A private advisory panel to Education Minister Hirofumi Nakasone set up to review and revise English-teaching methods in Japanese schools has recommended that entertaining methods be used to teach in elementary schools.

In a draft interim report disclosed this week, the panel, led by Mineo Nakajima, president of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, proposed using methods such as singing and playing games to familiarize those in third-grade and above with the English language.

The draft stated that it will support the introduction of English in elementary schools as part of the government's new education program to debut in April 2002.