skills and its lessons on self-introductions, giving directions and talking to sales clerks.

Introducing yourself to a classmate you've known for years makes students feel foolish, giving directions based on a fictitious map is pointless and the only phrase most people use when talking to salespeople is "Just looking," Kumabe said.

"Are such lessons going to help students express their views in an international society?" Kumabe asked. It is "insulting" for young adults to go through such English lessons, he added.

Besides, no matter how much bureaucrats tinker with lesson content and curricula, such efforts cannot remove one glaring fact: students are immersed in a Japanese-speaking environment the moment they leave class. "What can an hour or two of oral communication (classes) a week do? You get the feeling that it's just there for show," complained Hisayuki Hashimoto, a 17-year-old student at Keio Boys' High School in Yokohama.

There were about 20 students in Hashimoto's 50-minute oral communication class last term. The class was held twice a week. This meant that if the instructor spoke for about 20 minutes per class, each student might get about three minutes a week to actually speak English, if the instructor wants to monitor student performance by having one student speak at a time.

"The (government's) teaching guidelines just show how idealistic the Education Ministry is," said Tsuyoshi Watanabe, who heads the foreign language department at a private boys' high school in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Physical limitations such as a shortage of class time and insufficient classroom equipment hinder the development of English proficiency under the curricula guidelines, thus it becomes increasingly important for teachers to instruct students to use the language outside of class, Watanabe said. "(More) time in the classroom should be used for students to solve (English language) problems that they can't solve on their own," he said.