Toward Coherent English Schools Education in Japan : A Survey on English Language Acquisition and English Language Retention

Research on how to develop the ability of English acquisition and retention with the goal of English education to be included in the Japanese Elementary School Integrated Education Curriculum.The objective of this research is to improve the heavily oral-orientated elementary English curriculum·currently being taught in Japan to a curriculum with more emphasis on reading skills.The hypothesis being that this would be more efficient in retaining English skills.To this end，I undertook research on documents，Japanese returnees and English education programs at home and abroad.In2004 and 2005，I，1.gathered and analyzed data for language retention of Japanese returnees，and examined linguistic retention and loss in Japanese returnees，2.surveyed the current status of English programs in Japan，3.visited primary schools in the United States(California and New Mico and English programs in Japan，3.visited primary schools in the United States)I have learned，(1)the need of staged instruction from the emphasis on listening and speaking to the introduction of reading skills，(2)the importance of developing phonemic awareness as a key bridge to build improved English education in elementary schools and in junior high schools in Japan。

Research on how to develop the ability of English acquisition and retention with the goal of English education to be included in the Japanese Elementary School Integrated Education Curriculum.The objective of this research is to improve the heavily oral-orientated elementary English curriculum・currently being taught in Japan to a curriculum with more emphasis on reading skills. The hypothesis being that this would be more efficient in retaining English skills. To this end, I undertook research on documents, Japanese returnees and English education programs at home and abroad.In 2004 and 2005, I,1.gathered and analyzed data for language retention of Japanese returnees, and examined linguistic retention and loss in Japanese returnees,2.surveyed the current status of English programs in Japan,3.visited primary schools in the United States (California and New Mexico) and in England to observe classes and obtain curriculum references on English education and ESL curriculum,4.conducted a documentary survey on linguistic retention and loss in and out of Japan, and studied the current status of Second Language Education.Through the two - year survey results, I have learned,(1)the need of staged instruction from the emphasis on listening and speaking to the introduction of reading skills,(2)the importance of developing phonemic awareness as a key bridge to build improved English education in elementary schools and in junior high schools in Japan.