Break 'passive' English effort: expert
Efforts to foster a generation of more globally competitive talent will not bear fruit unless Japan breaks away from its traditional penchant for "passive" written English exams, Perry Akins, a well-known expert in the field of English-language education, said Friday in Tokyo. Akins, former president ...
Letters and online responses to the Jan. 6, 13 and 20 Learning Curve columns by Teru Clavel on English education.
No time for free reading? You can make it up at university
I hope 2014 has started well for all our readers. Lifelines kicks off the Year of the Horse with an email from overseas reader Hannah, who has several questions about the Japanese education system: How often do English teachers administer dictation to their students? And ...
Immersion tactics come with risks and benefits
Some parents opt to immerse their children at a young age in a multilingual environment, hoping they will become not only bilingual but also have new avenues of opportunity open up.
Schools fret about assistant teachers ahead of proposed 2020 reforms
With education reform expected to place a great deal of emphasis on English, officials worry about the uneven quality of foreign assistant language teachers.
Tokyo-area teachers of English face three-month honing home-stay abroad
The Tokyo Board of Education is planning to require that all young English teachers at its junior and high schools study and live in English-speaking countries for three months.
Parents give kids early start in English
More and more parents are interested in having their children start studying English even before they turn 1, with an eye on giving them an advantage in their future careers. At S&S International School, an English school for infants in Yokohama, 2-year-olds were fluently pronouncing ...
Tokyo panel mulls ways to enhance high school English education
A panel of experts kicked off discussions Thursday on measures to enhance English education at Tokyo's public high schools, aiming to enable students to acquire practical communications skills and become more global-oriented. "I'd like the experts to discuss various topics, including how to improve English ...
LDP plans expansion of JET program
The number of teachers hired for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program would be doubled in three years under a proposal drafted by the Liberal Democratic Party to boost Japan's global competitiveness and nurture international talent. According to the draft of a midterm report by ...
LDP looks to double JET Program's ranks in three years
The number of teachers in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program might double in three years under a new economic proposal.
To communicate in English, TOEFL is vital: LDP panel
English-language education at public schools should shift in emphasis to verbal communications skills, and for that purpose, universities must adopt the Test of English as a Foreign Language for entrance exams, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party's education reform panel said. If the TOEFL ...
The proposal that all students take TOEFL to enter university shows that the LDP sees the need for better English in Japan but is missing the answer.
