Foreign language Education V Roles and Challenges in General Education Contents Foreword p.CD iv Part 1: Basic Issues Yoshijima, Shigeru： The Role of Foreign Language Education in General Education Doyé, Peter & Saßnick-Lotsch, Wendelgard: Die Funktion der Fremdsprachenerziehung in 3 27 der allgemeinbildenden Schule heute Byram, Michael : Foreign language learning and intercultural education 49 － some reflections on young learners Perregaux, Christiane ： Quand l’education et l’ouverture aux langues a l’ecole (EOLE) 59 s’internationalisent et se diversifient Sano, Masayuki: The Past, Present and the Prospect of English Education at Elementary 69 Schools in Japan Yoshijima, Shigeru：A Model for Intercultural Communication －a Trial－ 93 Part 2: Current Situation and Challenges Meißner, Franz-Joseph: Von der Primar zur Sekundarstufe: Entwicklung von 111 Lernbewusstheit durch Aktivierung des Vorwissens (Interkomprehension) Studer, André : L’Elève France doit confirmer ses progrès 128 －L’Evolution de l’enseignement des langues vivantes à l’école primaire Schimek, Franz : Frühes Sprachenlernen an Wiener Grundschulen： 141 Konzepte – Projekte – Qualitätssicherung Lee,Wonkey：New Prospects for Primary ELT in Korea 150 Huang Jianbin：Foreign Language Instruction in China 158 Chuang, Yuangshan：The Application of the Common European Framework 176 for Language Instruction in Taiwan Part 3: Reports from Practice Schumacher, Birgit : Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin (SESB) heute 191 Shiga, Yoshiki&Yoshijimja, Shigeru: The EOLE Approaches in Japan－A Trial for 213 Practicing in Initial Training Course, Reflection and Suggestions to Apply the Approach into Japanese Contexts － Itoh, Oogi/Shimizu, Kenji/Ebato, Makoto /Brandão, Renato：English Language Teaching at Keio 235 Schools in Japan: ELT Activities in Practice and its Attempt to Establish a Link between Primary and Secondary Education Part 4: Statistical Research into Practice Yabunaka, Masayo (translated by Ohashi, Rie) : Teachers’ Attitudes toward English 253 Education in Elementary School Terasawa, Takunori: The Needs to Use English in the Japanese Society : Statistical Examination of Policies and Goals of English Education 262 Editors, Authors and Translators 287 FOREWORD Yoshijima, Shigeru Ryan, Stephen This volume concludes the results of a research project conducted from 2006 to 2008 and financially supported by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. It was titled “International Comparison: Foreign Language Education at the Primary to Secondary Stage of Education Ideals and Practices in Classrooms”. It refers to a serial project continuing from 1996 and dealing with foreign language education in Japan and abroad. The reports of earlier research findings can be seen in three volumes. The first was “Foreign language Education Theories and Practices”, published in 2001, “Foreign language Education III Kindergarten and Elementary School ” in 2004, and “Foreign language Education IV from Elementary School to Middle School ” in 2007. They were all published by the same publisher, Asahi-Shuppan-sha, Tokyo. Here we can see the development of our concerns, beginning from very broad, general issues about foreign language learning. We focused at the outset on education in elementary schools, as the introduction of English into elementary schools was emerging as a topic of heated discussion in Japan at that time. Since foreign language education was already being implemented in elementary schools in several countries in Europe as well as in Asia at that time, we wanted to observe practices there. The research conducted abroad raised key questions about the transition from elementary to middle school, which was highly problematic even in Europe. It was to this issue that we turned our focus in the fourth volume. In the current volume, we consider issues relating to foreign language learning within the wider context of general education. We recognized the necessity of considering these issues not only from the perspective of foreign language instruction but also from the perspective of language education in general, including education in the mother tongue. Foreign language education does not exist in isolation; it requires some degree of integration into language education and furthermore into general education. This aspect is something clearly evidenced in the development in the curriculum of Geneva with its EOLE and in the Sprachprofile in Basle Switzerland. The core of this volume emerges from papers given at a symposium held at Seitoku University in 2008, entitled “Foreign Language Education: Its roles in formal education, with special reference to primary school”. Some of these papers have been subsequently revised for publication in order to reflect more recent developments. The authors were guest presenters from abroad, invited speakers from Japan or members of our research project. A fundamental concern underpinning this volume is the importance of understanding the particular context in which foreign language education is occurring. It is only when we understand this context that we can clearly identify the various challenges faced by policymakers and educators. Context may refer to the broad socio-political context, or even historical context, or it may refer to vi context at the micro-level, such as the context of an educational institution or a particular classroom. This is reflected in the various contributions to this volume, which range from those examining contextual developments at the macro-level to those with a more practical focus, considering the details of particular teaching situations. Context plays a major part in shaping the roles and expectations of foreign language education. What the various contributions to this volume show is that foreign language education is not a single monolithic construct; society’s demands and expectations of foreign language education are constantly changing. What is appropriate in one particular time and place may not be appropriate in another. Since society’s requirements of foreign language education are shifting, it is vital that those involved in foreign language education maintain a healthy and lively discussion regarding these changes. Stimulating such a discussion is one of the primary aims of this volume. Without this healthy discussion, we can build neither the consensus nor the political will necessary to implement meaningful, effective change. Several contributions to this volume describe developments in other countries, principally in Europe and Japan’s Asian neighbours, providing vital lessons from which Japan can learn. Key amongst those lessons seems to be the need for consultation to go hand in hand with political decision-making. Top-down change without consultation with the various stakeholders in foreign language education, such as parents and teachers, is likely to be problematic; and efforts from those stakeholders to effect change without political support are unlikely to be successful. The underlying question throughout this volume is how foreign language education connects to learning as a whole. For those of us who are foreign language education specialists, our first instinct is often to concentrate on our area of specialization with little consideration for the broader curriculum. Nevertheless, we must bear in mind that foreign language learners are usually learning other things simultaneously to learning foreign languages. This requires foreign language education to co-exist harmoniously with other subjects in the curriculum and it requires those of us involved with foreign language education to think more deeply about how foreign language learning connects with other aspects of learning. From a pedagogic perspective, one of the most important consequences of a growing awareness of the connections between foreign language education and general education is that foreign language education is become increasingly interdisciplinary. This has profound implications, both at a conceptual and at a practical, organizational level. At the conceptual level, we need to consider to what extent subjects are best taught independently of each other and what are the benefits of cross-curricular coordination. At the practical, organizational level, we need to give more thought to how responsibilities are shared between teachers and how we coordinate most effectively. Several of the chapters in this volume provide illustrations of how this challenge has been approached in other countries. However, before we consider issues of cross-curricular coordination, we need to reflect on certain core questions about the nature of foreign language education. These questions include the need to identify who is learning foreign languages and why? What other things are they learning? And how? Should education, including foreign language education, have a practical, vocational focus? Or should vii it be more general and serve other educational functions, such as personal development and socialization? What are the actual societal needs of foreign language education? Is the primary goal of foreign language education to train young people to become effective users of a target language? Or is the role of foreign language learning to develop divergent thinking strategies in children, to help those children understand that problems can be considered from different viewpoints and that these problems often have more than one solution? The answers we come up with to these questions determine the nature of the provision of foreign language education. Should foreign language education be for everybody, even though the vast majority is unlikely to ever have any great need to use foreign languages in their personal or professional lives? Or should foreign language education be more specialized and targeted at those individuals with clearly identifiable foreign language needs? A further issue that is likely to become more prominent in the future is the matter of how we define general education. Within the era of the industrialized nation-state, we had a relatively clear and simple understanding of general education. Throughout most of the industrialized world, general education, despite great local variety in content, had the same broad, general characteristics: general education was the state-supported, or state-directed, transmission of knowledge, skills and values to young people, from early childhood until the point of full-time employment. However, in post-industrial societies this model is diversifying and we now speak of lifelong learning. Individuals are continuing to learn long after entering full-time employment and the field of foreign language education has not been immune to these developments. When we think of the roles and challenges for foreign language learning in the context of general education, we can no longer consider the narrow model of education as being restricted until the years of early adulthood, we must now consider the wider context of education as a lifelong pursuit. It is not only the age range of education that is becoming less clearly defined. Greater population mobility is also having an impact on how we regard education. In the era of the nation-state, a country with a relatively monolingual and stable population, such as Japan, could easily identify the population to be educated. However, as we enter an era of more mobile populations, the demands on education, including foreign language education, shift. In our subtitle to this volume, we refer to ‘roles and challenges’ but perhaps we should also have mentioned ‘opportunities’. We are now entering a period of great change and opportunity for foreign language education. We hope that the articles in this volume will contribute to a healthy discussion that helps us realize some of those opportunities and ultimately to the promotion of language education in Japan. viii Part I Basic Issues The Role of Foreign Language Education in General Education Yoshijima, Shigeru Abstract Foreign language education features on the roster of educational subjects in almost all modern nations. However, the roles and expectations of foreign language education vary not only across countries, but also across historical eras. In the past foreign language education seemed to function as a mere supplement to other core subjects, which were considered absolutely necessary for the future lives of children. Namely, this was not a skill desired of all children. Nevertheless this situation has changed. To meet the requirements of recent times, foreign language education needs to be reformed and expectations of it have changed. Several reform proposals have already been put forward, such as those by the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR ) and in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning (SFLL ) as well as by others. First I will look at this issue from the perspective of general education as a part of socialization and then at its historical development with special regard to Japan. After a proposal of a possible function of foreign language education and its curricular progression, I will consider some questions for the successful practice of the given functions, reflecting age factors in regard to the mental-psychological development of students, the dichotomy of acquisition and learning, the relation/function of the target language to the students, the integration of culture and language, namely cross-curricula with intercultural contents, and finally class organization. 1. Fundamental considerations of foreign language education 1.1 Language education as a part of socialization. The term “socialization” means the process by which each human being gains the competences and abilities to be accepted as a good member of the respective society he or she belongs to, and to realize his or her wishes and dreams as a part of that society. General education should help learners negotiate this process of socialization successfully. These two terms overlap in many aspects, however, one difference can be identified: education is understood usually as an organized action of the state/nation or, at the lowest level, of the parents. On the other hand, socialization covers areas outside these intentional undertakings and includes the uncontrolled natural acquisitions of necessary skills and attitudes in the society, even outside of educational institutions such as schools. However, nowadays we speak about life-long learning, and self-learning outside or after compulsory education or education provided by responsible government institutions, for example the Education Ministry. In this sense both concepts actually contribute to the same goal; in other words, general education is a part of socialization and education could be better understood when we see it from the viewpoint of socialization. The concept socialization refers to different perspectives according to different stages of historical development. In the middle ages, for example, to be a good member of society meant to be a pious 3 person, or a loyal servant of the crown in the age of monarchy, a useful citizen in the service to the nation in the age of the nation-state. As the focus of the ultimate aim has shifted slowly from God in heaven in the direction of lower beings on earth, now we set the aim of socialization on the successful realization of wishes and dreams of each individual. We speak about self-realization. This definition of socialization includes three components. The first is “society”; its norms and customs, i.e., its culture, or the dominant thinking paradigm of the age, as well as the ideals shown above. The second is individuals; the educational objects or subjects of socialization. The third is the interaction of these two components and their results, which can set the new paradigm for the following generation. We can see also foreign language education in these components of socialization. As society exerts the largest influence and its members make efforts to learn a language according to the expectations of that society, it would be worthwhile investigating the given roles or functions of foreign language education in the past and present societies. Accordingly, we will give a short overview of the history of the foreign language education in Japan. 1.2 Historical overview of foreign language education in Japan1 1.2.1 Interaction of society and foreign language training in Japanese history The first foreign languages we had to learn in Japan1500 years ago were Korean and Chinese. At that time we imported everything from Korea and China. Buddhism, technology and political systems were all introduced to us through their languages. Japanese culture was greatly indebted to the Chinese until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Then we began to adapt European technology and political systems in order to obtain recognition from the European Powers as an equal on the international stage. At that time we thought only of the “advancement” of civilization and not of mental or cultural modernization. We talked about “European technology and Japanese spirit”. However, the efforts of the Japanese government to restrict the European influence only to the area of technology was not 100% successful, and we were also strongly influenced by Europe in spiritual fields such as thought, literature, art, and music. Yet, as for the attitude to foreign languages, the government was indeed successful, and we have seen the functions of foreign languages only in its formal aspects. This situation has not changed, even after Japan’s defeat in the Second World War in 1945. After 1945, the Japanese educational system was renewed under the instruction of the American occupational forces. The former “High School” was integrated into the New University, and New High School was established and at a New University, a second foreign language became a compulsory subject. German was then the most studied language next to English, followed by French. In almost all renewed middle schools English was learnt, even if it was not obligatory. 1 Cf. Sano this volume. 4 1.2.2 The current situation of foreign language education In 1990, the law for universities was reformed and the universities came to have a free hand in the construction of their curriculum. German lost ground in the world of second/foreign languages, as well as other foreign languages such as French, Chinese, and Russian at the university level. On the other hand, at high schools in some prefectures, some Asian languages, such as Korean and Chinese, began to be the targets of foreign language education. In parallel to that movement, there discussion as to whether English should be introduced into the elementary school as a part of formal education began. The government at first introduced English as a facultative educational unit in elementary schools. This is called “Integrated Study Period” and is intended as a tool for “International Understanding”. It is very interesting that the word “international” is used here. In the European context it should be called “intercultural understanding”. I will use the term “foreign language” in this paper, however, this word is hard to translate into Japanese. In Japanese, this term is always associated with the concept of the “nation”. In other words, in the Japanese mind, a “foreign language” is the language of a foreign country or nation. This terminology “International Understanding (author’s emphasis)” shows the hesitation of the Japanese government to designate English as a subject for elementary schools. It is said in the official guideline that in the “International Understanding” class2 the language should not be taught; the pupils are only supposed to get some contact with some foreign cultures, and languages in order to obtain awareness of those foreign cultures. Nevertheless, in the next moment in the same guidelines, English is recommended as the language to fulfill this purpose. 1.2.3 Opposition to the introduction of English into the elementary school. Since the proposal of the Japanese government to introduce English into elementary schools, discussion has surrounded the meaning of English education for young children. This discussion is legitimate because all subjects at school should be carried out on the basis of preceding learning. Foreign language education cannot be an exception, but this idea is not yet realized by all people involved with foreign language education. Often it is understood merely as a shifting of learning to an earlier age. However as all other subjects at elementary school are taught based on the other pedagogical principles, foreign language education should apply its own teaching methodology.3 Consequently the introduction of foreign language education into elementary schools requires the reconstruction and change of the fundamental concepts of English education at the Lower Secondary School (LSS) and Higher Secondary School levels based on elementary school learning. It is a major consideration for the whole curriculum and naturally there are contrasting opinions on this issue: 1.2.3.1 Arguments for teaching English in elementary schools: 1. English is very important in a globalized world. Every Japanese citizen should gain English competence to communicate in this language. 2. Young children learn language much faster than those who are older. 2 3 MEXT: English Note That is the problem of gaps between lower and upper schools. 5 1.2.3.2 Arguments against teaching English in elementary schools: 1. Negative influence upon cultural and linguistic identity; i.e., semilingualism. 2. Japan is not so globalized even in big cities. Even if it was, we must pay more attention to the languages of our neighboring countries, such as Korean or Chinese. Under current circumstances we now meet more peoples from these countries in everyday life. 3. In some districts we see the so-called returnees from Brazil or from South America, whose ancestors went there in the Meiji Era as emigrants. Most of these returnees have completely lost their heritage languages and we need to meet the linguistics demands of these people, since we have accepted them as our fellow-citizens and this means that they should learn Japanese to live in Japan. This applies also to the returnees from China who were left there by their family and adopted into Chinese families after the defeat of Japan in the Second World War. Here we encounter Japanese as a second or foreign language. In summary, we must pay more attention to these people rather than to English. 1.2.3.2.1 Analysis of the pros and cons I will now take a closer look at these contradictory opinions4. The importance of English is not disputed. The question is simply to whom and to what extent English should be taught. In Europe we often encounter people from other countries speaking of course in their mother tongue, which is not always English. So it is recommended to learn at least two foreign languages, and to advocate Plurilingualism. Even in the USA, according to the SFLL, it is said that the United States must educate students who are equipped linguistically and culturally to communicate successfully in a pluralistic American society and abroad (author’s emphasis). For American students, the ability to function competently in at least one language other than English will become increasingly important in the rapidly shrinking, interdependent world of the twenty-first century. Many individuals in the business and economic communities have been calling upon the educational system to prepare students with foreign language competence.5 In Japan this multicultural situation has not yet been established, even in a big city like Tokyo. Nevertheless, in some regions we now meet more people from our neighboring countries or from Brazil as I mentioned above. In this context the idea of Plurilingualism could make more sense. But the necessity of this concept is scarcely discussed. A common language to communicate with each other is necessary in all societies. The first one will be the official languages(s) of the country/nation and the second will be a sort of Lingua Franca or a global language that could be understood by most people in the world. To choose a second language or a foreign language which has the latter function is not so easy. In most cases the choice is made from an economic perspective, or from the perspective of the relationship with the country in which the 4 5 Cf. Ootsu, 2005 SFLL p.7 & p. 39 6 language is used, or from the perspective of providing a liberal education. An example for the last case is the status of Latin as an academic subject in Europe. In Europe, English is indeed widely accepted as the primary foreign language; the language of a neighboring country is chosen only in a few regions. Even in such cases English is taught as the second foreign language. In Japan, English is recommended by the Japanese government, and it became compulsory at the LSS level in 2002. The reason6 for this selection is not so transparent, but it is accepted in almost all aspects in Japan. English has been the first foreign language since the Meiji Restoration. The languages of our neighboring countries have not received such great interest yet; Korean or Chinese are taught in only some schools in a few prefectures in West Japan, near to these countries.7 Otherwise these languages are taught first at the university level, beside other traditional European foreign languages such as German, French, Italian and Spanish. Recently, the Japanese Government has emphasized the importance of English, and promotes a project named “the Action Plan to Cultivate Japanese with English Abilities”. Its political background can be found in the often-heard remarks by foreigners that Japanese people learn English for 6 years at school, but not many can speak English fluently. Given the context of developed international commerce, and that this trend is expected to continue into the future more excessively, we can understand the attitude of the Japanese Government. 1.2.4 The causes of the failure of Japanese English education. Now I would like to analyze the causes of the failure of the Japanese English education from the viewpoint of general education and then from a linguistics perspective. It is said, or as I have learnt, that the readiness of learners decides the success of the education. I would like to observe our problems from this perspective. 1.2.4.1 Lack of motivation and maturity Readiness can be considered from two aspects: one is the physical and mental development of the learner (I will handle this issue more precisely later), and the other is the attitude of the learner, including motivation. Physical and mental readiness relates to the age of the learner, and this plays an important role in introducing certain subjects into the school curriculum. For example, it is commonly recognized that small children cannot concentrate for a long time. Moreover, very young children would not be able to pronounce a word correctly, even in their mother tongue, i.e., infantilisms. But after children have reached a certain age (months), according to their physical development they can learn a considerable amount and in a very short time. This rapid learning does not continue for long, it reaches a so-called plateau and seems to stagnate. After this plateau-period one can again learn so well or so quickly. This phenomenon can be observed not only in language learning/acquisition but also in almost any 6 7 Argumentations would be required for the persuasion only when the proposal could not be accepted by the majority. Cf. to the state of June 2009 http://www.koryuren.gr.jp/download/2010.1.28.pdf 7 learning endeavor, and not once but repeatedly. This factor should be taken into consideration when developing a learning curriculum8. Motivation also can be considered from two aspects: the first is the motivation derived from circumstances, and the other is the motivation which comes from inside the learner. The motivation to learn foreign languages is provided at first by others, for we seldom meet foreigners in our actual daily lives, especially in a country such as Japan. The importance of a foreign language is often first mentioned by the parents of the child, when the parents realize its necessity in their social or occupational lives. The government will transfer these motivations into the children. These external/extrinsic motivations can only be fully realized if they can be turned into internal/intrinsic motivations. Otherwise it remains on the surface and very little success can be expected. Here, tradition or the attitude to foreign languages in a society plays an important role. Latin was once regarded as an integral part for an educated citizen in upper/middle class society in Europe, even in Japan before the Meiji Restoration the knowledge of ancient Chinese (usually in a revised form of Japanized Chinese) belonged to the educational fundament for the elite social stratum of Samurai (knights). Nowadays neither in Europe nor in Japan do these old foreign languages have their old status, and we must engage directly with modern living languages, and in Japan without intermediation through means such as Japanized Chinese. In Europe and in the USA, the tradition of classical languages is still alive, in Germany for example many pupils visit “humanistische Gymnasien” and in the USA Latin is learnt by over 86,000 students9. In Japan there are no Classical Chinese Schools and only in a very diminished form this old Chinese tradition is kept as a part of National Language Japanese as part of the general education. I can see the failure of the Japanese English education in the gap between the extrinsic motivation provided by others and the learner’s intrinsic motivation. Very few learners can actually feel the proclaimed merit through their own experience in their immediate environment.10 A negative influence upon the motivation to learn English could be seen in the fact that pupils who learn English in the elementary school, even with pleasure, can find more interesting things to learn or to do. They do not understand why they have to give so much effort to this subject. This was the claim of one English teacher at a well known elementary school in Tokyo. The proclaimed instrumental merits of English with respect to improved career prospects cannot be recognized strongly enough by these young learners.11 These days, high school students are under the strongest pressure to learn English in order to pass the entrance examination into a university. English is a compulsory examination subject in many universities, but at the university itself almost all lectures are given in Japanese, and academic papers are written in Japanese. (In some areas of science, papers are written in English.) These entrance examinations12 were reformed to enhance the listening competences of students indirectly in 8 Cf. SFLL p.14 SFLL p. 13 10 To the reality of English use in Japan see Terasawa, this volume. 11 Yabunaka: Foreign language Education Vl. Survey of the consciousness of elementary School Students pp.239 12 Precisely: it is a country wide examination by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) simultaneously once in a year in all subjects taught in HSS, of which results could be applied as a part of Entrance 9 8 the hope that Higher Secondary Schools would devote more time and effort to this aspect of English learning13. However, oral competence did not become the target of this reform for technical, financial and personal reasons. Therefore the development of a balanced English competence is not to be expected: students are aware that it is possible to compensate for deficiencies in listening competences by giving more effort to reading and writing. As a result, English competence is used in most cases as a tool to pass the entrance examination. Ironically some universities no longer require English for their entrance examinations largely due to recent financial pressures to increase student numbers. The positive arguments mentioned previously, that young learners acquire languages faster than older students, is a hypothesis we can support by observing children living in foreign countries who acquire the language being used there as the second language. That means they acquire it as if it was their first language, as if it was their mother tongue. They live in a language shower. However, we know that other children need over one and half years to begin speaking this new language. In other words, there are great diversities among children. Under normal circumstances at schools, insufficient units in the curriculum are available for students to develop their competence in a foreign language. The whole curriculum has no capacity to allow this. There is no possibility of providing a language shower as described above. Therefore students tend to visit private English schools to gain the competence to meet the demands of the entrance examination. 1.2.4.2 Distance between the languages Furthermore we see other burdens for Japanese people learning foreign languages. There are two types: one is the linguistic distance of languages being learned and the other is a cultural one. The former, namely the typological difference, can be seen for example in the difference of fusional/inflecting languages, agglutinative languages, isolating languages and so on. In addition to these differences the writing system will play an immense role. The Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs gives the new diplomats of the Russian school more time to learn these languages because it has a different orthographic system from West European languages. Similarly, the German ministry would provide more time for the diplomats of the Japanese or Chinese school. The more significant issue I will emphasize is the cultural background. Slow Japanese students who were not so successful in learning English at high school can learn Chinese, which has a cultural background (writing system and, in some aspects, philosophy) similar to Japanese, speedily as a second foreign language. The same would be observed in the Korean-learning Japanese student, and vice versa. (Korean and Japanese belong to the same language family historically as well as typologically and culturally to the Chinese area.) 13 Exam by respective universities. Personal communication with colleagues at the University of Tokyo, an elite university, suggests that the demands of listening competence in the entrance examination for this university is around the CEFR C1 level 9 In the past, before the Meiji Restoration, the leading stratum was educated in Classical Chinese, which belongs to the isolating language group, whereas Japanese belongs to the agglutinative language group. After engagement with Chinese over the last 1000 plus years, the elite stratum had acquired and mastered this language of another type. And it is said, after the Meiji Restoration Japan was therefore successful in adopting European Civilization through English, German or French. In other words, English was for them not the first foreign language but a second one. English shows characteristics of an isolating language such as Chinese. Now we modern Japanese should begin to learn English as literally the first foreign language. It is easy to see the high hurdles to overcome, linguistically. Though Japan has lost much of the cultural influence from Chinese, still its trace can be found in the Japanese mentality. 1.2.4.3 Critical period as pro-argumentation The critical period hypothesis, first suggested by Lenneberg, functioned as a strong argument for the beginning of foreign language learning at an early age but nowadays it finds little support amongst experts. It is true that young children can soon acquire good pronunciation and good listening competence, but beyond this area, grammar, linguistic styles and vocabulary can be learnt more effectively by older learners14. Additionally, this hypothesis focuses only on the formal sides of language, or on the motoric aspect of language. Vocabulary, for example, should be gained through the whole life and according to the mental development of each language user. When we compare the present English curriculum in Korea and the one in place before the introduction of English in 1997, the total learning time for English increased from 340 hours to 544 (60%), but the number of words to be learnt by only 22.6%. The young learners learn very slowly, and they are not given so many hours to learn, at the 1st grade 830 hours and at the 6th grade 1088, and in the middle school 1156 in a year.15 They have to learn so many other things in the school and outside of the school too. A later beginner could recover the disadvantage after a few years of devoted learning. 1.2.4.4 Identity and semi-lingualism: We will now turn to the problems of identity and semi-lingualism: With regards to the issue of semi-lingualism, I will mention only one point. It is a fear without actual evidence. Some cases of semi-lingualism reported by children who learnt two languages simultaneously can be attributed to the fact that the parents did not give enough attention to the linguistic education of their child. We know, on the other hand, that children growing up or educated in bilingual circumstances show no such symptoms of semi-lingualism; a good example is the “Staatliche Europa Schule Berlin”16. In Japan we have a report of a bilingual school where a teacher remarks that the bilingual education there has a positive effect on the development of the mother 14 15 16 See Byram, this volume The number of words to be learnt in an hour is not so different: At the elementary school 2.20 and at the middle school 2.35 words (6.8% more). Cf. Schumacher in Foreign Language Education IV 10 tongue of the children17. On the other hand, we must respect the word of these schools18, to learn two languages at once demands much effort both by the students also by their parents, and even from their teachers. Semi-lingualism could occur if the learning system, curriculum and environment were not developed by theoretically and practically sufficient preparations and considerations. The problem of identity is very subtle, but I would say in this context that it has so much to do with the ideology of a nation state. If we analyze the semantics (word formation) of the word “identity” we know that it only shows the placement and its result of two members both sides of an “equal sign”. In our case one member given is the “I”. The other member could be given variously depending on each case. When we start from the idea that all citizens in a country/nation should have the same identity, this other member is fixed rigidly. In this case we have good reasons to be afraid that a person’s identity would be lost through foreign language education. A foreign language would impart cultural influences with it, but identity can never be preserved as something unchangeable. It has changed through centuries and will continue to change in the future as well, according to the development of the living circumstances and the world. In addition: we always change our identity according to the situation we come across, as a Japanese or as a teacher or as a father and so on. We can have different identities to respective social dimensions in which we as individuals live. It will change against all efforts to maintain it if the current of change within our society is strong. Therefore, it is more important to ask what sort of society we should realize in the future. Identity depends on this and even the consensus for the future makes the new identity for all citizens. And this question belongs to the concept of the nation state, which is to be overcome in the future, as has already begun in the EU. Nevertheless, it will take a long time before we can overcome that concept, depending on the development of the respective countries/nations. 1.3 The role and function of foreign language education in elementary schools From the analysis above, I see no urgent reasons in Japan to introduce English classes into the elementary school so long as I observe the issue merely from the viewpoint of linguistic skills. But if I observe this issue from the viewpoint of education generally, not only from the successful achievement of linguistic skills, I arrive at another answer. I mean to ask what role the education in the elementary school should play, and what roles the English/foreign language classes could and should play in that context. Hereby the basic requirement of my consideration is to introduce foreign language education as an integral part of the formal general education system, not as additional skill training. When the formal education in the school is regarded as a part of socialization which prepares the children for their future lives in society, there are two aspects to consider. Following the terms used by Byram and Zarate in CEFR19, the first aspects children have to acquire are Savoir and Savoir faire, namely, necessary knowledge and how to utilize that knowledge. The other helpful aspect for children to acquire is Savoir être; this is a certain mental readiness to meet things, or attitude in English, such 17 18 19 Cf. Masato Tohgi/Gaiety-Iwasawa (tanslated by H.Hasegaw)：湘南インタ ナショナル・スク ルの教育実践 (Education Practices in Shonan International School). In: Foreign Language Ecucation III pp.217 Cf. Shuhmacher in Foreign Language Education IV CEFR chapter 2.1.1 p.11, chapter 5.1 p.101 11 as openness. Furthermore, they also should have Savoir apprendre, the readiness to encounter new, unknown things. In the past, in formal education the focus was laid upon the first two Savoirs. It was expected that children would reproduce the issues they learnt. Savoir être was regarded as the result of the first two aspects, as something which should be gained automatically or identified with the personality, and was not a conscious target of education. Savoir apprendre seems to be a new concept in pedagogy, and it is very important in the era of life-long learning. In a foreign language class, children get to know new languages and come to compare them with their own languages. Language is more or less bound up with its background culture, namely, the human beings in that culture. At first, children become aware of the existence of other possible forms of life and thoughts. Sometimes the knowledge of the other culture provokes them to face a confrontation between the target culture and their own culture. This cumulative experience in the class should bring the children to respect and acknowledge otherness and diversity, and cultivate the competence to regard and consider things relatively. In modern society the competence to see things relatively is increasingly desired. This competence could be gained in other subjects such as history or social studies, or even physics, but foreign language education has more chances to cultivate this competence than other subjects. Through foreign language learning, learners encounter the otherness of human beings with their own mind and soul. In addition, although this relativization of concepts is a fundamental basic competence throughout one’s life, it becomes more difficult to gain due to aging, or more specifically socialization, which establishes a certain direction of seeing things, namely, a tendency to dangerous ethnocentrism. Therefore, I propose that we begin cultivating this competence from a very early age. In this sense, foreign language education in the elementary school has the responsibility to fulfill this function, even though in a country such as Japan multicultural circumstances are not so much developed. In other words the education in the elementary school should cultivate the Savoir être and Savoir apprendre of children, in addition to Savoir and Savoir faire. It was often said that knowledge of foreign languages should lead to peaceful ethnic coexistence. However, from recent history we know exactly that mere linguistic competence gives no guarantee of such peaceful coexistence. The recent occurrence in the former Yugoslavia showed the limits of this approach. First when foreign language education is combined with the culture studies which provide the young people the multi-perspective and then self-reflection and respect for others and diversity, foreign language classes in an elementary school will provide the foundation for the peaceful coexistence of human beings. Now I would like to propose a progressive concept of foreign language education as follows: 12 Progression in foreign language education educational stage targets / aims methododogical principles - basic development/ - primary stage: - Preschool - establishment of personality and - ability Elementary School to consider things relatively (awareness) - more affective approach than cognitive approach - action-oriented approach - readiness to communicate - Secondary stage: - linguistic and cultural knowledge - Lower Secondary School, - development of the competence to - Higher Secondary School and - Tertiary stage: university - post-tertiary stage, - adult education relativize. - development - increasingly approach cognitive and less affective approach of practical - action-oriented approach competence to communicate - pursuit of each learner’s own - approach according to interest the needs of the learner 2. Some issues to be clarified for the successful foreign language education for the practice of the concepts Accepting the proposals above we should consider the procedure to realize these concepts successfully. At first I will deal with the question of the age for beginning foreign language learning. 2.1 The age for beginning foreign language learning In the century of life-long learning, it is accepted generally, that one begins to learn not too late however old one is. But for the ideal age of commencement for learning we have no standards. I will consider this issue. In Japan we have a traditional expression: “Children should begin to learn an artistic skill at the age of six and on the sixth day of the sixth month”. The age of six seems to have a special significance since we know that in almost all countries elementary education begins for children at around the age of six. By this age, children have reached a certain maturity physically and mentally and are able to learn a subject. However, this proverb can not be applied to our case, language. When we once glance backwards at the development of language education, we can observe a tendency to set the starting age earlier and earlier. Take the case of Germany; in the 70 years of the last century foreign language learning in formal education started at the 5th grade (age 11), but now in most of the states it begins at the 3rd grade. There are even some rgions where it begins at the first grade, at the age of six, for example in Berlin at the SEBS, and there is a recommendation to begin it at preschool. In Vienna for example English learning begins at the first grade.20 20 Cf. Schimek in this volume. Qualitätssicherung. Frühes Sprachenlernen an Wiener Grundschulen Konzepte – Projekte - 13 In Japan, foreign language education now begins at lower secondary school, namely at the 7th grade, except for some experimental schools21. At some private schools there is a tradition of beginning at the first grade22. But from 2011 a sort of English class23 was introduced into the 5th grade, but it should not be as an academic subject. Its aim is to cultivate awareness of foreign languages and cultures in children. As a non-academic subject no numeric notes should be given. Despite this diversity in the starting age for foreign language learning, we have little rational basis for these practices. There is no transparent reason given either in Japan or in Europe/USA. So I would like to give some consideration to this issue and those concerning the relationships between starting age, namely development-psychological precondition of children, target language and learning/teaching approach. 2.2 The age and the mental and psychological development with concern to language acquisition/ learning 2.2.1 Up to six years of age Children seem to be already dealing with language while in the womb, but they gain concrete language competences in their first 5 or 6 years, and this occurs parallel to the growth of their knowledge about their circumstances. It is therefore impossible to separate language competence from other competences. There is great diversity in how these competences manifest themselves among children, so a unified approach is very difficult; adjustment to the character/developmental stage of the individual child is necessary. As a consequence class sizes should be very small. For the same reason it is not advisable for children of this age to learn a language as a foreign language in a pure sense. If a child has to deal with a language other than his or her own, he or she should acquire it as a second language, that is, he or she should be educated bilingually. Accordingly, a recent concern for foreign language education, as suggested by the CEFR or SFLL, is the aspect of otherness of which the learner should be conscious or aware. At this age, children are beginning to feel a certain awareness towards others, or “Fremdeln” in German, as they begin to distinguish their own familiar area/world from that of others. In this case, the process of language acquisition should play a helping role by overcoming this phase successfully. 2.2.2 From six to nine When they enter elementary school at the age of six, in general children have the fundamental competences to orally communicate in their own language. It may be identical with the standard language, or their home language. A school they begin to write in their mother tongue (standard language of the community or national language). In some countries, such as Japan, where script has a special cultural meaning children have already developed this skill by a certain grade. But their linguistic competence should be improved to an age appropriate one, and above all they learn sociolinguistic competence. In Germany for example, children should learn to distinguish both forms 21 22 23 Cf. Gumma Kokusai Academy, where the education is intended throughout from the elementary to high school See Ito et al., this volume Cf. Sano: p.1 14 “Sie” and “du” at this stage. In addition to knowledge about their immediate circumstances they should gain more and more knowledge beyond their daily life. Their cognitive competences grow accordingly. This fact raises the possibility of a cognitive oriented education of a new language, but there are some differences observed according to the traditions or educational culture of the respective countries. Anyway it would not be recommended to rely solely on this cognitive approach, because the children have learnt their first language most affectively by their heart and body. Affectively learnt concepts of a language are usually accompanied somewhat with connotations that should contribute to real understanding between human beings. Therefore it is recommended to apply both these approaches harmoniously. That means, that concepts from daily life should be acquired affectively and concepts in the target language without affections or connotation, for example scientific terms which are almost abstract, can be acquired cognitively. Children at an elementary school show great interest in other languages and cultures, according to MEXT. This is observed not only in relation to languages, but also to many other things. Children always show interest in new and different things24 and at the same time they begin to differentiate between the self and others. (Piaget sets the age from 7.) And I see the lowest limit age to learn a foreign language after the overcoming of egocentrism, when we see the very function of foreign language education in the competence of relativization. Before this age, learning a foreign language, namely the language of the others is difficult to imagine. Language learning before this age should get therefore more or less characteristics of bilingual education, as already stated. The language identity of children is established in these years. For a monolingual child this is no problem, but for a child in a bilingual environment it can be a great problem, as he or she dislikes or prefers to communicate in a certain language. Teachers and parents should help them to overcome this problem. 2.2.3 From nine to twelve It is reported that in English classes in Japan students of this age find little fun or joy in the activities with songs or games which are considered a good way to provide students with attractive foreign language learning tasks. Their maturity seems to desire cognitively more challenging tasks. Grammar can be a candidate in this sense, as reported children show interest in grammar25, but cultural discoveries and recognition will be more exciting when they are imbedded in a communicational context or in comparisons with their own culture. In this sense “grammar” should not be merely bounds of rules, it should be handled in comparison with their own language, or (simple) rules should be found heuristically by students themselves. Another finding concerning the mental development of students is the decreasing intake or plateau-phenomenon. This cognitive requisition seems to go hand in hand with the process of adolescence or puberty. Great diversity is found among students; gender discrepancies are also 24 25 Sano: p 22 Perhaps in traditional lessons they do not know other aspects of language learning and the entrance examination to an upper school demands this knowledge. 15 common, with females tending to be active learners and males more passive 26. They begin to reorganize their relationships to the people around them, and to their teachers as well. At this age, simultaneous to overcoming the egocentrism of childhood, children can accommodate the views of interlocutors in their speech. Children respond in their socialized speech to others’ questions, adding information to the thoughts of others, or attempting to influence others through requests or commands. They also learn better through interacting with their peers how to take the perspectives of other and those of adults. In one word they begin to communicate really. 2.2.4 Demands of age factors for the curriculum I sketched above some features of students in their developing stages, but we do not know precisely to what extent these impact on language learning. It is desired to research them in order to develop a meaningful curriculum for each stage and coherent and transparent one. 2.2.5 Learning, acquisition and target language The distinction between learning and acquisition can help us by developing a plan for our students to gain competences in a certain language. These two terms find not always their equivalent in each language. In Japanese we could express them in different words, but they are solely as technical terms, the words themselves give no clear idea of their content. Furthermore we find no concept which covers both of these27. On closer inspection, it is difficult to distinguish activities to gain language competences from these concepts. The mother tongue, which is to be “acquired naturally”, owes in many aspects to the activity of “learning”. In the first five or six years of life, children gain almost all knowledge and capacity directly from hearing and trying to reproduce what they have heard. But at this stage they also receive some correction from people around them, such as family, and then in the kindergarten or schools this instruction is made more or less systematically. In addition they learn new vocabulary together with new knowledge and forms of expression. As a pure form of language acquisition or learning is scarcely imaginable, (even if the pure acquisition were possible, the language would be result as pidgin-like one) it is therefore reasonable to try to combine both these types effectively. It is also a question of how to integrate acquiring aspects in the process of instructive learning, and how to support the acquisition through systematic learning. This integration is nowadays very important as language learning is recommended beyond the school age, and even in the schools, self-organized learning (a sort of acquisition) after language classes and beyond the schoolyards28 takes place as well. 26 27 28 Ryan: p.135 , Yabunaka: Foreign Language Education Volume III pp.256 CEFR p.139 SFLL proposes this under the term of “community”. 16 2.3 Relation/function of the target language to the students 2.3.1 How to call the languages to be learnt I used the term target language for lack of an alternative means of how to express the language which I would like to handle in this article. Several decades ago, in discussions of language education we had only two distinct terms: mother tongue and foreign language. However, increasingly mobile populations have made the situation more complex and we have added new terms; the first and the second language, and then further distinctions, such as home language and heritage language. And recently we hear discussions of own and additional language as well. This can be observed clearly in the explanation of the SFLL when they say: The use of the word "foreign" to describe the teaching of languages other than English is becoming increasingly problematic within the U.S. context. Many of the languages taught within our schools are not "foreign" to many of our students (e.g., Italian, Chinese, or Spanish), nor are they "foreign" to the United States (e.g., Native American languages, American Sign Language, Spanish, or French). Many states have recognized this situation by referring to these languages as World Languages, Modern and Classical Languages, Languages Other Than English, or Second Languages, to name a few of the terms used. (SFLL p.27) We use, therefore, several terms referring to the same language according its relation to the speaker. At the same time this different naming is a concern to the teaching and learning methodology of a language which the students have to deal with. It is a major issue for language policy. The mother tongue can be identified in most cases as the first language. But upon closer inspection they are not the same; mother tongue does not always mean the language that one has acquired first. It is often a dialect or a sociolect. It usually means the language in which one is most competent and that is the official language of the country or the national language. In this meaning, Japanese is the mother tongue for most Japanese. The competencies in this mother tongue or national language are enforced in the schools and their classes but now there are students learning with a different mother tongue or own language which differs from the national language of the country where the students are resident. These languages are called home languages or heritage languages. The former is the language which the student speaks in his or her family environment and the latter is the one of the country where they come from. There are more complications between these terms and education politics should meet this need, if one does not want to be strictly nationalistic. Above we have seen several terms in the SFLL applied to the same language. But here the term “other than English” is applied too, it means English is considered as a language with a special status. English is their national language which should be learnt or acquired by all people in that country including immigrants. Actually English is often not their own language, merely their second language which many people with American nationality now have to learn. (Here in this article the term second language means a language which its speaker needs for daily life in the society) Therefore special 17 concerns are paid to the speakers of these languages other than English and a proposal is given as following: Student Characteristics English Language Heritage/Home Language Development Development Needs Second generation schooled and third Continued Needs Maintenance, retrieval, and/or acquisition "bilinguals" development of age- of exclusively English in the U.S. in appropriate language competencies (e.g., oral English productive abilities) language competencies Transfer of literacy skills developed in English to the home language Continued development of age-appropriate competencies in both oral and written modes First immigrant generation Continued Development of literacy skills in first student development of language schooled primarily in the age-appropriate U.S. English language Continued development of age-appropriate competencies language competencies in oral mode Newly arrived immigrant Acquisition of oral and Continued development of age-appropriate students written English competencies in both oral and written modes SFLL p.19 A similar phenomenon is reported from Basel, Switzerland, where nearly 30% of the population are no longer German speaking (in school classes over 60%). There a new trial has begun with the Sprachprofile project 29 . In this canton, German education should overlap with mother tongue education. Hereby they are working on the basis of the CEFR and try to supply it with the concept of school language education. It aims to help students by gaining sufficient language competencies in German for all school subjects. Here, the borders between foreign language education and that of the official language are abandoned. In Japan such a situation is not yet realized to this extent, but it is sure that we Japanese will meet it in the not so distant future. Actually we have already some returnees from China or Brazil as seen in section 1.2.3.2. The projected decrease of the Japanese working population due to the falling birth rate means that Japan will depend more and more on people from other countries. We need to prepare for this and see the issue of language policy from a long-term perspective. 29 http://www.iik.ch/wordpress/downloads/sprachprofile/3_Sprachprofil-I-De.pdf 18 2.3.2 Culture and language in the curriculum A recently growing concern for foreign language education can be seen in the demands of integration of intercultural aspects: we will see its function in the mutual understanding between ethnic groups. In this tendency it is natural to see the language combined with the culture. However, it is not always so clear for the teacher, the learner or for the parents how tightly language and culture are related. This seems to be due to the complexity of the concept “culture”. In order to work successfully with this concept we will inspect it a little more closely. First we must be conscious that language and culture are not identical, even though some emphasize the tight relation between language and culture in the traditions established by Wilhelm von Humboldt or Sapir-Whorf. But they have no necessary relations to each other as Byram says30. A good example can be observed in British and American cultures. The people of both countries speak the same language, English (hardware), and mostly understand each other, but their communication styles (software) are quite different. And we can see another example in the English-speaking Welsh, who have a separate cultural identity to the English. These facts lead us to the concept of “subculture” and we should take these differences even in a country or region into consideration, and the fact that subcultures graduate to the different styles of individuals. This awareness should help us to avoid the dangerous stereotypes which are often projected by intercultural studies. This awareness helps the intra-cultural understanding as well, when we compare the foreign phenomena with those of a region of own country. Second we will analyze the concept of culture: There are two different definitions of “culture”; one is a traditional image of culture represented in the term “Big culture” (formal representatives), which refers to the great figures of history, and those products of literature, fine arts, architecture and the sciences that were traditionally assigned to the category of elite culture.31 The other definition which has its origin in sociology and anthropology will see culture in the daily life of people or an ethnic group and call it “little c”. This small ‘c’ refers to all aspects of daily living: housing, clothing, food, tools, transportation, and all patterns of behavior and thinking that members of the culture regard as necessary and appropriate. By intercultural studies we mean rather this "little c" and leave Big C to the specialists of the relevant discipline, such as Literature, Arts and so on. Intercultural studies emphasize the importance of the aspect of this “small c” as fundamental for mutual intercultural understanding and avoidance of intercultural conflicts. In this context, Big Culture can be seen rather as a representative output of the small culture. That means the Big Culture is a part of small culture, the former (big one) is included in the latter (small one) contradictorily. Furthermore, when we combine our foreign language education with intercultural mutual understanding, as CEFR and SFLL propose, we should lay our focus on the small ‘c’ and consider how to integrate the different aspects of a culture into the curriculum. Hereby we should handle the Big Culture as a special aspect of the small culture, because it is visible and tangible in most cases and offers a good approach to the respective culture. 30 In this volume. Byram: Foreign language learning and all intercultural education some reflections on young learners 31 SFLL p.48 19 For the starting point of our analysis I will cite the figure from SFLL (p.47) below. Perspectives (Meaning, attitudes, values, ideas) Practices Products (Patterns of social (Books, tools, foods, laws Interaction) music, games) Here we see three aspects in a triangular relationship. Two of these cultural aspects, practices and perspectives, can’t be seen directly. Only the products are visible, tangible or audible. The other invisible aspects can be experienced solely through long-term contact with the target culture or its research. The iceberg metaphor is often employed to illustrate this point. These visible and invisible cultural aspects play different roles in regard to avoiding intercultural conflicts. Visible ones are relatively seldom the cause of intercultural conflicts. They can be foreseen and are avoidable. But invisible ones are often the source of conflict. As a good example I can cite the different communication styles of Americans, British and Japanese. Americans are known for their openness and directness, while the British prefer more indirect expressions, they will be polite. So Americans are taken as rude by the British and the British closed by Americans. The different communication styles of Japan and the USA have at times caused conflicts, even at the political-diplomatic level, for example, the answer of a Japanese minister in parliament: “We will consider the issue.” being interpreted literally and not understood as a rejection. The directness and openness of the American communication style is an example of the “practices” aspect shown on the left side of the figure. They can be observed or felt if one has contact with some Americans, but it needs a good while for foreigners to recognize this tendency of American as their style and not the output of their personality. For the “products” aspect, food provides a good example. The difference between the Big Mac Hamburger in the USA and the small portions of the Japanese McDonald’s will surely cause no problem. Perhaps an American in Japan may wish for a bigger serving. We can observe a similar phenomenon in subcultures. The different sizes of big rice-service bowls in North China and the small ones in South China can be the target of mutual teasing, but this causes no awful quarrel among the Chinese. In Japan everyone knows that Cola-Cola comes from the USA; surely there are some who do not like it, but it is unlikely that it will cause any conflicts between a Japanese and an American. And the different taste of Japanese and original American Cola will be of no significant concern for either side; we can accept it as a different preference. Merely Japanese cola perhaps does not taste as good for an American and vice versa. 20 The third aspect is perspectives. Behind the American directness cited above there are values or hidden beliefs. They think that social relations are best conducted when transparent and clear. These perspectives can be identified solely after intensive analysis of the practices and perhaps of products and their status/position in the society. Ideally foreign language education should lead the learner to get insight into this aspect. But all issues on this level are neither visible nor tangible. Therefore we often risk interpreting these culturally influenced values or attitudes as outcomes of individual personality. The analysis above gives us a suggestion as how to integrate these aspects into foreign language education. It is the principle from the simple to the complex, from the “easy” to the “difficult”, which meets the common pedagogic demands as well. So it would be ineffective and inefficient to set all aspects of culture as the goal at the initial stage of learning, especially for young learners. Young children and beginners should deal at first with the visible, tangible items belonging to the aspect of products and be led gradually to the second aspect of practices. When the learners are mature enough to deal with the other two aspects they can begin to confront the aspect of perspectives. Another recent growing concern for foreign language education can be seen in the demands of interdisciplinary collaboration, as I have suggested partially in the previous section. In other words, we are speaking about systematic cross-curricular coordination.32 The idea of “working language” is going in the same direction. I will suggest this approach even to overcome the phenomenon cited above in 1.1.3. For children grown up cognitively and matured, mere linguistic tasks will be boring. One learns language not for itself. The attractiveness of a language is felt first through its contents. CLiL (Contents and Language integrated Learning) is an approach to this. When we can connect this idea with a cultural and interdisciplinary aspect, it will make foreign language education more successful as well in the sense of general education. A trial can be seen in the appendix and in the contribution of Doyé and Saßnick-Lotsch in this volume. 2.3.3 Curriculum/syllabus We have seen that the demands of foreign language education now are very complex. Linguistic skill should be promoted, intercultural awareness and understanding should be cultivated as well as new knowledge and recognition be gained. Furthermore contact with the target culture should be supported as the SFLL proposes through the concept “Community”. I would like to cast a short glance to these issues, to the principal progression of a curriculum. Hereby I set the above mentioned principle “from the simple to the complex, from the easy to difficult” as the basis. Secondly, I will offer the principle of a spiral progression as support. This is the only possible approach when we need to handle so many complex aspects in the class which is handling competing demands within a limited amount of time. In addition to these principles, we have to be conscious that in every educational action we can show only a part of the phenomenon with which we are dealing. That is, the exemplary handling of objects. Linguistic aspects show here more simplicity, for example, grammar is itself an abstraction of 32 In SFLL it is called “connection” and one of the five important aspects of foreign language teaching. 21 linguistic phenomena of which components have to be substituted merely by concrete words by its real use. This inductive approach is difficult in the case of cultural phenomena. We start usually from concrete experiences, for example in a foreign country, and consider them in comparison with experiences in one’s own country and reach some conclusion. However, this conclusion presents the risk of over-generalization33 and stereotyping. Stereotyping itself is a necessary strategy in our life. Even if stereotypes in lessons are unavoidable, they should be critically observed and compared to a new experience which may replace the old stereotype through a new one and this should repeated several times. At the same time this new experience and new insight will provide openness to the stereotype and it will help to overcome ethnocentrism. In this sense, the goal can be achieved only through the spiral progression. 2.3.4 Linguistic Aspects At the initial phase, it will be meaningful for all learners, irrespective of their ages, to bring the concept of arbitrariness, of “signifiant” and “signifié” according to de Saussure. This linguistic principle could be applied to cultural phenomena as well. This approach is applied already in EOLE34. We can show several different linguistic forms to express one item. There is perhaps only one form for several items distinguished in another language. A good example is the naming of animals and fish. In Sapir-Whorf we find many such examples. At the next step, we can take more functional aspects; for example, the greeting forms from several cultures and their variant expressions. We find this approach often in the first page of a textbook for a foreign language. This is applied by the Japanese English-activities too and at the university level in Japan for the introduction of a German course. These greeting forms can be handled at a later phase for spiral learning out of the context of its expressional motivation. I mean, almost of them have lost their original meaning, they have only an illocutional function “greeting”, an initial sign for contact or communication, or merely in order “to keep/establish social relations”. For example “Goodbye” comes from “God be with you”; its origin was a blessing as with other greeting forms as “Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening, Good night”. The Japanese “Ohayo (gozaimasu )” originally had only a confirmatory function of the fact that “it is early in the morning (we meet so early in the morning)” or “you (interlocutor) got up early” so that it can function as praise (cf. “the early birds catch the worm”). Therefore it is possible for a mother to ironically say to the child who got up late “Osoyo gozaimasu (late in the morning!)” It is interesting to see how these functional expressions are made respectively in a language, which patterns often can be observed. Other Japanese greeting forms with such a social function also have their origins in confirming an occurrence. “Arigatou gozaimsu” is a revised form of an old greeting “arigataki kotonari” which means “Your action is very seldom seen (what you have done for me can hardly be expected of others)”. This expression can be compared with English phrases such as “it’s kind of you” or the This phenomenon in linguistic aspect is called “overgeneralization”. It is called as interlanguage and evaluated positively, and not as error. But it is a question if we should consider it in the field of intercultural communication in the same way. 34 Cf. Perregaux, and Shiga this volume. 33 22 German phrase “nett”. It would be interesting to see which type of expression is preferred in a language, the direct expression of thanks or the indirect confirmation of a good action. Then, or in parallel, this linguistic aspect can be combined with the practices aspect. The greetings through a day can be compared interculturally with the criteria from when or how long in the day the greeting form can be used. The German “Guten Tag” can be said in the morning or evening, but this is impossible for the English “Good afternoon”. The Italian “Bona sera” can be used when one has had already a lunch. And so on. This comparison of practices would be done best in the form of a project. The learner corresponds with his or her partners/peers in other countries who are learning the same foreign language and exchange information, or questionnaires. (The target language then has the function of a “Lingua Franca”) If such a project is difficult to carry out in one’s own country, the teacher could help the learners to connect with a peer class of the target culture/language. Alternatively, such a project could be conducted using computers. This would function as an alternative form of Community activity, as suggested by the SFLL. 2.3.5 Intercultural aspects A recent demand of foreign language education is to integrate intercultural aspects, this is a similar idea to cross-curricular collaboration. The suggestions to the linguistic approach above already include some (inter)cultural elements, since culture is the entirety of patterned behaviors of one ethnic group through its language(s). In this sense some illocution types of speech act undoubtedly belong to the culture but here I will concentrate on the aspects beyond these linguistic issues. To handle this aspect in the foreign language class there are some guiding principles: One begins with familiar items in a local environment and adhere to universal themes. This is very important above all for the young learner. We can find lists of themes satisfying this demand, for example in the “Threshold Level”. On the other hand, we have to be sensitive in adapting a theme, because these universal themes can have a special value or status in respective cultures or societies. Sexuality for example could not be a theme for a lesson in some countries, similarly age or money. The most problem-free topics would be “food”, dwelling or clothes. Nevertheless we should deal with these issues with sensitivity and care. Cross-curricular integration offers an opportunity to overcome the reluctance shown in section 1.2.5 and 2.2.3. The age appropriate theme will give the students more learning motivation and the contents they have already confronted will facilitate a more effective understanding in the foreign language and this in turn will deepen the learning in their own language. But it has another problem. This all relates to the age of commencement. In the curriculum for subjects in the first language, themes and contents are selected with care so that they are appropriate to the cognitive and affective maturity of the students, and in the curriculum of the counterpart too. If the same or similar topics are given for the same or similar grade, there is no problem. We can take them up and work successfully. If it is not the case, if that topic is handled in a much earlier grade in the curriculum than in the foreign language curriculum, and vice versa, it would create some gaps in the cognitive demands and students could feel underestimated. (This occurs often at the university when the students begin the 23 second compulsory foreign language). To this issue see the trials in the appendix and the article of Doyé & Saßnik-Lotsch! 2.4 Teacher/class organization Elementary schools classes for young pupils from the first to third or fourth grade are given by a classroom teacher. This praxis can be seen in many countries, in Japan as well as in many European countries. The reason for this praxis emerges from the fact that young children need a caregiver to whom they can strongly relate, (Germ. Bezugsperson) in order to find their orientation for all things. As this orientation has a general character and does not require specific knowledge, a classroom teacher can fulfill this function. First when the contents to be taught are complicated and require special qualities of the teacher, the class is given by a subject teacher. And if a class teacher is responsible for the whole class for the total time in the school he or she can arrange the schedule according to the psychological and physical conditions of the children. He or she can shift the subject planned for a later lesson. Curricular demands can be balanced across a wide range of the schedule. Ideally a foreign language should be taught in the same way. However, since linguistic competence in the foreign language cannot be expected of each classroom teacher, it is difficult to enforce this principle in elementary schools. Actually we often find a mixed organization. If this pedagogical principle of “holism” is upheld, all elementary school teachers should acquire the competence of the target language, and be trained in this direction. It would be unrealistic to expect this to be realized in a short time. The Japanese plan to introduce the English activities in elementary school, does not aim to teach the pupils language competence. In this condition, it would be not difficult for the teacher to carry out their assignment. However the direction of the Ministry that in English activities linguistic competence should not be centered but the “intercultural awareness” actually confuses most teachers. In opposition to the holistic principle we can see another principle, which is practiced in China. Here all subjects are taught by specified subject teacher, even in an elementary school. They seem to have the concept or belief that the addition of all knowledge taught in the school could make up a whole personality. In this way they have no problem to organize the foreign language class. They suffer merely from a lack of qualified English teachers for elementary schools. A Chinese or mathematics teacher, for example, may be trained as an English teacher. The shortcoming in teaching competence could be covered by well constructed textbooks and good educational technology, such as computers and DVD materials. But here the discrepancies in quality between schools or classes are huge, even in a big city such as Shanghai. The third organization model of class can be seen in the Italian Moduli Didattici. This Moduli Didattici itself is a curricular concept and contains a sort of team/common management of classes. Here three teachers are responsible for two classes, that is, they all are classroom teachers. They deal with their subjects according to their stronger competences. For example, one teacher gives lessons for math, science and sports, the second teacher for geography, social studies and history, and the third for languages and arts. This distribution has a merit as far as the pupils gain more qualified knowledge from a quasi-subject teacher, without missing the presence of their caregiver. Concerning 24 the caregiver, it is said that the pupils could prefer one or other teacher as they are a “father-oriented child”, or “mother-oriented child”. In former times, we knew the “grandma child”, however, this is rarely seen today in a nuclear family. Now when one of the three teachers has competence for foreign language teaching this system will function very well. The government need not train all classroom teachers in foreign language education, which demands expensive financial action, and it can get along with a third of the classroom teachers. In reality it seems not so easy. I recently visited some Italian elementary schools but never encountered an English class with this model. This model of 1990 (148) was already experiencing difficulties by 2004 and the common collaborator classroom organization with three teachers for two classes was changed to a system with four for three. The reasons were firstly financial and then there were mounting criticisms of insufficient growth of the competence of the pupils. Whichever of these three models is chosen, the fact is clear that to educate and train good foreign language teachers costs enormous amounts of money. It can be emphasized in modern times where the requirements for foreign language education become increasingly interdisciplinary and the connection with other teaching subjects becomes more pressing. As human capacity is limited, collaboration, the exchange of opinions and experience between teachers is important to meet these needs. It appears more desirable for the model of the “subject teacher” as in China. These collaborations are necessary not only for elementary school education but also for education from the secondary stage, as the disciplines taught there get increasingly complicated to be mastered by a sole teacher. So sensing, the Moduli Didattici represents a possible organizational model for the secondary stages as well. This surely can be applied in a country such as Germany where teachers in middle and high schools should have the competence to teach in at least two disciplines. When we Japanese should apply this model for the secondary stage we need to change the entire teacher training system of a “single-subject teacher” and would have to educate teachers so that they are able to teach at least in three (two?) disciplines. Whatever the educational system, we could be already collaborating interdisciplinarily and inter-collegially. This must be the first step of all. References ACTFL (American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages) et al (2006): Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (SFLL) Council of Europe (2001): Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. (CEFR). Cambridge Curtain, Helena & Pesola, Carol Ann Bjornstad (1999): Language and Children: making the match. 2nd edition. (Japanese translation. By Katsoshi Itoh et. Japan Levine, Deena R./Adelman, Mara B. (1993) : Beyond Language. Cross-cultural Communication. 2nd edition. Prentice Hall Regents. USA 25 Ryan, Stephen (2009) : Self and Identity in L2 Motivation in Japan: the ideal L2 Self and Japanese learners of English. In: Dörnyei, Zoltán & Ushioda,Ema (ed.) : Motivation, Language Identity and the LS Self. Second Language Acquisition. pp.120-143..Multilingual Matter Singleton, David & Ryan, Lisa (2004) : Language Acquisition: The age factor. 2nd edition. Second Language Acquisition 9.. Multilingual Matters Japanese Literature JACET (Japan Association of College English Teacher) SLA (2006): Bunken kara miru daini gengo shutoku kenkyu (Second Language Acquisition. An Overview of the Studies on Language Acquisition). Kaitakusha Japan Ootsu, Yukio (ed.) (2005) : Shougakkou deno Eigo kyouiku wa Hituyou nai.(English Class in the Elementary School is not nessesary) Univerity Press of Keio-Gijuku Yoshijima, Shigeru & Hasegawa, Hiroki (ed.) (2003): Gaikokugo Kyoiku II (Foreign Language Education II). Asahi-Shuppan Tokyo Ditto (2003) : Gaikokugo Kyoiku III (Foreign Language Education III). Asahi-Shuppan Tokyo Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT )(2010) : English Note 26 Die Funktion derFremdsprachenerziehung in derallgemeinbildenden Schule heute Doyé, Peter Saßnick-Lotsch, Wendelgard 1. Einleitung Die Zeitangabe „heute“ im Titel unseres Beitrags impliziert die Feststellung, dass die Funktion der Fremdsprachenerziehung sich wandelt. Diese Tatsache ist allgemein bekannt: In Abhängigkeit von den gesellschaftlichen Umständen ändern sich die Vorstellungen von den Aufgaben, die der Fremdsprachenunterricht im Rahmen der Erziehung generell zu übernehmen habe. Die letzten hundert Jahre belegen diese Feststellung sehr eindrucksvoll. Die staatlichen Richtlinien und die didaktischen Diskurse in Deutschland und anderen europäischen Ländern weisen －im Abstand von etwa dreißig Jahren－ weitreichende Veränderungen hinsichtlich der Funktion der Fremdsprachenerziehung auf. Nach einer vom humanistischen Bildungsideal Humboldts geprägten Hinwendung zu formaler Bildung im 19. Jahrhundert setzte sich zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts die Vorstellung durch, dass der Unterricht in den modernen Fremdsprachen －anders als der altsprachliche Unterricht－ vor allem auf die praktische Beherrschung der Zielsprachen ausgerichtet sein müsse. Sprachkönnen statt Sprachwissen sei das übergeordnete Ziel (Viëtor 1905). Eine Generation später stellten die Fremdsprachendidaktiker den praktischen Fähigkeiten die Kenntnis der durch die Sprachen repräsentierten Kulturen zur Seite. Kulturkunde zu vermitteln sei ebenso wichtig wie die Hinführung der Lernenden zu sprachlicher Kompetenz (Strohmeyer 1928). Einmal abgesehen davon, dass die Kulturkunde von den Nationalsozialisten zur Herabwürdigung der anderen Kulturen missbraucht wurde, zeigte sich bald, dass die enge Auslegung des Begriffs „sprachliche Kompetenz“ als die Fähigkeit, wohlgeformte Sätze in der fremden Sprache zu bilden, mitschuldig war an der zu engen Ausrichtung des Fremdsprachenunterrichts. Im Gefolge der pragmatischen Umorientierung der Sprachwissenschaft und in Übereinstimmung mit ihr ersetzten die Fremdsprachendidaktiker das Globalziel Linguistic Competence durch Communicative Competence, in Deutschland vor allem im allgemeinverbindlich gewordenen Englischunterricht (Piepho 1974). Wiederum ein Vierteljahrhundert später kam dann der für das Verständnis der gegenwärtigen Theorie und Praxis so entscheidende Gedanke auf, den Fremdsprachenunterricht in den Dienst der interkulturellen Erziehung zu stellen und seine Funktion im wesentlichen darin zu sehen, dass er einen Beitrag leistet zu der Befähigung der Lernenden zum angemessenen Umgang mit Menschen anderer kultureller Herkunft, das heißt zu interkultureller kommunikativer Kompetenz. 27 2. Das Globalziel: Interkulturelle kommunikative Kompetenz 2.1 Derallgemeinpädagogische Ansatz In Deutschland hat es in den neunziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts eine Renaissance des Konzepts „Allgemeinbildung“ gegeben. Worin diese bestehe und welchen Beitrag die einzelnen Fächer leisten könnten, um sie den Schülerinnen und Schülern zu vermitteln, beherrschte jahrelang die schulpädagogische Diskussion (Kiper 1995). Einen wichtigen Anteil an dieser Diskussion hatten die Vertreter der Interkulturellen Pädagogik. Wolfgang Nieke bezeichnete die interkulturelle Bildung als einen „unerlässlichen Bestandteil der Allgemeinbildung“ und lenkte damit die Aufmerksamkeit auf einen Bereich, der sich heute in allen Programmen und Dokumenten der Bildungspolitik wieder findet: Kinder und Jugendliche begegnen im 21. Jahrhundert ständig Menschen und Objekten anderer kultureller Herkunft und müssen auf diese Begegnungen vorbereitet werden. Deshalb muss die von der Schule zu vermittelnde Allgemeinbildung notwendig die interkulturelle Bildung einschließen. Neben der mathematischen, muttersprachlichen, naturwissenschaftlichen und musischen Bildung gebührt deshalb der interkulturellen Bildung ein zentraler Platz in der allgemeinbildenden Schule. Diesen grundsätzlichen Überlegungen haben Knapp und Knapp-Potthoff einen für die Bestimmung der Rolle des Fremdsprachenunterrichts wichtigen Gedanken hinzugefügt. Sie sprechen von der „Befähigung zu Interkultureller Kommunikation“ und geben damit der interkulturellen Erziehung ein klares Ziel. Worauf es ankommt, ist, dass die Lernenden die Fähigkeit erwerben, mit Angehörigen anderer Kulturen zu kommunizieren; und beim Erwerb eben dieser Fähigkeit muss die Schule ihnen helfen. Eine solche Fokussierung auf den kommunikativen Aspekt hat den Vorteil, dass die didaktischen Maßnahmen nicht aus vagen, ideologieträchtigen Erziehungsvorstellungen deduziert zu werden brauchen, sondern aus den alltäglichen Aufgaben und Problemen des Lebens in der multikulturellen Welt hergeleitet werden können. (Knapp & Knapp-Potthoff 1990) Dass dieses Ziel nicht leicht zu erreichen ist, wissen alle Beteiligten. Hilfreich für die Bewältigung der Aufgabe, kann die Erkenntnis sein, dass für die Erlangung interkultureller kommunikativer Kompetenz eben jene drei Qualifikationen benötigt werden, die in allen Bereichen menschlichen Lernens eine wichtige Rolle spielen: die kognitive, die emotionale/attitudinale und die pragmatische. Heimann, Otto und Schulz haben mit ihrer Analyse schulischen Lernens und der Intentionalität schulischen Unterrichts überzeugend dargelegt, wie diese drei „Dimensionen“ allen Lernprozessen innewohnen. (1964) Dass diese drei Dimensionen auch bei dem Bemühen um die Qualifikation zu interkultureller Kompetenz im Spiel sind, muss ihren Verfechtern klar sein. Die interkulturelle Kommunikationsfähigkeit besteht aus Kenntnissen, Fertigkeiten und Einstellungen: Kenntnisse über andere Kulturen und die Beziehung der eigenen Kultur zu ihnen; Fertigkeiten im Umgang mit Angehörigen der anderen Kulturen; und Einstellungen zu diesen Menschen und ihren Produkten. Nun ist die Aufgabe der Befähigung zu interkultureller Kommunikation gewiss eine Aufgabe der gesamten Schule. Doch ist nicht zu übersehen, dass der Fremdsprachenunterricht besonders günstige Voraussetzungen dafür besitzt. Andere Sprachen und Kulturen sind ohnehin seine essentiellen 28 Unterrichtsgegenstände, und es bietet sich an, die Auseinandersetzung mit ihnen im Sinne interkultureller Bildung zu nutzen. 2.2 Derfremdsprachendidaktische Ansatz Die eben beschriebene Sichtweise wurde fast gleichzeitig durch einen fremdsprachendidaktischen Ansatz ergänzt. Das Common European Framework of Reference (Council for Cultural Co-operation 1998, 40) führt bei seiner Beschreibung der Kommunikationsfähigkeit drei Komponenten auf, die ziemlich genau den von der Interkulturellen Pädagogik identifizierten Dimensionen entsprechen. Dort ist die Rede von: Declarative knowledge (savoir), Skills and know-how (savoir-faire) und Existential competence (savoir-être). Byram hat diese Dreigliederung aufgegriffen und die drei Komponenten genauer beschrieben. - Knowledge of social groups and their products and practices in one’s own and one’s interlocutor’s country, and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction. - Ability to interpret a document or event from another culture; ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication and interaction. - Intercultural attitudes such as curiosity, openness and the willingness to relativise one’s own values, beliefs and behaviours, not to assume that they are the only possible and naturally correct ones. (Byram et al. 2001, 8f.) Diese Sichtweise hat in den Fremdsprachendidaktiken der meisten europäischen Länder Anerkennung gefunden und schlägt sich in zahlreichen nationalen Dokumenten nieder, z.B. in dem spanischen Real Decreto von 1991, den italienischen Indicazioni per il curricolo von 2007, den englischen Statutory Frameworks, den Programmen der Association des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes (APLV) für die französischen allgemeinbildeneden Schulen. Die genannten Dokumente stimmen in einem wichtigen Punkt überein: Ihre Verfasser vertreten allesamt die These, dass die anzustrebende Kommunikationsfähigkeit aus drei Komponenten besteht, die einander stützen und ergänzen. Diese werden als konstitutive Teile eines Ganzen gesehen und sind daher gleichwertig und gleich wichtig. Interkulturelle Kenntnisse und Erkenntnisse haben keinen Vorrang vor den praktischen kommunikativen Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten, und diese wiederum besitzen keine Priorität vor den Werthaltungen und den Einstellungen zu der anderen Kultur und ihren Repräsentanten. Alle drei sind aufeinander angewiesen und müssen daher gemeinsam gefördert werden. 29 Diese These ist plausibel und wird im folgenden Kapitel noch näher beleuchtet und begründet. Sie bedeutet eine Absage an die lange Zeit herrschende Vorstellung, man könne die drei Komponenten unabhängig voneinander schulen und zur Not sogar auf eine von ihnen verzichten. Doch diese Vorstellung hat sich lange gehalten. Noch 1989 stand der Bundeskongress des Fachverbandes Moderne Fremdsprachen unter dem Motto „Fremdsprachenunterricht zwischen Bildungsanspruch und praktischem Tun“, und eine Reihe weiterer Veranstaltungen um die Jahrhundertwende behandelten das Lernen und Lehren von Fremdsprachen ebenfalls noch so, als müsse man bei der Zielsetzung des Unterrichts zwischen mehreren sich gegenseitig ausschließenden Alternativen wählen. Dieses Entweder-Oder-Denken scheint aber nun in den meisten europäischen Ländern überwunden, und ob das Denken in binären Oppositionen in Ländern wie Japan erfolgreich praktiziert werden kann, muss sich erst noch zeigen 1 . Angesichts der Plausibilität der Integrationsthese erscheint dies immerhin zweifelhaft. 3. Die drei Komponenten derinterkulturellen kommunikativen Kompetenz 3.1 Die kognitive Komponente Kenntnisse sind meist das erste, das Menschen einfällt, wenn sie zu reflektieren beginnen, was denn die Schule zu vermitteln habe. Das gilt auch für den Fremdsprachenunterricht, wenn auch nicht als Primärziel. Das zu vermittelnde Wissen ergibt sich －siehe oben－ aus dem übergeordeten Ziel der interkulturellen kommunikativen Kompetenz, und die zu lehrenden Kenntnisse sind daher solche, die die Schülerinnen und Schüler brauchen, um mit Menschen anderer kultureller Herkunft kommunizieren zu können. Zwei Gruppen von Kenntnissen sind erforderlich: kulturelle und sprachliche Kenntnisse. Auch wenn klar ist, dass die beiden eng miteinander zusammenhängen, －englische Didaktiker verwenden neuerdings die Bindestrichformel „language-and-culture“－ erleichtert es die Analyse, wenn man sie getrennt behandelt. Bei der ersten Gruppe handelt es sich um Informationen über die anderen Kulturen (Nationen, Gesellschaften), in denen die Zielsprache der Lernenden als Erstsprache verwendet wird, und deren Kenntnis daher für ein Verständnis der Angehörigen dieser Kulturen wichtig ist. Vorschläge zur Identifizierung und Kategorisierung dieser Informationen gibt es in großer Zahl. Ein Beispiel ist das im Rahmen des kooperativen Forschungsprojekts der Universitäten Braunschweig und Durham entwickelte Schema für die Analyse von Unterrichtsinhalten (Byram 1993). Zu diesen Informationen muss die Aufklärung über die Beziehungen der eigenen Kultur zur fremden hinzukommen. Das setzt ein Bewusstsein der Normen des Denkens, Wertens und Handelns der eigenen Kultur voraus. Nur wer sich dieser Normen bewusst ist, kann Vergleiche mit denen der Zielkultur anstellen, was für ein Verständnis der Beziehung der beiden sehr förderlich ist. Die Komparatisten haben den Vergleich als effizientes Mittel der Erkenntnis der Wesensmerkmale von Kulturen längst erkannt. (Price-Williams 1968) 1 Vgl. Yoshijima in diesem Band: The Role of Foreign Language Education in General Education 30 Die zweite Gruppe von Informationen umfasst die sprachlichen Kenntnisse, die als Hintergrundwissen für die kommunikativen Fertigkeiten fungieren. Ob dieses Wissen explizit oder als impliziter Bestandteil der Vermittlung praktischer Kompetenz vermittelt werden sollte, ist eine methodische Frage, die die Fremdsprachendidaktiker je nach ihrer psychologischen Orientierung unterschiedlich beantworten. Einigkeit besteht indessen darüber, dass Kenntnisse über die Struktur der Zielsprache(n) und die Vielfalt der Möglichkeiten, diese Strukturen zu realisieren, einen wichtigen Beitrag zum Aufbau der interkulturellen kommunikativen Kompetenz leisten können. Das vieldiskutierte Konzept der language awareness (Hawkins 1981) hat hier seinen Platz. 3.2 Die pragmatische Komponente Die genannten Kenntnisse in Handeln umzusetzen, erfordert praktische kommunikative Kompetenz, pragmatisch ausgedrückt: die Fähigkeit zum Vollzug kommunikativer Akte. Zur Identifikation der benötigten Handlungskompetenz können zum einen die Ergebnisse der Curriculunforschung, zum anderen die Erkenntnisse der linguistischen Pragmatik dienen. Die Curriculumforschung (hier bes. Robinsohn 1971) hat als Resultat ihrer Untersuchungen den folgenden Dreierschritt vorgeschlagen: Die Curriculum-Planer mögen zunächst die Situationen ermitteln, für die die Lernenden ausgestattet werden sollen, sodann die Qualifikationen bestimmen, die diese zur Bewältigung der Situationen brauchen, und daraus schließlich die konkreten Gegenstände des Unterrichts ableiten. Die Arbeitsgruppe des Europarats, die mit dem Entwurf des Planes für die Threshold Level of Language Proficiency beauftragt war, ist genau so vorgegangen. Sie hat aufgrund der Analyse der potenziellen Rollen sprachenlernender europäischer Erwachsener und Jugendlicher einen umfassenden Katalog wahrscheinlicher Situationen erarbeitet und auf dessen Grundlage die für die kommunikative Bewältigung der ermittelten Situationen benötigten Qualifikationen identifiziert. Dabei kamen ihnen die Erkenntnisse der linguistischen Pragmatik (bes. Austin 1967 und Searle 1974) zugute, die darauf gerichtet waren, die Struktur kommunikativer Akte zu erfassen und diese nach ihrer illokutiven Funktion zu ordnen. Dabei ergaben sich fünf Gruppen von Akten: Repräsentativa: feststellen, erzählen, beschreiben Direktiva: auffordern, befehlen, bitten Kommissiva: versprechen, garantieren, schwören Expressiva: danken, bedauern, grüßen, gratulieren Deklarativa: taufen, ernennen Zu konkreten Gegenständen des Unterrichts werden diese Akte dann durch die Vermittlung der Realisationsformen in den einzelnen Sprachen, zum Beispiel: Feststellen: This is the way to the station. Dies ist der Weg zum Bahnhof. Esto es el camino a la estación. Bitten: Give me your pen, please. Gib mir bitte Deinen Stift. Por favor, dame tu pluma. 31 Versprechen: I will be back at 3 o’clock. Ich bin um 3 Uhr zurück. Regreso a las tres. Danken: Thank you very much. Vielen Dank. Muchas gracias. Sich erkundigen: How are you today? Wie geht’s Dir heute? Qué tal estás hoy? Die Beispiele stammen alle aus deutschen Grundschullehrplänen. Diese haben wie auch die meisten Lehrpläne für die Sekundarstufe die früher üblichen Kataloge grammatischer und lexikalischer Inhalte durch Übersichten über die zu vermittelnden sprachlichen Akte ersetzt. Ein anderer Aspekt der Konzeption praktischer kommunikativer Kompetenz ist in letzter Zeit neu diskutiert worden. Didaktiker warnen davor, diese Kompetenz als schlichte Fertigkeit in den vier Grundformen sprachlichen Handelns －also Sprechen, Hörverstehen, Schreiben und Leseverstehen － aufzufassen. Eine solche Sicht greife zu kurz. Unter Hinweis auf Piephos frühe Ansätze erweitert Hallet die gerade beschriebene Kompetenz um eine diskursive Komponente, die er „Diskurstüchtigkeit“ nennt. Darunter versteht er die Fähigkeit, die eigenen sprachlichen Handlungen und die der Partner als Bestandteile überindividueller gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhänge zu sehen. Er verweist auf Foucault, der die Vorstellung entwickelt hat, dass sich in Akten kommunikativen Austausches „hinter dem Rücken der Aktanten interindividuelle, die einzelnen Äußerungen übergreifende Redezusammenhänge herstellen, die … nicht nur das in einer Gesellschaft vorhandene Wissen repräsentieren, sondern darüber hinaus das soziale Zusammenleben in einer Gesellschaft… und politische und ethische Vorstellungen erzeugen.“ (2008, 81) Hallet fordert deshalb die Einbeziehung dieser Komponente in einen erweiterten Begriff der interkulturellen kommunikativen Kompetenz. 3.3 Die attitudinale Komponente Die kognitiven und die praktischen Fähigkeiten sind wertlos ohne eine entsprechende Bereitschaft zur Kommunikation. Diese wiederum muss getragen sein von bestimmten Haltungen der Kommunikanten wie Offenheit, Empathie und Toleranz. Negativ ausgedrückt: die Bereitschaft zur Reduktion von Vorurteilen, Ethnozentrismus und Xenophobie. Solche Haltungen aufzubauen, ist sicher der schwierigste Teil der Erziehung zu interkultureller kommunikativer Kompetenz. Aber er ist unabdingbar. Ulrich Zahlten liefert eine sehr realistische Einschätzung der psychischen Ausgangssituation, wenn er schreibt: „Every human being functions best and feels most at home in his own culture. It is thus not surprising that one normally prefers one’s own culture to others: that one has more affection for the culture in which one has grown up than for another which seems strange at first because of its different norms of thinking, valuing and acting.” (Zahlten 1978, 5/5) Aber Kinder und Jugendliche können lernen, solche “strangeness” zu akzeptieren. Sie können lernen, die vertrauten Normen der eigenen Gesellschaft als eine mögliche Form des Denkens, Wertens und Handelns zu begreifen und andere Formen zu respektieren. Für diese Grenzüberschreitung haben Didaktiker den Begriff „tertiäre Sozialisation“ geprägt. 32 „Foreign language teaching can be a major factor in what might be called －as an extension of the notions of primary and secondary socialisation－ tertiary socialisation, in which young people acquire an intercultural communicative competence.” (Byram 1990, 5) Dieser Begriff erscheint deswegen so treffend, weil er die heute so dringend erforderliche Qualifikation von Individuen zur Offenheit gegenüber Menschen und Gegenständen anderer kultureller Herkunft beschreibt als eine konsequente Fortsetzung der ersten Phase der Sozialisation, in der das Individuum seine primären sozialen Erfahrungen macht, und der zweiten, in welcher es die sekundären und komplexeren Zusammenhänge seiner eigenen Gesellschaft erfährt. Diese Konsequenz ist sehr erhellend. (Doyé 2008, 23ff.) Wie die Hinführung zu den intendierten Haltungen durch den Fremdsprachenunterricht gestaltet werden kann, dazu gibt es eine Reihe von Konzepten. Die beiden wichtigsten sind die der Cultural Studies und der World Studies. Gegenstand von Cultural Studies sind die sozialen und nationalen Gegebenheiten der Zielkulturen. Im Gegensatz zur traditionellen Landeskunde beschränken sich die Cultural Studies aber nicht auf die Vermittlung landestypischer Informationen, sondern verbinden mit ihr die zur Verarbeitung dieses Wissens erforderlichen Haltungen. Die Lernenden sollen befähigt werden, den Phänomenen der anderen Kulturen möglichst aufgeschlossen, vorurteilsfrei und tolerant gegenüberzutreten. (Lehberger & Lange 1984) Anders als die Cultural Studies gehen die World Studies nicht von bestimmten Kulturen aus, sondern von den globalen Problemen unserer Welt und behandeln diese dann in ihren spezifischen Erscheinungsformen in den einzelnen Kulturen. Methodisch gesehen, stellen sie also eine Umkehrung der ersteren dar. Während bei den Cultural Studies die gründliche Behandlung der Objekte der Zielkulturen am Anfang steht und der Blick anschließend auf weltweite Zusammenhänge gerichtet wird, setzen die World Studies bei den global issues an und schreiten von ihnen zu ihren Konkretisierungen in den target cultures fort. (Starkey 1990) Beiden Konzepten 2 gemeinsam ist die Betonung der attitudalen Komponente. Bei der konventionellen Landeskunde stand die kognitive Schulung im Vordergrund. Es ging um „Kunde“, also Kenntnis. Dagegen schließen die beiden hier referierten Konzepte die Hinführung zu Haltungen mit ein. 4. Fremdsprachenerziehung und nationale Bildungsstandards － ein Beispiel 2 In den einschlägigen Dokumenten wird häufig eine vierte Kompetenz genannt: die ability to learn (savoir-apprendre) (Council for Cultural Co-operation 1998) oder Methodische Kompetenz (Kultusministerkonferenz (2003). Diese wird in dem vorliegenden Beitrag ausgeklammert, weil sie sozusagen quer zu den oben beschriebenen drei Komponenten liegt. Sie ist eine Kompetenz, die vor allem deswegen erstrebenswert ist, weil sie eine Voraussetzung für die Erlangung der kognitiven, pragmatischen und attitudinalen Fähigkeiten bildet. Sie ist außerdem anderer Natur, da ihre Förderung allen Lehrmaßnahmen des Fremdsprachenunterrichts als gemeinsame Aufgabe gestellt ist. 33 Die Kultusministerkonferenz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland hat im Jahr 2003 verbindlich geltende Bildungsstandards für den Mittleren Abschluss in der ersten Fremdsprache, konkret Englisch oder Französisch, festgelegt. Diese Bildungsstandards greifen die Grundprinzipien des jeweiligen Faches auf und definieren die fachbezogenen Kompetenzen, welche Schülerinnen und Schüler am Ende des Bildungsganges erreichen sollen. Sie haben systematisches, vernetztes Lernen zum Ziel. Basis der fremdsprachlichen nationalen Bildungsstandards ist das oben erwähnte Common European Framework of Reference. Für den Mittleren Abschluss gilt, dass die Lernenden die Kompetenzstufe B1 erreicht haben sollen. Zentrale Prüfungen sollen feststellen, ob dieses Ziel erreicht wird. Die Kompetenzbereiche der nationalen Bildungsstandards für die Sekundarstufe I (Beschlüsse der Kultusministerkonferenz, 2003: S. 8) sind: - Deklaratives Wissen: Wissen über Orte, Institutionen und Organisationen, Personen und Objekte, Ereignisse und Prozesse, speziell in den Ländern der Zielsprache - Funktionale Kompetenzen: Kommunikative Fertigkeiten, d.h. Hör-und Hör-Sehverstehen, Leseverstehen, Sprechen, Schreiben, Sprachmittlung und die Verfügung über die sprachlichen Mittel zu ihrem Vollzug, also Wortschatz, Grammatik, Aussprache und Intonation, Orthographie - Interkulturelle Kompetenzen: soziokulturelles Orientierungswissen, verständnisvoller Umgang mit kultureller Differenz, praktische Bewältigung interkultureller Begegnungssituationen - Methodische Kompetenzen: Textrezeption (Leseverstehen und Hörverstehen), Interaktion, Textproduktion (Sprechen und Schreiben), Lernstrategien, Präsentation und Mediennutzung, Lernbewusstheit und Lernorganisation“ In den Ausführungen der nationalen Bildungsstandards zum verbindlichen Erwerb interkultureller Kompetenzen im Rahmen des Fremdsprachenunterrichts wird erläutert, dass es darum geht, bei Schülerinnen und Schülern auf der Basis eines Orientierungswissens zu exemplarischen Themen Verständnis für andere kulturspezifische Denk- und Lebensweisen, für fremde Werten und Normen zu entwickeln und eigene Sichtweisen oder Wertvorstellungen kritisch und tolerant mit jenen zu vergleichen. Erworben werden sollen weiterhin Strategien und Fähigkeiten zur praktischen Bewältigung von interkulturellen Begegnungssituationen, zum Umgang mit Missverständnissen, mit schwierigen Themen und mit Konfliktsituationen (vgl. S.10). Byrams Dreigliederung, beschrieben unter 2.2, findet sich hier wieder. Der Europarat hat angeregt, dass künftig alle jungen Europäer zur Mehrsprachigkeit erzogen werden. Die meisten Länder haben daher begonnen, das Erlernen der ersten Fremdsprache auf die Primarstufe vorzuverlegen und den Unterricht bereits hier am Common European Framework of Reference, an Standards und am „Outcome“ zu orientieren. So sollen die Schülerinnen und Schüler am Ende der Grundschule die Kompetenzstufe A1 des Referenzrahmens erreichen. In einem Entwurf 34 des Lehrplans für die Grundschule heißt es: „In Gesprächen über die mehrsprachige multikulturelle Wirklichkeit der englischsprachigen Kinder wird ihnen (den deutschen Lernenden) die kulturelle und sprachliche Vielgestaltigkeit der eigenen Lebenswirklichkeit bewusster. Dies stärkt die Entwicklung von Aufgeschlossenheit, Verständnisbereitschaft und Toleranz“ (MSW-NRW, 2008: S. 10). Die in 3.3 beschriebene und von Fremdsprachendidaktikern formulierte „tertiäre Sozialisation“ ist somit integraler Bestandteil der nationalen Bildungsstandards für den Unterricht der ersten Fremdsprache. Sie wird bereits im Unterricht der Grundschule angelegt. 5. Die drei Komponenten interkulturellerkommunikativerKompetenz im Unterricht Wie kann die Forderung nach der Entwicklung interkultureller kommunikativer Kompetenz in konkreten Unterrichtsvorhaben umgesetzt werden? Aus der Überzeugung, dass die kognitive, die pragmatische und die attitudinale Komponente aufgrund ihrer Gleichwertigkeit gemeinsam gefördert werden müssen, ergibt sich die Konsequenz, diese drei Komponenten bei der Planung, Durchführung und Evaluation eines jeden fremdsprachlichen Unterrichtsvorhabens in den Blick zu nehmen. Dabei ist zu bedenken, dass das Erreichen von Haltungen wie Offenheit, Empathie und Toleranz sich einer objektiven Evaluation entzieht. Im Folgenden soll an Beispielen aus dem Englischunterricht gezeigt werden, wie die Umsetzung der Entwicklung interkultureller kommunikativer Kompetenz in der Planung aussehen kann. Ausgewählt wurden dazu ein Unterrichtsvorhaben der Primarstufe, dessen Fortsetzung unter dem Aspekt der Nachhaltigkeit in der Sekundarstufe kurz skizziert wird, sowie zwei Unterrichts- vorhaben der Sekundarstufe. 5.1 Ein Unterrichtsvorhaben fürdie Primarstufe Die Grundlage für diesen Unterrichtsvorschlag für Young Learners stammt von Susan House und Katharine Scott und gehört zu den Materialien, die unter www.onestopclil.com im Internet verfügbar sind. Ausgehend von der Erkenntnis, dass gesunde Ernährung darin besteht, die richtigen Lebensmittel in einem ausgewogenen Verhältnis zu sich zu nehmen, wird in der Gesundheitserziehung in England die Nahrungsmittel-Pyramide als Anschauungsmaterial benutzt. (Abb. 1) Dargestellt werden dort in vier Stufen die Kategorien, denen Lebensmittel sich zuordnen lassen. Die Basis bilden Kohlehydrate, es folgen auf der nächsten Stufe Gemüse und Obst, die vierte Stufe teilt sich auf in Milchprodukte und Proteine, an der Spitze der Pyramide finden sich Fette und Süßigkeiten. Wie kann dieses Schaubild im Fremdsprachenunterricht einer deutschen Grundschule genutzt werden? Der Unterricht beginnt damit, dass Schülerinnen und Schüler sowie die Lehrkraft zunächst von zu Hause Lebensmittel mitbringen und sich im Unterrichtsgespräch darüber austauschen. Dieser Schritt hat den Zweck, die soziokulturelle Heterogenität, die in vielen deutschen Grundschulen herrscht, als Chance zum Lernen zu nutzen. Es geht weiterhin darum, vom Erfahrungshintergrund der Lerngruppe auszugehen und Lernen mit möglichst vielen Sinnen ermöglichen. Im Gespräch über die mitgebrachten Lebensmittel lernen die Kinder ausgewählte 35 Wörter zum Thema „food“ und grammatische Strukturen wie zum Beispiel „This is a…“, „I have got a…“, „I like…“, I don’t like… „ „… is good for you“, „… isn’t good for you“. „You can eat a lot of …“, „Don’t eat a lot of…“. Auf der kognitiven Ebene wenden Sie dabei außerdem gleichzeitig ihr eventuell bereits vorhandenes Weltwissen über gesunde Ernährung an und erweitern dieses. Anhand der Pyramide wird den Kindern erklärt, was in England unter gesunder Ernährung verstanden wird. 36 Die attitudinale Komponente erhält dort Bedeutung, wo offensichtlich wird, dass bei den Kindern der Lerngruppe unterschiedliche Vorlieben bezüglich bestimmter Nahrungsmittel gibt, die es zu tolerieren gilt. Die pragmatische Ebene wird auch dadurch in den Blick genommen, dass an die Lust am Spiel und an der Bewegung von Grundschulkindern angeknüpft wird. Das vorgeschlagene Spiel nennt sich „Fruit Salad“. Die Kinder sitzen im Kreis auf Stühlen. Jedes Kind hat das Bild eines Nahrungsmittels, das es vor den anderen verdeckt hält. Von jedem Nahrungsmittel sind mindestens zwei Karten im Spiel. Die Lehrkraft nennt nun einen Begriff, z.B. „apple“, worauf die Kinder mit den entsprechenden Bildkarten schnell aufstehen und die Plätze tauschen. Ruft die Lehrkraft „fruit salad“ tauschen alle Kinder schnell die Plätze, das Kind, welches zuletzt sitzt, gibt ein Pfand ab. Geübt werden mit diesem Spiel in einer authentischen Kommunikationssituation Hörverstehen und Wortschatz, Konzentrations- und Reaktionsvermögen. Im Sinne des Spiralcurriculums wird die Thematik „Ernährung und Gesundheit“ in der Sekundarstufe erweitert und fortgesetzt. Auf der kognitiven Ebene geht es im 6. Schuljahr zum Beispiel um die Erweiterung der sprachlichen Mittel bei den Wortfeldern „Internationale Speisen“, „Fast Food“ und „Lieblingsspeisen“ sowie um die Verwendung der Modalverben “should“, „shouldn’t“, „must“, „mustn’t“ und „needn’t“. Auf der kognitiven Ebene wird weiterhin das soziokulturelle Orientierungswissen bezogen auf das kulinarische Angebot in Großbritannien erweitert. Dieses hat sich verändert. Bei Jugendlichen besonders beliebte Fast-Food-Ketten verdrängen die traditionellen „Fish and Chips Shops“. Zum soziokulturellen Orientierungswissen gehört ebenfalls, dass Tischmanieren in verschiedenen Kulturen unterschiedlich sind, wobei die attitudinale Komponente in der Unterrichtsplanung besonders berücksichtigt werden kann. Die pragmatische Komponente erweitert sich um Aspekte des Leseverstehens, des Schreibens, des Hörverstehens und des Sprechens. Schülerinnen und Schüler lernen zum Beispiel, ihre Gefühle auszudrücken, eine Speisekarte zu verstehen, selbst eine zusammenzustellen, eine Geschichte fortzusetzen, bei Hörtexten auf Details zu achten, einen Dialog zu ergänzen. 5.2 Ein Unterrichtsvorhaben fürdie Klasse 8 Für das 8. Schuljahr schlagen Lehrpläne folgende interkulturelle Themen vor: Freundschaft, Musik, Sport, Medien in der Freizeitgestaltung, Aspekte des schulischen Lernbetriebs in den USA, Migration als persönliches Schicksal, Einblicke in aktuelle kulturelle Ereignisse (Literatur und Film). Ein Unterrichtsvorhaben zum Thema „Sport“ kann darin bestehen, dass die Schülerinnen und Schüler eine zehn Minuten dauernde Präsentation vorbereiten und durchführen (vgl. Haß, 2008: S.24 f). Sie entscheiden sich zunächst einzeln für eine beliebte Sportart und arbeiten dann in Gruppen zu viert mit denen zusammen, die sich für die gleiche Sportart interessieren. Im Internet suchen sie arbeitsteilig nach Informationen über „ihre“ Sportart unter den Aspekten Ausrüstung, Spieler, Geschichte, Regeln, Kleidung, Clubs, Events, Meisterschaften, Turniere etc. In dieser Altersstufe ist es in der Regel sinnvoll, dass die Lehrkraft eine Liste mit geigneten Internet-Adressen bereithält. In der nächsten Phase tragen sie die gefundenen Informationen zusammen und finden eine sinnvolle Gliederung. Sie verteilen die Rollen für die Präsentation und üben ihren Teil unter Zuhilfenahme von 37 Lexika und Moderationskarten, die sie vorher erstellt haben sowie der Medien, die sie für die Präsentation nutzen möchten (selbst erstellte Poster, Overheadprojektor, Tafel, eventuell Power Point). Zu Beginn ihrer Präsentation geben sie in der Einleitung einen kurzen Überblick über die Gliederung und erklären neues Vokabular, sie beenden ihre Präsentation mit einem „Thank you for listening“. Es folgt die Aufforderung an die Zuschauer, Fragen zu stellen. Während der Präsentationen notieren sich die zuhörenden Schülerinnen und Schüler aufgrund vorher festgelegter Beobachtungsaufträge, was ihnen auffällt. Diese Notizen sind Grundlage für ein anschließendes kritisch-konstruktives Feedback durch die Zuhörer. Bei der Durchführung ist darauf zu achten, dass jede Schülerin und jeder Schüler sich an der Präsentation beteiligen muss und so die Chance auf ein positives Feedback durch die Mitschülerinnen und Mitschüler erhält. Auf der kognitiven Ebene erweitern die Schülerinnen und Schüler ihr Orientierungswissen zum Thema Sport. Sie erweitern ihren Wortschatz durch die entsprechenden Fachbegriffe, die sie den Internettexten entnommen haben, sowie durch Vokabeln und „phrases“, welche sie für die Präsentation, anschließende Fragen und das Feedback benötigen (we’d like to talk about…, as you probably know…, the transparency shows…, could you tell me how…, do you know why…, your presentation was very clear, interesting, …..could you speak more slowly next time, please). Sie üben das Simple Present Tense und wenden eventuell das Passiv an. Auf der pragmatischen Ebene üben sie sich im Leseverstehen von authentischen Texten, im Sprechen und Gespräche führen über Sportarten sowie im konstruktiven Kritisieren, auf der methodischen Ebene üben sie das Anwenden von Lesestrategien und das Präsentieren. Die attitudinale Ebene erfordert von ihnen Toleranz gegenüber der Entscheidung anderer für eine andere Sportart und Offenheit gegenüber Sportarten, die sie persönlich weniger interessieren, sie erfordert das Üben von Geduld und Wohlwollen gegenüber Präsentationen von Leistungsschwächeren. Am Ende der Sekundarstufe I sollen Schülerinnen und Schüler gelernt haben, ihr weiteres fremdsprachliches Lernen selbst zu planen und durchzuführen. Unterrichtsvorhaben, welche die Selbstverantwortung von Schülerinnen und Schülern fördern, sind geeignet, dieses Ziel zu erreichen. Darüber hinaus kann es sinnvoll sein, dass die Lernenden ihre Fortschritte in einem Portfolio, eventuell dem Europäischen Portfolio der Sprachen, dokumentieren. 5.3 Ein Unterrichtsvorhaben fürdie Klasse 10 Am Ende der Sekundarstufe I orientieren sich die interkulturellen Inhalte des Englischunterrichts in Lehrplänen an folgenden großen Themenblöcken: Leben in der „peer group“, Partnerschaft, Liebe, Aspekte unterschiedlicher Jugendkulturen, Schule, politische Systeme, Demokratie und Menschenrechte, Sprache und sprachlicher Wandel, Chancen und Risiken des wissenschaftlichen Fortschritts sowie des technologischen Wandels, Einblicke in aktuelle kulturelle Ereignisse (Literatur und Film), berufliche Interessenprofile, Bewerbungen. Einstieg in ein Unterrichtsvorhaben zum Thema „Menschenrechte“ könnte die Analyse von vier verschiedenen Songtexten sein, die Gewalt zum Thema haben: „Cookie Jar“ von Jack Johnson, „Across The Lines“ und „ Behind The Wall“ beide von Tracy Chapman, „My Name Is Luca“ von Susan Vega. Alle Songs enthalten nur wenig unbekannten Wortschatz und keine unbekannten Strukturen. 38 Sie sind für diese Altersgruppe ohne größere Schwierigkeiten leicht zu verstehen und deshalb für den Einstieg geeignet. Zur Sicherheit können Schülerinnen und Schüler Wörterbücher benutzen. Die Texte werden im Group-Puzzle-Verfahren bearbeitet. Die Lerngruppe wird dazu in vier Untergruppen geteilt. Jede Gruppe erhält einen der Texte. Nachdem die Schülerinnen und Schüler sich zunächst in Einzelarbeit mit den Aufgaben zu ihrem Text auseinandergesetzt haben, tauschen sie sich innerhalb ihrer Gruppe über die Ergebnisse aus, vergleichen und ergänzen. Mit Hilfe von Lösungsblättern, auf die sie nach dieser Erarbeitungsphase zurückgreifen können, kontrollieren sie ihre Ergebnisse. Sie sind nun die „Experten“ für ihren Text. Anschließend werden vier neue Gruppen so gebildet, dass jeder Songtext einschließlich der Arbeitsergebnisse in der neuen Gruppe vertreten ist. Die „Experten“ informieren im Gespräch die anderen, die sich Notizen zum Gehörten machen, über ihre Texte und Arbeitsergebnisse. Durch den unterschiedlichen Informationsstand befinden sich die Schülerinnen und Schüler in authentischen Gesprächssituationen, in denen Verstehen durch Nachfragen ermöglicht wird. Nachdem alle Schülerinnen und Schüler alle vier Songs auf diese Weise kennen gelernt haben, wählen sie einen aus, auf dessen Grundlage sie in der Rolle eines der Protagonisten einen Tagebucheintrag verfassen. Auf der kognitiven Ebene erweitern die Lernenden ihr interkulturelles Orientierungswissens. Sie erfahren etwas über Menschenrechtsverletzungen durch häusliche Gewalt und andere Gewalttaten. Indem sie sich in die Rolle eines von ihnen ausgewählten Protagonisten versetzen und einen Tagebucheintrag verfassen, haben sie auf der attitudinalen Ebene Gelegenheit, ihre Haltung gegenüber Gewalttaten zu reflektieren, Empathie zu entwickeln sowie mögliche Gedanken und Gefühle zu formulieren. Auf der pragmatischen Ebene üben sie sich im detaillierten und folgernden Textverstehen, im Sprechen, im Gesprächeführen und im Hör/Sehverstehen zum Thema „Gewalt“. Ihre methodischen Kompetenzen üben sie durch die Arbeit mit dem Wörterbuch, durch Textrezeption, mündliche Interaktion und den Schreibprozess. Literaturverzeichnis Austin, J. L. (1955): How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: OUP. Belver, Miguel Ángel & Iglesias Domínguez, Magdalena (2002): Un nuevo enfoque en la enseñanza de lenguas: enseñar y aprender a comprender. In: Junta de Castilla y León (ed.) (2002) : Actas de las Jornadas de Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas. Salamanca : Gráficas Cervantes. 349-369. Byram, Michael (1990): Intercultural Education and Foreign Language Teaching. World Studies Journal. 1(7), 4-7. Byram, Michael (ed.) (1993): Germany. Its representation in textbooks for teaching German in Great Britain. Frankfurt/Main: Diesterweg. Byram, Michael; Nichols, Adam & Stevens, David (eds.) (2001): Developing Intercultural Competence in Practice. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Byram, Michael (2008): From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural Citizenship. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Christ, Herbert (2002): Formen und Funktionen des Fremdsprachenunterrichts im Europa des 20. Jahrhunderts – Deutschland. In: Lechner, Elmar (Hrsg.) (2002): Formen und Funktionen des 39 Fremdsprachenunterrichts im Europa des 20- Jahrhunderts. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang. 59-90. Council for Cultural Co-operation (ed.) (1998): Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European Framework of Reference. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Doyé, Peter (1999): The Intercultural Dimension. Berlin: Cornelsen. Doyé, Peter (Hrsg.) (2005): Kernfragen des Fremdsprachenunterrichts in der Grundschule. Braunschweig: Westermann. Doyé, Peter (2008): Interkulturelles und mehrsprachiges Lehren und Lernen. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. Goethe-Institut & KMK (Hrsg.) (2001): Gemeinsamer europäischer Referenzrahmen für Sprachen: lernen, lehren, beurteilen. Berlin & München: Langenscheidt. Hallet, Wolfgang (2008): Diskursfähigkeit heute. Der Diskursbegriff in Piephos Theorie der kommunikativen Kompetenz und seine zeitgemäße Weiterentwicklung für die Fremdsprachendidaktik. In: Legutke, Michael (Hrsg.) (2008): Kommunikative Kompetenz als fremdsprachendidaktische Vision. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. 76-96. Haß, Frank (Hrsg.) (2008): Red Line 3. Stuttgart: Klett. Heimann, Paul; Otto, Gunter & Schulz, Wolfgang (Hrsg.) (1964): Unterricht – Analyse und Planung. Hannover: Schroedel. House, Susan & Scott, Katharine (2009): Food Groups. In: www.onestopclil.com Kiper, Hanna (Hrsg.)(1995): Allgemeinbildung. Beiträge der Schulpädagogik und der Fachdidaktik. Braunschweig: Seminar für Schulpädagogik der Technischen Universität. Knapp, Karlfried & Knapp-Potthoff, Annelie (1990): Interkulturelle Kommunikation. Zeitschrift für Fremdsprachenforschung. 62-93. Kultusministerkonferenz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Hrsg.) (2003): Bildungsstandards für die erste Fremdsprache (Englisch/Französisch) für den Mittleren Schulabschluss. Beschluss vom 4.12.2003. Lehberger, Reiner & Lange, Bernd-Peter (Hrsg.) (1984): Cultural Studies. Paderborn: Schöningh. Ministerio della Pubblica Istruzione (ed.) (2007): Indicazioni per il curricolo. Roma. Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (Hrsg.) (2008):Lehrplan Englisch für die Grundschulen. Piepho, Hans-Eberhard (1974): Kommunikative Kompetenz als übergeordnetes Lernziel im Englischunterricht. Dornburg-Frickhofen: Frankonius-Verlag. Price-Williams, Douglass R. (1968): Ethnopsychology. In: Clifton, James A. (ed.) (1968): Introduction to Cultural Anthroüpology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 304-317. Raasch, Albert; Krüger, Herbert & Preuss, Harald (Hrsg.) (1989): Fremdsprachenunterricht zwischen Bildungsanspruch und praktischem Tun. Saarbrücken: Salus. Robinsohn, Saul B. (1971): Bildungsreform als Revision des Curriculum. Neuwied & Berlin. Searle, John R. (1969): Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: CUP. Starkey, Hugh (1990): World Studies and Foreign Language Teaching. World Studies Journal 1(7), 1-3. Strohmeyer, Hans (1928): Methodik des neusprachlichen Unterrichts. Braunschweig: Westermann. 40 Viëtor, Wilhelm (Quousque Tandem) (1905, 3. Auflage): Der Sprachunterricht muss umkehren! Leipzig: Reisland. Zahlten, Ulrich (1978): Bridging the Gap. Hamburg: Youth for Understanding. 41 APPENDIX 01 Verlaufsplanung für einen Englischunterricht: “The Food Pyramid (Year 4) „ Wendelgard Saßnick-Lotsch 42 Phase Einstieg Hinführung Festigung Erarbeitung Zeit Min 6 5 9 12 Interaktionschritte - Begrüßung, Sandwich Rap - L stellt das Unterrichtsthema The Food Pyramid und den weiteren Unterrichtsverlauf vor - L hält Lebensmittel hoch, SuS benennen diese: That is an apple. I like to eat an apple. It’s good for me. That is a chocolat bar. I like it. - L stellt Lebensmittelpyramide vor und erklärt den Aufbau: This food pyramid shows us the different food types. It also shows us how much we should eat of it － the right amount of it. - L ordnet exemplarisch verschiedene Lebensmittelkarten den Gruppen der Pyramide zu und erklärt warum - L klärt unbekannte Wörter und schreibt diese an die linke Tafel - L fordert SuS auf, die Lebensmittel aus dem Einkaufskorb den richtigen Gruppen zuzuordnen: Choose one of the food cards from our shopping basket and put the card in its right place in the food pyramid. Who wants to start? - SuS benennen die Lebensmittel und ordnen diese zu, indem sie die Bildkarten auf die richtige Gruppe kleben: This is a banana. It belongs to the group vegetables and fruit … - L verteilt das AB Science – Food groups, bespricht die einzelnen Aufgaben und gibt Raum für Rückfragen - SuS bearbeiten das AB in EA Medien/ Materialien Didaktisch-methodische Hinweise Funktion / - Ritual - Tafel Lesson Plan -Einkaufskorb, Lebensmittel - Plakat Food Pyramid , Tafel - Einkaufskorb - Bildkarten, Magnete - Tafel - Ziel- und Prozesstransparenz / Orientierung / Motivation schaffen - Benennung der Lebensmittel in Form einer Meldekette schafft einfache Sprechanlässe für alle SuS - Reaktivierung des Vorwissens - Aktivierung neuen Wissens - Ausführungen der L dienen den SuS als notwendige Orientierung für den weiteren Verlauf der Stunde - unbekannte Wörter klären, abfragen, durch Sprechübungen auch die richtige Aussprache sichern - Einkaufskorb - Bildkarten, Magnete - Tafel , Plakat - direkter Anwendungsbezug des neu erlernten Wissens - SuS orientieren sich an dem Beispiel der L aus der Hinführungsphase - AB - Ritual, Prozesstransparenz schaffen - Buntstifte - vertiefende Anwendung des neu erlernten Wissens, Festigung - Arbeit in EA schafft Ruhe und Konzentration, ermöglicht eine intensive Auseinandersetzung 43 8 Sicherung Abschluss 5 - Sollten SuS vor den 12 - Schild: Bus Stop Minuten bereits fertig sein, können sie ihre Ergebnisse mit einem Partner - Klangstab abgleichen - L beendet Erarbeitung durch ein akustisches Signal - Innere Differenzierung: Lerntempoduett - S übernimmt als Five - Farbfolie Minute Teacher Sicherung - Help Box der Ergebnisse What are your results for exercise No. 1? … - SuS benennen die richtigen Lösungen, teacher trägt ein - L leitet zum Spiel Fruit - Obstkarten Salad über - SuS ziehen Bildkarte und begeben sich in einen Stuhlkreis - L verabschiedet die Schülerinnen und Schüler - Ritual - Help Box bietet dem Five Minute Teacher sprachliche Hilfestellungen - Verantwortungsübergabe an SuS, Hinführung zum Selbstständigen Lernen Verwendete Abkürzungen: L Lehrkraft SuS AB Arbeitsblatt EA - Ritual - Auflockerung des Unterrichtsgeschehens durch Bewegung schafft einen motivierenden Ausklang der Stunde und einfache Sprechanlässe - Ritual Schülerinnen und Schüler Einzelarbeit APPENDIX 2 Verlaufsplan eines Deutschunterricht zum Thema :Ernährungsideale in Japan und in Deutschland (CLIL):3 (Gruppe E) Sh. Yoshijima Abkürzungen PL:Plenum, PA: Paararbeit, GA:Gruppenarbeit 1. Einführung: (PL 10 Min.) 2. Nahrungsmittel teilen sich in drei Gruppen ein. (PL, 10Min. Vortrag mit Graphik) Kohlhydrat (K: produziert Energie), 2. Protein (P: baut Körper), 3. Fett/Ö (FÖ: produziert Energie), 4. Minaralien/Vitaminen(MV：konditioniert) 3. Auf der Scheibe (Figur 1) vom japanischen MEXT (Ministerium für Erziehung und Wissenschaften) japanische Nahrungsmittel dargestellt. Wir wollen entsprechende deutsche Wörter für sie finden! ［Tafel 3］Und wir geben an, welche Nahrungsstoffe (K, P,Ö/F, MV) sie enthalten! (30Min. PL : Wortschatz) 4. Welche Nahrungsmittel gibt es in Deutschland nicht? 3 Dieser Plan wurde am 15. März 2010 in einem Intensivkurs namens „Interuniversitäres Seminar“ durchgeführt, und zwar unter einem Rahmenthema „Globalisierung auf dem Teller“. Zum Seminar kommen aus verschiedenen Universitäten Japans insgesamt etwa 100 Studenten und Studentinnen, vom Anfänger bis „Oberstufe“ mit der Fertigkeit von B1-B2 nach Referenzrahmen des COE. Die Gruppenmitglieder, für die dieser Plan konzipiert wurde, hatten die Fertigkeit von A2. Einige Aufgaben wurden im Zusammenhang mit dem Rahmenthema gegeben, die bei einem normalen schulischen Unterricht verzichtbar sind. Der Unterricht dauerte 3 Stunden einschließlich 15 Minuten Pause. Näheres siehe http://www.interuni.jp/ 44 Welche Nahrungsmittel gibt es in Japan nicht, aber in Deutschland? Wir benutzen die Scheibe rechts［3］oder die Tebelle 1und ergänzen sie! Japanisch Tabelle 1: Vergleich derjapanischen und deutschen Nahrungsmittel deutsch Nahrung Gerichte/Produkte Beispiel: ン ほうれん草 トマト ブ ッ ー カボチャ ニンジン ピーマン イ ン ネギ 椎茸 Usw. Apfel Marmelade,Saft, Apfelwein MV, Was sind typische Gerichte, Produkte, die daraus gemacht werden, in Japan und in Deutschland? (20Min. PL- Wortschatz/Kulturvergleich) 4. Wir wollen jetzt zu unserem alltäglichen Ernährung, zum Seminarthema kommen. Dazu wollen wir einander interviewen und fragen einander zu den folgenden Punkten. Dabei machen wir gern Notizen. Dazu können wir den Raster (Tabelle 2) benutzen. (20Min. PA: Kommunikationsarbeit, Informationssammlung) „ Wie isst du normalerweise zu Abend, zu Mittag, zum Frühstück?" „ Was isst du zwischendurch, beim Kaffee?" „ Was isst du gern/am liebsten?" „ Was ist dein Lieblingsgericht/-essen?" „Woher kommt dein Lieblingsessen, ist das traditionell japanisch, oder kommt es irgendwoher vom einem Ausland?" „Isst du lieber japanisch, deutsch, französisch, italienisch, chinesisch, koreanisch, indisch, oder aber südasiatisch....?" PAUSE (15Min) 5. Stellen wir dann die Tabelle von den japanischen Nahrungsmitteln/Gerichten her, die Japaner gern/üblich essen. Dabei geben wir auch an, woher das Essen/Gericht kommt/gekommen ist. (30m. PA/GA: Wortschatz/Kulturvergleich) Tabelle 2: Lieblingsessen derJapaner 45 Nahrung K,P,FÖ,MV K,P,FÖ,MV K,P,FÖ,MV K,P,FÖ,MV Frühstück Mittagessen Abendessen Kaffeepause 7. Wir haben zwei Vorschläge für die gesunde Ernährung, einen vom deutschen (Deutsche Ernäherungsberatungs- und Informationsnetz) und den anderen vom japanischen Ministerium für Land-, Forstwirtschaft und Fischerei. Wir vergleichen die beiden und stellen die Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede fest. Dazu können eventuell die folgenden Begriffe/Tips und Formeln wie aber, hingegen, während usw. helfen. Die Ergebnisse wollen wir im PL vortragen. (30Min. GA: Kulturvergleich) i. Pyramide, ii. Kreise] iii. Einteilung/Gruppierung, iv Grundnahrungsmittel, v Haupt/Nebengericht, vi. Sich drehen, vii Statisch viii: Menge, ix. Schichte/Ebene x .Abwechseln Tabelle 3: Vergleich der japanischen und deutschen Ernährungsvorschlägen Gleich /Ähnlich Unterschiede Japan Deutschland aber hingegen während Komarativ + als usw. 8. Wir können anschliessend darüber diskutieren, woher diese Unterschiede kommen. Die Diskussionsergebnisse wollen wir im Plenum vortragen. Dabei kann man eventuell die folgenden Formeln benutzen. (30Min. PA/GA= Wortschatz/Vergleich, Argumentieren; Kulturvergleich) i. Der Vorschlag kommt wohl daher, weil die Deutschen/Japaner.... ii. Sie... essen/trinken zuviel X. iii. Sie... essen mehr/öfter/weniger/seltner X als sie eingentlich sollten. iv. Sie... essen/trinken immer das gleiche. 9. Wir wollen jetzt unseren eigenen Ernährungkreisel/-pyramide4 herstellen. Wir wollen aber dabei nicht nur die Balancierung der Nahrungsstoffe berücksichtigen, sondern auch ihre Zubereitungsarten(Gericht), Nationalitäten, damit wir am Essen Spaß haben. (40Min. GA: Wortschatz, Graphische Darstellung/Kulturvergleich) 4 Für diese Arbeit hatten wir im Interuniseminar nur wenig Zeit. Im normalen Unterricht sollte für dieses Thema noch eine weitere Stunde vorgesehen werden. 46 47 48 Foreign Language Learning and Intercultural Education Some Reflections on Young Learners Byram, Michael There are many different formulations, in different education systems, of the reasons for teaching foreign languages as part of compulsory general education. They differ according to the socio-political context. For example there are differences between Anglophone countries and other countries because reasons for teaching a foreign language when ‘everyone speaks English’ seem less obvious in the former. There are differences between countries with a strong established national identity, such as France and Japan, and those where new identities are being created such as the emerging countries of Eastern Europe. However, if we put aside contextual issues, we can identify three main purposes: 1. Foreign languages are taught ‘for communication’; this is a relatively new emphasis but has become dominant and is usually linked with economic globalisation and the need to trade; the label ‘communicative language teaching’ was created to refer to this and to the changes in methods and contents of curricula. 2. Foreign languages are taught to create/increase tolerance and (intercultural / international) understanding; it is assumed that the process of learning will affect attitudes and perceptions, and secondly, that understanding of other people depends on knowledge of and communication in their language － the communication purpose is thus enriched; this focus on tolerance and understanding is a long-established liberal education function for language learning 3. Foreign languages are taught to enhance learners’ understanding of the nature of language and of human beings as (perhaps uniquely) linguistic beings, having a faculty of language which is fundamental to their personal and social life; this is a purpose which is less frequently cited and little understood or implemented; the phrase ‘language awareness’ has been coined to refer to this dimension of language teaching. I would like to begin these reflections on young learners – by which on this occasion I refer to children of the age of Japanese primary school – by considering a number of questions which arise especially from the second of these purposes. The questions asked are as follows:  is a knowledge of a foreign language necessary for intercultural / international understanding?  are young learners more likely than older learners to benefit from the language teaching purpose of increased tolerance and understanding?  is foreign language teaching a threat to national identity in young learners?  does communication and contact with people of different cultural backgrounds create more tolerance and understanding? 49 There are many other questions which I will not attempt to address in the time and space available: questions about motivation, teacher-training, teaching methods, evaluation and assessment, teaching materials, use of native speakers and so on. Furthermore, there are many issues which could lead foreign language teachers to cooperate with other teachers – or in a primary school, for the teacher to integrate language teaching with the other elements he or she teaches in the course of the curriculum. This is a dimension of the debate which I can only refer to in passing but in the final section of this contribution I will refer to a practical tool for analysing ways of interacting with ‘others’ of all kinds, not only people from other countries but also those within a country, an issue which is likely to be very important in Japan which is not as heterogeneous as many others, but which is likely to be changed by the need for a labour force from outside as the Japanese population itself decreases. 1. Is knowledge of a language necessary for intercultural / international understanding? The relationship between language and culture has often been discussed in terms of whether language limits thinking and if so, to what degree. This then leads to the question whether understanding other cultures can only take place through knowing other languages and if so, to what degree. There are two immediate responses. Firstly, a ‘soft’ form of this relationship (known as the Sapir/Whorf and Humboldt hypothesis) i.e. that there is some limitation on thought and some limitation on understanding other cultures caused by language, is certainly tenable. A corollary of this is that it is possible to overcome that limitation without necessarily having an exhaustive knowledge of the language in question. Secondly, and more surprising for many people, it can be argued that it is possible to break the link between a language and the culture(s) with which it is associated and to ‘attach’ it to another culture (Risager, 2006). To take the first point. It is interesting to note that the White Paper of the Council of Europe on ‘Intercultural Dialogue’ – a major document in Europe – says there are many problems and opportunities for dialogue (and understanding) and though it refers to language, it is not presented as the most important factor: Language is often a barrier to conducting intercultural conversations. (....) Language learning helps learners to avoid stereotyping individuals, to develop curiosity and openness to otherness and to discover other cultures. Language learning helps them to see that interaction with individuals having different social identities and cultures is an enriching experience. (Council of Europe, 2008:16) What is interesting here is that the notion of a barrier is not linked directly to the question of understanding but rather to avoiding stereotypes and developing curiosity and openness. Yet research has shown that there is no automatic causal relationship; learning a language does not automatically lead to these cognitive and affective changes (Byram, Esarte-Sarries and Taylor 1991). In Japan, as 50 Yoshijima says (this volume), it has been possible to teach the formal aspects of European languages and to avoid other spiritual influences, and similar approaches have been taken in some Gulf countries to avoid ‘western’ influences on children. If language teaching is in fact to have a causal effect on learners’ cognitive and affective relations with other countries, then a change of teaching methods is required so that the relationship between language and culture is emphasized, and the cognitive and affective / attitudinal changes are encouraged. This is linked to my second point, that it is possible to break the link between language and culture. This is contrary to a widely held belief which is reinforced, as Yoshijima says, by the fact that the translation of ‘foreign language’ into Japanese implies that the link is inevitable, and that this can lead to fears about loss of identities. This may affect the way parents, and education policy makers without enough knowledge about language and culture, think about foreign language teaching, but the evidence is clearly opposed to this belief. It is clear from the role of English or ‘Englishes’ in the world that this language (and in principle any other) can be used to embody other cultures and identities and not just the ones of anglophone countries. There are native speakers of English who do not identify with the UK or any other anglophone country, such as a bilingual person brought up speaking English and another language in, say, Argentina, or a bilingual person brought up in a multilingual country such as Nigeria or India. Similarly, there may be native speakers of Japanese in South America who do not identify with Japan, and who use Japanese to live in another culture which has become different from their culture of origin. This potential break of the link between language and culture and the use of a different language to embody a culture has a second consequence: that it is possible to understand other people and cultures without understanding their language. For insofar as it is possible for a language to embody another culture as a consequence of historical change – colonisation, migration and other changes – then it is also possible to translate an existing culture into another language. This is indeed the task of professional translators, from those who translate the great works of literature to those who translate business documents such as a sales contract. The understanding may remain imperfect, but no understanding is ever perfect, whichever language is used. This means that in education we could promote the teaching intercultural understanding as a process which is not linked to language teaching. At the same time however we would have to develop new teaching methods, perhaps influenced by some of the methods used in the teaching of history or the study of religions, or human geography. Historians too are ‘translators’ or ‘intercultural mediators’ whose task is to help us understand the past, for ‘the past is another country – they do things differently there’. Such methods and materials have been developed in recent years (e.g. All different, all equal from the Council of Europe). So the answer to my first question is that language teaching is not necessary for intercultural understanding. Nonetheless it can be very helpful provided appropriate methods are found. 51 2. Are young learners more likely than older learners to benefit from the language teaching purpose of increased tolerance and understanding? Among non-specialists – politicians, parents and the public in general – it is often assumed that young children learn languages more quickly and that they are less prejudiced. The problem with the first assumption is that people confuse the results from naturalistic learning and from classroom learning. There is evidence that ‘the earlier, the better’ is in general correct when children learn in a natural environment, but not when the source of learning is only the classroom (Singleton 2012). Turning to the second assumption, concerning children’s lack of prejudice, Barrett (2007) has drawn on his own research and an analysis of a large body of research undertaken in the last 50 years to analyse the way children and young people of obligatory school age acquire their identifications with states and nations and perceive and form attitudes to other national groups. The issues he identifies which have direct relevance to teaching for intercultural competence are the following:  children have geographical knowledge from early primary age – about their own country from 5/6 and about other countries a little later; they exhibit preference for and pride in their own country from about age 7 and this strengthens through middle childhood; but levels of pride are variable across countries and with respect to gender  there seems to be no necessary relationship between knowledge about other countries and feelings about them; more knowledge does not necessarily lead to more positive feelings nor the opposite, despite the expectations of many language teachers and language education policy makers  school textbooks are often ethnocentrically biased and children may be strongly influenced by historical narratives about their own country, but such narratives may be resisted and rejected  stereotypes about a small number of countries are held by children from about age 5/6 but as they reach age 10/12, they not only demonstrate an ability to describe more countries but also increasingly acknowledge that there are variations around the stereotypes they hold  children about age 5/6 exhibit in-group favouritism but not necessarily denigration of out-groups, except with respect to traditional enemies of their country; there is considerable variation in attitudes and feelings according to context  children acknowledge their own membership of one or more national or state groups from about age 5/6 but there is much variation in the strength of identification at that point and subsequently, depending on contextual and other factors. In conclusions from his analysis of these and other factors, Barrett argues that there is so much variability in children’s acquisition of knowledge, beliefs and feelings about nations and national groups that a comprehensive theory has to be written as a description of the factors in a ‘niche’ in which children grow up. The multiplicity of factors will interact differently from one niche to another – for example from one country to another or in different environments in the same country – and will also vary over time in the same niche. Generalisations and assumptions about children’s ‘lack of prejudice’ are therefore without foundation. 52 Among the many factors which influence children’s knowledge, beliefs and feelings, Barrett argues that ‘significant others’ have a role to play, notably parents and teachers, although only the role of the latter has been empirically investigated. This implies that the primary school teacher must be aware of the emerging knowledge of and feelings about other countries, including the ones which may be associated with the specific language being taught. The primary school teacher should also be aware that there is no necessary and inevitable path of ‘natural’ development, that s/he can also be influential in a child’s ways of seeing themselves and their world. For Barrett demonstrates that ‘stage theories’ which imply an inevitable progress for one stage of psychological development to another do not adequately explain empirical findings. The conclusion we can draw from this is that the common assumptions about young children and prejudice are, not surprisingly, much too simple and, secondly, that age is certainly a factor but only one among many. We notice for example that stereotypes are modified and become less pronounced in older children, that younger children favour their own group but not to the detriment of others, that identification with the nation state begins at the early primary age, but varies in strength. This means therefore that my question needs to be modified in at least two ways. First it should refer to the power of other contextual factors in addition to age and, second, it should include the phrase ‘in Japan’. For it is evident from Barrett's work that there is much contextual variation. It follows from this that empirical research needs to be done in Japan, as it has been done in Europe, before any satisfactory answers can be given. Furthermore the variation is not only among countries but also within countries, with respect to national identity for example. This has been shown for Spain where there are differences between north and south in how children see themselves and identify with their region and their country as a whole. This is probably due to political and geographical context, and differences between the political and social factors in the north and south of Spain. There may be similar different identities in Hokkaido and Kyushu and again there is a need for empirical research. 3. Is foreign language teaching a threat to national identity in young learners? This is a question which is of major concern in Japan. The question is whether teaching a foreign language in the traditional way i.e. a few lessons in English buried among many other lessons all in Japanese will have an effect on identity. A famous foreign language educator in Britain, Eric Hawkins, compared teaching languages to ‘gardening in a gale’ i.e. we plant a few seeds of the foreign language but the national language wind quickly blows them away. The implication is that the task of language teaching is very difficult and that the effect on identity is likely to be negligible. In fact, the most comprehensive review of the research on this (Block 2007) reveals little empirical research but shows that what does exist indicates that classroom language learning has, not surprisingly, no effect on national identity. In Japan, there is an interesting empirical study which is not however the classic ‘gardening in a gale’ situation of a foreign language being taught as a subject for a few hours per week – or as has been proposed for Japanese primary school, one lesson per week. The research in question is about immersion education with half or more of the school day being experienced in a foreign language. We might expect that this kind of experience could have a stronger effect on identity than the classic 53 foreign language situation. Downes investigated whether such experience of English immersion for Japanese children would weaken their sense of being Japanese – a fear that Japanese parents articulated – and he found that: the immersion students have a stronger attraction towards Western culture, a more positive attitude towards English, a stronger identity with Japan, and more awareness of Japanese culture. A possible implication here is that the immersion experience not only promotes positive attitudes toward another culture but also seems to foster a heightened sense of identity towards the child’s own culture. (2001: 12 – my emphasis) The simplistic assumption that an interest in ‘western’ culture automatically leads to a reduction in identification with Japan is refuted. Research has otherwise focused on learners who are resident in a country where the language is spoken and particularly on those who have a strong desire to ‘invest’ (Norton, 1995) in language learning (Armour, 2001; De Korne et al. 2007). This is however a very small minority of learners and above all those who are much older than elementary school pupils. Neither parents nor politicians need have any fear about their children's identification with Japan becoming weaker as a consequence of learning English as a foreign language in the elementary school classroom. It may even become stronger. 4. Does communication and contact with people of different cultural backgrounds create more tolerance and understanding? The goals of foreign language teaching in Japanese primary schools from 2010 include ‘learning about’ the lifestyles, customs etc. of other countries. The implication seems to be that increased awareness of these is a valuable dimension of children’s development as human beings. The goals also include an (implicit) concept of experiential learning: To deepen understanding toward other cultures by interacting with people of different backgrounds. I take it that ‘understanding’ here includes ‘tolerance’ i.e. both cognitive and attitudinal change. The assumption that interaction with strangers will lead to tolerance is widely held. It was discussed by Allport already in the 1970s and he called it the ‘contact hypothesis’. He pointed out (1979) that the hypothesis is false, that contact does not necessarily lead to positive, desirable changes and indeed can the lead to increased hostility. The hypothesis is, however, tenacious. On the contrary, what the research has shown is that it is necessary to create a stronger identification in people drawn from two or more different groups than the identification they have with their groups of origin. For example, a group consisting of Koreans, Japanese and Chinese will only forget their traditional feelings towards each other if they have a common identification with a common purpose. Give such a group a task to do where they need each other in the here and now, and they will begin to forget what they felt and thought about each other in the past. This has been shown empirically by research in social psychology on the concept of social identity (Tajfel, 1981). 54 In order to carry out a common task they will need a common language and this is where the contemporary role of English as a lingua franca separated from its cultures of origin, is important. English can become the language of the newly formed group and the fact that they are all using a foreign language will ensure they feel linguistically equal with each other. This is better than feeling overawed in interaction with native speakers. In today’s world, interactions and groups need not be face-to-face. They can be just as easily established via the internet and associated technologies, where the experience is just as real as the visits and exchanges which have been the traditional location for experiential learning. There are many possibilities which are already being developed (O’Dowd, 2007). However a single experience of such contact and interaction is unlikely to counteract all the other factors in their environment; there needs to be ongoing interaction. The answer to my final question is therefore that interaction of a special kind may create more tolerance and understanding but only with careful planning and an appropriate pedagogy which is still to be fully developed. 5. Implications for practice In summary, I have argued that there should be no fear among the Japanese public and educationists that foreign language learning will have a negative effect on identification with Japan – it may in fact be quite the opposite1. I have also discussed questions of age and whether language teaching in primary schools has special features which make it different. In general, I have implied that, with respect to the cultural dimension, there is nothing unique about young learners. It is in the practical arrangements, in the teaching methods and materials, that the special demands of teaching young learners appear. Thus before I conclude I would like to introduce a practical response to the needs of teachers and learners in primary schools, the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters (AIE). The AIE has been developed at the Council of Europe by a multidisciplinary team (www.coe.int/lang). Its purpose is to help people of any age analyse and reflect on their experience of otherness. It is not confined only to meetings with people of other countries and languages and this is an important theoretical point which needs to be reinforced. As I said in my introduction, there are many kinds of ‘other people’ not only those whom we meet from other countries. The AIE is designed to encourage people to think about all kinds of ‘others’. It is based on a theory of intercultural competence which is described in the accompanying documents. It has two forms, one for adolescents and adults which we call the ‘standard form’, usable with the oldest pupils in an elementary school, and one for ‘young learners’ , the youngest pupils of elementary school age. The former can be used by the individual alone and the latter is designed for use with a teacher or other adult, since young learners cannot be expected to write their responses and understand the stimulus questions on their own. 1 It is however important to distinguish between the effects of language teaching in schools and the effects of the mass media, which may have a negative effect. Only empirical research can show whether this is true, and this is beyond the scope of this chapter. 55 The AIE is an interactive document which can be filled out online or on paper. It is in essence a series of questions and prompts which are structured to guide the user to reflect on an encounter with someone from another group. There are nine sections in all with headings as follows: 1. The encounter 2. The other person or people 3. Your feelings 4. The other person’s feelings 5. Same and different 6. Talking to each other 7. Finding out more 8. Using comparisons to understand 9. Thinking back and looking forward By responding to the questions in each section, the user describes and analyses an intercultural encounter from two perspectives, their own and the other’s. For example the questions in Section 8 are as follows: 8. USING COMPARISONS TO UNDERSTAND People often compare things in other groups or cultures with similar things in their own. Did you do this? Did it help you to understand what was happening? For example: The experience involved some things which were similar to what I know in my own group and these are the things I noticed …… There were some things which were different from my own group … The purpose of the AIE is to guide the user to consider what they learnt from the encounter, and what they will do as a consequence. The last section includes the following 9. THINKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD If, when you look back, you draw conclusions about the experience, what are they? Complete as many of these as you can… I liked the experience for the following reasons …. (….) Did the experience change you? How? Did you decide to do something as a result of this experience? What did you do? Will you decide to do something as a result of doing this Autobiography? If so what questions: 56 There are supporting documents for teachers and other ‘facilitators’, e.g. social workers and youth leaders. For both the adolescent / adult and the young learner versions, there are ‘Notes for Facilitators’. There is also a paper on ‘Context, concepts and theories’ which explains in more detail the theoretical basis for the AIE, and finally a version of this last document called ‘Concepts for discussion’ which can be used with older learners to stimulate discussion of notions such as ‘stereotype’, ‘prejudice’, ‘culture’ and so on. This first version of the AIE is to help users to analyse and learn from face to face encounters. A second version is in preparation on the same website which will help users to reflect and learn from their experience of otherness through the visual media. In Japan this may be particularly significant since the number of face to face encounters with people of other countries and cultures is still limited. The significance of the AIE in either version for the Japanese elementary school is that it can be used by teachers of foreign languages or by those engaged in education for international understanding. It provides them with a theoretically well-founded practical instrument with which they can focus on experience of otherness whether within Japan – the difference between Okinawa and Hokkaido for example – or with people of other countries2. In conclusion, it seems to me that far from constituting a threat, the teaching of a foreign language in elementary school is an opportunity to promote an education which strengthens knowledge of self at the same time as it provides a window onto the world. References Allport, G. (1979):The Nature of Prejudice. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley Armour, W.S. (2001): ‘This guy is Japanese stuck in a white man’s body’: a discussion of meaning making, identity slippage, and cross-cultural adaptation. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 22,1, 1-18 Block, D. (2007): Second Language Identities. London: Continuum Barrett, M. (2007): Children’s Knowledge, Beliefs and Feelings about Nations and National Groups. Hove, UK: Psychology Press. Byram, M., Esarte-Sarries, V. and Taylor, S. (1991): Cultural Studies and Language Learning: a Research Report, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Council of Europe (2008):White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue. Strasbourg: Council of Europe DeKorne, H., Byram, M. and Fleming, M. (2007): Familiarising the stranger: Immigrant perceptions of cross-cultural interaction and bicultural identity, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 28, 4, 290-307. Downes, S. (2001): Sense of Japanese cultural identity within an English partial immersion programme: Should parents worry? International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 4, 3, 165-80. Norton, B.P. (1995): Social identity, investment and language learning. TESOL Quarterly 29, 9-31. 2 The AIE needs to be translated into Japanese for it to be effective and I hope that there will be an interest to do so soon. 57 O’Dowd, R. (ed.) (2007): On-line Intercultural Exchange: A Practical Introduction for Foreign Language Teachers. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Risager, K. (2006): Language and Culture. Global flows and local complexity. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Singleton, D. (2012): Age factors. In: M. Byram and A. Hu (eds.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. London: Routledge. Tajfel, H. (1981): Human Groups and Social Categories. Studies in social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 58 Quand l’education et l’ouverture aux langues a l’ecole (EOLE) s’internationalisent et se diversifient Perregaux, Christiane Préambule Les premiers ouvrages parus concernant l’implantation de l’Eveil aux langues dans le monde francophone et peu à peu dans de nombreux pays d’Europe datent de 2003 (Candelier & al. 2003a ; Candelier & al., 2003b, Perregaux & al., 2003). A ce même moment, sortent les premiers moyens d’enseignement pour l’Education et l’Ouverture aux Langues à l’Ecole (EOLE). Certes, des articles avaient déjà paru dans certaines revues depuis 1994 sans pour autant proposer des activités pratiques. Rappelons que l’Eveil aux langues (Language Awareness) s’est développé d’abord en Grande-Bretagne (Hawkins, 1984) pour ensuite irriguer le continent européen à partir de la France (Laboratoire de didactique des langues de Grenoble) pour ensuite s’envoler jusqu’au Québec (voir site ELODIL.com). Depuis lors, de nombreux autres pays se sont intéressés à cette nouvelle approche de la pluralité linguistique et culturelle, dont le Japon. Notons ici que les articles parus dans les ouvrages japonais de grande qualité au sujet de l’apprentissage/enseignement des langues ont fait suite à deux colloques qui se sont tenus à Tokyo, à l’université Seitoku, en 2002 et 2005 (Shiga, 2002, 2006, Perregaux, 2002, 2006). Ces articles ont proposé une histoire de la philosophie et de la didactique présentes dans ces nouvelles approches et notamment le type d’activités favorables pour la réalisation des objectifs fixés, à savoir familiariser les élèves avec la pluralité des langues de leur environnement proche et lointain, leur permettre de construire des représentations favorables des langues et des personnes qui les parlent, faciliter l’apprentissage des langues par le développement de compétences plurilingues et pluriculturelles indispensables pour l’éducation des élèves qui ont et qui auront à être des acteurs sociaux, culturels et économiques dans le monde tel qu’il est actuellement mondialisé. Il a également été question dans le texte de 2006 (Perregaux, 2006) du lien entre l’Eveil aux langues et d’autres propositions didactiques du Conseil de l’Europe comme le portfolio des langues. Ce dernier propose, en partie, une même perspective que l’éveil aux langues en favorisant la visibilité des ressources langagières des élèves apprises tant à l’école qu’hors de l’école. Toutes ces compétences, formelles et informelles, sont au service de l’apprentissage des langues présent dans le programme scolaire. Dans ce texte, nous analyserons les changements qui se sont opérés depuis 2006; le développement actuel de l’Eveil aux langues, l’édition de différents manuels d’enseignement à l’intention des enseignants et des projets nouveaux qui partent des mêmes réflexions et qui proposent de nouvelles approches comme les projets Bébéthèque et Sacs d’Histoires qui mettent en évidence l’intérêt des livres bilingues et plurilingues pour l’apprentissage de la langue écrite. Enfin, nous nous intéresserons à l’approfondissement des objectifs scolaires poursuivis par la mise en œuvre d’activités concernant la pluralité linguistique et culturelle et des compétences en jeu à 59 travers un document récent, le CARAP (Cadre de Références pour les Approches Plurielles des Langues) développé dans le cadre du Centre d’Enseignement des Langues Vivantes (CELV) du Conseil de l’Europe. L’Eveil aux langues de 2006 à 2010 Tout au cours de cette période, on remarque que les responsables scolaires intéressés par les approches d’Eveil aux ｌangues se préoccupent surtout 1) d’avoir à disposition des manuels scolaires qui facilitent le travail d’enseignement car les recherches demandés par les activités concernant les spécificités de plusieurs langues différentes peuvent s’avérer parfois assez longues et 2) de mettre en place une formation des enseignants qui s’organise sur deux plans : questionner les relations et les représentations que les enseignants ont sur les langues et les outiller pour développer une didactique propre à la pluralité. Ainsi après l’édition des documents de Suisse francophone EOLE (Education et Ouverture aux Langues à l’Ecole ; Perregaux & al, 2003). deux documents Les langues du monde au quotidien paraissent en France en 2006 pour les cycles 2 et 3 (Kervan, 2006)1. Les documents suisses et français proposent une même didactique et des activités proches dans la mesure où les concepteurs des deux pays ont participé ensemble à la recherche européenne EVLANG (Candelier, 2003). La Belgique francophone (Ministère de la Communauté française, 2008) s’engage également dans l’adaptation des documents EOLE à la situation linguistique complexe du pays ayant trois langues officielles (néerlandais, français et allemand) et plusieurs parlers régionaux. Le néerlandais, comme langue officielle et majoritaire du pays est dès lors très présent dans les activités alors qu’il était absent d’EOLE. Plusieurs autres langues connues par des groupes migrants importants en Belgique élargissent la pluralité linguistique des activités proposées. Enfin, des activités problématisent la situation linguistique belge très complexe et parfois conflictuelle. Dès 2008, le Luxembourg s’interroge sur l’édition de son propre matériel (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2010). En effet, la situation luxembourgeoise est particulière: le pays et les habitants sont plurilingues alors que la Suisse et la Belgique sont divisées en territoires linguistiques officiellement monolingues (sauf les villes de Biel-Bienne et Freiburg-Fribourg en Suisse et de Bruxelles en Belgique qui sont officiellement bilingues) mais où la population est de plus en plus plurilingue. Au Luxembourg, la population est plurilingue par tradition et nécessité quotidienne et elle est constamment confrontée à trois langues qui sont officielles dans ce pays d’environ 500 000 habitants: 1) le luxembourgeois, langue nationale de ce Grand Duché (régime politique : monarchie parlementaire) et langue de la conversation courante et intime, 2) l’allemand (langue proche du luxembourgeois , langue de l’apprentissage de la langue écrite des enfants dès la première année primaire et langue juridique du pays2 et le français, langue administrative et législative que les enfants vont apprendre à partir de la 3ème année scolaire. Enfin, la presse du pays est plurilingue et on trouve très souvent des journaux bilingues et trilingues. Devant cette situation complexe et l’intérêt de l’Eveil aux langues dans ce contexte (ajoutons que la migration est très forte dans ce pays dont plus de 65% de la population active est étrangère et le portugais est particulièrement présent), le Ministère de l’Education Nationale a décidé de prévoir un moyen 1 2 Le japonais est présent dans le livre du cycle 1 – page 31-35 (Les langues jour après jour) Alors que le luxembourgeois est parlé et appris à l’école enfantine. 60 d’enseignement d’un type un peu différent de ceux de Suisse, France et Belgique. Le Luxembourg a préféré offrir à ces enseignants un document comprenant de nombreuses pistes d’activités que les enseignants vont pouvoir développer en fonction de leur propre situation de classe plutôt que de proposer des activités « clés en main » prévues dans les autres manuels qui donnent avec beaucoup de précisions toutes les étapes de l’activité. L’école luxembourgeoise a la chance d’avoir des contacts avec les universités et systèmes scolaires germanophones et francophone, ce qui lui donne une variété de pôles de réflexion très profitables. L’anglais n’est pas absent de la scolarité luxembourgeoise mais il commence d’être enseigné à l’école secondaire. Les élèves apprennent donc au moins quatre langues pendant leur scolarité obligatoire et les élèves issus de la migration au moins cinq. Mais revenons en Suisse. Ce pays, avec quatre langues officielles (allemande; français, italien et romance) et plus d’une centaine de langues parlées par des habitantes et habitants du pays étant au moins bilingues (une langue extérieure au pays comme l’espagnol, le portugais, le turc ou l’albanais et une langue officielle) se devait de participer à un projet d’Eveil aux ｌangues dans le cadre des projets européens. C’est pourquoi elle s’est insérée dans le projet européen Jaling (Candelier 2003, Saudan & al. 2005) en développant ensuite des pratiques scolaires influencées par cette perspective. Ainsi, le concept ELBE (Language Awareness, Eveil aux ｌangues, Begegnung mit Sprachen. Saudan & al. 2005) est né et depuis lors il se développe dans la partie alémanique de la Suisse et notamment à Bâle (Saudan et Sauer, 2008). Il a enclenché une nouvelle perspective que décrivent Saudan et Sauer, (2008): «ELBE est une démarche méthodologique visant la préparation de l’apprentissage des langues et servant au suivi et à la mise en réseau de l’enseignement des langues. Des activités ELBE (sensibilisation aux langues, comparaisons entre les langues, réflexion sur les langues) peuvent être effectuées dans toutes les matières. ELBE démontre une possibilité de mise en oeuvre d’une didactique du plurilinguisme». L’objectif est la sensibilisation à la langue et l’ouverture aux langues et aux cultures. A Bâle, où le concept ELBE fait partie du programme scolaire, il participe également à l’appropriation par les jeunes enfants de l’école enfantine de l’allemand standard afin de développer chez tous les enfants, et particulièrement chez ceux dont la langue maternelle n’est pas le Suisse alémanique, de meilleures connaissances de l’allemand standard pour être mieux outillés pour aborder la langue écrite (Ladner, 2005) . L’étude de ces différents moyens d’enseignement montre à l’évidence que l’Eveil aux langues est une approche plurielle pertinente pour tous ces pays mais qu’elle nécessite toujours une adaptation de type sociolinguistique pour être en adéquation avec le milieu dans lequel l’approche est utilisée. Est-il trop ambitieux d’affirmer qu’elle peut dès lors s’insérer dans tous les milieux langagiers particuliers en tenant compte de leurs spécificités et de leurs aspects communs ? Eveil aux langues et didactique intégrée des langues Avec le développement de l’Eveil aux langues et l’émergence de nouvelles didactiques d’enseignement des langues, des questions se posent concernant plus précisément l’apprentissage même des langues. Plusieurs colloques se sont déroulés ces dernières années en Suisse (aussi bien dans les régions germanophones que francophones, italophones que romanchophones ) pour étudier ce qu’on appelle aujourd’hui « la didactique intégrée des langues » ou un enseignement pluriel des langues. Que 61 recouvre cette forme de didactique? Elle résulte d’une réflexion sur la nécessité de ne plus isoler l’enseignement de chaque langue, qu’il s’agisse de la langue scolaire et des langues étrangères, mais de travailler la comparaison, la réflexion, la recherche de spécificités et de points communs entre les langues. Comme on peut le voir dans les travaux de Cummins (2001), les apprentissages s’influencent les uns les autres lorsque les élèves peuvent créer des ponts entre les disciplines scolaires et les langues qu’ils connaissent. La grande différence entre l’Eveil aux langues et la didactique intégrée, c’est que cette dernière concerne les apprentissages linguistiques et langagiers alors que l’Eveil aux langues propose la réflexion, le développement de compétences et de stratégies favorables à l’apprentissage des langues notamment. L’Eveil aux langues précède et accompagne l’apprentissage des langues et favorise la didactique intégrée puisque les élèves sont habitués à rechercher les spécificités et les différences entre langues. Les chercheurs disent parfois que l’Eveil aux langues est la première didactique intégrée qui fonctionne à l’intérieur de l’école. Si, en Suisse romande par exemple chacun est d’accord de montrer un intérêt certain pour une didactique intégrée des langues, il est beaucoup plus difficile de l’introduire dans le programme scolaire. La compétence en jeu dans les approches plurielles. Qu’appelle-t-on les approches plurielles ? L’Eveil aux langues est-elle une approche plurielle ? Un groupe de chercheurs ont trouvé nécessaire de clarifier les approches actuelles qui partent toutes de la définition de compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle du Conseil de l’Europe (voir citation ci-dessous). Ces approches veulent recenser les propositions didactiques dans lesquelles les langues et leurs apprentissages ne sont pas traités de façon isolée. Les travaux du groupe de chercheurs ont donné naissance au CARAP (Cadre de Référence pour les Approches Plurielles). Dans ce cadre, ces approches sont aujourd’hui au nombre de quatre : 1) Eveil aux ｌ angues, 2) didactique intégrée, 3) intercompréhension entre langues parentes et 4) approche interculturelle et ont toutes le même objectif commun : «la mise en place de démarches didactiques reposant sur la notion de compétences pluriculturelles et plurilingues » développée par le Conseil de l’Europe. Mais rappelons comment le Conseil de l’Europe définit cette compétence : «on désignera par compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle, la compétence à communiquer langagièrement et à interagir culturellement d’un acteur social qui possède, à des degrés divers, la maîtrise de plusieurs langues et l’expérience de plusieurs cultures. On considérera qu’il n’y a pas là superposition ou juxtaposition de compétences distinctes, mais bien existence d’une compétence complexe, voire composite, dans laquelle l’utilisateur peut puiser. La conception habituelle consiste à représenter l’apprentissage d’une langue étrangère comme l’adjonction, en quelque sorte cloisonnée, d’une compétence à communiquer en langue étrangère à une compétence à communiquer en langue maternelle. La notion de compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle tend à sortir de la dichotomie d’apparence équilibrée qu’instaure le couple habituel L1/L2 en insistant sur un plurilinguisme dont le 62 bilinguisme n’est qu’un cas particulier : – poser qu’un même individu ne dispose pas d’une collection de compétences à communiquer distinctes et séparées suivant les langues dont il a quelque maîtrise, mais bien d’une compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle qui englobe l’ensemble du répertoire langagier à disposition – insister sur les dimensions pluriculturelles de cette compétence plurielle, sans pour autant postuler des relations d’implication entre développement des capacités de relation culturelle et développement des capacités de communication linguistique » (CE, 2000.) A l’image de l’Eveil aux langues, les quatre approches plurielles recensées ci-dessus jouent un rôle important dans le développement de démarches didactiques reposant sur la notion de "compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle" développée par le Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues, puis par le Guide pour l'élaboration des politiques linguistiques éducatives en Europe (Conseil de l'Europe). La compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle est considérée comme globale et l’apprenant va donc établir des liens entre les compétences qu’il a développées dans différentes situations langagières Le CARAP s’est en effet donné comme objectif de recenser les compétences développées dans des situations d’apprentissage diverses de façon à ce que les élèves puissent être soutenus dans l’articulation nécessaire de leurs diverses compétences pour aboutir à la construction de la compétence en jeu dans les approches plurielles. Le CARAP se veut également un outil d’explicitation dans une démarche émergente et se conçoit comme un complément du Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues et des Portfolios existants. Livres bilingues et nouveaux projets scolaires Depuis la diffusion des moyens d’enseignement EOLE en Suisse romande, nous assistons à des changements d’attitudes considérables chez de nombreux enseignants. Leurs relations aux langues se sont modifiées, ils reconnaissent et s’intéressent aux langues quel que soit leur statut (langue internationale comme l’anglais ou langue minorée comme le wolof par exemple) et n’ont plus peur de mener des activités avec de nombreuses langues qu’ils ne connaissent pas. Ils se sont également rendus compte de l’intérêt des élèves pour ces activités et de leur nouvel investissement, pour certains, dans les disciplines scolaires. Beaucoup plus à l’aise dans cette gestion de la diversité, beaucoup d’enseignants sont plus perméables à d’autres activités où ils peuvent la retrouver. Ainsi il leur arrive de plus en plus souvent de saisir les propositions des élèves eux-mêmes qui apportent en classe des documents ou des questions qui font appel au plurilinguisme ou à la pluriculturalité. Le traitement en classe de connaissances partielles devient plus fréquent. Nous traiterons ici de deux projets concernant l’utilisation de livres bilingues ou plurilingues pour favoriser l’entrée dans la langue écrite. En effet, la discussion concernant le plurilinguisme et son intérêt social et scolaire dans l’espace public a assoupli la résistance qui était très présente il y a quelques années. A ce moment-là, le bilinguisme était considéré plutôt négativement : la connaissance de plusieurs langues pouvaient créer une confusion identitaire chez le bilingue et il était condamné, en quelque sorte, à une mauvaise connaissance des langues. Aujourd’hui, les recherches en psycho- et 63 sociolinguistique réfutent complètement ces considérations et mettent en évidence le gain social, culturel et cognitif du bilinguisme. Le livre bilingue devient alors un nouvel instrument qui enrichit l’environnement des enfants et des adultes. L’entrée dans la langue écrite demande des compétences diverses tant du point de vue social, affectif et cognitif. Lorsque ces compétences se développent à la fois dans le milieu familial et scolaire, la réussite est très fréquemment au rendez-vous. Or, actuellement, beaucoup de familles n’ont pas la chance de pouvoir s’entourer de livres. Les familles allophones, n’ayant pas une grande connaissance de la langue cible, en Suisse romande le français, ne peuvent pas entretenir avec leurs enfants la langue écrite dans leur première langue. D’autant plus lorsqu’elles sont de milieux socioéconomiques défavorisés. Le livre bilingue a ceci de particulier qu’il enserre dans un seul objet culturel au moins deux langues/cultures. Il permet d’ouvrir à des pratiques qui rejoignent les théories qui s’élaborent sur le bilinguisme et le plurilinguisme. Il va donc proposer à la lectrice et au lecteur d’utiliser ses ressources linguistiques et culturelles dans une langue et dans l’autre ou de s’appuyer sur sa langue forte pour découvrir le texte et ses spécificités dans une autre langue moins connue. La théorie de l’interdépendance des langues de James Cummins contribue à mieux saisir l’étayage qui s’opère entre les langues. La notion de parler bilingue de Georges Lüdi et Bernard Py (2003) donnent ici une valeur tout particulière à l’alternance entre langues qui hante les interactions entre locuteurs qui partagent un même bilinguisme/plurilinguisme. Cette compétence montre qu’en fonction des besoins, les locuteurs privilégieront dans le livre bilingue une langue ou les deux simultanément. La question de l’alternance prend toute son importance dès qu’il s’agit de texte bilingue. Il paraît dès lors évident que le livre bilingue joue le rôle de passeur réel et symbolique entre deux langues et entre deux mondes (Perregaux, 2009). Il porte l’altérité en lui-même. C’est au lecteur de bricoler entre une langue et l’autre; il les connaît les deux, peut s’y identifier, les comparer? Ou alors il n’en connaît qu’une et cherche des indices dans l’opacité variable de l’autre. Ses connaissances peuvent être très asymétriques entre l’une et l’autre. Il va donc partir à la recherche de sens dans les deux langues et avancera dans le texte en remarquant les similarités et les différences du point de vue linguistique et notamment comment des éléments culturels sont transmis par la langue, comment certains termes sont proches d’une langue à l’autre, comment s’organise le texte. L’exemple d’un livre de recettes bilingues français/anglais de la collection L’Arbre aux accents (1990) est ici exemplaire: en français, la notion de mesure cuillère à café est traduite en anglais par teaspoon. Tout à la fois porteur de culturalité diverse et commune, de particularités sémantiques et scripturales, le livre bilingue/plurilingue ouvre à la comparaison sur les codes (développant des habiletés métalinguistiques), les rapports graphèmes/phonèmes et les aspects syntaxiques. Ces livres sont des nouvelles sources de connaissances sur le monde et d’altérité linguistique où l’autre favorise la découverte de soi. La bébéthèque Le projet Bébéthèque est organisé et géré par la bibliothèque interculturelle de Genève qui met à disposition des familles et des crèches, des jardins d’enfants et des écoles, des livres en plusieurs langues. Leur dernière création s’appelle La Bébéthèque et propose pour les très jeunes enfants de 6 64 mois à 4 ans environ des livres dans plusieurs langues et/ou des livres bilingues (abécédaires ; imagiers, livres d’histoires et de contes, notamment). La bébéthèque s’adresse surtout aux familles bilingues ou plurilingues afin qu’elles puissent avoir accès à des livres dans les langues qu’elles connaissent et qu’elles ont souvent de la peine à obtenir en Suisse. Les livres bilingues sont intéressants pour toutes les familles mais particulièrement pour les familles bilingues (français et une autre langue : japonais par exemple ou arabe ou anglais), pour les familles qui parlent majoritairement une langue autre que le français ou qui parlent deux langues dont le français. Ces familles vont pouvoir ressentir à travers ce projet l’intérêt que l’institution leur porte en essayant de les accompagner dans le passage d’une langue à l’autre qu’elles ont à faire chaque jour. Elles sentiront alors une forme de reconnaissance de ce qu’elles sont et de ce dont elles ont besoin. L’objectif de la Bébéthèque est de donner aux familles la possibilité de familiariser les enfants, dans la langue ou les langues qui leur convienne(nt) le mieux, aux livres et au langage du récit. Le projet sac d’histoires Le projet sac d’histoires est né en Grande Bretagne dans les années 2000. Appelés Story Saks par son créateur Neil Griffith, il s’est envolé pour le Canada vers 2004. Dans le contexte de la ville de Montréal, le projet de base monolingue s’est élargi au bilinguisme chaque fois que c’était pertinent. En effet, Montréal est une ville francophone mais bilingue français-anglais et elle accueille une population migrante qui provient de très nombreux pays. Les élèves des écoles sont donc très fréquemment bilingue ou plurilingue. Mais de quel projet parle-t-on lorsqu’on évoque les sacs d’histoires? Ce projet s’organise dans des écoles qui veulent privilégier des activités communes avec la famille autour de l’entrée dans l’écrit et qui ont perdu leurs soupçons sur la langue familiale pour en faire une alliée. L’objectif est clair. L’entrée dans la langue écrite ne se fait pas langue scolaire contre langue familiale mais une réunion d’intérêt doit naître entre la famille et l’école pour que l’enfant ait le plus de chance possible de réussir à l’école. Ces écoles ont saisi l’intérêt de ne pas sous-estimer le rôle que les familles peuvent jouer dans ce moment particulièrement important pour la vie scolaire, et les ressources qu’elles peuvent mobiliser. Les écoles mettent en place, avec l’aide de parents, un projet au cours duquel chaque enfant va emporter chez lui un sac dans lequel se trouve un livre bilingue (incluant la langue scolaire et sa langue familiale) , un CD où la même histoire est lue dans de nombreuses langues familiales, un jeu à faire en famille et une surprise – tel le matériel pour fabriquer une marionnette afin que l’enfant puisse jouer l’histoire, la raconter dans la(les) langue(s) qu’il choisit et avec les mots qui sont les siens (Perregaux, 2006) . L’arrivée du sac dans la famille est préparée pour que les parents ou les ainé-e-s puissent avoir le temps de lire, de raconter, d’écouter le CD, de jouer avec l’enfant, d’échanger et de dialoguer dans une atmosphère détendue. Le sac va rester deux ou trois jours dans la famille puis repartira à l’école pour qu’un autre enfant puisse à son tour le prendre chez lui. En fonction des langues familiales, les enfants emporteront donc le livre bilingue qui leur convient: pour l’un français-italien, pour un autre français-japonais et pour un autre encore français-persan. Pour certains enfants, qui devront patienter plusieurs semaines jusqu’au moment où ils pourront emporter le sac chez eux, l’attente va 65 être longue. L’expérience montre cependant que celle-ci ne joue pas de rôle démobilisateur mais accroît au contraire leur motivation à recevoir le sac et à l’emporter chez eux. Les objectifs du projet Sacs d’histoires sont plurielles (Perregaux, à paraître) mais elles cherchent toutes, directement ou indirectement, à favoriser des aspects qui sont susceptibles de participer à l’entrée dans l’écrit des jeunes enfants allophones: les rôles plus socioaffectif de la famille et sociodidactique de l’école, l’étayage de connaissances interdépendantes entre L1 et L2 à partir du livre bilingue qui offre dans un seul objet culturel le rapport à deux langues et deux cultures (Perregaux, 2009), la reconnaissance de la langue familiale considérée comme une ressource, l’appel fait aux parents de participer à la constitution des sacs qui génère leur propre insertion dans l’école3 . Paradoxalement, si le livre bilingue délimite physiquement la place des langues, il joue de leur proximité pour faciliter le passage, la réflexion de l’une à l’autre. Le projet Sacs d’histoires entre donc résolument dans le champ de la didactique intégrée des langues, partant du postulat que les langues en présence dans le livre bilingue et dans l’environnement de l’enfant vont toutes participer à son entrée dans la langue écrite. Enfin, les sacs d’histoires sont par moment très proches des activités EOLE (Perregaux et al., 2003), en proposant des activités métalinguistiques diverses que le projet permet d’ inscrire dans un cadre social plus large qui devrait lui aussi avoir des incidences sur l’entrée dans la langue écrite. Des recherches plus spécifiques restent à faire à ce sujet. Discussion Il apparaît aujourd’hui que les approches plurielles d’Eveil aux ｌangues ou plus rapidement dit d’EOLE se diffusent résolument dans plusieurs pays qui cherchent à les contextualiser en les adaptant à leurs propres situations langagières. Par ailleurs, l’utilisation de livres bilingues développe une nouvelle posture, une nouveau regard sur le livre qui révèle du sens dans au moins deux langues. Les projets Bébéthèque et Sac d’histoires utilisent la charge affective représentée par la langue familiale pour entraîner l’enfant et sa famille dans un apprentissage bilingue et dans une réflexion entre langues. La langue la mieux connue des deux sert de pôle de sécurité à laquelle il est possible de recourir en cas de besoin. Entre les deux langues, un jeu de comparaison, de réflexion culturolangagier entraîne l’apprentissage et l’entrée dans la langue écrite. Ces langues échappent dans le livre bilingue au statut qui est le leur dans la réalité socioéconomique pour devenir l’une et l’autre porteuses de sens sans hiérarchie sociale mais en mobilisant à des degrés divers l’affectif et le cognitif (Perregaux & Deschoux, 2008). Enfin, la réflexion qui se mène sur la compétence plurilingue et pluriculturelle dans le cadre du CARAP veut aboutir à la création d’un outil pour les formateurs et les enseignants qui devrait leur proposer une mine de ressources structurées sur laquelle ils pourront s'appuyer pour réorienter leurs pratiques vers des démarches plus conformes aux principes d'éducation et de formation plurilingue et pluriculturelle prônés par le Conseil de l'Europe, que ce soit par le choix de matériaux d'enseignement plus adaptés ou par la mise en place d'activités complémentaires, y compris en lien avec des enseignants d'autres langues. 3 Soulignons que le livre bilingue peut également être un support fort intéressant dans des situations d’apprentissage des langues. 66 Bibliographie Candelier, M. (2003a): L’éveil aux langues à l’école primaire. Evlang : bilan d’une innovation européenne. Bruxelles : De Boeck & Larcier. Candelier, M. (2003b): Janua Linguarum – La porte des langues – L’introduction de l’éveil aux langues dans le curriculum. Strasbourg : Centre Européen pour les langues Vivantes / Conseil de l’Europe. Candelier, M. & al. (2007): CARAP (Cadre de Référence pour les Approches Plurielles). A travers les langues et les cultures. Version 2. Graz : CELV. Cummins, J. (1979): Linguistic Interdependence and the Educational Development of Bilingual Children. In: Review of Educational Research 49, 222-251. Cummins, J. (2001): La langue maternelle des enfants bilingues. Sprogforum, 19, 15-21. Hawkins, E.W. (1984): Awareness of Language : An introduction. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Kervan, M. (coord) (2006): Les langues du monde au quotidien. Observation réfléchie des langues : Cycle 2 & 3. SCEREN-CRDP Bretagne, Ladner, E. (2005) : Bericht zu Standarddeutsch in den Schulen Basel-Stadt. Bâle-Ville: Département de l’éducation. Livre bilingue: Grande Bretagne: Cuisine (1990): Collection l’Arbre aux accents – Syros Alternative. Lüdi, G. & Py, B. (2003): Être bilingue. Berne : Lang. Ministère de l’éducation nationale – Luxembourg (2010) : Ouverture aux langues : vers des compétences plurilingues et pluriculturelles. Luxembourg : MENFP. Perregaux, C. (2002)（訳：志賀 淑子 ： 多言語に開か た心を育む学校教育 (EOLE) ― 社会・教育的アプ ロ―チのスイス、 ―ロッパ、世界に け 研究と普及 ― In : 外国語教育 IV －小学校から中 学校へ－ p.142-152 Perregaux, C., de Goumoëns, C., Jeannot, D. & de Pietro J.-F (2003): EOLE (Education et Ouverture aux Langues à l’Ecole) . Vol. I et II. Neuchâtel : CIIP. Perregaux, C. (2006): Les sacs d’histoires ou comment développer des pratiques littéraciques bilingues entre l’école et la famille. Interdialogos, 1, 27-30. Perregaux, C. (訳：志賀 淑子 (2007)： スイスに け 多言語に開か た言語教育 ―その目的、戦略、政治 的選択 In : 外国語教育 IV －小学校から中学校へ－ p.153-162 Perregaux, C. & Deschoux, C.-A., (2007): Mise en réseau de lieux et de passeurs pour une entrée dans l’écrit plurilingue. Langage et Pratiques, 40, 9-20. Perregaux, C. (2009): Livres bilingues et altérité. Nouvelles ouvertures pour l’entrée dans l’écrit. Figurationen, 1&2, 127-139. Perregaux, C. (2010): Le sac d’histoires, un projet qui a plus d’un tour et plus d’une langue dans son sac. Babylonia. Saudan, V. & Sauer, E. (2008): Passepartout : Aspects d’une didactique du plurilinguisme. Base de discussion pour le développement de principes didactiques pour l’enseignement des langues étrangères. http://www.Passepartout-sprachen.ch Saudan, V., Perregaux, C., Mettler, M., Deschoux, C.-A. & Sauer, E. (2005): Apprendre par et pour la diversité linguistique. Rapport final sur le projet JALING Suisse. Berne : CDIP. 67 Shiga, Y. (2002)： フ ンス語圏スイスの EOLE アプロ チ －多言語に開か た学校 の実践 In: 外国語 教育 III －幼稚園・小学校 編 pp.98 Asahi-Shuppan Tokyo Shiga, Y. (2007)： フ ンスの効率学校に け 外国語教育 －小学低学年から中学校への連続性 教育 IV －小学校から中学校へ－ pp.163 Asahi-Shuppan Tokyo 68 In: 外国語 The Past, Present and the Prospect of English Education at Elementary Schools in Japan Sano, Masayuki Introduction In April, 2011, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan finally implemented a policy that called for all public elementary schools to include a class called “Foreign Language Activities” (FLA), one lesson per week (in total, 35 lessons per year) in the curriculum for 5th and 6th graders. However, the lesson is not to be a regular, academic subject for the teaching of English but a special lesson for cultivating the foundation of communication abilities in English. This implementation was unusually late considering the fact that the Ad hoc Educational Committee suggested that Ministry of Education (ME) －the Ministry of Education was reorganized into MEXT in 2001－ should consider introducing English in elementary schools in 1986. It took another six years for ME to start English teaching in some pilot schools in 1992. Then in 2002, when the last curriculum change was implemented, the subject was named as “English Activities” (EA), an elective course as part of International Understanding (IU), which was in turn a section of Period for Integrated Study (PIS). Since then, due to the pressure from local governments and parents and supported by the government policies of decentralization and privatization, the number of schools incorporating EA has rapidly increased. According to a survey in 1988, only 1% of public elementary schools were teaching English. This figure jumped to 88% in 2003. By 2007, 97% of all the public elementary schools were conducting EA in various ways and to different degrees according to a survey by MEXT (2008a:3). Some questions arise regarding this situation. The first is why it took such a long time for ME to decide to implement English education in elementary schools (EES). This delay is surprising when other leading Asian countries started EES much earlier. South Korea, for example, started English as a regular subject for their 3rd graders in 1997. Taiwan also began English for the 3rd graders in 2001. China began English for the 1st graders in 2001. Japan used to pride itself on being the leading country in Asia as far as education was concerned. But in the case of EES, Japan turned out to be the last. Is this a result of prudence and discretion or a negative attitude toward EES on the part of Japanese educational policy makers? The second question is why EES in Japan has been and will be carried out under different names, such as “English Activities” or “Foreign Language Activities.” The use of different names implies that ME or MEXT has been reluctant to teach English as a regular subject. The same reluctance is seen in the fact that MEXT refused to make English at lower secondary school (ELSS hereafter) a compulsory subject until April, 2002, while 100% of students had studied it for more than twenty years. What reasons were there behind their reluctance? The third question is whether or not FLA is being successfully carried out. Aside from practical problems such as the ability of class teachers to take on the teaching of English, there are serious 69 theoretical problems with FLA. Since English proficiency is not stated as the objective of FLA, it may not lead smoothly to English education in lower secondary school (LSS). If it does not, it may do more harm than good by depriving students of the motivation to start learning a new language in LSS. Additionally, how should FLA be changed to make a contribution to ELSS? The fourth question is what effects FLA may have on English education in Japan as a whole. This is another way to ask if we will be able to make use of FLA as a chance to reform it so that it can cope with the challenges in becoming a globalized society. These are the questions to be discussed in this chapter. Therefore, the chapter is organized into the following sections: (1) The historical perspective of English education in Japan, (2) historical perspective of that of elementary schools, (3) The nature of FLA , (4) Its present state and problems, (5) Future prospects and concluding remarks. 1. Historical perspective of English education in Japan 1.1 First encounter with English The first Japanese encounter with English was not a happy one. Knowing that China, the leader of Asia, was being colonized by Western powers, people feared that the same thing would happen to Japan, which had practically closed itself to Western countries for about 200 years. The fear became reality when Admiral Perry led an American fleet of nine battleships to Uraga, a port town at the entrance of Tokyo Bay, in 1853. Officially, he requested an amity treaty but the refusal by the Tokugawa shogunate might have resulted in a battle against the “Black Ships”. Being threatened by the sounds of powerful guns and by Perry’s tough negotiations, the shogunate unwillingly accepted the Japan-US Amity Treaty in 1854 and let America use some ports. The decision angered the Emperor and the court as well as some feudal lords whose ideological slogan was “Revere the Emperor and expel the foreigners”. In accordance with this slogan, the Choshu clan (which governed present day Yamaguchi Prefecture) fired at foreign ships passing through the Kanmon Strait in 1863. In retaliation, a Western fleet of battleships led by Britain destroyed the batteries in 1864, even occupying some parts of Choshu. A similar incident occurred with the Satsuma clan which governed present day Kagoshima Prefecture in 1863. A British fleet of battleships fired at Kagoshima, the capital of Satsuma, and destroyed the city and even a part of the castle. These incidents, however, did not lead to a nationwide war because the shogunate paid a lot of compensation to the Western countries involved. Besides, the defeated clans were wise enough to realize the tremendous gap between Japan and the Western countries in not only military power but also technology and science. These clans, the Satsuma and the Choshu, worked together to destroy the Tokugawa shogunate and led Japan toward a modern constitutional monarchy. Therefore, it was only natural for the new government to be eager to learn from Western countries, particularly from Britain and the United States. From 1868 (when the new government was established) to 1889, about 2,300 foreign specialists and teachers in almost every aspect of Western technology and culture were invited, 928 from the U.K., 374 from the U.S.A., 269 from France, 175 from Germany, and so forth (Wikipedia). They gave their lectures and instructions in their native languages at Tokyo University which the government had founded. About the same time, many 70 Japanese students were sent abroad. In 1871 alone, more than 200 Japanese students were sent to the Britain and the U.S.A. (Ozeki 1983:4). Naturally, learning English became very important for the elites to lead the modernization of the country. In fact, the first Minister of Education, Arinori Mori, once planned to switch the national language from Japanese to English. Though the plan was not realized, it showed how eager some Japanese were to learn practical English. We could call this period the first boom of English (Otani 2008). This boom, however, had a dark side. After all, it was brought about by defeat by Western powers. To some Japanese, then, learning English represented the burden they had to shoulder because they were the defeated side. The common catch phrase then was “Japanese spirit and Western learning (skills or technology)”. The phrase implied that learning English was the symbol of elites and yet, it was just the tool to learn Western skills. One must not lose one’s identity as a Japanese. This saying has contributed to the ambivalent feelings about English among Japanese ever since. Accordingly, it is no wonder that the boom gradually came to an end among the elites once they were able to get the necessary information through Japanese translation. In 1893 the Minister of Education, Kowashi Inoue, declared that education in Japan must be carried out in Japanese. This decision was only natural because the Japanese did not need English for daily communication. But at the same time, the decision had a deep impact upon English learning. Since English lost its status as language of instruction at high academic institutions, it has been useful only as a means of getting information from books, and more importantly, that of screening applicants to higher institutions. Therefore, this decision eventually caused English study to be divided into “Examination English”, which focuses on knowledge of grammar and vocabulary in the form of translation and “Communication English”, which focuses on speaking and listening in real use (Ozeki 1983:6). The result is that the former has been generally considered higher in status than the latter. In addition, behind Inoue’s declaration, we could detect a tendency for Japanese people to begin to consider themselves as winners rather than losers of international competition. The victories Japan had in the wars against China and against Russia, as well as in World War I were sweet enough for the elites of those days to forget the bitterness of the first encounter with English. As they regarded Japan as “one of the first-class nations in the world” in terms of industry and the economy as well as military power, they became more nationalistic and less positive toward learning English. Their attitude sometimes became hostile to learning English in some social situations. In 1927, for example, when an anti-Japanese Immigration Law was passed in the USA, Prof. Fujimura at Tokyo University published an article arguing that English education should be abandoned in middle schools in order for students to get rid of the inferiority complex vis-a-vis the West and to establish their national identity as Japanese. According to him, learning English was unnecessary because translation was available, it did not pay for the trouble because it was of little practical use, and it was nothing but a means for creating entrance examination (Imura 2003:274; Iino 1979:131). It was in this nationalistic mood that Japan fell straight into the Second World War. During the war, English was not totally abandoned from middle schools but it was called “the enemy language” and students were discouraged from using it. EES disappeared from every private 71 school. By the year 1945, when Japan lost the war, more than 3,000,000 Japanese people had been killed. 1.2 The second boom and the economic bubble After the war, Japan was occupied by the USA and American soldiers were all over Japan. Japanese people had to interact with them all day and every day for the first time in history. Naturally, people felt the necessity to use English and the second English boom started. Unlike the first English boom, however, it was not just among elites but also ordinary people, and many of them tried to learn the language by listening to the English radio program entitled “Come, come, English”, whose title song was sung to the tune of an old Japanese nursery rhyme. In 1947, the Ministry of Education issued the Course of Study for LSS, which became compulsory education. English was an elective subject and it was expected to be taught in optimum conditions (Iino 1979:131,www.nicer.go.jp/guideline/old). In order to establish the habit of thinking in English, faithful imitation, constant repetition, and frequent use are essential. Therefore, the number of students per class should be less than 30. In addition, ideally speaking, English lessons should be taught once a day (6 lesson hours per week). If the number of lessons is less than four per week, the effect will be drastically lowered. It was clear the goal was “communication English”. However, these conditions were rarely met in ordinary schools, because teachers qualified to teach communication English rarely existed. Their English ability was poor and they taught it in the only way they were familiar with, that is, the grammar translation method. Therefore, despite general enthusiasm to learn “communication English,” schools were not able to satisfy the social demand. As the Japanese economy developed, a lot of people went abroad on business. They needed English for trade, to sell products and buy raw materials. Many others rushed to sightseeing spots in foreign countries. Since they could not rely on schools for communication English, many of them went to English Conversation Schools. Every city and town had such schools, and studying English conversation came into fashion. Immediately after the war, learning English meant liberation from crazy nationalism. It also meant democracy and freedom from poverty, which most people had suffered during the war. Japanese people enjoyed the most prosperous days in their history and believed that they were living in what was called “everyone in middle-class society,” a situation which they imagined would last forever. Behind the happy and optimistic feelings, however, the arrogant nationalism was steadily gaining power. Basking in the atmosphere of the catchphrases such as “Japan as No. 1” or “Strongest economy in the world”, people started to think and even openly say that they had nothing to learn from foreign countries and that they should teach Japanese to foreigners instead of learning English (Otani 2008). They knew English was necessary to win international economic wars but only a small percentage of Japanese were needed to handle this situation. 72 In 1975, for example, Wataru Hiraizumi, a member of the House of Councilors, proposed that English should be taught not to all but to the top 5% of the students. The rest could gain more by devoting themselves to learning Japanese and its culture (Imura 2003:284; see also Terasawa, this volume). In accordance with this trend of thought, English lessons at LSS were reduced to 3 hours per week in 1981. In 1991, however, the Japanese economic bubble suddenly burst and many people found that they had lost all their savings and their companies had gone into bankruptcy. This crisis was caused, according to Otani, by having accepted the revaluation of the yen against the dollar forced by the U.S.A. and could be called “the second defeat by the USA.” Regardless of the appropriateness of this expression, it is clear that the crisis was brought about by the inability of Japan to judge wisely how to survive in internationalized finance. Japan had to learn another painful lesson and once again looked for a way out via the English language. 1.3 The third boom and a means of international communication In March, 1999 Prime Minister Obuchi asked his private council entitled “Planning for the Japan of the 21st Century” to find ways for Japan to survive the tough competition in the internationalized world. The council looked for the answer in Singapore because it had enjoyed prosperity as the center of international trade in Asia. One of the reasons for its success, the members thought, was the high level of English of the people there. Therefore, the council advised the Prime Minister that the quickest remedy was to make English the second official language of Japan. This reminds us of the plan that Mori, the first Minister of Education, had about 100 years ago; that is, to switch our national language from Japanese to English (Imura 2003:284). Though the council’s advice was not implemented, Japan once again realized the importance of communication in English. Ever since, MEXT has taken various measures to strengthen this aspect, such as “the Action Plan to Cultivate Japanese with English Abilities” (MEXT 2003), which was a five-year plan to enhance the abilities of English teachers, Super English Language High School system －by 2007, a total of 169 schools were designated as SELHi, where innovative English education was promoted and their results were disseminated－ and by increasing the number of ALTs, etc. The introduction of EES was one of these measures. To sum up this section, “English booms” occurred when Japan realized its weakness, and they collapsed, when it became confident and arrogant. If Japan repeats this cycle, will it have any future? We have to find a way out of this vicious cycle. But how? EES may have some answers worthy of consideration. 2. English education at elementary schools 2.1 The first boom and English at Elementary School (EES) EES in Japan started at private schools. The first of them was Keio Gijuku Chilren’s School , Keio Gijuku University Attached Primary School (see Chapter 15, this volume), which started EES around 1880, from the first graders to the sixth graders, three to four lessons per week (Takenaka 1983:77). A 73 very successful EES was initiated in 1917 at Seijo Primary School, which was taught by an expert American teacher whose direct method had a great impact on later EES (Imura 2003:243-4). Many would be surprised to hear, however, that EES at public schools also started as early as in 1886, when a “higher course” was added to the compulsory 4-year elementary school. Those who wished to continue study, that is, students equivalent to 5th to 7th graders of today, moved on to the higher course. English was taught in the higher course of elementary schools which chose English as their elective subject. In ordinary cases, the class was held two or three times a week, taught by Japanese teachers using the textbook authorized by ME. Unlike middle schools, English in the textbook was simple and practical, so that graduates could use it in trade with foreigners (Imura 2003:234-8). Yet, EES was under constant attack from scholars and teachers. Yoshisaburo Okakura, a famous scholar of English education in those days, declared in 1894 that it would do more harm than good to children for the following reasons: 1) It hinders the learning of Japanese, which elementary school students have not yet mastered. 2) It is financially difficult to hire a qualified teacher. 3) It turns out to be useless for students leaving school after elementary school, because they will seldom use English. 4) It is also meaningless for those who will go to middle school, because they will have to relearn it there (Takenaka 1983:73; Imura 2003:235 ). Despite public opinions unfavorable to EES, it continued to survive and reached its peak in 1933, when almost 10% of the students in higher courses all over Japan were learning English. In fact, from 1919, teachers were able to obtain a teacher’s license, specializing in EES. English in higher courses remained in the curriculum even during World War II until 1947, when the school system was totally changed into the new LSS and English became an elective subject there (Imura 2003:234-8). 2.2 The second boom and EES After the war, the second boom of EES started again in private schools. According to a survey in 1957, only 36 schools were conducting EES. In 1977, however, the number jumped to 109 and by 1992, there were 126 schools teaching English, which was 84.2% of the private schools (Imura 2003:245). In most cases, English was taught from the first graders up to the sixth, one or two lessons per week, by Japanese English teachers with occasional team-teaching with native speakers, in an attempt either to enhance international understanding or to develop communication abilities in English. Contrary to private schools, little EES was done at public schools. Things changed slightly in 1979, when the curriculum was revised to emphasize international understanding. Many schools started special events called “international exchange activities”, which invited foreigners to talk about their culture and languages. These events, however, were held irregularly and no EES was intended. Some local educational authorities, however, added some elements of EES. The City of Yokohama, for example, started to hire some native and non-native English speakers in 1987 and sent them to 74 elementary schools. It gradually increased the number of English speakers and sent them to all the schools in the city about 10 years later (Imura 2003: 246). These foreign guest teachers were expected to do cultural exchange activities with students but sometimes taught a small amount of English. However, this was not meant to be EES but an activity for International Understanding. Unlike private schools, public schools were very inactive as far as EES was concerned. 2.3 The third English boom and English Activities. Things have changed drastically since 2002, when schools were able to implement EES under the name of English Activities (EA) as a part of the Integrated Study Period (IPS). ISP was a product of the efforts of ME to bring about decentralization and privatization in the field of education. This may require some explanation. The Japanese educational system had been very much centralized. Almost all the details of the curriculum and allotted class time for each subject had been decided by ME. This centralized and standardized teaching was said to have contributed to the rapid economic growth of Japan after the war. But it had its own drawbacks. It was found, through various international tests and surveys, that Japanese students knew factual information but were poor at applying their knowledge to problem solving. They lacked creativity and logical thinking. Still worse, their “zest-for-living”, or driving force, was lower than young people in other countries. In short, the Japanese educational system needed to be revised so that it would produce students able to keep up with the rapidly changing, internationalized world (ME:1999, www.nicer.go.jp/guideline/old). To tackle this problem, the Central Council of Education issued a report in 1996 calling for a reduction in the amount of teaching content (one-third in each subject) as well as lesson hours, and for an increase in the freedom of choice of local governments and individual schools. In short, ISP was the lesson that allowed each school to decide the teaching content relevant to their students’ interests and regional characteristics, and to address broad, interdisciplinary subjects such as Information Technology, the Environment, Social Welfare and Health, as well as International Understanding (IU). EA was a part of IU, which had three branches, ”international exchange activities” (IEA ), “foreign language conversation activities” which was usually referred to as EA, and “student research project activities”. Since each school had to choose the content, all the curriculum said about EA was as follows (ME 1999: 9). When conducting foreign language conversation activities within the studies for international understanding, activities should incorporate experiential learning, appropriate for elementary school age students, in which children are exposed to foreign language and familiarized with the culture and daily life of foreign countries. 75 In other words, no clear objectives or contents of EA were mentioned. It turned out that more school chose IEA rather than EA. According to a survey in 2001 (Kageura 2001), the number of schools emphasizing IEA was bigger (60%) than those emphasizing EA (40%). The reason why IEA was more popular was that in order to carry out EA, teachers should have some ability of English, which most of them did not. In addition, IEA seemed more familiar to teachers because they had had some experience of IEA through the school events in international understanding. More importantly, some teachers may have thought that, through IEA, they were able to realize the goals of ISP in a more exciting way. As a successful case of IEA, I will refer to that of Sanbonyanagi Elementary school in Nagano City (Wada 2002). Their IEA started from the exchange with a school in Herzegovina as a part of the prefectural program to support the Nagano Winter Olympic Games. They sent letters and pictures to a school, came to know the damage that land mines had caused to children. When they heard that a boy had lost his leg due to a land mine accident, they raised money and sent it to the boy to get an artificial leg for him. Their experience of IEA was published in a book entitled Bokurano kokorowa kokkyoo koeta (Our Hearts Crossed the Boundaries of the Countries,). Few IEA classes, however, were as exciting as those of Sanbonyanagi School. In ordinary cases, foreigners living in the school district were invited to local festivals or school events. They ended up being just happy events without deepening mutual understanding. In addition, some parents expected schools to teach English because most private schools had started it. They put pressure on local governments to promote EES in their children’s schools. More and more schools chose EA because of the pressure. In most cases, the class was held once a month with the help of an ALT, though in some schools it was held once a week. Popular activities were singing songs, playing games and practicing daily conversation. A few primary schools were, however, eager to make their own curriculum and DVD programs to go with it. Kasukabe Elementary School in Saitama was one of them. The unique point of this school was that ordinary class teachers made original video programs with the help of native speakers. They made one program for each month for every two grades, which the students watched every morning with their homeroom teachers. The students, then, had a chance to use the memorized dialogue with the ALT in a 20-minute English lesson each week (Kasukabe E.S. 2000). Another unique EA was practiced in Fujisawa Elementary School in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Pref. where the teacher worked with her students to create drama based on a folk tale and shared the performance with their peers and parents (Inomata 2006). Some teachers tried to make their students face some global issues in the spirit of Global Education (Okamoto 2010). Many teachers used the TV program called “Eigorian” made by NHK and tried to give their students as much interesting input as possible. In short, various ideas and methods were tried out in EA all over the county. But there appeared one problem. The harder teachers tried to realize their ideas, the wider and more varied became EA. That was the reason why ME tried to show, for the first time, its official objectives of EA and how they were expected to be carried out. 76 2.4 The Practical Handbook for Elementary School English Activities The Handbook that ME published in 2001 states the objectives of EA as follows: (ME 2001:123). Elementary school students are keenly interested in new things and are at a stage where they can naturally absorb other cultures through languages and other means. Exposure to English during these years is extremely important not only for developing communication ability but also for deepening international understanding. EA amount to experiences that expose students to other cultures and as a media for promoting contact with people from other countries or contact with other cultures, they encourage a desire to use English. Their primary purpose is to foster interest and desire not to teach a language. This was the idea of experiential learning which expects students to acquire English and culture through experiences. The teacher’s job here, then, is to provide students with activities, which would foster interest and desire to use English. The content and activities recommended for EA were as follows. 1) Use English that is part of students’ daily life. Teachers should choose English terms students encounter in their daily lives and devise activities that allow students to become familiar with English while having fun. 2) Activities emphasizing spoken English. The focus is on the hearing and speaking of simple English terms that students know from their daily lives. 3) Teachers should develop learning activities that are consistent with the students’ expectations and promote participation in activities in which students are the main actors. Greetings, songs, games, and other activities that allow students to listen to and speak English in a natural way are desirable (MEXT 2001: 124-5). In addition, the Handbook offered several lesson plans. There is no doubt that it helped practicing teachers a lot. They now had a model, which they could follow. With the help of ALTs, some teachers were happily engaged in EA and the number of schools practicing EA increased rapidly. There also are some interesting theoretical points. 2.5 Theoretical merits of the handbook： 1) EA helped class teachers to see the possibility of practicing EES. Unlike English teachers at private schools, class teachers have never been trained in practicing EES. The activities shown in the Handbook were easy and simple enough for class teachers to try them in their classes. 2) EA gave them a new way to look at and teach English. 77 For most class teachers, teaching English meant teaching grammar and vocabulary just as they were taught. But through the experience of EA, they came to understand the existence of more exciting ways to teach English. 3) EA opened up a new relationship with their students. Since EA were action-oriented, teachers needed a new approach to control students. In contrast to lecture type lessons, teachers had to pay more attention to students’ behavior and motivation. This helped teachers to realize a new kind of relationship between students and themselves. 6. EA helped teachers to be more independent. Unlike ordinary subjects, EA allowed them to decide everything from the goal to the content of the class. Therefore, they had greater freedom and more responsibility. That experience helped teachers to be more creative and more confident. To sum up of this section, we could say that EA helped teachers to develop their professionalism, in other words, their skills and the concept of teaching a language. But at the same time, EA exposed their weakness as EES. First of all, the overall objectives should have been written more clearly so that they could serve as the guide line of EES. Second, the decision regarding the content and the number of lessons and starting grade etc. were all left for each school to make. Consequently, some schools spent almost all of their IPS lessons (110 hours per year) doing EA, while others taught EA just a few times a year. Third, teachers’ teaching proficiency was never seriously taken care of. Some class teachers spent their own money taking part in training programs of EES organized by private institutions. It is true that MEXT provided a few seminars for them. But such seminars should have been available to all of the teachers who wished to attend them. Fourth, teaching materials and aids were insufficient. Class teachers were too busy to prepare for the lesson, pictures, cards, videos, CD and other teaching aids. Lastly, and probably most importantly, the smooth transition to English to LSS was never considered. In order to cope with the problems above, Foreign Language Activities (FLA) was proposed in the new curriculum, implemented in 2011. Now, the overall objectives, the content, the number of lessons and starting grade are clearly spelled out, teaching proficiency is more carefully taken care of, and teaching aids in the form of English Note, cards, CDs, model lesson plans, etc. are all available. The question is whether all of these measures are sufficient enough for teachers to be able to begin the instruction of students which will lead the students to further develop the communication abilities needed in a globalized world. 3. Foreign Language Activities 3.1 The objectives of FLA What do the objectives of FLA tell us, compared with those of ELSS? First let us look at them, compared with those of ELSS. (MEXT 2009a: 7). 78 To develop the foundation of students’ basic practical communication abilities, deepening the understanding of language and culture through experience, and fostering a positive attitude toward communication through becoming familiarized with the sound and basic expressions of foreign languages. The two objectives are almost identical except the italicized words and phrases. The first italicized word “foundation”, which is the most important difference between the two, tells us that FLA should be the foundation on which basic communication abilities are to be built in LSS. then, at HSS, communication abilities themselves. Therefore, the three objectives are shown in the figure below (Based on Kan 2002). The merit of this model is that it clearly shows each level has its own distinctive goal, that is “foundation” at FLA, “base” at ELSS and “communication abilities” at English at Higher Secondary School (EHSS). The attainment of each level can be evaluated according to the allotted goal, in the form of Can-Do lists. However, it does not show how the three levels are connected as a coherent whole. Having the same kinds of objectives, that is, understanding Figure 1. language and culture, positive attitude to Block model of FLA goals according to educational level communication and communication abilities, does not guarantee the smooth transition from one to the next. Some devices or strategies which connect all the three are needed. Lack of them prevents FLA from being the foundation which leads to “communication abilities” smoothly. The second italicized words “through experience” suggest that the foundation should be cultivated through experiential learning, that is, through real or realistic experience of language and culture. The third italicized words “becoming familiarized” suggest that learning should be brought about not by directly teaching English grammar, but by exposing students to and familiarizing them with the real use of English. We can easily find where these differences come from when we look at the explanation of how EA was hoped to be carried out (MEXT 1999: 9). When conducting foreign language activities within the studies for International Understanding, activities should incorporate experiential learning, appropriate for elementary school age students, in which children are exposed to foreign language and familiarized with the culture and daily life of foreign countries. 79 Here we can find all the words that characterize FLA. Therefore, the comparisons clarify the true nature of FLA. It should provide the foundation of communication abilities, and yet it should be cultivated in the way EA was hoped to be carried out. Unlike EA, however, where skill aspects were totally ignored, the most basic level of English should be considered a part of, or incidental product of FLA. The Explanation of the Curriculum states that the most basic level of English such as greetings and self-introduction now taught at LSS would be more appropriately taught at ES. In addition, if listening and speaking were taught there, the difficulty of teaching four skills simultaneously at LSS would be reduced (MEXT 2010: 4-5). Then, the question, which comes to mind is why it is called FLA rather than EES. The most plausible answer might be a commonly accepted distinction between two kinds of activities, that is, Foreign Language Exploratory (FLEX) and Foreign Language in Elementary School (FLES) (Shrum and Glisan 1994 ). The latter refers to EES aiming for the development of English proficiency, which usually requires 3-5 lessons per week, while the former motivation and international understanding, which is feasible in even one lesson per week. Since MEXT was aware that they could allot FLA only one lesson per week in the already crowded curriculum, they might think that FLA should be FLEX rather than FLES, and that English proficiency should not be spelled out as an objective. It seems to me, however, there are some other reasons for the name of FLA, which I will discuss in Section 4. 3.2 The content of FLA The Explanation of Curriculum states its content as follows. (MEXT 2008a: 4-5) (1) FLA is a compulsory special subject, the same status as the moral education in the curriculum. It is compulsory to assure equality of attainment among schools and smooth transition to ELSS. It is not an academic subject because FLA is to develop positive attitude and motivation, which is not suitable for numerical evaluation . (2) English, rather than other languages, is primarily to be dealt with because ELSS has become a compulsory subject. (3) FLA consists of two kinds of contents, that is, activities for cultivating positive attitude toward communication and those for experiential understanding of both languages and cultures of Japan and foreign countries. (4) FLA should be carried out by class teachers or Japanese FLA teachers in both planning the curriculum and conducting the lesson with the help of an ALT. The role of Japanese teachers is important because they know how to manage classes and understand individual students, thus lowering their anxiety to be exposed to the first foreign language. More importantly, Japanese teachers can provide models of communication with foreigners in English. They are not required to teach English but to be a role model of communication. (5) Unlike EA, which schools can decide what and how they would carry out, FLA is a compulsory subject. This made class teachers worried because they had to use English for the first time in their life, and in front of their students! In order to ease their anxiety, MEXT provided trainings to those chosen from each school and encouraged him/her to disseminate what they learned at 80 his/her school. In addition, MEXT provided each student with English Note, class teachers with Teachers’ manual with model lesson plans, DVD and picture cards, etc. English Note is not a textbook but a collection of EES activities which MEXT considered appropriate for FLA. Therefore, it is essential to analyze English Note to understand how MEXT expected FLA to be practiced. 3.3 Characteristics of English Note An analysis of English Note and comparison with the textbook of ELSS will reveal conceptual differences between the two. I will use Stern’s framework (1983:44), which analyzes teaching methods by 4 conceptual factors, that is, the concept of language, learning, teaching and context. (1) Language: What is the view of language of this method? The biggest difference appears when one considers which of the two aspects of language, that is, formal aspect such as grammar or meaning aspect such as communication, is emphasized in a particular teaching method. The difference is obvious when we compare “Examination English” with “Communication English”. The former emphasizes the accuracy and knowledge of grammar, while the latter, the fluency and communication. FLA stands at the extreme end of communication, paying little attention to grammar. ELSS, however, supposedly aims basic communication abilities but cannot ignore grammar because of entrance examinations. (2) Learning: How are learners supposed to learn language in this method? The biggest difference appears when one considers which of the two factors, that is, memorization or natural acquisition, plays a more important role. “Examination English” emphasizes memorization through repetition, while “Communication English” exposure to meaningful input and real experience of communication. FLA stands at the end of communication, while ELSS stands a bit closer to the other end of the continuum. (3) Teaching: What role is the teacher assigned in this method?” This is, in fact, the reversed version of the previous question. If learners learn mostly through memorization, teachers have to help them to learn language by heart. On the other hand, if learners learn more through exposure to meaningful input, the most important teachers’ job is to prepare tasks for learners to get involved. FLA assumes the latter position, while ELSS stands a bit closer to the former. (4) Context: How is the context of language learning considered in this method? “Examination English” understands the context only in one way, that is, whether English is a foreign or a second language. They argue that English is a foreign language, therefore, the use of the translation method is the most natural way of teaching. In their opinion, the communicative way of teaching is only feasible in a second language context. On the other hand, the communication side believes the context should be interpreted from an educational viewpoint as well, which sees students not just as Japanese but also as global citizens who need communication abilities to contribute to international society. FLA must play a role of the foundation for these abilities in a wider context. 81 To sum up the characteristics of FLA, they are very much communication-oriented in the four concepts of teaching. Therefore, it hopefully serves the foundation of communication abilities, which enables Japanese English education to live up to the expectation to produce world citizens. This point will be further dealt with toward the end of this article. 3.4 The present state of FLA Is FLA being successfully carried out? Here are the results of recent research. According to research conducted by the Society for Testing English Proficiency (STEP) in October, 2011, most 5th and 6th graders (85.1%) have received between 23 to 35 FLA lessons per year, still others (7.9%) from 36 to 70 lessons. Therefore, more than 93% of students received FLA almost or more than MEXT expected them to do. To the question “Is FLA going smoothly in your school?”, more than 90% of schools answered positively (STEP 2012). The research conducted by MEXT in April 2012, too, showed that FLA had been practiced in 70.6% of schools in 2011 as well as 3.5% of the schools carried out EES more than 38 hours a year. As for 2012, 94% of the schools had the plan to practice FLA , whose average lesson hours were more than 35. In addition, 3.5% of the schools planed EES more than 38 hours a year (MEXT, 2012). It is possible to say that FLA was smoothly started. How are the effects of FLA? The survey conducted by Benesse Co. in October, 2011 on the first-graders in LSS who had experienced FLA showed that most of them were satisfied with the FLA they had received. To the question, “Were FLA classes enjoyable?”, (73.3%) of the students answered positively. To the questions “What did you learn from the lessons?”, the answers were, “I’ve got accustomed to listening.” (50.8%), “I’ve got accustomed to English sound and rhythm.” (41.2%), “I got accustomed to talking with foreigners.” (35.9%). To the question “What is the reason you are studying English hard?”, most of them answered such as “I want to get a good grade.” (82.4%), “I want to go to a good high school.” (66.6%), showing that they were instrumentally motivated. However, others answered such as “I am glad to be good at English.” (70.9%), “English will be needed in the future society.” (66.6%), and “I want to communicate with people all over the world.” (48.5%) showing that the students’ motivation was integrative. Judging from these results, FLA has been smoothly practiced and the objectives seem to have been achieved as far as the statistical research shows. To back-up the judgment, I will quote an essay written by a class teacher who had just had two years’ experience of FLA : “When I first began FLA with my students, we were uneasy and often at a loss in the classroom. However, when I got accustomed to conducting FLA, fears of English gradually decreased and I started to feel comfortable. As the lessons went on, I realized some students who were poor at having a rapport with their classmates started to work with their friends during FLA lessons and the atmosphere of the class got better. It was a pleasant surprise to see very shy students suddenly become positive to their classmates and even to the guests to the class. The reflection cards written by them read that “I enjoy FLA classes because I become 82 more lively in the lessons.” “I don’t know why but I become high in tension in FLA .” and so forth. I guess this happened because their communication channel is switched from Japanese to English and it opens up the possibility for them to establish a new kind of relationship with their classmates.” (Fujisawa 2009: 10). It is true that these figures and the comments provide some evidence that FLA are being successfully conducted and instrumental in enhancing students’ positive attitudes toward communication. However, the results should be critically examined. Take the results of the questionnaires, for example. Students answered they enjoyed FLA because songs and games were exciting. But it is a known fact that 5th and 6th graders who have experienced FLA for a couple of years tend to dislike such “child-like” activities. In short, the questionnaires were implemented without examining the subjects’ experience of FLA. Even the essay written by the teacher is an impression formed only after two years experience. His attitude might change in the following year. It often happens that once teachers think they have mastered how to conduct FLA, their enthusiasm rapidly disappears. This is not to say that we should not believe the results of the research, but they should be dealt with considering the background out of which they came into being. The same thing is true with FLA itself. In order to evaluate its present state, we have to analyze the background by answering the four questions we had right at the beginning of this chapter. Only after that, are we qualified to evaluate the present state and to consider the future prospects of FLA and Japanese English education as a whole. 4. The problems and future prospects of FLA 4.1 Why was Japan so late in implementing FLA? It was unfortunate for Japan that when other Asian countries were initiating EES, it was at the peak of its economic bubble, which many people believed to be everlasting. They arrogantly said, “We don’t need English. We could do anything we want in Japanese”, and “Those who insist that English should be compulsory must be out of their mind” (Otani 2008). These comments were loudly voiced by a group of politicians and scholars who were nationalistic in mindset. Of course, some business leaders realized the importance of English for international trade. But to satisfy that need, Japan had enough English conversation schools which people could attend at their company’s expense. The second reason was that many parents were afraid that EES at public schools would only make studying harder and less interesting. We must admit that their belief was rooted in their experience with English education when they were in school, which was examination-oriented and dominated by the grammar translation method. It has reproduced teachers, generation after generation, who were unable to communicate in English. The failure became evident when so many elementary school teachers, who must have been good students in their LSS and HSS were against the introduction of EES simply because they could not speak simple English. The third reason was criticism from some scholars and English teachers. They claimed that FLA might cause children’s Japanese language development to be adversely affected, and that their 83 Japanese identity might be threatened. Both of them have been familiar ever since EES started in Japan and yet, neither has ever been proven. Their view seems to be out of date, ignoring the fact that English has become a means, not only for elites, but for ordinary people to use for day-to-day interpersonal communication, and that is a necessary part of the new Japanese identity. In short, they neglect the fact that English has become the lingua franca of the world and that the identity of Japanese should include this responsibility as a citizen of the global community. The fourth reason is direct intervention of some politicians whose mind-set is narrowly nationalistic. For example, in March, 2006, the Foreign Language Section in Central Council of Education announced that FLA would be implemented in 2011. Therefore, many local administrations and schools started to prepare themselves for FLA. Then, Ibuki, a newly appointed Minster of MEXT declared, in September, 2006, that he was against FLA, because it was meaningless for students to learn foreign languages when they were not able to speak beautiful Japanese. He also said that FLA was something like a piece of cake. After eating sweets, students would lose the appetite to study something more serious. He denied all the recommendations of Councils single-handedly. Eventually, FLA came into being under another Minister because of a shift in the cabinet. However, in 2010, when the Liberal Democratic Party which had dominated Japanese policy for more than 50 years, was taken over by the Democratic Party, FLA once again faced the danger of losing the budget for English Note, which had been promised by the former administration. It was eventually recovered, but these examples show how easily educational policy could be altered by political forces in Japan. We must make it clear that the intervention of politicians only causes unnecessary troubles. In Finland, there is an agreement among all the political parties that educational matters should never be taken up as political issues (Fukuda 2005). In Japan, however, education seems to be the easiest target for them to blame for any kind of social problems. This must be forbidden and a Non-Intervention Agreement should be made by all political parties. To sum up the reasons for the delay of EES, we could refer to nationalistic tendency, entrance examination with grammar translation method, misleading viewpoints of some scholars and politicians’ intervention. These factors have been intrinsically connected and working together against the introduction of EES. 4.2 Why is EES referred to as EA or FLA? The first reason is that EES at public schools was first introduced as a part of PIS, thus the name of the subject must have been avoided. In addition, if it had been started as a regular subject, the qualification of teachers would have been questioned because class teachers had never been trained to teach English. To make them qualified, MEXT must have shouldered the financial burden for their training. However, the Japanese government is notorious for being stingy, spending the least percentage of GNP on public education among all the developed countries. The second reason might be the MEXT’s desire to show its determination to make English education more communication-oriented. Despite repeated requests from ME/MEXT, most English 84 teachers have refused to change their teaching in that direction, clinging to their familiar method. Finally, MEXT has made it clear to forbid the use of Japanese in English classes at HSS from April, 2014 on. FLA might be another step MEXT took to show its determination by using the name. It is interesting to know that criticism against Examination English was the starting point of discussion which led to FLA (Goto 2001). The Nihon Keizai newspaper, the Japanese equivalent of the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times, published several articles pointing out the inefficiency of English education in Japan in the 1980s. The discussion was taken up in a report by the Ad Hoc Educational Committee in 1986, saying that “in spite of the fact that people spend much time and energy learning English, they can neither communicate, nor read or write. English teaching should be seriously reviewed including its starting time.” This report triggered the recommendation issued in 1991, which strongly urged ME to start EES. Therefore, ironically speaking, the entrance examination is the mother of FLA in Japan. The third reason is that ME/MEXT has been unwilling to make foreign language learning a compulsory subject. This unwillingness is obvious in the fact that it had refused to make ELS compulsory until 2002 out of their obstinate bureaucracy, despite the fact that practically 100% of the students at LSS had studied it for more than 30 years. They stubbornly believe that their job is to grow students to be Japanese citizens, therefore the subjects essential for this goal alone should be compulsory. The idea of English being a lingua franca had had no place in their thoughts. The same kind of the bureaucracy is seen in case of “International Understanding”. UNESCO once recommended the member countries to carry out IU lessons. However, viewing the seriousness of international issues such as racial disputes, clashes over natural resources, environmental crises and so forth, which require collaboration of nations to solve, it asked the member countries to include “World Study”, or “Global Education” in their school curriculums to make students aware of the responsibility of world citizens. However, ME/MEXT has ignored the request and kept using IU (Sano 1995:101-15). English Note reflects this distinction. It contains the topics dealt with IU, but not those of global education. To sum up, ME/MEXT’s bureaucratic determination to move communicative English forward and yet to keep it within education for Japanese not global citizens, reflects itself in the name. 4.3 Problems and concerns with FLA Various concerns had been expressed by practicing teachers before FLA was started. How are they now and what problems have become apparent? (Sano 2008) (1) Can a class teacher carry out FLA by himself/herself? FLA is supposedly team-taught with ALT. The fact is, however, many teachers leave classes totally to ALTs. When they are left alone, they still feel uneasy about their English abilities. (2) Will appropriate teaching materials be available? Most FLA classes are now using Hi, Friends!, a shortened and revised version of English Note, accompanied by picture cards, CD, DVD and an electronic whiteboard, as well as teachers’ 85 manual. However, dependency on teaching aids has its own risk. FLA tends to be more teacher-centered than student-centered. (3) Will class teachers have time to prepare teaching plans with ALTs? In many schools, ALT’s are forbidden to change the pre-determined schedule or to spend extra time at school by their contracts. Even if they could, few of them can talk over teaching plans in Japanese. (4) Will English abilities through FLA contribute to English at LSS? Some ELSS teachers report the students who have experienced FLA tend to have higher listening ability and to be richer in vocabulary. They are more willing to be engaged in conversation with ALT’s. At the same time, however, there are still gaps in both positive attitude and English proficiency among students from different schools. These gaps have made English teaching at LSS more difficult. (5) Should numerical evaluation not be used in FLA? From a practical point of view, it is impossible to judge the proficiency of each student just by observation. So is to report the attainment to LSS, except for giving impressionistic comments. Aside from the practical concerns mentioned above, there are some theoretical problems which need to be tackled: (1) “Communication abilities” should be defined more clearly. FLA is supposed to cultivate the foundation of “communication abilities.” However, the definition of the words is ambiguous. First of all, it is not clear whether or not “communication” includes communication in Japanese. If it does not, as is the case of ELSS, it is impossible to cultivate the foundation of communication abilities at elementary schools without defining linguistic proficiency to go with it. (2) Proficiency in English should be a part of the overall objectives. Granting the importance of affective aspect of learning, including English proficiency as an objective does not change the characteristics of FLA such as experiential learning, being action-oriented and student-centered, if they are carefully defined and practiced. (3) So long as FLA remain as a subject only for 5th and 6th graders, it is difficult to teach it systematically to lower and middle graders. This is a pity because younger students are, more sensitive they are to the language sounds and cultural differences. (4) Many teachers once enthusiastic about FLA now seem to be losing their motivation. FLA is held only one hour a week, which is often canceled due to school events. This reduces the importance of the lesson in students’ and teacher’s mind. The lesson plans are expected to be made by them but, in practice, pre-determined by ALTs without any consultation. Therefore, all they do is just stand by the corner of the classroom and watch ALT working with the students, while their intervention is forbidden. Then, it is only natural even able teachers lose the motivation for FLA. 86 4. Prospects forEES and English education 4.1 Prospects for EES In order to overcome the problems mentioned above, FLA should be reorganized as a regular, academic subject of EES. It should be a part of school curriculum from the first grade to the sixth as a regular subject, just as EES in private schools. In lower grades, it should focus on exposure to various languages and culture, in middle grades experiential learning of English should be the main part and in high grades, basic skills of communication including reading and writing should be incorporated. In order to realize this, the following points should be reconsidered. 1) The objective of English proficiency should be more clearly spelled out in the form of performance objectives. Instead of the broad description as “the foundation of basic communication abilities”, performance objectives such as “one can do this or that” are specified as Can-Do lists. Then, it will not be difficult for EES to identify which of these performances should be dealt with at a given grade. Naturally it follows that students’ attainment is to be evaluated numerically. Then it will be easier to assess students’ accomplishment and to make a smooth transition to LSS. 2) “Positive attitude toward communication” should be defined more concretely. If we consider that communication in the future will occur not just in Japanese or English, but in different languages and cultures, developing empathy, open-mindedness, tolerance toward unknown cultures and languages should be included in the objectives. Therefore, it is questionable to define “positive attitude to communication” as just of that in English. The day will come when we consider it necessary to include various kinds of languages, for example, Chinese, Korea, Thai, etc., as second foreign languages. 3) EES will require teachers who are skillful at teaching English as well as establishing rapport with students. It is beyond a class teacher’s ability. Therefore, the lesson is to be team-taught with a Japanese FLA teacher and a class teacher with occasional help with an ALT. Too much dependence on ALTs should be avoided because it may infect students with hidden “linguistic imperialism” (Phillipson), giving an unintended message that English is superior to other foreign languages, and Americans who speak it are superior to Japanese or other peoples. To have enough number of qualified EES teachers is the prerequisite for this system to work. Naturally, it follows that training and producing them is a very urgent matter. 4.2 Transition between EES and ELSS The difference between EES and ELSS consists of both the level of the objectives and the way they are pursued. The block model in section 4.1 of this chapter clearly shows the sequence of each level and what we should try to attain, but not how it should be pursued or carried on in the next stage. Here are some weak points of the block model: 1) It fails to show the functional connections of the three levels of objectives, in other word, why and how they should be connected. Rather, it suggests that the completion of each level is more 87 important than the continuity of development; thus each level is influenced by immediate needs of the stage, for example, at LSS studying for entrance exam for HSS, and at HSS for university. If we wish to picture the three objectives functionally connected, we must make it clear why each of them is needed to reach the ultimate goal of English education, and how it is achieved. In my opinion, the ultimate goal should be to help students to grow as Japanese citizens as well as citizens of the global community. As for how to get to this goal, we need some strategies for teaching which run through the three levels. They are not particular teaching methods but the way of thinking through which the fundamental concepts explained in 3.3 can be transmitted to higher levels. 2) The block model does not explain the developmental process to reach the final goal. When communication abilities grow, its foundation, and its basics should grow together. This idea suggests that, in addition to the block model, the model of a Growing Tree is needed to explain the relationship of the three objectives. The roots refer to “foundation” at FLA, the trunk and branches are “basics” at ELSS, and the leaves and flowers “communication abilities” at EHSS. “Foundation” is the communication-oriented view of language education, including concepts of language, learning, teaching and context, as explained earlier. These concepts are absorbed at the root level and carried through the “basics” of the trunk, and up to the flowers, that is, “communication abilities”. The trunk contains threads or strategies inside, through which water and nourishment, that is, communication-oriented concepts, can go up. The importance of these threads cannot be overstated, because, without threads, a tree can never grow or even survive. This is to say that if a common view of teaching strategies is not shared, we cannot expect beautiful flowers of performances such as speeches, reading or writing. Needless to say, teachers should understand the strategies and conduct their classes accordingly so that their students steadily develop to be citizens of the global community. Another merit of the tree model is that it explains the relationship the language learning should have with the context, or the social environment. Communication abilities grow only when roots, trunks and leaves effectively interact with the environment they Figure 2. A growing tree model of FLA development are placed in. A tree does not just receive nourishment from the environment. It refreshes the air, gives shade to passers-by, and makes the soil rich through its fallen leaves. As for English education, 88 the idea and activities should come not just from the textbook but also from the local as well as the globalized community. In addition, the fruit of learning should contribute to the class, school, local community, as well as any distant part of the world. This makes a clear contrast to the Japanese English education of today, where communication abilities are emphasized, without being told why they are needed, nor how they can be achieved, though casually mentioned in the Curriculum as the benefits one might have when one has mastered communication abilities. 4.3 Communication abilities: How to cope with the present state of EHSS Another reason I propose the tree model is to show how we should deal with the problems at EHSS. MEXT expects all the English classes there to be carried out basically in English, because the classroom should be the place of language use, as well as of language learning, when students have few authentic opportunities of communication outsides. The reality, however, is far from the expectation. A survey conducted by MEXT in 2011 shows that, in the class of English I, a comprehensive English course for the first graders at HSS, only 2.3% of teachers answered positively to the question, “Do you usually conduct the class in English?” and to the question, “Are your utterances in the class mostly made in English?”, 12.5% of them answered positively. This means that less than 15% of the teachers use English in their classrooms. As for students, to the statement “I use mainly English when I am engaged in language activities.” only 2.0% of the students answered positively, and to “I use English in more than half of activities”, 12.5 % were positive. In total, then, less than 15% of students were engaged in communication in English. The results show how far EHSS is from the communicative way of teaching (MEXT 2011). As for the attainment goal of English proficiency, MEXT expects graduates of HSS to pass Pre-2nd Grade STEP Test. According to the results of 2007, only 10.7% of students achieved the goal. More shocking results are reported in the research conducted on the students of one of Japan’s National Universities. Their listening abilities turned out to be almost equal to those of elementary school in Europe, and even reading abilities to those of LSS according to the test based on CERF (Saida 2008 ). The latter results were shocking because those who passed the entrance examination of national universities must have been excellent students in HSS. Nobody can deny the fact that Japanese English education does not live up to the expectation. The most plausible cause of this situation is the lack of a consistent foreign language policy, which is manifest in the non-existence of the ultimate educational goal, that is, the goal of nurturing global citizens, as well as of clear attainment goals at each stage specified in the form of a Can-Do list. Lastly, it has been dominated by examination English without any thoughts of developing communication abilities through shared strategies. Some might wonder what kind of strategies I have in mind. Here is an example of a set of basic strategies, which is essential for the future-oriented teaching: (Kumaravadivelu 1994) 1) Maximize learning opportunities: The teacher’s main role is to prepare chances for students to learn in good, cooperative relationship with them. 89 2) Facilitate negotiated interaction: The teacher should make students experience various types of negotiation with him/her or among themselves. 3) Minimize perceptual mismatches: The teacher should try to avoid perceptual mismatches with students, in teaching, selecting activities, evaluation, etc. 4) Activate Intuitive Heuristics: The teacher should make full use of students’ ability to think and guess so that they can achieve the task for themselves. 5) Foster Language Awareness: Instead of teaching grammar explicitly, the teacher should try to make students engaged in awareness-raising activities. 6) Contextualize linguistic input: The teacher should give as much meaningful input as possible in the context familiar and comprehensible to students. 7) Integrate language skills: The teacher should construct various language activities so that students are engaged to integrate the use of the four skills. 8) Promote learner autonomy: The teacher should help students to learn not just the language but also how to learn it and to be autonomous language learner. 9) Raise culture consciousness: The teacher should focus on multicultural approaches to culture instead of giving cultural knowledge of a particular language. 10)Ensure social relevance: The teacher should be aware that education is a part of bigger social, political movement and that education has its own role in it. Few would deny the fact these strategies share the same features with the basic concepts of FLA. My claim is, therefore, that FLA should be the foundation of the threads running through every level of Japanese English education. If it is realized, it will surely improve both ELSS and EHSS. Conclusion I will conclude my article by answering the fourth question, that is, “Will FLA have any future? “My answer is “Yes,” but only when we have learned lessons from the answers to the other three questions. First, we must realize that EES has been at the mercy of the nationalistic political and economic powers of the time. This means that for the sake of development of foreign language education, we must establish a long-term, future-oriented language policy free from any economic or political powers at the time so that we can overcome the swing syndrome. With regard to the second question, we should overcome the short-sighted view of foreign language education. We, as well as MEXT, should widen the idea of the goal of English education and that of “International Understanding”, so that we can realize that the final goal of education is to grow Japanese citizens who are aware of the responsibilities of being global citizens. As for the third question about the prospect of FLA, we have come to the conclusion that it should be the core and the foundation of the new curriculum for foreign language education. Needless to say, it should be reorganized and teacher education or training should be strengthened so that English teachers at every level share the common goal and strategies of the future-oriented English education. It might sound an exaggeration, but I strongly believe that the future of Japan depends on foreign language education. If we think of the reality that Japan will be able to survive only through 90 collaboration with foreign countries, it is the duty of teachers to cultivate Japanese citizens who can contribute to the peace and prosperity of Japan as well as those of the internationalized world. REFERENCES (those written in English) Kumaravadivelu, B. (1994): The Post-method Condition Emerging Strategies for Second/ Foreign Language Teaching. TESOL Q. 28-1, pp27-48 Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2001): Practical Handbook for Elementary School English Activities. Kairyuudou Phillipson, R. (1992): Linguistic Imperialism. OUP Saida, C. (2008): The Use of the Common European Framework of Reference Levels for Measuring Japanese University Students’ English Ability. JACET Journal.47 Stern, H.H. (1983): Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching. OUP. Shrum J.L. and E.W.Glisan (1994): Theater’s Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction. Hinle and Henle Publisher. (those written in Japanese) Benesse (2011): ネッ 教育研究開 ンター ・中学校 英語教育 関す 調査：中学１ 生 目 見 Survey on English Education at Elementary School and Junior High School：A た英語教育 quick report Fukuda, S. (2005): 福田誠治 競争し く も世界一： 教育 (Number One in the World ン ン without any Competition) ア バンテ―ジ・サーバー Fukuda, S. (2007): 福田誠治 競争し も学力行 ま ：イギ 教育 失敗 (Competition Does not Develop Academic Achievements) ン ン 教育 功 朝日新聞 Fujisawa. (2009): 藤沢市教育文化 ンター チャ ンジ英語活動 (Challenge English Activities) Heinen. (2007): イネン・ ッ ッカ、 佐藤学 学力世界一 もた すも (What is bought about by being Academic No.1 in the World) NHK Goto, N. 2001. 後藤典彦 日本 学校英語教育:歴史的概観 (English Education at Japanese け Elementary Schools: Historical Perspective) in 樋口忠彦他(編) 学校 外国語教育 研究社 出版 (200 Years of English Education in Japan) 大修館書店 Imura, M. (2003): 伊村元道 日本 英語教育 200 Iino, S. (1979): 飯野至誠 英語 教育―変遷 実践 (Education of English: Process and Practice) 大修館書店 Inomata, A. (2006): 猪俣あ 劇 く Challenge to Playmaking 挑戦 子 も 心を広 . (Expanding Children’s Mind through Drama) 藤沢市教育文化 ンター Kageura, K. 2000. 影浦攻 学校 国際理解 英語活動 (International Understanding and English education feasible at elementary schools) in 英語教育 12 月号 大修館書店 Kan, M. 2002.菅正隆 編 す 役立つ！ 学校英語活動 イ ブッ Elementary School English Activities) Kasukabe (2000): 粕壁 学校 12 Kuno, Y. (2001): えい ﾘｱﾝ 共 歩ん Handy Guidebook of うせい 度研究紀要 1 (One year with Eigorian) 91 12 度えい アン ロジ ェ ト報告書 NHK 出版 Ministry of Education (1999): 学校指 要領解説：総則編 (Explanation of Elementary School Course of Study: The General Provision.) Minstry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) (2006): 学校英語活動実践 手引 (Practical Handbook for Elementary School English Activities) MEXT (2007): 19 Survey on the Actual Situation of Improvement in 度英語教育改善実態状況調査 English Education MEXT (2008a): 学校学習指 要領解説：外国語活動編 (Explanation of Elementary School Course of Study: Foreign Language Activities.) MEXT (2008b): 中学校学習指 要領解説: 外国語編 (Explanation of Lower Secondary School Course of Study: Foreign Language Learning.) MEXT (2009): 21 度公立 ・中学校 け 教育課程 編 ・実施状況調査：各学校 外国語活動 実施状況 (Survey on the Actual Situation of Planning and Implementing Foreign Language Activities) MEXT (2010): 英語 ート MEXT (2011): 22 (English Note) 1, 2. 度公立高等学校 け 教育課程 編 ・実施状況調査 Survey on the Actual Situation of Planning and Implementing English Education at Public Senior High) MEXT (2012): 学校 外国語活動等 係 実施状況調査 (Survey on the Actual Situation of Implimenting Foreign Language Activities at Elementary School) Nakayama, K. (2000): 中山兼芳 私立 学校 schools) グ Okamoto.M. (2010): 岡本美樹 け 英語教育 (English education at private elementary ： 学校英語教育 中部英語教育学会 学校 け 外国語活動 関す 一考察 (A Consideration of Foreign Language Activities from the View Point of International Understanding) ww2.dwc.doshisha.ac.jp/tfujiwar/6_zemi/sotsuron/2010/10.02.pdf. Otani, Y. (2008): 大谷泰照 異文化理解教育 今日本 必要 Understanding Education is now needed in Japan) わけ (The reasons why Inter-culture 英語教育 3 月号 大修館書店 Ozeki, A. (1983): 大関篤英 日本 英語教育 歴史的経過 (Historical process of English Education in Japan) 大関他 英語科教育法 金星堂 Sano. M. (1995): 佐野正之 異文化理解 ト テジー (The Strategies to Understanding Foreign Culture) 大修館書店 Sano. M. (2008): 佐野正之 学級担任 学校英語活動 進め方 (How Class Teachers Should Carry out Foreign Language Activities from Games to Playmaking). 開隆堂書店 STEP (2012): 日本英語検定協会 公立 学校 外国語活動 現状調査 (Survey on How Foreign Language Activities being Carried out) Takenaka, T. (1983): 竹中龍範 国 け 早期外国語教育 歴史 現状 (The past and the present state of early foreign language education in Japan) 垣田直己 監修 英語教育 グ ・ ーズ： 早期英語教育 大修館書店 Wada, N. (2002): 和田 いわ ぼく 心 国境を越えた (Our Hearts Crossed the Boundaries of the Countries) 書店 92 Model forIntercultural Communication: A Trial Yoshijima, Shigeru Introduction The focus of foreign language education is no longer set on formal skills such as grammar or vocabulary. These are included within the term “communication”, that is, they are considered as important tools for communication. Therefore, if we conceptualize a model for communication we need to integrate this aspect. The development of linguistics and other scientific fields has revealed further aspects we need to respect. A model itself can only take up selected aspects and simplify the complexity of a reality, but it can help us to keep the most important aspects clearly in mind, I think it is useful overall in situations where we have to deal with so many differentiated areas and dimensions. The communication models I know are made for mono- or intra-lingual contexts. I would like to consider this from the perspective of foreign language education and propose a revised model for inter-cultural contexts. I will start from the 19741 model given as an introduction for a linguistics course in Germany, and revise it in several aspects and then propose a model for the procedure of communication. Hereby I have no doubt that this model offers a foundation for our discussion about cases where communication occurs in intercultural but monolingual contexts. 1. The Tübingermodel (1974) It is easy to assume that this model is based upon Shannon and Weaver’s model. We can also observe concepts from linguistic structuralism developed since de Saussure. We should now add some aspects developed since the original publication of this model. First I would like to analyze and comment on this model from the perspective of modern linguistics and intercultural communication. 1.1 Social norms In this model a circle named “social norms” surrounds the whole field. The naming recalls de Saussure’s concept “convention”. De Saussure understood this in the relation of the signifiant and signifié, i.e., at the word level. We now know this idea “convention” should be applied to other linguistic phenomena, from word-sound relations to the whole of pragmatics. On the other hand the term “social norms” refers to wider fields of social life. We accept that all linguistic acts belong to social life and communication is also a part of this. It is convenient if we analyze communication in its whole existence, including the social relations of the participants. However, for us, for our intercultural and interlingual analysis, it is a problem that this concept presupposes only a society in which both communication partners from different societies or cultures have to follow the same norms. This question I will return to in section 4. 1 Lehrgang Sprache Einführung S. 29 93 Redekonstellation: communicational constellation SW (Schallwelle). sound waves Q (Quelle): origin/source S(Sprecher): speaker LK (Lautkette): chain of sounds H (Hörer) : hearer/partner V (Verstehen): understanding K(Kode): code Kon (Konnotation): connotation Soziale Normen: social norms Figure 1. Tübinger model 1.2 Communicational constellation/situation In the whole circle there is a semi-circle imbedded. It is named the “communicational constellation/situation”. Here we have issues concerning communication which influence its flow, direction, or determining the style of the communication: they are also determined by the place where the communication act takes place, indoors or outdoors; the nature of the occasion, a formal event such as a parliamentary speech/debate, or a private/casual one, such as a birthday party, at the dinner table, relaxation after supper, and so on. Their concerns are shown best in Table 5 “external context of use” in CEFR p.48-49. In addition they have a great influence on the form and content of communication too, how many participants there are and the various social relations involved. The linguistic outcomes of these determinants have been recently pursued best in text linguistics. Because text linguistic deals mostly with intra-linguistic issues, it is desirable to research to what extent these factors influence the communication of partners who live under different cultural and social determinants. For example, argumentative communication in Japanese and English, in both oral and written texts, shows such great differences that can result in inconvenience between the partners, not to say dissonances or conflicts. I will discuss this question again later. 1.3 Structure of communication: The communication takes place in the semi-circle located in the whole circle. In this model it occurs in a space filled with air. This air enables the transportation of the uttered sounds of the speaker in the form of a sound chain to the hearer. The utterance of the speaker is stimulated through some origin or source. When the sound chain reaches the partner, he or she understands it. The arrow to the left of 94 the speaker shows the process of encoding, namely verbalizing, and the one to the right of the hearer shows the process of decoding, namely understanding. 1.4 Process of encoding/verbalizing and decoding/understanding. Under the semi-circle, the components of encoding and decoding are shown. The “code” stands for the word, which is structured through sound (significant), and meaning (signifié) following de Saussure’s model. The next term “connotation” reflects the linguistic findings of that particular era, the sixties and seventies. The meaning of a word was divided namely into “denotation” and “connotation”. The former means the core meaning of the word and the latter the additional meaning to the core meaning, which gives some attitudinal, evaluating information of the speaker to the word expressed, for example, sympathy or antipathy, social status of the matter, (social) relations of the speaker or communication partner to it and so on. The model considers understanding occurs in these two levels. 2. Revision of the Tübingermodel In light of recent developments in linguistics and other disciplines we should revise the Tübinger model in some aspects. The first is the way of transmitting information and the nature of that information. The second is the meanings (signifié) of information to be shared by both interlocutors. 2.1 Chain of sounds (Lautkette) The term chain of sounds apparently shows the perspective of this model, namely to look at communication from the perspective of oral communication. However we can no longer limit communication to this single aspect. We understand “communication” as a social act, the sharing of given information by both participants of this act. And to fulfill this purpose we use our cognitive senses. These are audial, visual, haptic and olfactory senses. I will call them audial, visual, haptic and olfactory channels through which information is transmitted Therefore I will propose a communication model respecting this fact and show it in Figure 2: Multichannel model. 2.1.1 Audial channel (sounds) Through the audial channel, verbal and non-verbal information is transmitted. The oral communication is the representative example of the former case. Here the whole articulatory organ works for the production of sounds and the ears for the reception of the sound. This verbal information is usually accompanied by paralinguistic information, such as the changing of sound strength, pitch, speaking tempo. This paralinguistic information plays an important role in providing particular additional information. Furthermore physical sounds which accompany the verbal and non-verbal information also perform the same function. Examples are clapping on the desk or on the floor, applause, tutting and so on. They function in a similar fashion to verbal signs, and can or should be verbalized, if the audial way is shut out. 95 2.1.2 Visual channel This channel transmits both verbal and non-verbal information, for example in the former case we give all sorts of written texts, such as letters (snail mail), novels, telegrams, newspapers, and, recently, electronic mail. Besides these traditional means of transmitting information we now realize that non-verbal means, such as gestures, mimicry, and eye contact play the same or a similar role in communication. Their communicative function in respective cultures is relatively well researched in intercultural studies. With our eyes, the visual organ, we measure spatial distance, both near and far. The recognition of the spatial organization within a communication act gives some sign to the participants, but this proxemic sign rarely contributes to the construction of the communicational contents but rather to the determination of the direction of the success or development of the communicational acts, including the communication styles. The closeness between the partners can show, for example, interest, importunity or familiar/intimate feeling, and the distance, the disinterest or the nature of the social relationship of the partners. I suppose it is best to handle this aspect in relation to “communicational constellation”. 2.2 Haptic channel Through this channel, through touching the partner or oneself, some information can be transmitted. For example hugging and kissing, hand shaking, caressing the head, laying a hand on one’s own breast, which can be visually confirmed should be handled in the visual channel as well. It would be not difficult to argue that this channel transmits some verbal information, however for intercultural communication it is more important to recognize this area can cause conflicts; for example, caressing the head of a child which means love and friendliness in an European or Japanese context should be avoided in other cultures where the head is considered as a sacred body part. This issue needs to be handled very subtly. 2.3 Olfactic channel Here is meant smell or odor as a communication tool. It is certain that this channel plays some role, for example smell may support the positive development of communication, or it can be a barrier, as well. A certain perfume can be a sign/signal for some group or persons to do something, but these signs/signals are not usually so widely conventionalized across the whole of society as in the case of language or other nonverbal means. For this reason, I do not take this aspect into consideration. 96 2.4 Cooperation of channels The most important thing is to recognize that these channels can be activated simultaneously or in parallel. I show it in the overlapping model (Figure 2). For example, gestures usually accompany verbal expression, but the use of gesture in conversation is evaluated differently in respective cultures. In Britain or Japan, for example, demonstrative gesturing is seen as not so polite, but in other countries such as in Italy, gesturing is normal and “non-gesture” could indicate the disinterest of the speaker. This difference can be seen not interculturally but also subculturally. Therefore this fact has significant concerns for communication in general. However, to what extent these channels interact has not yet been researched sufficiently. 3. Revised model In Figure 3, I will propose a revised model for intra-cultural communication, which should be applied in principle for the three channels in Figure 2 as well. 3.1 Information/meaning Communication aims to share information among all participants of the communication act in whichever of the above channels it is conducted. This information to be transmitted has two sides. One side has physical features such as sound waves, light waves or haptic acts, such as touching of the body. The other side includes the meaning. This concept owes much to de Saussure, and the distinction between signifiant and signifié. While de Saussure thought merely at the word level (code) we now know that the sharing of meanings is done at the level of the utterance, which usually takes the form of a sentence or text. (I here accept “one-word sentences”, and “one-sentence texts”.) Therefore I will substitute “code” for “proposition”, which refers to the meaning of a sentence, and add a new concept of “illocution”. (I prefer sentence as the starting point because text represents an open system while sentences are registered in a closed system. And the text is constructed through sentences) 3.1.1 Proposition and illocution The term “proposition” has its origin in logic and we linguists have obtained the concept “illocution” from language philosophers such as Austin or Searle. They suggested in their books a sentence refers to not only the reality or incident presented through the words, (this is named “proposition”), but it also includes another aspect of meaning, which is named “illocution”. The latter aspect of meaning is divided further into “assertive, directive, commissive, declarative and exclamative illocution”.2 An often cited example of this view of language expression is an utterance such as “it’s very cold here!” It gives not only the assertive information about the temperature in the room, but also the demand or wish of the speaker that he or she will get the room warmer (secondary illocution). These illocutions play a very important role overall in the first stage of language acquisition or learning. A baby reacts at first to this aspect of an utterance, for example, of his or her mother. And the babbling or one-word 2 Vanderveken p.15-17 97 utterances of a little baby mainly fulfill this function. In the commencement stage of foreign language teaching, especially using the direct method, learners react to the utterance of the teacher in the same way. Furthermore at the more advanced stages, the comprehension of an utterance or text at this level decides the success of interlocution. This concept furthermore demands to reinterpret the traditional verbal flexional form of grammar, such as imperatives or the indicative, or auxiliary verbs. And now we consider its semantic function as an illocutional meaning, which can be expressed in several ways, independent of its grammatical form, and it will also influence the organization of grammar instruction. In this field of linguistics, speech acts, we have so much yet to do. Some illocutions are lacking in a certain language: precisely to say, the terms for specific illocutions. For example, in Japanese we have the concept of “Sasoi”, which refers to a sort of invitation by which the speaker invites the addressee to do something together with the speaker. In German or in English too we can express the same illocution in some way, but we do not possess specific terms for this illocution. It is perhaps the reason why this commissive and directive illocution at once is not listed in the category of illocution.3 In the case of Latin we have the term adhortative. Since the Notional Functional Syllabus applies this speech act theory and proposes another learning progression, more studies are desired from the view of contrastive linguistics to develop effective categorizing/classification of the speech acts for foreign language learning. Our concern here is the socio-linguistic research of these secondary illocutions, such as cited above; our specific concern is when and to whom this expression form is available in communication. The use of the cited sentence, for example, is limited sociolinguistically. An example, if a child demands water from his or her mother by saying: “Mizu ga nai! (There is no water!)” The mother would correct this form to “Mizu wo kudasai! (Give me water!)” at a certain age stage of the child’s development. 3.1.2 Connotation I will let the term connotation go unchanged. This term is considered at first for the level of words. Therefore the question to be answered is if we can assume a “connotation” to the sentence level and can we transfer this concept to the sentence? The answer depends on the definition of proposition. If we limit it rigidly to the arguments and their predicate, the other elements of sentential meaning are left. One of them can be compared surely with the connotation which we find in the word level, as explained in section 1.2. (The other concerns illocution.) Japanese is one of the languages which has developed a tool to express this function of connotation syntactically. The old Japanese passive form expresses the view of the speaker to the occurrence and 3 This illocution is not listed up in the grammar of U. Engel who illustrates speech acts relatively precisely in his book. Anna Wierzbicka researched the English verbs and speech acts. She didn’t set the category adhortative in her 37 speech act groups. 1) ORDER, 2) ASK1, 3) ASK2, 4) CALL, 5) FORBID, 6) PERMIT, 7) ARGUE, 9) REPRIMAND, 10) MOCK, 11) BLAME, 12) ACCUSE, 13) ATTACK, 14) WARN, 15) ADVISE, 16) OFFER, 16) PRAISE, 17) PROMISE, 18) THANK, 19) FORGIVE, 20)COMPLAIN, 21) EXCLAIM, 22) GUESS, 23) HINT, 24) CONCLUDE, 25) TELL1, 26) INFORM, 27) SUM UP, 28) ADMIT, 29)ASSERT, 30) CONFIRM, 31) STRESS, 32) DECLARE, 33) BAPTIZE, 34) REMARK, 35) ANSWER, 36) DISCUSS, 37) TALK I miss this category in the German Grammar of Ulrich Engel too. 98 states that it is unwelcome4. (The German passive voice, Leidform was once interpreted in this direction.) Figure 3 : revised model On the other hand, another Japanese sentence construction expresses the welcoming of the occurrence by the speaker or by the counterpart by using a certain quasi-auxiliary verb (morau = give/ageru = get) which itself does not express this aspect of meaning. In European languages the sentence construction to express politeness using long-winded forms, for example, has the same function. Not only substitution or insertion of a word with positive or negative connotation into a sentence changes the connotation of the sentence, but also the sentence structure can contribute to this expression. Of course they are not always recognized, even so as words, they can be neutralized by certain contextual circumstances such as the sociolinguistic style of the text. But theoretically we should admit this aspect to the sentence level as well. Furthermore we can assume other possible means to provide some connotation: That is, for example, paralinguistic means such as intonation or stress by oral communication and by written text the lay-out, the fonts or the quality of the paper, or even the color of the letters. In Japan, we have a custom to write condolence texts in gray ink, so that 4 In Japanese this passive form is pushed away influenced by European languages and we meet not so often this usage nowadays as 100 years ago. Its neutralized use is heard often in broad cast. Cf. my paper p. 88 99 it is recommended to write normal letters in black. A further well known example is the practice of using red for correcting errors. 3.2 Procedure of communication In Figure 3, I presented the procedure of communication. It demands some explanation. The terms speaker and hearer in Figure 1 are substituted by “participant1” and “participant2”. These two terms should cover the speaker and hearer in the Tübinger model and other possible functions such as writer and reader, and that, in the singular or in the plural. This was done to meet the reality of communication. The number of participants influences much of the content and form. The simplest is the combination of one speaker/writer and one hearer/reader such as in a face-to-face conversation or a letter exchange. For multiple participants we have a presentation or lecture, all sorts of books and so on. For multiple participants on both sides we can imagine a debate, for example in parliament or in the class. This is one of the research objects of discourse analysis and text linguistics. 3.2.1 Production of information Prerequisite for communication is the existence of information to be shared. The Tübinger model sees its origin as being outside of the participant. We can accept this concept if we consider this origin merely as an impulse to produce a piece of information. However, we know information is built up first in our mind, whereby we have no necessity to obtain an external impulse, it can come from within ourselves, namely out of our own mind. The external impulse too is taken first into our mind cognitively, disposed and takes the form/Gestalt of an image. This image is not always the same, even in the simple case of a concrete object such as an apple; each has a somewhat different form, so that it is sometimes necessary to confirm with each other the identity of images expressed through words. This confirmation is possible in face-to-face conversation (meaning negotiation), and when the participants have the object in front of themselves there are no difficulties. In other cases we must work with mental images which could be different. The representative case for this case is fictional text, such as literature, where we have to work only with images.5 The image in the mind of participant1 is transformed to signs (words) and sentences. Then these sentences are transmitted to participant2 through the channels described in section 2.1. 3.2.2 Channel and media as transmission Some decades ago we could work with a simple image of transmission. Nowadays we are confronted with many possibilities for transmitting images thanks to the development of technologies, such as the telephone (cell-phones), television, internet, electronic mail. We should take these media into consideration as well, since these new media allow other forms/styles of communication and exert an influence on its contents and structure. For example, E-mail, which has existed for around twenty years, differs so much from (snail) mail (letter), the traditional conventions of letter-writing are largely 5 Iser: Der Akt des Lesens. 100 ignored. Additionally cell-phones have encouraged new communication styles, at least among young people. This is the reason why I added this term “media” parallel to the “channels”. These new media offer new possibilities to transmit information, but they are limited at the same time. The haptic information cannot be transmitted, it has to be transformed into visual information, or verbalized. 3.3 Encoding (verbalizing) and decoding/understanding In section 3.1 I said that the external impulse is first taken into one’s mind cognitively, disposed and takes the form/Gestalt of an image. This image is then given the form of a sign, verbal or non-verbal, and sent to the partner. The partner receives this sign and transforms it back into an image. This is the process of encoding and decoding, and this process goes in three dimensions as shown in the model 3, namely in the dimensions of proposition, connotation and illocution. Important is the fact that these encoding and decoding processes occur simultaneously and not all members of a language society allocate the same image to the same sign. Therefore we have often or sometimes the danger of misunderstanding each other. Successful communication is achieved when the participants of the communication work within the intersection of their images. This intersection is shown by the stripes. It means that the equality of images of both participants should be guaranteed in the three dimensions. When we suppose this triple identity in intercultural communication, the intersection would be much smaller than in intra-cultural communication. But I would like to add we can hope that this intersection may be enlarged and widened through intercultural communication or language and culture learning. It is the task of educators to support this process. 3.4 Feedback It is usual to confirm the content of the utterance of a partner when one is not sure that one’s own image and that of the partner are identical, that means when working outside of the striped area. The Tübinger model did not take this possibility into consideration. It shows only one-way communication. Even in one-way communication, such as a lecture or a speech, the hearers give some signal to the utterance, for example through nodding or shaking the head, or through some body actions. In face-to-face communication it is possible to show this reaction nonverbally and verbally. An example of the latter case, when it is done verbally, is the negotiation of meaning. However it is very difficult to integrate this moment into our static figure. I show it merely through an arrow with points on both ends. For the procedure of communicational development I will take another model, cf. section 4. Flow chart of communication. 4. Intercultural communication In section 1 and 2, I dealt with the communication models for intra-cultural contexts. I do not doubt that they offer us a basis for our discussion and started from these models. However we need some revision of the models for the intercultural communication. 101 4.1 Society or culture The first question is that of the society or culture. We have so much evidence that each society has its own norms differing from one to another, in other word its own culture. They surely exert influences on communication in regard to content or themes (taboos, for example), style and practice. The differences can be impediments to intercultural communication. On the other hand, we know intercultural communication is possible in any way and we should do it. Therefore what we have to do is to research in this area to what extent the communication rules of cultures are similar or different and to what extent they support or interfere in concrete situations. In the model Figure 4 intercultural communication takes place in the field of the intersection of the social norms of the given societies of the participants. I name this intersection as the tolerance area. It means to what extent the participant suffers the deviation or difference of the partner from communicational conventions of one’s own society. I selected this term to show the characteristics of this intersection that differ from the intersection of encoding and decoding. As I mentioned in section 3.3 the equality of images in three dimensions is considered very difficult in intercultural communication. Hereto come communicational constellation and situation as determinant components of the communication act, which can be very different from society to society. These components are very difficult to recognize, and not yet sufficiently researched to be considered an object of foreign language and culture education. There is a further danger of transference of the customs and norms of one’s own society and here negotiation is scarcely done, except in organized international conferences or meetings at the diplomatic level. We should go along with the attitudinal approach of tolerance to meet any intercultural conflicts and to diminish them to the minimum possible inconvenience. Additionally, how great this tolerance area is depends upon the similarity or difference between given cultures and at the same time on the language learning with intercultural components to cultivate this area. If this tolerance area is standardized, in future, we can speak of intercultural norms for communication. The sprout or germ of these intercultural norms exists already to some extent when we are ready to accept manners that are not familiar in one’s society. It is only a question of standardizing. 4.2 Participants and communicational resources Models of intra-cultural communication, such as the Tübinger model and this revised model, set the linguistic competence of the participants as proximately equal. And these models are conceived for a moment where a code (word) or a sentence is uttered. In reality, communication is achieved in a sequence of many utterances and turn-taking, namely as discourse. In this discourse the participants activate their whole available competences from related areas and fields, such as linguistic, social competence, declarative knowledge about the actual theme of the discourse, and so on. However in reality the participants do not possess these competences in the same quantity and quality. For example we can imagine communication between an educated adult and a young preschool child. This 102 diversity can be ignored in intra-cultural communication because it can be covered by the partner as a mature member of a society who has mastered certain rules to communicate successfully even in such a case. However in intercultural communication this issue should be taken into consideration, because the participants on both sides cannot usually calculate these differences. I will name the entirety of competences necessary to communicate “communicational resource”. Figure 4. Intercultural model 4.2.1 Communication with unequal resources and competences; Native speaker and speaker of foreign language Foreign language education has set a simple case of communication such as communication between native speaker(s) and the speaker(s) of the same language as a foreign language. In this case the resources of the participants are supposed to be different. Or in an extreme case the resources of a foreign language speaker are a subset of the resources of the native speaker. This can raise the problem of communicational discrimination. Even by an equal declarative knowledge, the language disadvantage influences the development or result of the communication (foreigner talk). This fact is presented through the resources of different sizes. In this case it is desirable for the native speaker side to cultivate tolerance and for the foreign language speaker to develop the strategic means to overcome this disadvantage. This is the matter for the mother tongue education as well as for the foreign language education. 103 4.2.2 Foreign language as Lingua franca Due to increasing population mobility, foreign language education is encountering a new situation. Speakers of a foreign language expect to communicate in the learnt language not only with its native speakers, but also with other speakers who speak the language as a foreign language. In this case the language is referred to as a Lingua Franca. In this sense the plurilingualism recommended by the COE functions well. Here we may anticipate what was described in the previous section: an imbalance of communicational resources. An example is communication between partners of whom one has already reached the level C1 of CEFR in the given language but the other is scarcely at the level A1. Another case which we will meet more often in future is communication in Global English. The speaker of this language is heterogeneous, in regard to linguistic competences and cultural heritage. Global English is now far from a standardized language, it is a generic naming for different Englishes, not only for British, American, Australian English (they can considered as varieties of “English”) but also all Englishes used by different ethnicities. This Global English spoken by non-native speakers eventually reaches a very small intersection at which basic intercultural communication may be carried out. In this case many things should be done to overcome the impediments to successful communication. These are, for example, to cultivate strategies of interaction as presented in CEFR 4.4.3.1 and the enlargement of resources. These competences can be realized through well planned foreign language education and intercultural connection and communication. The important issue above all is tolerance in the sense I mentioned in section 3.2.1. This tolerance necessary for intercultural communication and can be cultivated through the recognition of diversity and respect of the otherness (hereto cf. my paper in this volume) on the foundation of other enlarged competences, linguistic skills, communication strategy and resource. 5. Flow chart of communication Communication usually occurs as an interchange of utterances, namely turn taking. In the following I will consider this aspect. Hereby I will start from the model proposed by Hundsnurscher as dialogue model and revise it in some intercultural aspects. 5.1 Hundsnurscher’s model6 Hundsnurscher proposes a model for the basic development of communication or dialogue as table 5 in next page. This model is constructed from very simple general speech acts: initial speech act (whatever kind of illocution), and two kinds of reply to the initial speech act; positive and negative notifications. The speech act insist causes further development of the discourse. Positive notification and resignation can end the discourse or dialogue. Then a new discourse can start with a new initial speech act. I accept this model as a foundation and support it by appointing an issue that is relevant to intercultural and foreign language learning. For example, the rule of how many times this insist and negative 6 Hundsnurscher: p. 218 104 notification can repeat. As a textbook for German 7 presented, this pattern is culturally and subculturally determined. In western Japan for example an offer of an additional bowl of rice to a guest should be sometimes rejected at a more or less formal occasion such as banquet till the offer is accepted. In Italy a girl should reject the invitation of a boyfriend four or five times. This means a simple “No” shouldn’t be interpreted literally, one should see another hidden, unsaid possibility there. A similar custom is also observed in shopping. We Japanese are good customers for Chinese merchants, for we buy things for a higher price than Chinese customers, and without negotiation over the price. The rule (custom or ritualization) is different from culture to culture. Table 1 IPS Basic Model Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker 1 Speaker 2 I PN II NN RESIGN III NN INSIST PN* IV NN INSIST NN RESIGN ** V NN INSIST NN INSIST ∞ IPS = initial speech act; PN = positive notification; NN= negative notification; RESIGN = resignation; *PR = concession; RESIGN ** = give up Hundsnurscher presents an extended model. He sees one more possible step between the initial speech act and the following reply. That is a step to prepare a definitive reply, such as questions to confirm or to elicit additional information. This indefinite notification is followed by a clarification of the question by speaker 1. When the indefinite point has been clarified the discourse can go forwards according to the basic model. This clarification act can occur repeatedly, especially in intercultural communication. Table 2 Extended Model Speaker1 ISP Speaker 2 Speaker 1 Speaker 2 I IN CL PN II IN CL NN Speaker 1 RESIGN IN=indefinite notification: confirming question, requiring more information; CL: clarification Our concern for the foreign language and intercultural education is this step of clarification. As stated above, it is not always expected that the participants have similar or common communicative resources. They must often work outside of the intersection of their resources, and negotiate to achieve a common communicative base. This is the reason why indefinite notification occurs more frequently in intercultural communication. And it is the task for foreign language education to cultivate the means to meet this reality, that is strategic, linguistic skills and cultural consciousness. Above all the 7 Mebus et a.: Sprachbrücke Deutsch als Fremdsprache . p. 14, 105 readiness, willingness and courage for intercultural communication is desired. It shows the “metamorphose” of illocution. 5.2 An example of discourse flow in Japan At the end of my paper I would like to cite a dialogue reported by a student from my class some years ago. It should be presented in Japanese, but here it is in English translation with the Japanese original text. Speaker 1 turn Speaker 2 I’m sorry, I sent you a poor present before! す ません、先日 つま いも を しあ ま し apology → demand of thanks 1 Far from it! (rejection) I’ve forgotten to thank you for your present. I am terribly sorry. (apology) ん も い す ち そ 礼を申し上 を忘れ いました、失礼いたしました No, that was really poor! (rejection) いえ、つま いも 2 Far from it!(rejection) I thank you very much! (appreciation) ん も い す 本当 あ う いまし た Really?! You perhaps don’t like my present, don’t you? (rejection of the appreciation) いや、 気 召 へん た ち いま 3 す ？ Far from it! (rejection) We are using it already! (emphasis of appreciation) ん も い す 早速使わせ も Ah so. So, it is OK. (acceptance of appreciation) そう す 、それ いいん す 4 Of course! I do thank you very much! emphasis of appreciation い 本当 あ 106 う いました います This dialogue takes place in a Japanese regional dialect. I am not sure if I could accept such a development if it were spoken in the Tokyo dialect. I would feel at least some inconvenience and get no interest in the partner to communicate further. We are always at risk of transferring into the other language both in productive and receptive language activities. References Council of Europe (2001): Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge University Press. Deutsches Institut für Fernstudien an der Universität Tübingen(hrsg) (1974): Lehrgang Sprache Einführung in die moderne Linguistik. Belty Verlag Weinheim u. Basel Niemazer Verlag Tübingen. Engel, Ulrich (1988): Deutsche Grammatik. Heidelberg. 35～79p Hundsnurscher, Franz (1994): Dialog-Typologie. In:Gerd Hritz u. Franz Hundsnurscher: Hanbuch der dialog analyse. Niemeyer. 203-238 Iser, Wolfgang (1994): Akt des Lesens. 4. Auflage. UTB 636 Mebus, Gudula; Pauldrach,Andreas; Rall, Marlene; Rösler,Dietmar (1989): Sprachbrücke Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Bd 2, Stuttgart Klett Vanderveken, Daniel (1995): Principles of Speech Act. Shohakusha Publishing Japan. English-Japanese parallel edition. Wierzbicka, Anna (1987): English Speech Act Verb. Academic Press Australia. Yoshijima, Shigeru (2002): Erzählperspektive. In: Ulrike Haß-Zumkehr/Kallmezer/Geosela Zifonun (Hrsg.) : Ansichten der deutschen Sprache. Festschreift für den Gerhard Stickel zum 65. Geburtstag. Studien zur deutschen Srpache. pp. 288-303 Zifonun, Gisela /Ludger Hoffmann/Bruno Strecker (1997): Grammatik der deutschen Sprache Bd. 1-3. 107 108 Part II Current Situation and Challenges Von der Primar- zur Sekundarstufe: Entwicklung von Lernbewusstheit durch Aktivierung des Vorwissens (Interkomprehension) Franz-Joseph Meißner Die Europäische Union empfiehlt ihren Mitgliedsländer nachdrücklich, das Öffentliche Schulwesen so zu entwickeln, dass möglichst viele Schülerinnen und Schüler neben ihrer Muttersprache zwei lebende Fremdsprachen erlernen (wovon eine faktisch immer das Englische ist, ohne dass dieses expressis verbis genannt würde). Die EU will auf diese Weise in der Bevölkerung eine breite Kompetenz für den Aufbau individueller Mehrsprachigkeitsprofile und kommunikative Anschlussfähigkeit über die Muttersprachen hinaus fördern. Unter den Faktoren, die die Kenntnis mehrerer Sprachen an die Jugendlichen heranbringen, ist die Schullaufbahn bzw. das real nutzbare Schulsprachenangebot neben der Kenntnis der Migrantensprachen der bei weitem wichtigste Faktor für die Förderung von Mehrsprachenkompetenz (Meißner et al. 2008: 151). Das Sprachenangebot: deutsche Weichenstellungen Seit einigen Jahren haben sich die Länder in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, denen das Grundgesetz die Aufsicht über das öffentliche Erziehungswesen überantwortet, auf den flächendeckenden Unterricht einer Fremdsprache bereits in der Grundschule festgelegt und sich damit einem EU-weiten Trend angepasst (Blondin et al. 1998; Eurydice 2008). Daher erhalten heute nahezu alle Grundschüler in Deutschland Fremdsprachenunterricht, der dann in der Sekundarstufe weitergeführt und/oder diversifiziert wird. Das dem primarstuflichen Fremdsprachenunterricht － zumeist handelt es sich um Englisch, in einigen Bundesländern auch um Französisch－ zugrunde liegende didaktische Konzept lässt sich durch die Merkmale Progressionsorientierung, Lehrplanbindung und Sprachcurriculum fassen. Das Konzept fand durchaus Kritik (u. a. Gogolin 2007), vor allem weil es wenig Rücksicht auf die gebotene Förderung der Umgebungs bzw. Herkunftssprachen legt und der Sprachenlernsensibilisierung －wie sie sich etwa mit dem Konzept Eveil aux langues verbindet－ nur wenig Raum lässt. Letztere findet nun eher im Kontext von Deutsch als Muttersprache statt (Oomen-Welke & Schnitzer 2007). Die Progressionsorientierung, also die Bindung des Unterrichts an überprüfbare Kompetenzprofile, bringt jedoch in den Augen zahlreicher Fremdsprachendidaktiker auch Vorteile: Durch das Vorrücken der ersten kann der Unterricht der zweiten Fremdsprache bereits in der Jahrgangsstufe 5 (10 Jahre) oder 6 (11 Jahre) einsetzen, der einer zumeist fakultativen weiteren dann in der Klasse 7 oder 8. Was die Schullaufbahnen betrifft, so stellen die Jahrgangsstufen 5 bzw. 6 also in der Tat so etwas wie eine Weiche dar, da hier unterschiedliche Sprachenfolgen miteinander verbunden werden können. Dies erläutert das folgende Schaubild: 111 Primarstufe Klasse 1 oder 3 Englisch Französisch Sekundarstufe I Klasse 5 oder 6 Fortgeführte Fortgeführte 2. Fremdsprache Fremdsprache Fremdsprache Englisch, Englisch Französisch Französisch, Latein, Spanisch oder andere Klasse 7 oder 8 Fortgeführte Fortgeführte 2. Fremdsprache 3. Fremdsprache Fremdsprache Fremdsprache Englisch, Englisch, Englisch Französisch Französisch, Französisch, Latein, Latein, Spanisch Spanisch oder oder andere andere Klasse 10 Abwahlmöglichkeit der 1. oder 2., 3. Fremdsprache Sekundarstufe II Klasse 11 Möglichkeit der Fortführung der in der Sekundarstufe I gewählten Sprachen Möglichkeit der Zuwahl von weiteren Fremdsprachen Hochschulreife Klasse 12/13 Die Synopse veranschaulicht die Wahlmöglichkeiten für Sprachenbelegungen, wie sie allgemein in den Schulformen Gymnasien und Gesamtschulen möglich sind. Vor allem das Gymnasium definiert sich über ein vergleichsweise breites ‚Sprachenprofil‘ und bietet ein dem entsprechendes Sprachenangebot. An anderen Schulformen ist die Sprachenwahl demgegenüber deutlich eingeschränkt. Wie die Synopse ebenfalls signalisiert, rückt der Unterricht der verschiedenen Sprachen auch organisatorisch － einschließlich der Muttersprache aneinander. So belegt ein Kind in der Jahrgangsstufe 5, je nach Schulform, bereits Unterricht in bis zu drei Sprachen. Im Falle der Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund gesellt sich möglicherweise hierzu auch Unterricht in der Herkunftssprache des Kindes bzw. der Eltern. Erwähnenswert sind des Weiteren Ansätze, die bereits im vorschulischen Alter Kinder mit mehreren Sprachen bekannt machen (Doyé 2009: 26). Auch Frankreich erlebt seit einigen Jahren eine ähnliche Situation. Hier begegnet das Konzept der ‚classes bilangues‘ (nicht: bilingues). Es sieht den nebeneinander geführten Unterricht von zwei Schulfremdsprachen z.B. Englisch und Deutsch, aber auch Englisch und Spanisch und andere Sprachenkombinationen mit Englisch vor. Im Unterschied zu den herkömmlichen additiven Ansätzen zielt das Konzept der classes bilangues auf eine mehr oder weniger abgestimmte integrative Steuerung für beide Fremdsprachen. Dies erklärt das anhaltende Interesse des Französischen Erziehungsministeriums an der Interkomprehensionsdidaktik, die ja eng auf die Nutzung des 112 mehrsprachigen mentalen Lexikons und der Lernerfahrung der Lerner setzt, wie dieser Beitrag zeigt. Das Europäische Sprachenportfolio (ESP), welches bekanntlich den Gemeinsamen europäischen Referenzrahmen für Sprachen: lernen － lehren－ prüfen (hinfort GeR) ergänzt, setzt zentral auf die Entwicklung von Sprachen und Sprachenlernbewusstheit (multi language and learning awareness). Metakognitive Strategien zur Förderung der Selbststeuerungskompetenz werden inzwischen schon früh eingesetzt und eine Reihe von einschlägigen Studien beleuchten die Fähigkeit der noch jungen Kinder, ihre Lernhandlungen zu reflektieren und über sie zu sprechen, um sie schließlich besser zu kontrollieren (u. a. Burwitz-Melzer 2008; Kolb 2007). Nach Auffassung der meisten Experten führt dies zu einer Verbesserung des Fremdsprachenlernens. Metakognitive Verfahren erreichen von daher verstärkt den frühen Fremdsprachenunterricht. In methodischer Sicht stellen sie eine wichtige Brücke zu einem modernisierten sekundarstuflichen Fremdsprachenunterricht dar, der zunehmend systemlinguistische Positionen aufgibt. Nun stellt sich die methodische Frage der Vereinbarkeit von Lehrstrategien zur Förderung der Metakognition bei Fremdsprachenlernern der Jahrgangsstufen 4 bis 7 mit den überkommenen didaktischen Prinzipien und Methoden des grundschulischen und sekundarstuflichen Fremdsprachenunterrichts. Bei dem Versuch, beide ‚Lernkulturen‘ －die primar und die sekundarstufliche－ so einander anzunähern, dass dies den kindlichen Lernern deutliche Vorteile erbringt, ist von den Grundlagen primarstuflichen Fremdsprachenlernens auszugehen. － Bevor nun die methodischen Linien für diese Entwicklungen aufgezeigt werden, erscheint ein Blick auf die didaktischen Grundorientierungen grundschulischen Lernens angezeigt. Didaktische Grundorientierungen des primarstuflichen Fremdsprachenlernens (an die der Sekundarstufenunterricht anknüpfen muss) Allgemein wird nicht nur in Deutschland das frühe Fremdsprachenlernen über folgende Argumentationslinien begründet (passim Doyé 1993; Sauer 2004; Doyé 2005):  Psycholinguististische Aspekte: das Kind in die Verwobenheit von Sprache und Welt einbinden: Mit ‚Bewegung das Sprachenlernen beginnen’ entspricht der von Bruner (1974) entwickelten Stufung von enaktiv, ikonisch und symbolisch: Erst nachdem Sprache und Welt ,,in der physischen Bewegung, im interaktiven Handeln“ (enaktiv) zusammengeschaltet wurden, verläuft das Sprachverständnis auf einer abstrakteren Ebene (das Bild = ikonisch) (Bleyhl 1996: 27). Hiernach wird „eine gewisse intersubjektive Sicherheit über die Bedeutung einer gewissen Anzahl sprachlicher Zeichen erreicht“, die dann als Symbol-Zeichen genutzt werden können (ebd.). Für das frühe Fremdsprachenlernen und das Lernen in den Klassen 5 bis 7 ist offensichtlich der Durchlauf der drei Stufen relevant: von ‚Sprache mit sich selbst’ oder das ‚Ich mit Sprache erfahren‘ und ‚Welt im Bild von Sprache X’ zu ‚Sprache(n) als Zeichensystem(e) für die Erfassung von Welt‘. Fremdsprachenbegegnung relativiert die bis dahin vergleichsweise unreflektierte, aber stabile Beziehung zwischen Welt und einem symbolischen System ihrer Besprechung.  Entwicklungspsychologische Gründe: Nach zahlreichen Zeugnissen verbessert das frühe 113 Fremdsprachenlernen － wenn es entsprechend, d.h. im Sinne der pädagogischen und psycholinguistischen Passung, angeleitet ist－ die Sprachenlernkompetenz: Wenn Lerner schon früh fremden Sprachen begegnen, erweitern sie ihr Repertoire disponibler kognitiver Schemata, welche für das Erlernen von Sprachen wichtig sind. Dies kann die unterschiedlichen Fertigkeiten betreffen.  Erzieherische Gründe: Es erscheint in einer zusammenwachsenden Welt wünschenswert, dass Kinder die Dimensionen von ethnisch und kulturell Eigenem und Fremdem erfahren. Sie sollen begreifen, dass die eigene Kultur und die eigene Sicht auf die Welt qua Sprache nur eine von vielen möglichen, sprachlich und kulturell vermittelten Sichtweisen ist. Dies wird auch in der Europäischen Union besonders betont, wo immer häufiger die Formel von der Notwendigkeit der Ausbildung einer mehrkulturellen europäischen Identität begegnet. An die Stelle einer einzig möglichen nationalen Sinnkonstruktion tritt zunehmend ein pluraler Ansatz. Die genannten Legitimationen grundschulischen Fremdsprachenunterrichts werden vor allem bei Berücksichtigung wichtiger pädagogischer bzw. fachdidaktischer Prinzipien erreicht:  Prinzip der Ganzheitlichkeit  Prinzip der Anschaulichkeit  Prinzip der kleinen Lernschritte  Prinzip der Wiederholung  Prinzip der Einsprachigkeit  Prinzip der situativen Einbindung  Prinzip der spielerischen Handlung  Prinzip der Angstfreiheit. Der frühe ergebnis und progressionsorientierte Fremdsprachenunterricht hat diese methodischen Prinzipien nie aufgegeben. Eine gute Spracharbeit in der Übergangsstufe zur Sekundarstufe versucht, diese zu vertiefen und doch zugleich zu einem Mehr an Sprachunterricht insgesamt beizutragen, was im Falle von Englisch als Grundschulfremdsprache überwiegend auch den anderen Sprachen zugute kommen soll. Die Grundschüler erleben den Fremdsprachenunterricht der weiterführenden Schulen auf der Grundlage des bisherigen Unterrichtserlebnisses, das von der Grundschule vermittelt wurde. Allerdings bedeutet die pädagogische Arbeit in der sogenannten Übergangsstufe (Klasse 4 bis 7) auch, dass die oben genannten Prinzipien revidiert, modifiziert und zum Teil durch solche der Sekundarstufe ersetzt werden müssen. Neue Verfahren zur Entwicklung von Lernbewusstheit bei Lernern der Jahrgangsstufe 5 bis 7 114 Lernperspektive: Lernbewusstheit und die hierdurch erhofften positiven Auswirkungen auf die Lernqualität lassen sich lernerseitig nicht ohne die reflektierte Beschäftigung mit einem konkreten Lerngegenstand erreichen. Im vorliegenden Falle betrifft dies das Lern- und Erwerbsobjekt ‚Sprache(n)‘, das sich in ontogenetischer Sicht zunächst mit dem ‚bewussten Gesamt der einem Individuum mental verfügbaren Sprachen und Varietäten‘ verbindet, sodann mit den subjektiven Erfahrungen und Einstellungen eines Individuums zu ‚seinen‘ Sprachen bzw. zu Sprache im Allgemeinen. Dies ist eine sehr weite Definition, denn sie umfasst quasi alles, was ein Individuum an Wissen, Können und Meinen －knowledge, skills, subjective theories, attitudes－ zu Sprache und Sprachen entwickelt. Was heißt dies nun konkret? So hat zum Beispiel ein deutschsprachiges Kind von etwa zehn Jahren durchaus eine hohe prozedurale Kompetenz in seiner Muttersprache, die auch bereits die Schriftlichkeit umfasst; es hat zudem durch die unterrichtlich begleitete und organisierte Begegnung z.B. mit dem Englischen －und der hier schon erworbenen prozeduralen Kompetenzen (savoir faire: lire, comprendre, parler ) － gewisse Einsichten in die englische Sprache und deren Erlernen erworben. Hierneben hat es Emotionen und Motivationen gegenüber dem Englischlernen und der eigenen und fremden Sprachen aufgebaut. Solche Erfahrungen, die keineswegs nur das Englische betreffen, könnten etwa für Zehnjährige in Deutschland lauten:  Nicht Deutsch ist ‚die‘ Sprache an sich, sondern es gibt viele Sprachen; Deutsch ist nur eine davon; in ihr kann ich allerdings das meiste verstehen und auch ausdrücken.  Ein Zeichen besteht aus zwei Seiten: etwas, das bezeichnet, und etwas, das gemeint ist: Englisch bed und deutsch Bett meinen dasselbe, aber beide Sprachen drücken dies etwas anders aus. Manchmal sind die Zeichen einander ähnlich (Bett, bed ), manchmal sehr verschieden (viel, much).  In Englisch kann ich viel weniger sagen, schreiben und verstehen als in meiner Muttersprache Deutsch; die Engländer und die Amerikaner können aber viel, viel mehr Englisch als ich.  Die Sprache meiner Eltern, z. B. Türkisch, die ich zu Hause spreche, gehört auch zu mir. Auch in ihr kann ich eine ganze Menge ausdrücken und verstehen (Krumm 2003). In dieser Sprache begegnet mir auch die Zuneigung meiner Eltern und Geschwister und meiner weiteren Familie in der Türkei.  Manchmal hilft mir das Türkische beim Erlernen von Französisch (türk. sosis, frz. saucisse, engl. sausage usw.).  Die ‚andere(n)‘ Sprache(n) vermittelt/n (mir) ein neues und anderes ‚sinnliches‘ Spracherlebnis als Deutsch und Englisch (Italienisch hört sich sehr musikalisch an; Französisch irgendwie elegant. Neulich habe ich ein Lied in russischer Sprache gehört. Er war richtig schön).  Viele Menschen sprechen Englisch (Französisch). Dadurch, dass ich auch schon ein bisschen die Sprache spreche, gehöre ich ein bisschen zu ihnen.  Aber es gibt viele Sprachen und Menschen mit verschiedenen Sprachen, zu denen ich auch gehören möchte.  Durch den Vergleich mit Englisch kann ich meine Rolle in meiner Muttersprache irgendwie besser einschätzen (erfühlen und verstehen). 115  Japanisch habe ich im Fernsehen (NHK World-TV) gehört und gesehen, es ist ganz fremd. Die Bilder und die fremde Schrift machen mich neugierig auf Japan und die Japaner. Dadurch dass die Japaner im Fernsehen Englisch sprechen, erlauben sie mir, die Bilder ein wenig besser zu verstehen. Aber viel lieber möchte ich doch auch Japanisch verstehen .1 Während solche und ähnliche Erfahrungen durchaus im Rahmen der Portfolio-Arbeit thematisiert werden, zeigen Auswertungen dieser Arbeiten, dass die eigentlichen Lernhandlungen (welche implizite subjektive Lernpläne zumindest zum Teil zur Anschauung bringen) unberücksichtigt bleiben. Dies rückt die Frage der Interlanguage oder Lernersprache in den Blick, auf die wir im Zusammenhang mit der Interkomprehension zurückkommen. ‚Sprachlernkompetenz‘ entwickeln durch Einblicke in das eigene Sprachenlernen (Interkomprehensions) Ein besseres Sprachenlernen wird nach Meinung der überwiegenden Mehrheit der Experten, wie angedeutet, dadurch erreicht, dass die Fähigkeiten der Lerner, eigenverantwortlich zu lernen, entwickelt werden. Dies wurde in mehreren offiziellen und offiziösen Dokumenten betont (u. a. Council of Europe 2004; Eurydice 2008). Die Sprachlernkompetenz und die Lernerautonomisierung werden im Zusammenhang mit dem lebensbegleitenden Lernen gesehen und erhalten von hierher ihre positive Bewertung. Doch was heißt ‚Sprachenlernkompetenz‘, und vor allem, wie ist sie pädagogisch umsetzbar? Der in der Tat schwierig zu operationalisierende Begriff greift weit über die rein materiale Seite der Sprachen (Vokabeln wissen, sprachliche Regeln wissen usw.) hinaus, denn: […] Kompetenz muss verstanden werden als die Fähigkeit einer Person, individuelle Ressourcen (Kenntnisse, Können und Lernerpersönlichkeit) sowie externe Ressourcen zu mobilisieren (Hervorhebung durch Übersetzer), um miteinander verwandte komplexe Anforderungen meistern zu können. Genau so definiert es der Referenzrahmen für Plurale Ansätze, abgekürzt RePA (2009: 12)2. Es würde an dieser Stelle zu weit führen, das Kompetenzmodell des RePA detailliert dazulegen. Immerhin sei erwähnt, dass die Operationalisierung des Kompetenzbegriffs eine ganz wesentliche Stütze durch die Berücksichtigung des Gesamts der Pluralen Ansätze erfährt: integrierte Didaktik, Interkomprehension, Eveil aux Langues im Verein mit dem Interkulturellen Lernen. Hierbei handelt es sich allerdings nicht um Ansätze, die trennscharf nebeneinander stehen, sondern um miteinander verzahnte und einander ergänzende didaktische Konzepte und methodische Verfahren. Sie alle erkennen die wichtige Rolle des lernrelevanten Vorwissens für das erfolgreiche Lernen an und 1 2 An dieser Stelle sei auf die MES-Studie verwiesen, die systematisch europäische Schülerinnen und Schüler der Jahrgangsstufen 5 und 9 aus fünf Ländern bezüglich ihrer Haltungen, Einstellungen und Erfahrungen mit Fremdsprachen untersucht (Meißner et al. 2008 bzw. Androulakis et al. 2008). Der RePA ist die deutsche Fassung des CARAP (Candelier et al. 2007). 116 befinden sich damit innerhalb der communis opinio der Wissenschaften vom Lernen. In diesem Sinne betont die Lernpsychologie seit David Ausubel (1968: 6) immer wieder, was jedoch in der Praxis des Fremdsprachenlehrens vielfach übersehen wurde, und zwar: The most important single factor in influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Denkt man Kompetenz als Mobilisierungskompetenz für Ressourcen und Mikrokompetenzen mit der Einschätzung Ausubels zusammen, so gerät das gesamte lernrelevante Erfahrungswissen der Individuen in den Blick. Dies verlangt eine kurze Umschreibung des Begriffs Wissen. Im Gegensatz zum allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch unterscheiden die Kognitionswissenschaften in explizites und implizites, deklaratives und prozedurales, anschauliches (bildhaftes, ikonisches) und abstraktes (symbolisch, begriffliches), episodisches (ereignisbestimmtes) und semantisches (merkmal- gebundenes) Wissen. Hierneben kennen sie das metakognitive Wissen, das „das eigene Denken und Handeln und deren Bedingungen“ umgreift. Die kognitionswissenschaftliche Definition von Wissen schließt also Faktoren ein, die －gerade über die Metakognition－ eher außerhalb des traditionellen Wissensbegriffs stehen. Dies betrifft in starker Weise die volitionale Dimension und die ‚Motivation‘, aber, negativ gewendet, auch die ‚Frustrationstoleranz‘ (Eckardt 1995: 518f.). Der RePA übernimmt die umfassende kognitionswissenschaftliche Definition des Wissens und arbeitet sie in eine Theorie der Kompetenz ein. Die für die Praxis des Fremdsprachenunterrichts relevante Besonderheit besteht darin, dass der RePA nun den Kompetenzbegriff sowohl hierarchisiert als auch dimensioniert und auf diese Weise den schwierigen Begriff der Kompetenz operationalisierbar macht. In hierarchischer Stufung begegnen Kompetenzen, Mikrokompetenzen und Ressourcen; in dimensionierter Strukturierung werden nun z.B. die unterschiedlichen Formierungsstufen der Kompetenz sowohl für die Mobilisierung der lingualen Fertigkeiten (Hören, Sprechen, Schreiben, Lesen) konkret angesprochen als auch für die metakognitive Steuerung. Hier trifft man auf Faktoren wie Volition, Motivation, Attitüden und die für das Lernmonitoring zu nennende unerlässliche Analysefähigkeit bezüglich der eigenen individuellen Lernpläne, der Lernschritte und des eigenen Lernhandelns sowie der persönlichen Lernbedingungen3 . Es wurde bereits erwähnt, dass die Portfolio-Arbeit vor allem dann Früchte trägt, wenn es gelingt, das Lernhandlungswissen der Lerner mit dem sprachlichen Wissen und den sprachlichen Lernprozessen zusammen zu schalten. Dies konvergiert mit dem Prinzip, dass Lernkompetenz nur domänenspezifisch aufgebaut werden kann: Die Kompetenz, z.B. mathematisches Wissen rasch und gut zu erwerben, wird in diesem Sinne ausschließlich über die Auseinandersetzung mit mathematischen Inhalten und Fragestellungen erworben. Übertragen auf das Erwerben von 3 Um es über ein Beispiel zu veranschaulichen: Will man einen Gedanken in einer fremden Sprache fassen, die man noch nicht fließend beherrscht, so kostet die mentale Organisation der notwendigen sprachlichen Ressourcen (deklaratives Wissen an Vokabeln, grammatischen Regularitäten, phonetischen Fertigkeiten) eine gewisse Mühe. Erst in einem zweiten Schritt werden dann die gefundenen Elemente formiert und artikuliert, was wiederum mit einem gewissen Aufwand verbunden ist. Sprechen in einer fremden ungewohnten Sprache verlangt die Motivation, einen Sprechanlass in eine Sprechhandlung (oder Schreibhandlung) zu überführen, eine Kommunikation in der Fremdsprache ‚durchzuhalten‘ usw. 117 Sprachen heißt dies, dass die Kompetenz des Sprachenlernens vor allem dadurch optimiert werden kann, dass Lerner einen verstehenden Einblick in ihre konkreten Sprachlernprozesse, d. h. auch: in den Aufbau ihrer Lernersprache, gewinnen. Man muss nicht erneut Ausubels Feststellung bemühen, um festzuhalten, dass die Lerner einer zweiten oder dritten Sprache deren Strukturen mit jenen Schemata abgleichen, die ihnen aus ihrer Muttersprache und deren Varietäten sowie eventuell aus weiteren, ihnen prozedural und deklarativ gut bekannten Sprachen vertraut sind (Ahukanna et al. 1983; De Angelis & Selinker 2001). Genau dies ist der Punkt, an dem die Interkomprehensionsdidaktik ins Spiel kommt, deren Relevanz für das Sprachenlernen auch noch junger Kinder zunehmend entdeckt wird (Escudé 2010). Interkomprehensionsdidaktik als eine Lehrlernstrategie zur Optimierung der Sprachlernkompetenz Interkomprehension heißt ‚eine Sprache verstehen können, ohne sie formal erlernt zu haben‘. Im europäischen Kontext sind etwa die romanischen oder die germanisch-skandinavischen Sprachen füreinander mehr oder weniger interkomprehensibel, nicht aber das Finnische oder das Deutsche für Teilhaber romanischer Sprachen. Die Interkomprehensionsdidaktik nutzt die Transparenz der Sprachen, indem sie die Lernenden systematisch dazu anleitet, sich a) das Vokabular und die Struktur der Zielsprache selbst zu erschließen und dabei b) die eigenen Interkomprehensionsprozesse und c) das eigene Lernverhalten zu protokollieren und zu analysieren. Indem nun die Lerner selbst die Grammatik und den Wortschatz der Zielsprache entdecken, protokollieren sie zugleich nicht nur das eigene Sprachenwachstum und Ausschnitte ihres mehrsprachigen Lexikons: Da das Erschließen der fremden Sprache eine langfristige Organisation der Lernprozesse erfordert, lernen die Kinder auch schon die eigenen Lernhandlungen und den Lernerfolg ‚nachhaltig‘ zu kontrollieren und damit zu organisieren. In einem ersten Schritt zielt die Interkomprehensionsdidaktik allerdings noch nicht auf die Erzeugung produktiver Fertigkeiten. Von daher ist sie in den Klassen 5 und 6 in Kombination mit anderen Methoden einzusetzen, denn der Drang der Kinder nach produktiver Sprachverwendung soll ja nicht unterbunden werden. Wie die Interkomprehensionsmethode nicht nur die rezeptive Mehrsprachigkeit zwischen verwandten Sprachen befördert, sondern vor allem die Lernkompetenz im Bereich fremder Sprachen (Meißner 2010) überhaupt, sei ausschnitthaft am folgenden Beispiel dargestellt. Im vorliegenden Fall bekommen die deutschsprachigen ca. zehn Jahre alten Schülerinnen und Schüler einen niederländischen Text vorgelegt. Die Wahl fiel auf diese Sprache, weil Holländisch in der interkomprehensiven Reichweite der deutschsprachigen Lerner liegt. Diese erhalten die Aufforderung, den niederländischen Text möglichst Satz für Satz, Wort für Wort ins Deutsche zu übertragen und genau zu beschreiben, wo sie Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen beiden Sprachen erkennen. So entsteht eine Interlinearversion, in der aus Sicht der Kinder die Korrespondenzen zwischen dem Deutschen und dem Niederländischen deutlich gemacht werden, aber ebenso die Unterschiedlichkeiten. Die Aufgabe ist etwas anderes als eine Übersetzung. Während es in der Übersetzung darauf ankommt, den Text der Ausgangssprache intentional und extensional in 118 eine Zielsprache zu bringen, geht es hier um die sich bildende Interlanguage der Lerner. Die Kinder sollen dazu gebracht werden, ihnen schon verfügbare linguale und didaktische Transferbasen (in ihrem eigenen Sprachen und Lernverhaltenswissen) zu ‚entdecken‘, zu überprüfen und das Verfahren der Erschließung selbst für das eigene Lernen langfristig fruchtbar zu machen. Zu diesem Zweck entwickeln sie Hypothesen, und zwar sowohl zu sprachlichen Strukturen als auch zu den Mustern des eigenen Lernverhaltens. Es entstehen also eine ‚zielsprachliche Hypothesengrammatik‘, die auf das Deutsche und auf das schon vorhandene Englische zurückgreift, sowie eine Art ‚Grammatik‘ für das eigene Sprachlernhandeln. Beide sind Ergebnisse von Aktivitäten, welche im Rahmen von learning by doing und metakognitiver Modelle beschreibbar sind. Die so gebildeten sprachlichen Muster richten sich im Wesentlichen auf drei Bereiche: 1.) der zu erschließenden/konstruierenden Zielsprache, 2.) im Abgleich zur Zielsprache auf die für den Identifikationstransfer herangezogene Brücken oder Transfersprache(n), 3.) der Systematizität zwischen den für Transferprozesse herangezogenen Daten. Zur Verdeutlichung seien folgende Parallelsätze angeführt: engl. Sir Walter Raleigh was smoking a pipe, when he heard the servant cry: Help, help, the master is on fire. / Walter Raleigh estába fumando su pipa cuando oyó gritar a su servidor: “¡Socorro! El Dueño está encendido. / Sir Walter Raleigh war gerade eine Pfeife am rauchen/dabei, eine Pfeife zu rauchen/rauchte gerade eine Pfeife, als er plötzlich seinen Diener rufen hörte: „Zu Hilfe, der Herr brennt!” Die Schüler lernen an solchem Beispiel unter anderem, dass die Verlaufsform in verschiedenen Sprachen und in ihrem Dialekt existiert, aber unterschiedlich gebildet wird; sodann, dass sie eine eigene Aktionsart darstellt, die mit Handlungen kontrastiert, die neu eintreten. Erkennt ein deutschsprachiger Lerner nun zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt die spanische Form und deren Funktion, so festigt dies zugleich deren englische Entsprechung in seinem mehrsprachigen mentalen Lexikon. Zugleich lernt er, unter verschiedenen Formen korrespondierende Funktionen zu entdecken. Für die Klassen 7 liegen nach empirischen Standards erarbeitete Beschreibungen vor (Morkötter 2010). Longitudinal stellen die Schüler nun ihre Hypothesen über den Wortschatz und die ‚Grammatik‘ (Morphologie, Syntax und weiteres) des Niederländischen, den Korrespondenzen ‚zwischen‘ den von ihnen aktivierten Sprachen und ihr eigenes Lernverhalten zusammen. Es handelt sich um die Hypothesengrammatik, deren Inhalte freilich noch der Bestätigung durch eine kompetente Person oder durch die Konsultation eines Wörterbuches oder einer Grammatik bedürfen. Die Schüler werden sich selbstverständlich nicht alle offenen Fragen zu opaken Formen und Funktionen selbst auf Anhieb beantworten können. Wichtig erscheint, dass sie diese offenen Fragen notieren, um in den weiteren Phasen des Lernprozesses auf sie zurückzukommen. Dabei kann selbstverständlich die Lehrperson eine Hilfe sein, vieles kann aber auch der Lektüre weiterer Interkomprehensionstexte überlassen bleiben. Tokio Hotel Tokio Hotel is een poprock-band uit Magdeburg (Duitsland) 119 Tokio Hotel ist eine Pop-Rock-Band aus Magdeburg (Deutschland). De band is in 2001 opgericht onder de naam 'Devilish' door de tweelingbroers Bill en Tom Kaulitz (geboren op 1 september 1989), Die Band wurde in 2001 aufgerichtet (gegründet) unter dem Namen Devilish durch die Zwillingsbrüder Bill und Tom Kaulitz (geboren am 1. September 1989) samen met Gustav Schäfer (8 september 1988) en Georg Listing (31 maart 1987), zusammen mit Georg Listing (31. März 1987) (nach dass sie bei XXX auftreten *möchten (?). nadat ze elkaar bij een optreden ontmoetten. (nach dass sie bei XXX auftreten *möchten (?). Im Anschluss erfolgt die Erstellung und Überprüfung der Hypothesengrammatik. Die folgende Synopse zeigt ein Protokoll einer Lehrperson, die das von einem Schüler erarbeitete Wissen spiegelt. Hypothesengrammatik (bereinigtes Protokoll / Lehrperson) Nieder- Deutsche ländischer Transferbasis / Input Entsprechung De die Form / Funktion Affektive Dimension / und Lernverhalten Begleiter; langes dt. i ist e im Niederländischen Een ein Formerschließung des Artikels; „es folgt ein Hauptwort“ Stärkung des Gefühls, dass man selbst Richtiges erschließen kann Onder Is unter ist Entsprechungen: o ~ u; d ~ t „die sagen kein ‚t’ am Ende“ Ebs./Erhöhung des Selbstwirksamkeitsgefühls Naam Name „langes a gesprochen ist aa geschrieben Door durch hier: „durch, aber wir sagen von“: Erkenntnis, dass Form und Beispiele im Deutschen: es wurde Funktion nicht einander gemacht? – von dem Vater, von der dem deutschen Gebrauch Mutter, von dem Mann. entsprechen müssen. Lehrerimpuls: „Weiß jemand, wie (Sensibilisierung) man das auf Englisch sagt?“ – By the man Uit aus samen met zusammen mit Nadat nach dass, danach, wonach, nachdem? langes –au- ist ui; ui ist auch in Nachhaltige Duitsland Aufmerksamkeitslenkung im Niederländischen ist die Funktion der Vorsilbe zu anders „dass leitet eine neue Aussage (Satz) ein“. Erhöhung der Disambiguierungsbreite; Annahme Formen 120 von unklaren En maart, dat (dialektal), nl. /t/ entspricht dt. /s/. „Wir kennen dass, das das aus dem Dialekt.“ und März Nach Tagesangabe kein Punkt. „Es Ze sie Dat fehlt im Niederländischen ein /ä/.“ Sagen Niederländer ein langes ‚i’? Nachhaltige Aufmerksamkeitslenkung Elkaar Nicht verstanden; Wörterbuch? Erfahrung der Grenzen von Interkomprehension. Identifikation und Lösungsversuche zu opaken Formen Bij „Wie wird bij ausgesprochen? bei Schüler wollen Lautbild der Sprache Wie man ausschnitthaft sieht, erarbeiten sich die Kinder sprachliche Kategorien. Hierzu gehören die Korrespondenzregeln ‚zwischen‘ den mental aktivierten Sprachen. Im Unterschied zum herkömmlichen Grammatikunterricht werden Kategorien wie ‚Subjekt‘, ‚Objekt‘ usw. nicht top down (von der Regel zum Beispiel) erschlossen, sondern bottum up und funktional („Der/die Handelnde [Subjekt] steht am Satzanfang“). Dies wird durch eine Übertragung ins Englische bzw. durch einen weiteren interlingualen Vergleich verstärkt: Tokio Hotel is a pop group from Magdeburg (Germany). The band was founded in 2001 under the name of ‘Devilish’ by the twin brothers Bill and Tim Kaulitz, born at the first of September…. Um Fehldeutungen vorzubeugen, sei vermerkt, dass die Erklärungsimpulse und die Erklärungsreichweiten immer die Lerner im Blick haben. Es geht nicht darum, komparativ-linguistisches Wissen explizit an diese heranzubringen, sondern allein darum, diese für Sprachen und Sprachenlernen zu sensibilisieren. Dies ist ein erster, aber entscheidender Schritt auf dem Weg zur Lernerautonomie, denn ‚gute Sprachenlerner sind gute Sprachenvergleicher‘ (Naiman et al. 1996: 25): “Each language learned makes the next one easier, because you are more detached from your native language, you have more knowledge about structure, about meta-language.” Interkomprehensionsdidaktik Fremdsprachendidaktik zwischen primar und sekundarstuflicher Es bestehen starke Indizien dafür, dass die Interkomprehensionsdidaktik schon auf der Übergangsstufe (Klassen 4 bis 6) primarstufliche Arbeitsweisen in die Sekundarstufe hinein fortsetzen und weiterentwickeln kann, wie im Folgenden mit Bezug auf die genannten Prinzipien primarstuflicher Didaktik kurz begründet wird. Die Interkomprehensionsmethodik beachtet die grundschulpädagogischen Prinzipien von Anschaulichkeit und Ganzheitlichkeit, weil/wenn die Texte den Lernern unstrukturiert und 121 ganzheitlich begegnen und diese selbst weitgehend über die Verfahren entscheiden, wie die Texte dekodiert werden. Inhaltlich sind die Texte und die sie unterstützenden Bilder an Fragestellungen ausgerichtet, die von den Kindern selbst genannt werden. Das Verfahren der (impliziten) Identifikation von sprachlichen Formen, Funktionen und Inhalten (interlingualer Identifikationstransfer) gleicht dem, was den Kindern (aus dem Lesen / dem mündlichen Verstehen) unterschiedlicher Dialekte der Muttersprache bekannt ist. Da Kinder an geeigneten Inhalten und am Tun interessiert sind, wird nicht zentral auf die Identifikation von Formen fokussiert, sondern auf die von Inhalten. Dies ist besonders dann der Fall, wenn die zielsprachlichen mit Muttersprachlichen Lernzielen verbunden werden, wie die Materialien von Euro-mania zeigen4 . So soll das Kapitel ‚der Frosch‘ (it./sp. la rana, la rénette oder la grenouille , a rã ) aus J’apprends par les langues. Manuel européen Euro-mania sowohl Welt- als auch Sprachwissen vermitteln. Bei der thematischen Orientierung wird das notwendige Formenwissen gleichsam mit erworben. Die langfristige formale Seite der Aufgabe könnte lauten: ‚Das Thema X und die Sprache X entdecken‘. Mit Blick auf das bereits unterrichtete Englische und das Französische, das ja in absehbarer Zeit den jungen Lernern begegnet, taucht eine weitere Aufgabe auf: ‚Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zwischen den mir bekannten Sprachen entdecken‘; schließlich eine dritte: ‚Ich und meine Sprachen; wir und unsere Sprachen lernen‘. Hierzu eine kurze Beobachtung: Wie die Dialekte, so liegt auch die Zielsprache, deren opake Elemente 20 Prozent des Gesamts nicht überschreiten dürfen, in der Reichweite der Lerner. Die eigentliche mehrsprachliche Arbeit wird spätestens dann erreicht, wenn der Schritt zu einer dritten Sprache (hier Englisch) gemacht wird. An weiteren Parallelversionen (mit Französisch z.B.) wird veranschaulicht, dass die von den Kindern gefundenen Kategorien (Wer handelt? Gibt es eine Handlung? Was wird über den Handelnden gesagt? usw.) auch in diesen Sprachen auftauchen und für ihr Erlernen nutzbar sind. Das Lernziel gilt mit dem ‚Übertrag‘ der gefundenen Kategorien (aus den Bezirken Lexik, interlingualen Korrespondenzregeln, Syntax, Morphologie) auf die konkrete Zielsprache (also in diesem Fall nicht Holländisch) als erreicht. Hierneben steht, wie erwähnt, die Selbstaufmerksamkeit für das eigene Lernen. Man bemerkt, dass das Lernziel vor allem den Lernprozess, d. i. die Mobilisierungskompetenz von lernrelevantem Wissen, umfasst. Tokio Hotel est le nom d’un groupe pop de Magdebourg (Allemagne). Le band a été fondé en 2001 sous le nom de Devilish (diabolique) par les frères jumeaux Bill et Tim Kaulitz, né le premier septembre… Das Prinzip der kleinen Lernschritte erscheint dadurch berücksichtigt, dass sich die Kinder selbst den Text in seinen einzelnen Komponenten erschließen: is een … ist ein…, sammen met … zusammen mit usw. und damit den Verlauf und das Tempo der Progression bestimmen. Es handelt sich um eine Abfolge von Identifikationstransferleistungen, deren Durchführung im Allgemeinen den Lernern sehr leicht fällt (Behr 2007; Escudé 2010). Sie beginnen in der Regel bei der Registrierung lexikalischer 4 (http://www.euro-mania.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=66). 122 Ähnlichkeiten, betreffen dann jedoch zunehmend auch das morphosyntaktische und die Lernhandlungen. Apropos Prinzip der Wiederholung: Die Forschungen zum Erstsprachenerwerb betonen, dass der Spracherwerb die hohen Redundanzmerkmale von Sprachen nutzt (Artikel, Funktionswörter, Morpheme, Konkordanzen usw.) und dass der Spracherwerb diese ‚redundante Immanenz‘ nutzt. Die Interkomprehensionsdidaktik für das ‚frühe Fremdsprachenlernen‘ verbindet das linguale und spracherwerbliche Redundanzprinzip mit regelmäßigen Erfahrungen von Selbstwirksamkeit zur Aufrechterhaltung der in der Regel hohen Motivation. Das Prinzip der strengen Einsprachigkeit entspricht, wie seit Butzkamm (2003) bekannt ist, nicht den empirischen Erfahrungen des sekundarstuflichen Fremdsprachenunterrichts. Lerner einer zweiten, erst recht einer dritten Fremdsprache greifen beim Erlernen von Strukturen einer neuen Sprache auf ihr bisheriges sprachliches Erfahrungswissen zurück, sei dieses nun deklarativ oder prozedural. Aus der Bilingualismusforschung ist bekannt, dass schon zwei bis dreijährige Kinder sprachliche Muster bzw. Sprachen miteinander vergleichen (Wenzel 2000; Garin 2008). Wird der Interkomprehensionsunterricht in der Muttersprache durchgeführt, so stellt sich das Prinzip der Einsprachigkeit ohnehin nicht; findet er im Rahmen von Fremdsprachenunterricht statt, so kann die Fremdsprache auch metasprachliche Funktionen für die Interkomprehension erfüllen. Ein falsch verstandenes Prinzip der Einsprachigkeit darf eine Verbesserung der Lernkompetenz nicht verhindern. Das Prinzip der situativen Einbindung gewinnt seine Vorrangigkeit im Verein mit kommunikativen Lernzielen und der enaktiven Erfahrung von Sprache. Es ist allerdings ein Kennzeichen herkömmlichen sekundarstuflichen Sprachenlernens, dass hier Sprache zunehmend als Symbol begegnet. Hierzu gehört die Einsicht in den Verweischarakter von Sprache auf Welt, konkret auch das Sprechen über Sprache, Spracherwerb, Sprachnutzung und Kommunikation. Das Prinzip der spielerischen Handlung ist in der Sekundarstufe an Aufgabenorientierung zu binden. Auch das ‚Lernen des Lernens von Sprachen selbst‘ kann als inhaltliches Ziel thematisiert und behandelt werden. Die Erstellung und Überprüfung der Hypothesengrammatik ( ‚Entdecke und beschreibe die Fremdsprache X’ ) kann im Rahmen von füreinander interkomprehensiblen Sprachen eine entsprechende Aufgabe darstellen. Vorliegende Erfahrungen und Perspektiven Empirisch gesicherte Aussagen zum Unterricht in der Übergangsstufe im Allgemeinen liegen zurzeit in Deutschland noch nicht in hinreichendem Umfang vor. Dies kann nicht überraschen, werden doch breite empirische Überprüfungen zur Qualitätssicherung im Unterrichtssegment Fremdsprachen erst seit wenigen Jahren, vor allem für die Jahrgangsstufen 9 und 10, erstellt. Immerhin zeichnet sich ab, dass Interkomprehension ein Verfahren darstellt, das im Rahmen von Qualitätssicherung genannt werden muss (Meißner 2009b). Interkomprehension kommt dem Wunsch der Schüler der Klasse 5 nach Mehrsprachigkeit entgegen, der in repräsentativen Studien deutlich wurde (Meißner et al. 2008). Zukünftige Studien werden zeigen, inwieweit die Interkomprehensionsmethode auch im Bereich der Klassen 4 bis 7 zu einer Optimierung der Unterrichtspraxis führen kann. Dies steht in 123 einem engen Zusammenhang mit dem ‚Zwischen-Sprachen-Lernen‘, d.i. die Kenntnis der prozessualen und affektiven Erfahrungen mit dem Sprachenlernen in der Schnittmenge von Muttersprache, (Zweitsprache), erster und zweiter Fremdsprache. Die Interkomprehensionsmethode begegnet hier als zentraler Bestandteil der Integrativen Didaktik, welche die Sprachen und Sprachenlernerfahrungen zusammendenkt. Mit Blick auf die eingangs geschilderte Verortung von Unterricht fremder Sprachen in Deutschland und der Möglichkeit der Unterrichtsoptimierung durch Verfahren zur Förderung von Metakognition stellen sich folgende Fragen, vor allem wenn man an das seitens des Europarats genannte Lernziel denkt, demzufolge möglichst viele Schülerinnen und Schüler neben ihrer Muttersprache mindestens zwei moderne Fremdsprachen lernen sollen (Europäisches Parlament 2006 ): 5 1. Wie kann bei einem Beginn mit Englisch als erster Fremdsprache der Unterricht in der zweiten modernen Fremdsprache gesichert werden (der ja außerhalb der gymnasialen Bildungsgänge keineswegs obligatorisch ist) ? 2. Welche Rolle kann die zweite moderne Fremdsprache für das Erlernen einer dritten spielen? 3. 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Stern, H.H. & Todesco, Angie (1996): The Good Language Learner. Foreword by Christopher Brumfit. Cleveland/Philadelphia/Adelaide: Multilingual Matters. Oomen-Welke, Ingelore & Schnitzer, Katja (2008): «Evaluation von Arbeitsmaterialien für den 126 vielsprachigen Deutschunterricht (Language Awareness)». In: Eva Burwitz-Melzer, Wolfgang Hallet, Michaeel Legutke, Franz-Josephz Meißner & Joybrato Mukherjee (Hrsg.): Sprachen lernen – Menschen bilden. Dokumentation zum 22. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Fremdsprachenforschung (DGFF). Gießen, Oktober 2007. Hohengehren: Schneider Verlag, 205-216. Sauer, Helmut (2004): «Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse der Geschichte des frühbeginnenden Fremdsprachenlernens». In: Kierepka et al., 11-34. Skehan, Peter (1991): «Individual differences in second language learning». Studies in Second Language Acquisition 23, 275-298. Wenzel, Veronika (2000): «Ich sag allebei: Strategien beim frühen Erwerb einer verwandten Zweitsprache». 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Asahi-shuppan 127 L’Eleve France doit confirmer ses progres L’Evolution de l’enseignement des langues vivantes a l’ecole primaire Studer, André Avant de vous présenter le paysage des Langues Vivantes (LV) dans l’enseignement élémentaire en France, je souhaiterais rappeler que les temps ne sont pas très éloignés où le développement économique, politique ainsi que le rayonnement culturel ont durablement été les vecteurs privilégiés du développement d’une langue hors des frontières nationales et contribué à leur expansion géographique, en Europe même et sur les autres continents. Ce phénomène est invariant à travers l’histoire et a largement contribué à l’explosion du nombre de locuteurs parlant une ou plusieurs langues « étrangères » en plus des langues maternelles et officielles dans leurs pays. Durant des siècles, la maîtrise d’une ou de plusieurs langues, anciennes et modernes, conférait prestige et pouvoir. Aujourd’hui encore mais de manière plus prosaïque, cette maîtrise demeure un atout et une valeur ajoutée, conférant un avantage indéniable à la personne qui les manie avec aisance et efficacité. Mais cet avantage sera d’autant plus grand encore que le locuteur maîtrisera outre la langue, les codes et les attitudes en usage dans ces sociétés. Pour s’en convaincre, il suffit de regarder l’offre de formation et d’étudier les stratégies mises en place dans la formation des hauts potentiels, cadres des grandes entreprises et hauts fonctionnaires à travers le monde. La mondialisation a créé une demande considérable pour l’anglo-américain et modifié le paysage des langues en Europe. Aujourd’hui et plus que jamais, les jeunes Européens ont soif d’apprendre des langues, mais aussi d’aller à la rencontre de l’autre et il n’est pas rare que le plaisir de la découverte, l’enrichissement personnel et culturel jouent un rôle moteur dans cet apprentissage. En Europe, la compétence en matière éducative appartient à chacun des Etats membres et relève de la compétence nationale. Cependant, le rôle joué par l’Union Européenne et les impulsions qu’elle a données ont eu un écho considérable au fur et à mesure du lancement des programmes aux noms évocateurs : Erasme, Tempus, Phare, Comenius etc. Les différentes politiques nationales et les nombreux secteurs concernés, que ce soient ceux de la formation, du développement ou encore de la recherche, les ont rapidement adoptés et intégrés. Ces programmes ont eu un effet de levier considérable, d’une ampleur souvent inattendue. En matière d’éducation, l’amélioration des compétences linguistiques en LV se situe au cœur des priorités retenues. L’action de l’Union Européenne Education et formation 2010 a pour objectif la généralisation de l’enseignement de deux LV à tous les niveaux et dans tous les pays. Sans doute fallait-il ces impulsions pour réveiller la belle endormie ! L’enjeu véritable n’est-il que dans la compréhension de deux LV et la capacité à s’exprimer et à communiquer dans ces deux LV ? Non, bien sûr, le développement de l’apprentissage des langues allait enfin projeter la jeunesse au-delà des frontières nationales. La jeunesse française s’est mise sur les routes, faisant une victime bien involontaire au passage, l’étude de l’allemand en France au collège 128 et au lycée. Ces programmes ont mis l’Europe étudiante en mouvement. L’enjeu réside donc bien dans le développement de la mobilité, axe de la construction d’une identité européenne : nous retrouvons enfin l’idéal du Citoyen du monde, le rêve du Weltbürger de la littérature allemande. Voilà aussi pourquoi ces programmes d`échanges connaissent un tel écho auprès de la jeunesse et sont devenus des étapes ancrées dans nos parcours de formation, de l’enseignement élémentaire à l’enseignement supérieur, de l’enseignement général à l’enseignement technique et professionnel. Qu’il me soit permis rapidement de préciser quelques points concernant le système éducatif français afin que les auditeurs présents qui seraient moins familiers des réalités françaises puissent suivre plus aisément la suite de cet exposé. Contrairement à la plupart de nos voisins (Allemagne Espagne, Belgique) l’éducation relève en France du pouvoir central et se trouve sous l’autorité d’un ministre, le Ministre de l’Education nationale. Une partie des compétences sont déconcentrées aux 26 Recteurs d’Académie, Chanceliers des Universités, véritables patrons du système éducatif et représentants du ministre sur le territoire. Les programmes ainsi que les horaires, à l’intérieur de certaines fourchettes, sont les mêmes dans tout l’hexagone et même au-delà. Le recteur est en charge de l’élaboration du projet académique. Dans le cadre de la déconcentration, l’affectation et la formation continue des personnels enseignants relèvent de la compétence du recteur. La carte des langues est, elle, principalement du ressort des inspections académiques au niveau départemental .Les programmes actuels de l’école élémentaire sont entrés en application en septembre 2007. Ils définissent un socle commun de connaissances et de compétences dont la maîtrise de la langue française est l´élément fondamental. Une dernière information : prés de 97% des enfants sont scolarisés dès l’âge de trois ans en école maternelle (et non pas dans un jardin d’enfants). L’école maternelle et l’école élémentaire sont organisées en cycle :  Cycle 1 : petite et moyenne sections de maternelle  Cycle 2 : cycle des apprentissages fondamentaux comprenant la grande section de maternelle, le cours préparatoire et le CE1, 1ère année de l’apprentissage d’une LV  Cycle 3 : cycle des approfondissements dune durée de 3 ans Dans un premier temps, nous allons nous intéresser à la description du dispositif et, dans un second temps, aux apprentissages et à leur efficacité. Rappelons ici que les LV ont officiellement fait leur apparition dans les programmes en 2001, autant dire hier, et ont bénéficié des apports des remarquables travaux du Conseil de l’Europe. Plusieurs rapports ont été commandés à l’Inspection générale et bon nombre de constats et de recommandations ont trouvé un écho repris dans les nouveaux programmes en 2007. Ces rapports nous permettent de mesurer le chemin parcouru, mais également de mesurer l’importance des obstacles à surmonter. Nous y reviendrons ultérieurement pour répondre à la commande de Monsieur le Professeur Yoshijima. 129 2005 : Plan de rénovation de l'enseignement des langues En 2005, le ministère de l'Éducation nationale a lancé un Plan de rénovation de l’enseignement des langues vivantes étrangères qui concerne tous les élèves de l’école élémentaire au lycée. L’objectif de ce plan est d’améliorer le niveau des élèves dans deux langues étrangères dans un contexte d’ouverture européenne et internationale, notamment en renforçant les compétences orales des élèves et en s’appuyant sur le Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues du Conseil de l'Europe. Mais rappelons que l’introduction des langues vivantes dans les programmes scolaires comme nouvelle discipline d’enseignement de l’école primaire remontait à 2002. De nouveaux programmes Ces nouveaux programmes de langues vivantes étrangères à l'école et au collège privilégient l’apprentissage de l’oral au cours de la scolarité obligatoire et une entrée dans les apprentissages par les contenus culturels. Afin de renforcer l'exposition des élèves à la langue de nombreuses initiatives ont été lancées. Depuis l’entréeen vigueur des nouveaux horaires à la rentrée 2007, la durée d’apprentissage hebdomadaire est d’une heure et 30 minutes durant chacune des 4 années d’enseignement au primaire. Cependant, la mise en place de rythmes modulables comprenant des périodes intensives d’enseignement sur une courte ou moyenne durée est laissée à l’initiative de chaque école. Par ailleurs, les nouveaux textes autorisent la constitution de groupes de compétences indépendamment des classes. Cet apprentissage a pour objectif, en fin d’école primaire, l’acquisition de compétences de communication mais également de connaissances sur les réalités culturelles des pays où la langue est parlée. A l'issue de l'école primaire, les élèves doivent normalement avoir atteints le niveau A1 du cadre européen commun de références pour les langues (CECRL).  A1 à la fin de l’enseignement élémentaire L’élève peut communiquer de façon simple si l’interlocuteur parle lentement et distinctement et se montre coopératif. Les programmes de 2007 pour les langues vivantes sont précisés pour chacune des 8 langues enseignées à l'école (allemand, anglais, arabe, chinois, espagnol, italien, portugais et russe) dans le bulletin officiel hors série n°8 du 30 août 2007 Pour mémoire seulement, je rappelle les autres étapes et certifications prévues durant la scolarité)    A2 pour l’obtention du socle commun L’élève peut échanger des informations simples sur des sujets familiers et habituels. B1 à la fin de la scolarité obligatoire (18 ans) L’élève peut se débrouiller dans la plupart des situations rencontrées en voyage, raconter un événement, une expérience, défendre un projet ou une idée. B2 à la fin des études secondaires L’élève peut comprendre l’essentiel d’un sujet concret ou abstrait dans un texte complexe, y 130 compris une discussion technique dans sa spécialité. Il peut communiquer avec un degré de spontanéité et d’aisance tel qu’une conversation avec un locuteur natif. Il peut émettre un avis sur un sujet d’actualité et en débattre. L’objectif à atteindre : L’acquisition du niveau A1, passe prioritairement par 3 objectifs:  Le développement chez l’élève de comportements et attitudes indispensables pour  L’éducation de son oreille à une prosodie d’une langue nouvelle,  l’apprentissage des LV (curiosité, écoute, attention, mémorisation, confiance en soi) L’acquisition dans cette langue de connaissances et de capacités En développant le plaisir d’apprendre et en valorisant les progrès, l’élève doit acquérir les éléments fondamentaux de la langue et les consolider afin de construire une compétence de communication élémentaire. Cet enseignement doit tenir compte de l’âge des élèves, de leurs capacités cognitives. Le contact avec l’écrit sera très progressif et l’évaluation formative doit être formulée de manière résolument positive. Nous reviendrons sur ces points ultérieurement. Au cycle 3, cet enseignement doit permettre l’acquisition de connaissances relatives aux modes de vie et à la culture du ou des pays où cette langue est parlée. Le niveau A2 sera abordé au collège où les professeurs doivent assurer la continuité Le programme : le descripteur A1 du cadre européen a été adapté à des enfants et prend en compte les entrées qui structurent le socle commun La composante phonologique doit être une priorité d’où l’importance attachée au rythme. Les activités les mieux adaptées sont la mémorisation d’énoncé, de chants, de comptines, l’imitation de rythmes différents, les jeux sur les sonorités de la langue, mais aussi le repérage de mots entendus dans une phrase, un récit, etc. et, ainsi progressivement, celui des liens phonie-graphie. Du point de vue culturel et lexical, le professeur privilégiera la personne, la vie quotidienne, l’environnement géographique et culturel (les habitudes culinaires, les célébrations des fêtes, la communication non verbale, etc.). Les documents audiovisuels garantiront le caractère authentique des acquisitions culturelles. Dans le cadre de l’A1, la maîtrise visée est celle de la phrase simple et la prise de conscience qu’une langue n’est pas le calque d’une autre. Les capacités visées : La programmation des activités de classe se fait sur la base des compétences de communication à acquérir en fin de cycle. L’expérience concrète de la classe et de l’environnement immédiat de la classe, mais aussi l’imaginaire sont au centre des activités pédagogiques. Les attitudes : L’élargissement des repères culturels, la prise de conscience de certaines différences nourriront l’apprentissage. 131 La dimension internationale de l’enseignement des LV est encouragée (rencontre, messagerie électronique, documents, intervention de locuteurs natifs, e-twinnings, etc.) Des certifications en langues vivantes étrangères La certification est proposée par un organisme internationalement reconnu : le Cambridge ESOL pour l’anglais, l’Institut Cervantès pour l’espagnol, la KMK (Conférence des ministres de l’éducation des Länder) pour l’allemand. Signalons ici l’outil Mon Premier Portfolio, développé par le Centre international d'études pédagogiques (CIEP), et validé en 2006 qui devrait permettre aux élèves de prendre conscience des progrès réalisés petit à petit, et de les encourager à poursuivre. Le pilotage académique Il s’exerce prioritairement dans deux domaines : - d’une part, la préservation de la diversité de l’offre linguistique par la mise en place de commissions académiques de langues vivantes qui assurent la cohérence de cette offre. Pour atteindre cet objectif, les inspections académiques mettent en place un schéma directeur (une carte des langues) qui doit garantir la cohérence et à la continuité des parcours. Il convient de mentionner ici l’effort fait en direction, d’une part, des langues régionales (basque, breton, catalan, corse, langues régionales d’Alsace et mosellanes, occitan) et, d’autre part, des langues dans les régions frontalières. A la lecture du remarquable ouvrage du professeur GIORDAN sur les minorités linguistiques paru en 1992, l’on est tenté de conclure que les réflexes uniformisateurs de l’état (français) sont contredits par un dynamisme régional qui valorise les richesses culturelles des minorités linguistiques en France. Près de 15 ans après sa publication, cette conclusion, hâtive, ne saurait s’appliquer aux langues en dépit des efforts en leur faveur. - d’autre part, le renforcement de la formation des enseignants. Dans le cadre de la formation initiale, le concours d'entrée dans les IUFM comporte, depuis la rentrée 2006, une épreuve obligatoire de langues vivantes étrangères (BO n°21 du 26 mai 2005). L'affectation en IUFM d'assistants de langues vivantes contribue à l'amélioration des compétences linguistiques des professeurs des écoles stagiaires. Dans le cadre de la formation continue : élaboration dans chaque département d'un plan pluriannuel. Enfin, des programmes d’échanges internationaux et des actions de formation en France et à l'étranger sont prévus pour les maîtres du premier degré, permettant aux élèves d’être en contact avec des locuteurs natifs dont l’authenticité de la langue est un atout majeur. Les programmes européens participent également à la formation des enseignants français en proposant notamment des stages de perfectionnement à l’étranger. L'accompagnement des enseignants et intervenants : outre l'élaboration des programmes d'enseignement des langues vivantes à l'école élémentaire et la diffusion des documents d'accompagnement pour chacune des langues enseignées à l'école, le site ÉduSCOL nous informe sur l'accompagnement des personnels chargés de l'enseignement des langues vivantes à l'école 132 élémentaire. PrimLangues, le site internet d'accompagnement des enseignants et intervenants (http://www.primlangues.education.fr) Le site internet dédié aux langues vivantes à l'école primaire, dont la mise en œuvre a été confiée au Centre international d'études pédagogiques (CIEP), constitue une ressource, en principe essentielle, essentielle pour accompagner le plan de généralisation de l'enseignement de cette discipline dans le premier degré. Il a à la fois une vocation d'information, de portail, de centre de documentation et d'outil de dialogue et de questionnement, et est est destiné en premier lieu aux enseignants et intervenants qui trouveront des rubriques variées s'attachant à couvrir l'ensemble des sujets relatifs à l'apprentissage des langues vivantes à l'école primaire. Ce site, à la fois institutionnel et convivial, propose de nombreux documents et espaces de discussion et aussi des espaces appartenant exclusivement à l'enseignant et à sa classe ou des lieux de discussion libre. Le site Primlangues est composé des cinq grandes rubriques suivantes : 1. les actualités des langues vivantes en général et du site en particulier ; 2. des ressources diversifiées, toujours accompagnées de commentaires (textes officiels, ouvrages de référence, outils multimédia, propositions de séquences pédagogiques, notamment des " leçons zéro ", validées par les corps d'inspection et s'appuyant sur des documents didactisés ou authentiques) et correspondant, pour la plupart d'entre elles, à des points du programme ; 3. des outils pour les échanges (forums, Foire Aux Questions, lettres d'information et de discussion), pour la formation et l'évaluation (en autonomie ou propositions de stages) ; 4. la possibilité d'établir des correspondances scolaires ou entre enseignants et de développer des dialogues interclasses, relations plus ponctuelles et en lien direct avec le contenu des séances proposées par l'enseignant ; 5. un guide pour l'international afin de faciliter la recherche de documents pédagogiques ou authentiques dans différentes langues, d'encourager l'établissement de liens avec une classe étrangère et de s'informer sur les possibilités d'échanges et de formation. Des intervenants qualifiés Si les maîtres du premier degré doivent être à terme en mesure d'assurer eux-mêmes l'enseignement linguistique à l'école, plusieurs catégories de personnel sont mobilisées pendant la période de généralisation progressive de cet enseignement. Il s'agit d'enseignants du second degré, d'assistants de langue vivante ou d'intervenants extérieurs.. A l'exception des échanges de service, l’intervention des personnels qualifiés en langues vivantes s’effectue en présence du maître de la classe et sous sa responsabilité. Celui-ci assure la cohérence pédagogique des activités proposées dans la classe. Qui participe à l’enseignement des élèves au primaire ?   Les enseignants du premier degré : ils assurent 87% des enseignements Adaptation du service : les maîtres du premier degré peuvent pratiquer des échanges de 133 service organisés au sein des équipes pédagogiques de l’école. Le recours à des maîtres itinérants spécialisés en langues vivantes peut également s’avérer nécessaire pour combler     des déficits et assurer la couverture de l’enseignement des langues Les enseignants du second degré (collège, lycée) enseignent sur la base du volontariat et sont payés en heures supplémentaires Les assistants de langues vivantes sont des étudiants étrangers 12 heures/semaines. Ils restent en fonction neuf mois Les intervenants extérieurs : ils sont pour l’essentiel recrutés localement La Procédure d'habilitation organisée dans chaque département est obligatoire sauf pour les enseignements du 1er degré ayant bénéficié durant leur formation en IUFM d’une formation initiale en LV et les professeurs du secondaire. Elle vérifie les compétences culturelles et  linguistiques, les aptitudes pédagogiques sont évaluées lors d’une visite d’inspection. Un entretien avec les membres de la commission d'habilitation composé de 4 phases successives à l'issue duquel est délivrée une habilitation provisoire. Il permet de vérifier les compétences linguistiques et culturelles des candidats ainsi que leur connaissance des textes  officiels ; une visite de classe suivie d'un entretien, débouchant sur l'habilitation définitive, permet d'attester des aptitudes pédagogiques pour enseigner une langue vivante dans les écoles primaires. Données statistiques pour l'école Vous trouverez dans les trois tableaux ci-dessous, la répartition nationale, des langues enseignées et des personnels chargés de l'enseignement des langues vivantes pour l'année scolaire 2006/2007 (secteur public). Couverture des classes à l'école élémentaire en 2006/2007 L'enquête réalisée auprès des Inspections académiques au cours des six dernières années scolaires a permis de constater une importante progression de la couverture des classes de cours moyen. En effet, si 71% de ces classes bénéficiaient de cet enseignement en 1999/2000, ce sont près de 100% des classes accueillant des élèves de cours moyen qui ont été couvertes dans le secteur public en 2006/2007. La généralisation progressive de l'enseignement des langues vivantes en CE1 a débuté à la rentrée 2007 sur une base existante proche des 20%.Ce pourcentage est appelé à augmenter très rapidement. Taux de couverture par groupes d'élèves 2006/2007 CE1 10 375 19,77% CE2 31 878 97,49% CM1 et CM2 58 599 98,94% Source : enquête DGESCO auprès des inspections académiques (décembre 2006). 134 Répartition des langues enseignées à l'école élémentaire en 2006/2007 Langues Elèves Anglais 1 691 967 88,26% Allemand 171 803 10,63% Espagnol 35 491 1,82% Italien 17 084 0,88% Portugais 3 668 0,19% Arabe 110 0,01% Autres langues étrangères 383 0,02% Allemand + Anglais 24 695 1,27% Anglais + Espagnol 1 375 0,07% Source : enquête DGESCO auprès des inspections académiques (décembre 2006). La répartition des personnels chargés de l'enseignement des langues vivantes en 2006/2007 Le tableau ci-dessous récapitule au plan national la proportion de chaque catégorie de personnels dispensant un enseignement de langues vivantes à l'école durant l'année scolaire 2006/2007. Les maîtres du premier degré représentent au niveau national 81% des personnels. En incluant les professeurs du second degré, 87, 5% des personnes dispensant un enseignement de langue vivante sont des personnels enseignants de l'Éducation nationale. Type d'enseignants Intervenants Enseignants du 1er degré 38 709 Enseignants du 2nd degré 3 227 Assistants de langues vivantes 1 793 Intervenants extérieurs inspections Académiques 3 363 Autres intervenants 1 423 Source : enquête DGESCO auprès des inspections académiques (décembre 2006). 80,68% 6,72% 3,73% 7,01% 2,96% Les facteurs de progrès L’élève France, pour reprendre l’intitulé de ma contribution, a incontestablement fourni dans les très récentes années un effort considérable et obtenu des résultats étonnants lorsque l’on sait le manque total de confiance des scolaires par rapport à leurs capacités linguistiques moquées depuis des générations. Un plan de rénovation pour mettre en place les conditions de la réussite : encore expérimental en 2001 et abordé au mieux comme une initiation, l’enseignement de la LV est inscrit dans les programmes comme une discipline à part entière et la quasi-totalité des élèves suit un tel enseignement. o la mise en place d’une procédure nationale d’habilitation permet de réduire les principales disparités d’une académie à l’autre, notamment par rapport aux académies frontalières, o l’optimisation des ressources humaines et la création de conseillers pédagogiques LV constituent une avancée substantielle 135 o la prise en compte des LV dans la formation continue des enseignants du primaire répond aux besoins les plus urgents o l’implication des enseignements de langues et cultures d’origine et l’utilisation de la compétence de ces enseignants permet dans certaines situations le renforcement de ces langues dans le système éducatif sans toutefois garantir la continuité au collège. o Les conditions matérielles des intervenants extérieurs ont été améliorées o Parallèlement, la situation des langues régionales à l’école primaire a tiré bénéfice des nouveaux textes réglementant leur apprentissage, mais le taux d’abandon à l’issue du primaire (94% en moyenne) ne permet pas d’assurer la continuité au collège. La circulaire concernant l’enseignement bilingue et la mise en place de certifications au niveau du lycée constitue un progrès qui valorisera à terme les efforts réalisés dès le primaire. Le goût et le plaisir d’apprendre sont considérés comme des objectifs prioritaires alors qu’ils sont secondaires voire absents pour l’enseignement des langues au collège. Les enjeux sont aujourd’hui considérables et nous sommes à la croisée des chemins. La partie n’est pas encore gagnée. Ces enjeux sont d’ordre politique et budgétaire (moyens, postes), technique, sociétal et pédagogique. Nous nous concentrerons sur ces derniers. Des faiblesses à corriger, une formation pédagogique et didactique à renforcer L’appropriation par les maîtres du contenu des programmes et des textes officiels et leur aptitude à élaborer sur cette base des progressions à moyen et long terme supposent qu’ils soient armés de quelques savoirs de base sur l’apprentissage et l’enseignement des langues vivantes. o Les besoins les plus criants, quand la maîtrise linguistique est avérée, concernent la pédagogie de l’enseignement d’une langue vivante. Il est indispensable de créer une approche pédagogique ainsi que des outils adaptés. Quel que soit l’intérêt présenté par Primlangues et Emililangues, développés par le Centre international d'études pédagogiques (CIEP), cette réponse institutionnelle est insuffisante et ne permet pas de mettre en placement une progression rigoureuse, clé de tout apprentissage. Des enseignants bien formés tirent intérêt de ces propositions, les moins formés sont vite découragés ou perdent leur motivation. En l’absence de progression, les intervenants les moins formés courent le risque lié à l’utilisation de ressources émiettées. o D’un point de vue pédagogique, l’attrait de la découverte génère une motivation importante chez les jeunes débutants, préalable indispensable à un apprentissage réussi. Même les élèves plus timides se risquent à prononcer quelques mots en langue étrangère. Il convient cependant de s’interroger sur la source de cette motivation et ne pas l’attribuer uniquement à la découverte d’une langue étrangère. D’autres facteurs comme la structuration de l’espace qui contribue à créer une ambiance favorable et une attitude détendue et active chez les élèves dans lesquels l’utilisation d’accessoires (marionnettes, objets, peluches, masques, jeux de société...) collabore grandement à donner vie à la langue et à théâtraliser les échanges. Des 136 tâches ludiques bien conçues et choisies en fonction de leur rentabilité linguistique permettent aux élèves de pratiquer une langue fortement contextualisée de la façon la plus naturelle qui soit dans un contexte scolaire et de produire des énoncés de plus en plus complexes o le recours à des tâches motivantes et variées qui sollicitent l’élève activement et l’absence de sanction concourent à l’entretenir. Des changements de comportement peuvent être en effet observés lorsqu’on passe à des activités beaucoup plus fastidieuses de répétition ou de reproduction à l’identique. Les chansons et les comptines que l’on apprend par cœur, les histoires que l’on écoute favorisent le développement de la mémoire et les apports culturels qu’elles introduisent sont assimilés sans peine. o On constate, d’ailleurs, une très grande corrélation entre la conviction du maître et la motivation des élèves. Plus l’enseignant est silencieux, plus les élèves auront l’occasion de s’exprimer. Lorsque le maître parle trop, il le fait au détriment du temps de parole de l’élève dont les productions restent squelettiques, se réduisant souvent à une phrase minimale voire à un mot. Les maîtres et intervenants divers ne savent pas toujours s’effacer pour déléguer la parole à la classe. Il suffirait pourtant parfois de peu de choses pour augmenter le temps de parole des élèves : interrompre une série de questions pour leur demander de prendre la place du maître, exploiter le principe du jeu de devinettes pour susciter les interrogations, les solliciter. Pour la construction des séances de langue vivante, les maîtres et intervenants doivent être capables de : - choisir des supports, ce qui nécessite notamment de jeter un regard critique sur les méthodes et matériels disponibles et de reconnaître les potentialités didactiques d'un document authentique pour les adapter ; - s'assurer que les pré-requis pour l’exploitation des supports ou la réalisation des tâches sont maîtrisés ou pourront l’être ; - identifier les difficultés phonologiques, lexicales, structurales ou culturelles des supports et des activités prévues ; - élaborer des tâches communicatives et les traduire en consignes ; - sélectionner ou créer des jeux linguistiques efficaces ; - intégrer la dimension culturelle aux activités linguistiques ; - respecter l'économie générale d'une séance : réactivation rapide sous forme de jeux de rôles ou autre de ce qui a été fait la fois précédente ; présentation des nouveaux éléments de langue (lexique et structures) et travail d'écoute active ; pratique guidée orale qui doit aboutir à mettre en place des automatismes et assurer la mémorisation des éléments introduits précédemment ; production orale plus personnelle. Place et rôle de l’édition L’arrivée sur le marché des premiers manuels élaborés en tenant compte des acquis en référence d’une part au cadre européen de références pour les langues vivantes, et d’autre part, au Portfolio européen des langues, constitue un premier progrès certes, mais en règle 137 générale très insuffisant sauf pour l’anglais. Le marché de l’édition scolaire n’est pas en mesure d’apporter une aide suffisante pour l’instant pour épauler efficacement les maîtres dans cette discipline. Le cadre européen qui est, faut-il le rappeler, le premier outil de politique linguistique véritablement transversal à toutes les langues, est un document descriptif et non normatif. S’il est un outil extraordinaire pour les concepteurs de manuel, il est trop technique pour aider chaque enseignant à élaborer ses progressions. « Les manuels doivent redevenir les instruments de travail qu’ils n’auraient jamais du cesser d’être. Ils offrent aux élèves de multiples occasions de lectures et de recherches autonomes que ne permet pas la multiplication des photocopies, expression du savoir fragmenté (in Programmes de l’école primaire, Préambule, B.O. hors série 12 avril 2007). La querelle de la méthode lexicale et de l’approche communicative étant dépassée, il est grand temps que les différentes catégories d’intervenants utilisent des approches et si possible des outils récents et similaires dans leur approche si l’on ne souhaite pas répéter les errances du passé. Pour gagner la confiance des acteurs à tous les niveaux, l’enseignement des langues vivantes doit gagner en efficacité et donc en crédibilité. Ce n’est pas que l’affaire des enseignants, mais de toute la chaîne éducative. Il n’y a pas d’innovation sans outil et sans formation. Les premières expériences avec le niveau A1 montre qu’il est non seulement urgent mais encore indispensable de développer pour un public scolaire des compétences intermédiaires, plus spécialement au début de l’apprentissage qui devra aller de pair avec une évaluation positive. Quatre années d’étude pour obtenir le A1 n’est pas une unité de temps adaptée à un jeune enfant. Développement de la liaison école /collège Pour viser une certaine efficacité, il convient de rendre plus systématique les rencontres entre les enseignants. Cette faiblesse n’est pas propre à l’enseignement des langues, mais elle est encore plus marquée dans ce domaine. Cette question est d’autant plus importante que la situation de l’évaluation n’est pas définitivement réglée en fin de CM2, dernière année de l’école primaire. Il est indispensable que les professeurs des écoles connaissent les méthodes et objectifs du collège, que les enseignants des écoles et des collèges collaborent entre eux pour organiser un suivi de l’apprentissage des langues. De plus, la formation initiale et continue des enseignants reste très insuffisante. Les besoins en formation sont immenses, les personnes ressources insuffisantes, les outils multimédias pas assez rigoureux. Les assistants sont rarement préparés à leur travail et improvisent. La durée de leur séjour, leur jeunesse et leur manque d’expérience didactique les réduit, sauf rares exceptions, au rôle d’auxiliaire et de figurant. Enseigner sa langue maternelle est un exercice difficile y compris pour des professeurs habitués à enseigner une langue vivante. La bonne volonté de leurs tuteurs ne saurait donc compenser pendant des mois leur manque de compétence pédagogique. Leur statut dans les écoles indépendamment de leur rémunération ne facilite en général pas leur tâche. L’éloignement des centres de ressources spécialisés est un obstacle supplémentaire. Les insuffisances dans les domaines linguistiques, didactiques et/ou pédagogiques, l’hétérogénéité des connaissances sont autant de chantiers dont il conviendra d’évaluer l’évolution avec la mise en place de la réforme. Par ailleurs, les carences de l'évaluation en fin de CM2 ou en début de sixième renforcent l'impression de flou sur ce que les élèves savent et confortent les professeurs dans une attitude qui 138 consiste à ignorer le cursus antérieur. Lorsque des évaluations ont été faites en fin de CM, elles concernent essentiellement les connaissances grammaticales, lexicales et plus rarement culturelles et, parfois, la compétence de compréhension de l'oral. L'expression orale, elle, n'est jamais évaluée. Ces évaluations ont plutôt un rôle de bilan et ont lieu en fin de trimestre ou d’année. On constate donc un manque de cohérence entre les objectifs prioritaires annoncés à savoir le développement des savoir-faire oraux, et les domaines testés. La réforme du recrutement et de la formation des enseignants des premiers et seconds degrés annoncée le 4 juillet 2008 et qui deviendra effective à la rentrée 2009 permettra-t-elle de répondre laux besoins les plus urgents? Les étudiants inscrits en 2eme année de master ou titulaire de ce master passeront trois épreuves destinées à évaluer la culture disciplinaire, la capacité à planifier et organiser un enseignement et la connaissance du système éducatif. Pour préparer les étudiants à leur futur métier, les universités proposeront une prise de contact progressive et cohérente avec les métiers de l’enseignement et comprendra des stages d’observation et de pratique accompagnée en école, collège et lycée. Les lauréats des concours enseigneront dès la première année avec l’aide et le soutien de professeurs expérimentés et des actions de formation spécifiques leurs seront proposées en dehors du temps scolaire. Cette réforme est controversée, certains spécialistes et non des moindres, y voyant un mauvais présage pour la qualité de l’enseignement. Diversification versus libre-choix La poursuite de l’apprentissage des langues enseignées au primaire constitue encore un défi organisationnel et pédagogique dans de nombreuses académies, y compris dans certaines des académies frontalières. Selon le rapport Pilotage et cohérence de la carte des langues de 2005, l’enseignement des LV est prisonnier d’un système de contradictions qui rend difficile la réalisation des objectifs. Je cite : « la diversification n’a jamais été aussi faible qu’actuellement en France et le libre choix est un leurre, parce qu’il n’est financièrement pas possible de mettre ce principe en œuvre et parce que la demande actuelle des familles tend vers une limitation sur deux langues étrangères (anglais et espagnol). » Les dispositifs bilangues permettent à des élèves qui ont choisi une langue autre que l’anglais de poursuivre parallèlement l’étude de deux langues vivantes au collège pendant deux années (allemand et anglais) Mais il s’agit là de dispositifs coûteux et qui soutiennent principalement la langue allemande insuffisamment étudiée par rapport à l’imbrication de nos deux pays. Conclusion Rarement, les perspectives n’ont été aussi favorables à l’enseignement des langues vivantes : les temps sont oubliés quand il s’agissait encore de convaincre certains publics de l’intérêt à regarder au-delà de nos frontières et de nos zones d’influence. Exit l’idée que l’apprentissage ne serait qu’une simple sensibilisation. Le principe de la mobilité nécessaire ou choisie, qu’elle soit géographique, sectorielle, professionnelle est désormais acquis et constitue soit une contrainte, soit une motivation personnelle inespérée. Le contexte européen et international, mais aussi la comparaison 139 internationale imposent un changement radical de notre vision des langues et de leurs modalités d’enseignement et d’apprentissage. Notons également quel la généralisation de l’accès à l’Internet correspond à une révolution culturelle. Respectera-t-elle la biodiversité linguistique ? Réjouissons-nous que les travaux du Conseil de l’Europe soient porteurs d’avenir et d’unité, mais d’unité sans uniformisation ? L’apprentissage tout au long de la vie ne pourrait trouver de meilleure illustration que le chantier passionnant constitué par l’apprentissage d’une langue vivante. Pour que celui-ci produise les résultats attendus, les apprenants doivent acquérir des savoir-faire et des compétences qu’ils enrichiront leur vie durant. Il convient donc de conjuguer ambition et réalisme et de revoir, chaque fois que le contexte d’apprentissage l’exige, les objectifs et de rester attentifs à la qualité. Bibliographie www.eduscol.fr www.primlangues.education.fr Giordan, Henri (dir) (1992) : Les minorités en Europe, droits linguistiques et droits de l’homme », Ed. Kimé, Hagege, Claude (2008) : « Le souffle de la langue, voies et destins des parlers d’Europe », Ed. Odile Jacob, février « Pilotage et cohérence de la carte des langues », Rapport IGEN et IGAEN, n° 2005-019 de mars 2005. Scofoni, Annie (2002) : « Rapport sur le suivi de la qualité de l’enseignement des langues vivantes à l’école primaire », IGEN, juin CIEP (2003) : « L’enseignement des langues vivantes à l’étranger : jeux et stratégies » Revue internationale d’éducation, septembre AUDUC, Jean-Louis, directeur des études du 1er degré, IUFM Créteil ; BRISSIAUD, Rémi, IUFM de Versailles ; MEIRIEU, Philippe, professeur à l’université Lumière-Lyon2 (vendredi 4 juillet 2008) : Une Saint-Barthélemy des pédagogues . In : Le Monde, Actes du séminaire (2001) : « Enseignements des langues vivantes dans le 1er degré », p.20-21, www.eduscol.fr. novembre 140 Frühes Sprachenlernen an Wiener Grundschulen Konzepte – Projekte – Qualitätssicherung Schimek, Franz. 1. GRUNDSÄTZLICHES Es ist Aufgabe des Fremdsprachenunterrichts, die Schülerinnen und Schüler auf das Zusammenleben in einer offenen, internationalen Gemeinschaft vorzubereiten. Die Kenntnis mehrerer Fremdsprachen ist daher unabdingbare Voraussetzung geworden. Sprachliche sowie landeskundliche und kulturelle Kenntnisse und Einsichten fördern Gesprächsbereitschaft, Verständnis, Verantwortungsbewusstsein, Toleranz und Weltoffenheit. Ziel des Unterrichts ist deshalb der selbstständige, richtige und situativ angemessene mündliche und schriftliche Gebrauch der jeweiligen Fremdsprache. Sie befähigt den Menschen, sich in der Welt zu orientieren, sie erlaubt den Ausdruck von Gefühlen und Gedanken, die Weitergabe von Erfahrungen, die Kommunikation mit anderen. Sie trägt zur Identitätsfindung von Einzelnen und Gruppen bei und befähigt den Menschen zur Entwicklung von Sozialverhalten und zum eigenständigen Handeln im privaten aber auch im wirtschaftlichen Bereich. Für die SchülerInnen in der Europaregion Wien kommt deshalb der Entwicklung sprachlicher Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten in mehreren Sprachen große Bedeutung zu. Der Fremdsprachenunterricht erschließt den Schülerinnen und Schülern Lebenswirklichkeiten, die außerhalb ihrer muttersprachlichen Erfahrungswelten liegen. Im Unterricht entwickeln sie Fähigkeiten, die die Verständigung mit Menschen aus anderen Sprachgemeinschaften ermöglichen Für das Zusammenleben der Menschen in Europa und in der Welt ist eine erhöhte Bereitschaft zur Mobilität, zur Kommunikation und zur Kooperation notwendig. Im Bewusstsein, dass viele Fragen nicht mehr im nationalen Rahmen sondern nur mehr durch internationale Kooperation gelöst werden können, sind kommunikative Fähigkeiten in mehreren Fremdsprachen zur unabdingbaren Voraussetzungen geworden. Mehrsprachigkeit bedeutet hierbei allerdings nicht nur die aktive Beherrschung von Sprachen, sondern auch die Bereitschaft und Fähigkeit, Andere zu verstehen. Die Vermittlung und der Erwerb von Fremdsprachenkenntnissen sind deshalb von zukunftsweisender Bedeutung für den Einzelnen wie auch für die gesamte Gesellschaft. Die Wiener Schulen haben sich dieser Herausforderung gestellt und zukunftsweisende Initiativen gesetzt. Die gesetzten Maßnahmen werden von folgenden grundlegenden Prinzipien geleitet.  Sprachenlernen in Wien bedeutet, dass es sich dem Grundsatz der Altersgemäßheit unterordnet. d.h., es wird jenes Maß an sprachlicher Förderung angeboten, das für die 141 SchülerInnen eine entsprechende Bereicherung aber keine Erschwernis in der allgemeinen Entwicklung darstellt.  Ein Zugang zum Erlernen fremder Sprachen soll allen SchülerInnen ermöglicht werden.  Auf Grund der günstigen psychischen und physischen Lerndisposition sollte mit dem Erlernen einer Fremdsprache so früh wie möglich begonnen werden.  Frühes Sprachenlernen in Wien versteht sich als Teil des Gesamtkonzeptes, d.h. es werden Maßnahmen gesetzt, die im Bereich der Sekundarstufe I und II ihre konsequente Fortführung finden.  Der Stadtschulrat für Wien wird der weltweit dominierenden Stellung der englischen Sprache als Lingua Franca insofern gerecht, als sie als notwendiger integrativer Bestandteil der Grundschulerziehung (ab der 1. Schulstufe) angesehen wird. Dieser entwicklungsgerechte frühe Start ermöglicht, das Erlernen weiterer Fremdsprachen bereits in der Grundschule fakultativ anzubieten (z.B. ab der 3. Schulstufe). Von besonderer Wichtigkeit wird das Angebot von Sprachen der Nachbarländer angesehen. Durch das durchgängige Angebot von Englisch ab der Grundstufe ist sicher gestellt, dass keine Präjudizierung der zukünftigen Schullaufbahn auf der Sekundarstufe I und II gegeben ist. D.h., den SchülerInnen stehen nach Beendigung der Grundschule alle Möglichkeiten der schulischen Weiterbildung offen.  Frühes Sprachenlernen in Wien ist auch zielgruppenorientiert. Das mehrsprachige Potential, das viele SchülerInnen auf Grund ihrer familiären Situation mitbringen, wird als große Chance erkannt und steht daher ebenfalls im Fokus schulischer Sprachförderung. 2. PROJEKTE Wiener Konzept bietet einige Projekte an. Hier wird nur einige davon vorgestellt. 2.1. GENERELLES SCHULISCHES ANGEBOT AN ALLEN WIENER VOLKSSCHULEN (Schulen der 6-10 jährigen) ZIEL: Der Stadtschulrat für Wien verfolgt das Ziel, die Begegnung mit einer fremden Sprache so früh wie möglich in einer der Altersstufe entsprechenden Form anzubahnen. Fremdsprachenunterricht wird nicht als isoliertes Additum betrachtet, sondern als ein Teil des Gesamtcurriculums. Am besten ist dies durch den von R. Freudenstein vertretenen interdisziplinären Ansatz verwirklichbar – nämlich durch die Einbettung in den Gesamtunterricht. It is well-known from experiential studies as well from practical experience, that the best results from foreign language learning can be expected if languages are used to teach content than foreign language material. 142 DURCHFÜHRUNG: 2.1.1. „ENGLISCH auf der GRUNDSTUFE I“ – Projekt „Lollipop“ Die nachfolgende Zusammenfassung versteht sich als eine kurze Darstellung der wesentlichen Merkmale des integrierten Sprachenlernens auf der Grundstufe I in Wien:    Integration kurzer fremdsprachlicher Sequenzen in den Gesamtunterricht ohne Erhöhung der Wochenstundenanzahl für die Schüler ab der 1. Schulstufe („Erste Schritte zur Verwendung von Englisch als Arbeitssprache“) Vermeiden jeglichen Schriftbildes in der 1. und 2. Klasse (Fremdsprachenerwerb darf Muttersprachenerwerb nicht stören!) Eine wesentliche Voraussetzung ist die sehr gute Fremdsprachenkompetenz der Lehrerin des Lehrers, nur dadurch ist der natürliche Einsatz der Fremdsprache gewährleistet. Daher  kommt der Aus- und Fortbildung der LehrerInnen besondere Bedeutung zu. Vermehrter additiver Einsatz von „native speaker teachers“ 2.1.2. Ergänzendes ADDITIVES ANGEBOT AN WIENER VOLKSSCHULEN Neben der Intensivierung des Englischunterrichts in der Volksschule werden auch vermehrt weitere Fremdsprachen angeboten. So wird integriertes Fremdsprachenlernen ab der 1. Klasse auch in Französisch (Projekt „Papillon“) und in Italienisch (Projekt „Palloncino“) durchgeführt. Darüber hinaus nehmen immer mehr SchülerInnen die Möglichkeit wahr, neben der Verbindlichen Übung „Lebende Fremdsprache“ noch eine weitere Sprache in einer zusätzlichen Unverbindlichen Übung ab der 3. Schulstufe zu lernen. So gibt es in Wien mehr als 70 Französischgruppen, einige Italienischgruppen und an mehreren Volksschulen in Wien Ungarisch, Tschechisch und Slowakisch. 2.2. SCHULPROJEKTE ZUR SPRACHINTENSIVIERUNG 2.2.2. Projekt „GEPS“ (Global Education Primary School): Die Welt und Europa wachsen zusammen. Durch die neuen Möglichkeiten der Kommunikation erfolgen Datenübertragungen fast ohne Zeitverlust, Informationsbeschaffung erfolgt durch neue Quellen wie Internet und in diversen Foren werden in verschiedensten Themen weltweit Gedanken ausgetauscht. Über die OECD und die Europäische Union werden schulische Kennwerte verglichen, Qualitätssicherungsstrategien diskutiert und „new skills“ diskutiert. Traditionell waren es die LehrerInnen, deren Aufgabe es war (nebst Familie bzw. Erziehungsberechtigten und außerschulischen Institutionen), den Jugendlichen jene Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten zu vermitteln, die für ein erfolgreiches späteres Leben (Berufsleben) bedeutsam erschienen. 143 ZIEL: Standen früher die nationalen Curricula – auf einem nationalen gesellschaftlichen Konsens fußend – weitgehend isoliert da – brachte das beginnende 21. Jahrhundert einen intensiven internationalen Diskurs über Grundkompetenzen, Schlüsselqualifikationen, dynamische Fähigkeiten und sozialemotionale Kompetenzen. Somit erfolgt derzeit nicht nur eine Globalisierung auf dem Gebiet der Wirtschaft, sondern auch im Hinblick auf allgemein notwendige Tugenden des Alltags- und Berufslebens. Bis dato sprach man von drei unverzichtbaren Kulturtechniken:  Lesen bzw. Lesekompetenz  Schreiben bzw. Schreibkompetenz  Rechenfertigkeit Zu diesen drei traditionellen Kulturtechniken gesellen sich zwei weitere dazu:  Fremdsprachenkompetenz (insbesonders in der lingua franca Englisch)  Umgang mit neuen Kommunikations- und Informationstechnologien Diesen gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen will das Projekt „Global Education Primary School“ Rechnung tragen. Ziel des Projektes ist es, den Schülern die erwähnten Kulturtechniken von der Elementarklasse an zu vermitteln und sie zu Toleranz, Offenheit, „global awareness“ und Verantwortungsbewusstsein. DURCHFÜHRUNG: Folgende Elemente sind für das Projekt „Global Education Primary School“ konstitutiv:   Flexibler Schuleingang (Jahrgangsklassen bzw. altersheterogener Verband) z.B.: die Grundstufe 1( 1. und 2. Schulstufe)in drei Jahren zu absolvieren.  Formen alternativer Leistungsbeurteilung  zumindest 5 Wochenstunden (täglich 1 Stunde) eingesetzt.  (Ausmaß 2 Wochenstunden). Während der gesamten Volksschulzeit wird Englisch als Arbeitssprache im Ausmaß von Das Fremdsprachenangebot in Englisch wird durch unverbindliche Übungen ergänzt  Anbot einer weiteren lebenden Fremdsprache  zusammenarbeiten. Einsatz von „native speaker teachers“, die mit dem Klassenlehrerder Klassenlehrerin eng Verstärkter Einsatz von Computern als ein wesentliches Arbeitsmittel („tool“) in der Klasse. 144 Methodisch-didaktische Aspekte: Unter „Global Education“ versteht man einen Ansatz, der den neuen Kulturtechniken Fremdsprachenkenntnisse und „skills“ im Umgang mit neuen Technologien Rechnung trägt und diese umfassend fördert. Sprachkompetenz und neue Technologien stehen auch in einer engen inhaltlichen Verbindung (Englisch ist d i e Websprache). Inhaltlich gesehen fokusiert „Global Education“ auf folgende Elemente:   Kultur und Sport  Verständnis für die Umwelt  Geschichte, Geografie, Kulturmanifestationen und Sitten anderer Länder und Regionen Teilnahme an internationalen (EU-Projekten), die den Gedanken- und Meinungsaustausch mit SchülerInnen anderer Länder gewährleisten. Dabei sollen modernste Kommunikationsformen (video-conferencing, e-mail, Chatforen, etc.) zu persönlichen Kontakten führen. 2.2.3. Projekt „EPS“ (European Primary School): Die Gründung der Europäischen Volksschule ist ein länderübergreifendes Bildungsprojekt, das von GrundschulexpertInnen aus den vier Nachbarregionen Györ, Brünn, Bratislava und Wien gemeinsam entwickelt wurde. Das Projekt wird in allen vier Regionen entsprechend den regionalen Möglichkeiten implementiert. ZIEL: Das vorliegende Schulkonzept setzt sich zum Ziel, den Sinn für ein gemeinsames Europa besonders zu fördern. Dies geschieht einerseits durch die besondere Vermittlung jener Fertigkeiten, die ein gemeinsames Zusammenleben fördern, hier stehen vor allem ein erweitertes Sprachenlernangebot im Vordergrund. Die Integration der europäischen Dimension in den Grundschulunterricht wird durch die Erziehung zur europäischen Unionsbürgerschaft in Form von European Studies maßgeblich gefördert. Es geschieht vor allem durch diverse gemeinsame Aktivitäten bzw. durch die Teilnahme an EU-Projekten. Z.B.: Where we live / How we live / The world around us DURCHFÜHRUNG: Die Europäische Volksschule bietet ein vermehrtes Angebot an Fremdsprachenunterricht. 145 Dies geschieht einerseits durch den Einsatz von „native speaker teachers“ im Ausmaß von 5 Stunden pro Woche, wobei Englisch als Unterrichtssprache in den Bereichen Musikerziehung, Bildnerische Erziehung, Leibesübungen, Sachunterricht und Werkerziehung zur Anwendung kommt. Die Europäische Dimension wird im Sinne des Konzeptes von Europäischen Studien verstärkt explizit behandelt. Dabei kommt auch Englisch als Unterrichtssprache zur Anwendung. Ein transnationales Expertenteam erstellt dazu Grundlagen für den erweiterten Sachunterricht, unter Einbeziehung der europäischen Dimension des sozialen Lernens, und somit zur Erziehung von Bürgern Europas (European Studies – see: www.cernet.at). Die Europäische Volksschule bietet die Möglichkeit, eine weitere Fremdsprache ab der Grundstufe II zu erlernen gegeben. Insbesondere werden die Sprachen der benachbarten Regionen und zwar Tschechisch, Ungarisch und Slowakisch angeboten. 3. QUALITÄTSSICHERUNG Erfolgreicher Fremdsprachenunterricht auf der Grundstufe soll von einem permanenten Bemühen um Qualitätssicherung getragen werden. Im Wiener Konzept sind folgende Maßnahmen vorgesehen: 3.1. Lernerfolgsdokumentation durch den Einsatz des Europäischen Sprachenportfolios Frühes Fremdsprachenlernen erfolgt ohne Leistungsdruck － d.h. es ist keine formaler Leistungsbeurteilung durch Schulnoten vorgesehen. Dennoch ist es erforderlich, den SchülerInnen ihren Lernzuwachs bewusst zu machen. Aus diesem Grunde wurde vom Europarat das Instrumentarium des Europäischen Sprachenportfolios entwickelt. Es ist ein Instrument, mit dem Sprachenlernende ihre Sprachkenntnisse selbst einschätzen und dokumentieren können und besteht aus folgenden Teilen:  Sprachenpass Mit Hilfe des Sprachenpasses können die SchülerInnen am Ende ihrer Grundschulzeit (nach ungefähr vier Jahren) dokumentieren, welche Sprachfertigkeiten sie erworben haben. Der Sprachenpass enthält deine persönlichen Daten (Name, Geburtsdatum, …), aber auch Angaben zu den Sprachen, die SchülerInnen beherrschen. Er gibt auch Auskunft, über welche interkulturellen Erfahrungen die SchülerInnen in anderen Ländern mit Personen und Sprachen gemacht haben. Damit besitzen die SchülerInnen ein Dokument, das sie herzeigen können, wenn sie jemanden Auskunft über ihre Sprachenkenntnisse geben möchten.  Sprachenbiografie Die Sprachenbiografie begleitet die SchülerInnen beim Sprachenlernen. 146 Sie hilft ihnen nachzudenken und zu lernen, dass- sie in einer Welt mit vielen verschiedenen Ländern mit Menschen, die unterschiedliche Sprachen sprechen, leben ‒ wozu und wo sie Sprachen verwenden ‒ welche Fortschritte sie beim Sprachenlernen machen ‒ wie sie ihre Sprachkenntnisse selbst einschätzen können ‒ welche Ziele sie für ihr weiteres Sprachenlernen setzen möchten  Dossier Das Dossier ist wie eine Schatzkiste, in der die SchülerInnen ganz besondere Beispiele ihres Sprachenlernens, die ihnen gut gelungen und die für sie wichtig sind, sammeln (wie z.B. Zeichnungen, Bilder, Arbeitsblätter, Spiele, Souvenirs, CDs, Geschichten, Lieder, Postkarten, Briefmarken, Fotos, Zeitungsausschnitte, Kursbesuchsbestätigungen, etc.) 3.2. Betreuungskonzept Erfolgreicher Fremdsprachenunterricht auf der Grundstufe erfordert kontinuierliche Beratung und Betreuung. Dies ist die Aufgabe des Fachreferates für Fremdsprachen. Regelmäßige Schulbesuche, DirektorInnenbesprechungen sowie Beratungsgespräche mit LehrerInnen gewährleisten Einblicke in die tatsächliche Implementierung der Projekte und ermöglichen entsprechende Maßnahmen zur Qualitätssicherung. 3.3. Aus- und Fortbildung der GrundschullehrerInnen Das Wiener Konzept geht davon aus, dass erfolgreicher integrativer Fremdsprachenunterricht nur von entsprechend ausgebildeten GrundschulehrerInnen geleistet werden kann. Die Fremdsprachenausbildung der GrundschulehrerInnen ist daher verpflichtender Teil der generellen GrundschullehrerInnenausbildung an den Pädagogischen Hochschulen. Darüber hinaus wurde auch jenen LehrerInnen, die im Rahmen ihrer Ausbildung noch keine Qualifikation erworben hatten, die Möglichkeit einer entsprechenden Nachschulung an den Pädagogischen Instituten geboten. Zumal alle LehrerInnen bereits über eine entsprechende sprachliche Ausbildung －vornehmlich in Englisch－ im Rahmen ihrer schulischen Ausbildung verfügen (eine Lebende Fremdsprache ist ein Prüfungsfach im Rahmen der Reifeprüfung am Ende der Sekundarstufe II), konzentriert sich die Ausbildung auf folgende Schwerpunkte:  Language for the teacher – language of the child Sprachunterricht als integrativer Bestandteil des Gesamtunterrichtes erfordert ein großes Maß an sprachlicher Flexibilität und Sprachkönnen. GrundschülerInnen sind im besonderen Maße befähigt, Sprache unbewusst und ungesteuert aufzunehmen bzw. sprachliche Vorgaben zu reproduzieren. 147 Falsche bzw. reduzierte Sprachmodelle führen letztlich zum Aneignen falscher Sprachgewohnheiten .  Didactics and Methodology Ausgehend von den Erkenntnissen, wie sich Spracherwerb im Grundschulalter vollzieht, setzt sich die Aus- und Fortbildung sich zum Ziel, eine Fülle von praktischen Unterrichtshilfen anzubieten. Exemplarisch lernen die LehrerInnen verschiedene Unterrichtsmodelle kennen, in denen gezeigt wird, wie fremdsprachliche Sequenzen in den Gesamtunterricht eingebaut werden können (z.B. im Sachunterricht, im Sport, in der Bildnerischen Erziehung, in Musik). (z.B. Spielanweisungen, Beschreibungen von Tieren, Pflanzen, etc.)  Learning by doing Durch die praktische Erprobung von Unterrichtssequenzen, die die TeilnehmerInnen im Rahmen ihrer Ausbildung entwickelt haben, erfolgt eine direkte Umsetzung der erworbenen unterrichtlichen Fertigkeiten. Eine anschließende Reflexion gemeinsam mit dem Ausbildungsleiterder Ausbildungsleiterin unterstützt diesen Kompetenzerweiterungsprozess. 3.4. Maßnahmen zur Überbrückung der Nahtstelle „Grundstufe – Sekundarstufe I“ Frühes Sprachenlernen versteht sich als erster Teil eines schulischen Gesamtsprachlernkonzeptes. Es ist daher unbedingt notwendig, die Kooperation zwischen Grundschulen und den Sekundarschulen zu fördern und zu unterstützen. Dies geschieht ‒ durch Abstimmen der Curricula der Primar- und Sekundarstufe ‒ durch gegenseitige Information ‒ durch gegenseitige Unterrichtsbesuche ‒ durch gemeinsame kooperative Vorhaben (z.B. temporäre Teamteaching Modelle) ‒ dass LehrerInnen in Ausbildung phasenweise gemeinsam mit dem Praxislehrer, den Unterricht durchführen. Eine andere Möglichkeit ist, dass Unterrichtseinheiten in Partnerarbeit entwickelt werden und im Anschluss daran gemeinsam in der praktischen Unterrichtsarbeit erprobt werden. Erfolgreiche Kooperation sollte im Sinne eines partnerschaftlichen Konzeptes von gegenseitiger Wertschätzung und Toleranz geprägt sein (kein „Unter- und Oberhausdenken“). 148 4. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Abschließend seien －wie folgt－ Wiener Markierungen für einen erfolgreichen Fremdsprachenunterricht auf der Primarstufe zusammengefasst:  Frühes Fremdsprachenlernen sollte ein Angebot für alle SchülerInnen sein. Es ist daher notwendig, Zielgruppen orientierte Angebote vorzusehen (z.B. Angebote für bilinguale  SchülerInnen).  Grundschule zu orientieren (z.B. zeitliche Belastbarkeit).  Verzicht auf Leistungsdruck.  zum lebenslangen Sprachenlernen aufzubauen.  Bildungskonzeptes auf der Grundstufe. Es hat sich an den physischen und psychischen Lerndispositionen der Altersgruppe der Frühes Sprachenlernen bedeutet Bereicherung und sollte keine Belastung darstellen, daher Für die weitere schulische und berufliche Laufbahn ist entscheidend, eine bleibende Motivation Frühes Sprachenlernen versteht sich als integrativer Bestandteil eines umfassenden  Im Vordergrund steht der mündliche Spracherwerb.  daher sind Interferenzprobleme zu vermeiden (z.B. zu frühe Vermittlung des Schriftbildes). Frühes Sprachenlernen darf den Mutterspracherwerb nicht behindern oder beeinflussen － Fremdsprachenunterricht auf der Grundstufe wird von dem/der gut ausgebildeten GrundschullehrerIn durchgeführt － nur dadurch ist das angestrebte integrative Konzept  verwirklichbar.  zu. Der Aus- und Fortbildung der GrundschullehrerInnen kommt daher entscheidende Bedeutung Erfolgreiches Sprachenlernen auf der Grundstufe ist Teil eines Gesamtkonzeptes zum schulischen Sprachenlernen, d.h. Konzepte der Sekundarstufe sollten darauf aufbauen. 149 Primary English Education in Korea : A New Prospect 李 岏基 (Lee, WonKey) 1. Background In the early 1980s, primary English was encouraged in primary schools as an early education subject. Schools responded to the government encouragement by teaching primary English as an extracurricular subject, i.e, outside the national curriculum. In 1995 the national curriculum of primary English was created and added into the existing curriculum and in 1997, English was officially introduced into primary schools for the 3rd to 6th graders for 2 class-hours per week. In 2000, the number of class hours was reduced to 1 hour per week for 3rd and 4th graders, with 2 hours per weeks for 5th and 6th graders in an effort to reduce students’ overall learning burdens, and to give them more time and opportunities for general self-cultivation. There were some influences from the Japanese Yutori education movement. At that time in Korea, a ‘5-workday policy’ was about to be introduced, even though up to now it is run only every other week at schools. All the schools have every other Saturday off every month now. As of now, 10 years of primary ELT is evaluated both positively and negatively. On the one hand: + People have become more open-minded and more globalized in attitudes + People have more enhanced concern and interest in English as a global language + People come to enjoy more enhanced English language proficiency On the other: － Private tutors have become prevalent, and fees have increased, giving burdens on the household budget － Students’ attention to school teaching has diminished and normal school education has been hampered. － The ‘English divide’ has deepened between regions (big cities, provinces, remote areas) and between social groups (haves and have-nots), and has become a sociopolitical issue. This is often talked about by politicians. 2. The Presidential Transition Committee’s reform plans (2008) In January, 2008, an ambitious English education reform plan was announced as one of the new government’s priority policies. This plan was aimed at solving the deepening English divide and the high private tutoring expenses. This was an election pledge of the president. Three major points of the reform plans by the presidential transition committee were:  enhancing English teacher education including both pre-service and in-service training  revising the national curriculum so that teaching hours of primary English were increased 150  fostering English-friendly environments inside and outside the schools 2.1 Enhancing teacher education 2.1.1 Employing 23,000 new teachers Employing 23,000 TEE (Teaching English in English) teachers by investing approximately US$1.7 billion. Among them will be 10,000 primary TEEs who are to be employed year by year as follows: Year 2010 2011 2012 2013 TEEs 3500 3500 1500 1500 In middle and high schools, the class size is to be reduced from 35 on average to 23 in order to strengthen teaching the speaking of English. 2.1.2 Further in-depth training of working teachers Between 2009 and 2013, English teacher training is to be carried out as follows:  in-Korea training: 5 months training in Korea and 1 month training overseas.  overseas training: 1,500 teachers to be sent overseas for practicum for 6 months.  Trainees are exempted from teaching, but paid their full salary during their training period. 2.2 Revising the national curriculum The national curriculum is to be revised by:  increasing teaching hours of primary English up to 3 hours per week  deregulating textbook publishing  implementing a national English test • • 2.3 Fostering an English-friendly environment English-friendly environments are to be created and fostered by:  increasing the English libraries for students in every primary school  setting up at EPIK one English experience center in every primary school, and at least one English-only zone in secondary schools  running English-only programs by broadcast and internet 3. Reflections on the present situation of primary ELT Realizing these reform proposals presents a lot of problems and difficulties. To implement these plans successfully, a clear understanding of the present situation of primary ELT is essential. Basically it is important to clarify what the purposes of primary ELT are what the necessary conditions to learn 151 primary English are, what is necessary to do to meet the necessary conditions, and what should be done about the textbooks and the teacher training. Let us discuss these questions one by one. 3.1 Purposes of primary ELT in Korea 3.1.2 Improving tolerance of differences, accepting others This is an essential goal of teaching foreign languages, to which is the purpose of primary ELT belongs. In the preamble to the Korean National Constitution, the Basic Education Law, the National Curriculum, there is a phrase that goes, “to contribute to the world peace and co-prosperity of mankind.” As a matter of fact, without genuine tolerance of differences from mine in race, language, and culture, etc., it is possible to live in peace. Teaching and learning of English, a foreign language, can play a solid role in fostering the tolerance toward differences. 3.1.2 Improving flexibility and creativity in one’s thinking Exposure to different ways of expressing one’s thinking will make people think in a way different from one’s own, and it can lead to different ways of thinking from those of one’s racially homogeneous neighbors. This can help lessen the intensity of the narrow-minded nationalism, which is one of the key factors for conflicts in the world. In addition, great thinkers, such as Goethe or Vygotsky, have noted that learning a foreign language has a reorganizing effect on the native language, strengthening and extending it in many ways. So primary English education will help children understand and appreciate their mother tongue. 3.1.3 Making secure the quality of life in the future English will be one of key factors to decide the quality of life now and in the future. Many scholars suggest that knowledge of English in the 21st century (globalization) will be comparable to knowledge of basic literacy in the 19th and 20th century (industrialization). So acquiring communicative ability in the English language will be one of the most important means to securing the quality of life. In primary ELT in Korea, this practical objective (3.1.3) is regarded as important but not as the prime objective. The most important objective is to foster concern and interest in English and familiarity with and confidence in English, which seem to be a solid foundation for the communicative ability of English. However, there is a big gap in perceptions about the purposes of ELT. Public school educators feel that more general educational objectives should take priority. In contrast, parents and private institutes think language itself is a prime objective. So there is private sector education flourishing in Korea. 3.2 Necessary conditions to learn English There can be two necessary conditions for learning English: exposure and use. Without exposure and use, nobody can learn English. However, current exposure time is very limited because Korea 152 basically belongs to an EFL environment, and the medium of instruction in the English class is usually Korean, not the target language. Mostly in secondary schools, teaching and learning are carried out with the university entrance exams in mind. This is a reality. So, written English is prioritized over spoken English. Hence there is little time and little motivation to use spoken English in classrooms. This practice is not cost-effective, extremely inefficient, ending up with a high-cost, low-outcome education. To crack this problem, the MEST (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology) has strongly encouraged teachers to teach English in English for about 10 years now. There can be 5 levels of English use in classroom from phase 1 (100% use of Korean) to phase 5 (100% use of English) as below. use of Korean use of English phase 1 phase 2 phase 3 phase 4 phase 5 100/0 25/75 50/50 75/25 0/100 (%) Korean English teachers are evaluated mostly to be in phases 3, and 4. Teachers in phase 4+ can teach the speaking of English with confidence. According to a survey done by the MOE1 in June 2007:  47.6% of primary school teachers  61.4% of middle school teachers  60.3% of high school teachers  answered that they can teach English in English. 3.3 Effective ways to increase exposure and use There can be two practical ways to increase exposure and use. 3.3.1 Increasing teaching hours of English Insufficient exposure and low learning intensity easily lead to attrition through forgetting. Learning outcomes do not accumulate. This has caused parents to want to send their children to get private tutoring. So Increasing teaching hours is necessary, but drastic increase is not possible, because of other subjects and the burden on the student. 3.3.2 Teaching English in English If teachers use English in teaching, exposure and use opportunity can be substantially increased. Employing TEE teachers from outside the current teacher education system may be an attractive way of improving exposure and use. But there is strong opposition to this idea. because teachers are more than technicians and also TEE teachers from outside the current system may cause confusion to the 1 MOE (Ministry of Education) was the name before 2008, it was MEST (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology) between 2008 and 2012, and has now reverted to MOE. 153 current system. Additionally TEE teachers, who are not properly teacher-trained, may use a lot of meta-talk, or complex explanations above the students' level because of their lack of professional training. So there may be exposure without comprehension, ending up with little actual learning. 3.4 English textbooks There are two types of textbooks; national textbooks and MEST-approved textbooks. National textbooks are usually meant for subjects such as national language, and national history, etc. Those are considered economical and efficient because only one type is written and used throughout the country. MEST-approved textbooks are meant for the rest of the subjects. A variety of textbooks are provided, so variability and creativity are found in those books. Characteristically primary English textbooks come with accompanying CD-ROMs, which contain standard native speaker pronunciation, effective teaching methods, a variety of games and other relevant materials, and assessment tools, etc. The main functions of the CD-ROMs are as follows:  to secure the minimum level of teaching quality (even less well-trained teachers can follow or mimic it)  to be used as a teacher training tool (teachers will be implicitly trained in language, and teaching methods)  to be used for teachers’ research and preparation for the next class after school. A more ambitious plan was announced. A digital textbook project is being carried out. Digital primary English textbooks have appeared since 2009 in order to replace paper textbooks with digital ones. 3.5 Teacher training There are basically two types of teacher training: pre-service training and in-service training. 3.5.1 Pre-service Training About 5,500 preliminary teachers graduate from 10 national universities of education every year. They have to go through the 3-stage teacher employment test. The first stage is a pencil & paper test on the national curriculum, the second stage is a 500-word essay test, and the third stage consists of the teaching skill demonstration followed by an English oral interview. 3.5.2 In-service Training A variety of the MEST-led in-Korea training programs are given regularly. Teachers can take an after-school program or a seasonal program (vacation), or overseas training programs. The local education authorities also offer a variety of in-Korea and overseas training programs. Some local education authorities offer an English-experience residential course for 6 months at a special institute. 154 3.5.3 English Native Speaker Teachers Every year the MEST employ English native speaker teachers through the EPIK (English Program in Korea) program. Those employed English native speaker teachers are sent to remote and provincial area schools where educational conditions are generally poor. The MEST has plans to employ 500 native speaker teachers a year, but it is not easy to get well-qualified English native speaker teachers. English native speakers usually are involved in: 2  co-teaching with a Korean teacher  assisting a Korean teacher's solo-teaching  team-teaching  solo-teaching 4. Adjusted plans to be implemented The MEST adjusted the transition committee’s plans to be more practical and realistic through a comprehensive research. 4.1 Securing class hours Through the revision of the national curriculum, teaching hours of primary English were increased to 2 hours per week for 3rd, 4th graders, and 3 hours for 5th, 6th graders. (The initial 3-3-3-3 plans suggested by the transition committee, seem to be too ambitious. So 2-2-3-3 is considered more realistic.) 4.2 Securing teachers 4.2.1 Currently working teachers Local schools are asked to assign working teachers capable of teaching the speaking of English to teach the speaking of English exclusively. Local education authorities are advised to employ more teachers who can teach the speaking of English. MEST and LEAs will provide more teacher training programs for teachers who are less capable of teaching the speaking of English. 4.2.2 English native speaker teachers The MEST will continue employing about 500 English native speaker teachers every year through the EPIK program. 4.2.3 Instructors in oral English More speech instructors are to be needed due to the increase of primary English class hours. More instructors of English speaking are to be employed to take charge of teaching the speaking of English. Instructors in oral English are different from teachers in Korea in the following respects. 2 The type of involvement varies depending on local schools. 155  status: instructor (not teachers, so not government employees)  salary: equivalent to teachers’ starting salary (relevant past experience considered)  obligations: teaching the speaking of English and supervising English native assistant teachers  expected number of instructors: approximately 1,000 instructors are expected to be needed per school year when one class hour is increased for every school year. 4.3 Operating the TaLK (Teach and Learn in Korea) program The MEST is running a special MEST scholarship program to invite overseas Korean residents. Their obligation is to teach English language at after-schools in provincial or remote areas. As of September, 2008, 836 applicants applied through overseas diplomatic offices. In July 2008, 380 finally selected and they went through a 4-week intensive training program on English teaching methods and understanding Korea. In September 1, 2008, they were assigned to local schools, and so far both parties are satisfied. 4.4 Implementing an English speaking test system The MEST is going to encourage local teacher-created English speaking tests in the form of ‘pass or fail.’ The MEST plans to provide English speaking test tools and testing method kits, developed by experts in the field, and the problem shooting committee is going to be run. This plan is expected to produce such effects as securing teachers’ authority by testing them at schools and speaking English will be more actively taught in schools due to the speaking test. 4.5 Fostering an English-friendly environment Korean society is changing rapidly and the principal current demographic trends are as follows:  two income households common (No parents to take care of child)  an increase in single parent families  an increase in families in poverty  a tendency towards low childbirth  an aging society An English-friendly environment may be fostered by:  building more English libraries to motivate learners to take an interest in reading  strengthening after-school programs to combat the possible polarization of society due to the English divide  building more English-only classrooms for lectures, research, materials, counselling, and workshops. 156  at least one English experience room in primary schools, 3  English-only broadcasts. EBS English-only programs have been on air from April 2007. These are also available through the internet.  ICT based English education. English teaching using computers and the internet. User Created Content (UCC) and Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) are strongly encouraged. Conclusion All macro-level educational policies are politically motivated. Education cannot stand alone away from politics. One of the current government’s priority policies is to reform ELT in Korea to make it more cost-effective. The general consensus about ELT in Korea is that English should be taught through the medium of English, and more capable teachers should be provided. At the primary level, the acquisition of communicative skills is subordinated to more general education goals. We believe that primary ELT cannot be a simple copy of English education at other levels. Primary school teaching is teaching the whole child teaching young learners is not a matter of teaching unusually short adults. For economic as well as political reasons, this more holistic approach does not seem immediately feasible; the gap between the demands of parents and other stakeholders and the needs of this holistic approach to English as part of a general education is far too great and the economic and political pressure on English teaching is too strong. We need to make a wise compromise. 3 As of 2008, 199 English-experience rooms (3%) were set up. 157 Foreign Language Instruction in China Huang, Jianbin (黄建 滨) Introduction Foreign language education is a hot issue in China’ s education system. In 2001 a new English syllabus was issued and young children began to learn English in primary schools firstly from grade 5 and then from grade 3, when they are about nine years old. This has led to a heated discussion as to whether English should be taught to children so young. This paper considers some of the historical background to the provision of English education in China and the English education at different levels of schools and universities. 1. History of English education in China English education in Chinese schools officially began in 1902. Before that English was already taught in some academies of classical learning, polytechnic institutions, old-style private schools and schools founded by missionaries. From 1902 to 1922, English became a required course in high schools and some primary schools. Eight teaching hours each week were required. Textbooks edited by English teachers like Primer were used. Only some textbooks were compiled by Chinese scholars like Yan Fu (严复), Zhou Yueran (周越然) and Wu Guangjian (伍光建). From 1922 to 1949, English was treated as a required course for some time and sometimes not as a required course in primary and high schools. Teaching hours were shortened to 3 to 5 hours each week during this period. Most of the textbooks used during this period were compiled by Chinese scholars like Lin Yutang (林语堂), Lu Shuxiang (吕叔湘), Lin Handa (林汉达), Zhang Shiyi (张士一) and Zhou Yueran (周越然). Some of the textbooks were Kaiming First English Book by Lin Yutang, The Standard English Readers by Lin Handa (林汉达), and Model English Readers by Zhou Yueran (周越 然). From 1949 to 1956, Russian was taught in most junior and senior high schools instead of English. From 1957 to 1966, English was once again a required course in middle schools. Teaching hours were 3 to 4 hours each week and the textbooks were compiled by Chinese scholars. Only one series of textbooks was used, which was published by People’s Education Press. From 1949 to 1966, English was taught only in primary schools of foreign languages. English was not taught in other primary schools. From 1966 to 1976, English education was not required, but from 1970, English was taught in high schools. Teaching hours were 3 to 4 hours each week and the textbooks were compiled and published by each province. From 1978 till the present time, English has been a required course in high schools. It is one of the courses examined for university entrance examinations. Teaching hours each week are 3 to 5. Russian and Japanese are taught in some high schools in some northern provinces. Other languages like 158 French, German, Spanish are taught in some high schools or foreign languages. People’s Education Press published a series of textbooks compiled by Chinese scholars. This series of textbooks was used by all high schools. In 1993, People’s Education Press, together with Longman Group Limited published a series of textbooks named Junior English for China and Senior English for China compiled by British and Chinese scholars, which was used by nearly all high schools. From 1993, some provinces began to compile and publish their own textbooks for their provinces, like Sichuan, Guangdong, and Shandong. In 2001, a new syllabus called Curriculum Standards for Primary and High School English Courses was issued, and many publishing houses began to publish textbooks according to the new syllabus. These textbooks were compiled by Chinese scholars with scholars from Britain, Canada, or the U.S.A., including seven series of textbooks for senior high schools, 18 series for junior high schools and more than 50 series for primary schools. 2. English syllabi for high schools 2.1 Comparison of the overall aims of English education in high schools The English syllabi for high schools designed in 1929, 1932, and 1941 are quite similar in overall aims as follows:  Pupils are required to use simple practical English.  Pupils are required to read a little literature in English.  Pupils are required to have a good English foundation for their specialties.  Pupils are required to use English in their academic fields.  Pupils are required to develop their language skills through English.  Pupils are required to have interest in other cultures through English. The English syllabus for high schools designed in 1948 was a little different from the former ones as follows:  Pupils are required to use simple everyday English.  Pupils are required to have a correct English foundation for future studies.  Pupils are required to understand British and American national spirits and customs.  Pupils are required to have interest in western cultures. Comparing the two syllabi, we can see that the latter does not require pupils to use English in their academic fields. Pupils are not required to read literature in English in the latter as literature is difficult to understand for a language beginner. Pupils are not required to develop their language skills through English in the latter. Other cultures are a little general in the former so in the latter western cultures are used instead of other cultures. After the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, in 1951, a new syllabus was designed for the 159 English course in high schools. The overall aims of this course are:  Pupils are required to develop interest in reading and using English for future studies.  Pupils are required to recognize 1000 to 1500 common words.  Pupils are required to use 200 sentences of everyday English.  Pupils are required to read simple English passages with less than 10 to 20 percent of new words.  Pupils are required to have clear hand-writing. Comparing this syllabus with the former ones, it can be seen that the requirements in the latter are much lower than the former ones in language skills and no requirements are set for culture. The 1980 syllabus was designed after the Cultural Revolution and the aims and objectives of this syllabus are as follows:  The pupils are required to have a basic practice in speaking, listening, reading and writing, especially in reading and independent study.  The pupils are required to have a good foundation for future study and use of English.  The pupils are required to master basic knowledge of English phonetics and grammar, know 2200 words and some phrases and expressions.  The pupils are required to read articles of general knowledge in simple English with the help of dictionaries, and to have a basic ability in listening, speaking, writing and translation. This syllabus is more detailed in language skills than the syllabus designed in 1951 but culture is not mentioned at all. In 2001, a new English syllabus called Curriculum Standards for Primary and High Schools was set up, which has 9 levels for different English learners at primary schools, junior high schools and senior high schools. These Standards were revised for primary and junior high schools in 2011 again with those for senior high school still under revision at the time of writing. Take level eight1 for example, which is a requirement for pupils of senior high school who want to pass the national university entrance examinations.  Pupils are required to have stronger confidence and ability to study independently in English.  Pupils are required to communicate in English with English-speaking people about familiar topics. 1 The activities mentioned here are: such as discussion and drawing of plans, report of experiments and results of surveys. 160  Pupils are required to give comments and opinions on spoken and written materials.  Pupils are required to write coherent and well-structured compositions.  Pupils are required to design, organize and carry out various language activities by themselves, such as discussion and drawing of plans, report of experiments and results of surveys.  Pupils are required to effectively use websites and other teaching resources to get and use the information and then arrange, induce and analyze the information according to their own purposes.  Pupils are required to evaluate their study effects, and develop effective English learning strategies.  Pupils are required to know the cultural backgrounds, and understand and tolerate other cultures in communication. (2003 version) This set of standards is very high. If a pupil could reach it, his/her English would be excellent. According to Prabhu (1987), a syllabus is generally thought of as a statement of what is to be taught. It is a form of support to the teaching activity that is to be carried out in the classroom and a form of guidance in the construction of appropriate lesson plans. By using standards instead of a syllabus, the designers hope that each school can have their own syllabus designed for their particular pupils based on its own teaching conditions. 2.2 Comparison of vocabulary size of some English syllabi in China Table 1. Vocabulary Size for Pupils at High School Levels Time 1929 1932 Junior High School 1500 3000 (productive level: 2000) Senior High school 4000 8000 (productive level:5300) 1941 2000 (productive level:1300) 7000 (productive level:4700) 1948 1951 1956 1963 1978 (five-year system) 2000 (productive level:1300) 1000~1500 No English course 1500~2000 1250 1986 1250 6000 (productive level:4000) 5000 1500 3500~4000 2200 2750 (productive level: 1800-2000) 1992 (junior high schools) 1000 (productive level: 600) 1993 (senior high schools) 1996 (senior high schools) 2000 2001 (compulsory education) 1200~1300 (productive level:800) 1500~1600 2003 (senior high schools) 161 3000 (productive level:1700) 1940 (productive level:1200) 1940 (productive level:1200) 3000 Level 7: 2400~2500 Level 8: 3300 Level 9: 4500 From this table, we can see that the vocabulary required in 1956 is very low, and the requirement is 2003 is still not as high as that in 1932 or 1941. As for what words should be learned, from the syllabus in 1986, the words in the list are given without Chinese translation, but in the lists of 1992, 1996, 2000, 2001, the words are given with Chinese translation. And in the list of 2003, the words are given with parts of speech, but without Chinese translation. Table 2. Vocabulary Size for Pupils at Primary School Levels Time Primary School 1916 no requirement 1978 550 2001 600-700 There are only two lists of vocabulary size in the English syllabi for primary schools, and the number of words is quite similar in both of them. 3. English education at primary schools Before 1980, only some specialist schools for foreign languages taught English and other foreign languages like Russian, French, Japanese, and Spanish. But pupils began to learn English in private institutions or from home teachers. At the end of the 1980s, in some areas in China, English began to be taught in primary schools. In 1990, more than one million primary school pupils took an English course. In 1995, three million primary school pupils took an English course. In 1998, English was taught in primary schools in 27 provinces. In 2002, about five million primary school pupils took an English course. In 2001, the Curriculum Standards for Pimary and High School English Courses was issued, and from then on all primary schools were required to teach English from grade 5 first and then from grade 3, and now all primary schools have to teach English from grade 3. In some large cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, some primary schools teach English even from grade 1. More than 50 series of textbooks for primary schools have been published since 2001. The most popular one is PEP Primary English published by People’s Education Press in 2003, which is compiled by Lingo Media from Canada and Chinese scholars. This series is for English learners from grade 3. New Primary English for China, another series of textbooks is published by the same publisher, but compiled by SNP Learning of Singapore and Chinese scholars. This series is also for English learners from grade 3. Another series of textbooks is Starting Line, also published by People’s Education Press with Lingo Media from Canada. This series is for English learners from grade 1. Textbooks published by international publishers such as Oxford University Press, Pearson Education, Cambridge University Press are used in many private institutions. And some of their textbooks are used as supplementary materials in primary and high schools. For example, New Concept English, English 900, Family Album U.S.A., and Look Ahead were used or are still used in 162 some primary and high schools, schools of foreign languages or private institutions of foreign languages. According to the critical period hypothesis, there is a period when language acquisition takes place naturally and effortlessly (see Byram this volume). Penfield and Roberts (1959) argued that the optimum age for language acquisition falls within the first ten years of life. During this period the brain retains plasticity, but with the onset of puberty this plasticity begins to disappear. Lenneberg provided some evidence to support this hypothesis, and he assumed that language acquisition was easier for children. (Ellis, 1985) Learners who start as children achieve a more native-like accent than those who start as adolescents or adults. Similar results have been obtained for the acquisition of grammar. So Singleton (1989) writes: Concerning the hypothesis that those begin learning a second language in childhood in the long run generally achieve higher levels of proficiency than those who begin in later life, one can say that there is some good supportive evidence and that there is no actual counter evidence. (Ellis, 1994) Thus we know that young children who learn a language before the onset of adolescence are at least much more likely to have native-like pronunciation and maybe are better at grammar. Studies also show that children can learn two languages well at the same time, which is supported by language experience. Children who are exposed to another language at an early age are usually willing to know more about the people who speak that language and their culture. This will broaden their outlook. On the other hand, English is now considered as an international language and children are eager to learn English earlier so that they will have more opportunities in their future career. So the designers of the 2001 syllabus suggested that children of nine years old start to learn English at primary schools. There are still arguments for teaching English at primary schools. For example, Burshtall (1975) compared two groups of pupils with five years of instruction. One group had begun learning French at the age of 8, while the other had begun at the beginning of secondary school (11 years). She found that the older learners were consistently superior. (Ellis, 1994) And also there is some negative influence against cultural and linguistic identity. But no one can deny that English is very important in the present world and China is closely connected with other countries and thus it is better for young children to learn English earlier so as to have a better competence to communicate with peoples of other countries in this world language. But we have to know that in China’s primary schools, children learn English as a foreign language, not a second language as immigrant children in the US or Canada, and the Chinese children do not have the same language environment. And not only the primary school pupils but also the high school pupils and university students in China learn English as a foreign language. Furthermore, in many primary schools, especially in the rural and remote areas there are not enough qualified teachers of English who are good at English pronunciation, and the teaching equipment and apparatus are far from enough. So how can children there learn good English in such a condition? We can find many children in big cities even begin to learn English at kindergartens at the age of 4 or 5, and can speak excellent English. We may say that these children are eager to learn English, but actually it is not the 163 children who at their age do not have the motivation to learn English but their parents who are eager to have their children to begin to learn English at earlier age. So with the new syllabus, the Ministry of Education has to deal with these problems so as to let children have better conditions for foreign language learning. 4. Nine levels of English education at primary and high schools Language learning is a step-by-step process. Learners’ abilities are quite different for various reasons. But the former syllabi were designed for pupils at the same starting point, which cannot meet the needs of all the pupils all over China. China is a very big country with a large population. There are 2200 million primary and high school pupils at present. For example, in Zhenhai District in Ningbo City (浙江宁波镇海区), there is a population of over 200,000 and in the primary schools, there are about 3000 pupils in each grade. Some areas are quite developed and some are under-developed or developing. The teaching equipment and apparatus are quite different. The teachers of English are quite different not only in their teaching strategies but also in their educational backgrounds. Some of them majored in other disciplines other than English, and have not been trained as teachers of English. In big cities like Beijing and Hangzhou, many pupils can learn English before they are primary school pupils and this explains why these pupils are good at English. The same requirement can not satisfy all these pupils. They should not start at the same level and finish at the same level. So nine levels are defined in the new syllabus. Thus, each area and each school can choose a certain level for their pupils. For example, the first two levels are for primary schools. The first level is for grade 3 and grade 4 pupils. The second level is for grade 5 and grade 6 pupils. If some schools in metropolitan cities and coastal provinces begin to teach English from grade 1, they can choose the third level for their pupils. Levels 3 to 5 are designed for junior high school phase. The pupils have to reach the fifth level to pass the entrance examinations for senior high schools. The sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth levels are for senior high schools. The sixth and seventh levels are required of every senior high school pupil. The pupils have to reach the eighth level to pass the national entrance examinations for universities. The ninth level is designed for excellent pupils and pupils at schools of foreign languages. 4.1 The characteristics of the new syllabus (2001)  The design of the new syllabus called Curriculum Standards first unifies both primary and high school English into one continuum of development and divides English language teaching into nine levels based on language proficiency. The standards are designed according to students’ cognitive development. Appropriate teaching materials are required so as to decrease students’ pressure in learning.  Detailed performance objectives for each level are given in addition to the overall aims of the course.  The achievement standards change from a grade-based to a proficiency-based one which gives opportunities for pupils starting at different ages to follow the levels progressively. So schools with better teaching conditions can reach levels higher than schools with poorer teaching conditions. 164  After the nine-year compulsory education, the curriculum is designed to include both a required component which leads to level 7 and an elective component, making the curriculum more flexible so that the pupils have more options.  All teaching aims are described in terms of what the pupils should be able to do with the language rather than what the teachers have to teach, thus putting the pupils at the center of learning.  A new assessment system is established to encourage the use of both formative and summative assessment to evaluate pupils’ learning.  The new curriculum puts a very strong emphasis on teachers’ ability to make good use of modern educational resources and expand the use of media in teaching. In each level, there are descriptions of overall aims, descriptions of language skills, language knowledge, feelings and attitudes, learning strategies, and cultural awareness. Take the second level, which is for primary schools, for example. 4.2 The 2011 syllabus 4.2.1 Description of overall aims Pupils are required to be interested in continuing to learn English.  They can use simple English to greet, and get across simple messages about themselves, their families and friends and can briefly talk about daily topics.  They can understand by listening and reading simple stories with the help of pictures and can tell stories in simple English.  They can act out short stories or short plays, sing simple English songs and nursery rhymes with the help of their teachers.  They can write short descriptions with the help of pictures, given words and expressions or model sentences.  They are eager to take part in class activities, enjoy co-operative learning and ask for advice in language learning so as to develop a basic ability to learn English and a good study habit.  They are eager to learn about cultures and customs of other nations. 4.2.2 Descriptions of language knowledge a. Pronunciation  correctly utter the 26 English letters;  learn about the simple spelling rules;  know that words have stress and sentences have stress;  learn about some phonetic knowledge such as liaison, rhythm, pause and intonation etc. b. Vocabulary  know how words are made up of with letters;  know that learning English words is based on the pronunciation, meaning and form of words; 165  learn 600 to 700 words and 50 phrases and idioms to express the topics required in the second level. c. Grammar i. Understand in context the meaning and usage of the following grammatical points:  singular and plural forms and possessive case of nouns;  personal pronouns and adjectival pronouns;  simple present tense, present progressive tense, simple past tense and simple future tense;  frequently-used prepositions of time, location and direction;  the basic forms of simple sentences. ii. understand the functions of expressing meaning of the above-mentioned points in context. d. Function  Understand and apply the ways to express the following functions: greetings, introductions, farewell, requests, invitations, gratitude, apology, emotion, like, suggestions. e. Topics  Understand and express the following topics: personal status, family and friends, body and health, school and daily life, recreational activities, holidays and vacation, food, garment, climate and weather, colors, animals, plants, etc. 4.2.3 Descriptions of learning strategies Basic learning strategies:  take an active part in cooperation and finish learning tasks together;  take initiative to ask advice from teachers and other pupils when they meet with difficulties in their studies;  make simple English learning plans;  take initiative to practice what they have learned;  find connections between words and corresponding things;  focus their attention on learning;  listen attentively and think actively during classroom communication;  try to read English stories and other after-class reading materials;  take an active part in communication;  observe simple English used in mass media and daily life;  learn English by using simple reference books. 166 4.2.4 Descriptions of cultural awareness  They are required to learn about the simplest naming, greeting, farewell expressions;  They can respond to simple praise and requests;  They learn about the main recreational and sports activities in the world;  They learn about the typical drinks and foods in English-speaking countries;  They learn about the capitals and national flags of the main English-speaking countries;  They understand the well-known symbols of English-speaking countries, like Big Ben in London;  They understand the important festivals in English-speaking countries;  They are required to notice the basic differences between China and other countries in their learning and daily communication. From the above descriptions we can see that the requirements for the second level is not difficult for pupils to reach. And we can also see that now cultural awareness is paid more attention to by Chinese English syllabus designers. 4.3 Vocabulary size for primary and high schools Table 3 Vocabulary size for primary and high schools (2003) Level School Words Phrases Level 2 Primary schools 600-700 50 Level 5 Junior high schools 1500-1600 200-300 Level 7 Senior high schools 2400~2500 (should learn to use) 300-400 Level 8 Senior high schools 3300 (should learn to use) 400-500 Level 9 Senior high schools 4500 (should learn to use) Certain number of phrases From this table we can see that the requirements for words and phrases at each level is both appropriate and attainable. 5. Teachers of English at primary and high schools In primary schools English education regularly began in 2002 after the new syllabus was issued in 2001. Then most of the primary schools began to train other subject teachers to be teachers of English first to satisfy the needs of English education. These newly-trained teachers were only trained for a semester of about 5 months and had to teach English immediately after training. And the primary schools began to recruit teachers of English. As there were many English majors graduating from universities and colleges, it was not difficult for schools in big and middle-sized cities to recruit new teachers. But in rural and remote areas it is still a problem. These new teachers of English are young and energetic but lack language teaching techniques and knowledge of the language they are teaching. So they need training. 167 According to a survey (Qin(秦晓星), 2006) which was conducted in 8 provinces, autonomous areas and municipalities in different regions of China including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Neimenggu, Jiangsu, Hainan, and Guangdong (北京、天津、河北、辽宁、内蒙古、江苏、海南、广东), among the 86 teachers of English, 9 were aged of 45 to 54, 20 aged between 35 to 44, and 57 were in the 25 to 34 age range. Most of them are newly recruited teachers. Among the 86 teachers, 65 percent have received some kind of training in English education. This figure shows that still about one third of the teachers of English have not been trained as teachers of English. The condition was no better two years later. According to my own survey in the Zhenhai(镇海) District of Ningbo, located in a developed area in Zhejiang (浙江) Province, 22 percent of the teachers still had not received training in English education. So my school (School of International Studies of Zhejiang University浙江大学) began a 5-year program with the local government to train these teachers and other teachers who lack language teaching and are not qualified in English education. According to Qin’s (秦晓星) survey (2006), 42 percent of the teachers of English used multi-media in their teaching, but according to my survey in Zhenhai District (镇海区) and Hangzhou proper (capital of Zhejiang Province)(浙江省会杭州市), all the teachers use multi-media in their teaching as the schools have already have the equipment. This shows that in big cities, teaching conditions are much better than those in rural and remote areas. Table 4. Teachers of English in high schools Time Number of teachers of English 1978 163000 1982 265000 1985 325000 2003 500000 There are no exact statistics for the number of teachers of English in primary schools, but based on the number of primary schools (320,100), the number of pupils(105,640,000) in school in 2007, the number of pupils in each class (30-48), the number of teaching hours for each class, and the teaching load (each teacher teach 10-16 teaching hours each week), we get an approximate number of teachers of English in primary schools: 700,000. In most primary schools pupils have three teaching hours of English each week: in other words each class has three periods of English each week. Teachers of English at primary schools usually have to teach 5 to 6 classes so they usually have 15 to 18 teaching hours each week. In most high schools pupils have four to five teaching hours of English each week. Teachers of English at high schools usually have to teach 2 to 4 classes so they have 10 to 16 teaching hours each week. Each teaching hour last for 40 to 45 minutes with 10-minute for a break in between and a 20-minute break between the second and the third period in the morning for pupils to do physical and eye exercises. 168 Table 5. Teaching hours each week for primary and high school English teachers in China Weekly teaching hours 1-4 5-8 9-12 13-16 17-20 21-24 Over 25 Percentage 5.2 18.6 42.6 20.2 9.6 3.0 0.9 (Wu (吴欣), 2008) At primary schools in China, teachers of English usually only teach English. They do not teach other subjects like mathematics, Chinese, or science. They are trained in English teaching and required to teach English only. Most of the teachers of English in big cities and coastal provinces are specially trained as teachers of English. They have a bachelor’s degree in English education or English language and literature at university. As they are well trained in English, most of them are qualified as teachers of English. And their pupils benefit a lot from their teaching. But in many primary and high schools in rural and remote areas some teachers of English were formerly teachers of other subjects because there are not enough teachers who have majored in English at university. Some of these teachers have been trained as teachers of English at two-year or three year teacher colleges and have not obtained a bachelor’s degree. As some of the teachers who are teaching English in rural and remote areas have not been well trained or even not trained at all as teachers of English, their knowledge of English pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and culture is not enough for them to be qualified teachers of English. Thus it is difficult for the pupils to learn English successfully from these kinds of teachers. That is why we may find some university students who are good or even excellent in English, but many are quite poor in English, especially in speaking and listening. Teachers of English have no right to choose the textbooks for their pupils. A provincial institute in charge of the teaching in primary and high schools will do that. They choose the textbooks for the schools and design provincial entrance examinations based on the textbooks they have chosen so the schools in the province have to use the textbooks. Otherwise their pupils will face unfavorable conditions when they take the examinations. In China’s primary and high schools, there are about 48 pupils in almost every class, so there has to be a head teacher, who is in charge of the management of the class. And in some schools the class does not only have a head teacher but also a deputy head teacher, who assists the head teacher to take charge of the class. Most of the head teachers are teachers of the Chinese language and mathematics, and usually about one third of teachers of English act as head teachers. Many teachers of English act as deputy head teachers in charge of a class. As deputy head teachers they have to work in the morning class before regular classes to help pupils to read English aloud and they have to work sometimes after class in the afternoon tutoring pupils in their English exercises. These teachers are very busy with their teaching load and tutoring work. The following table shows where the primary English teachers received their English education. 169 Table 6. Where the primary English teachers received their English education Type of institution Teachers Non-teachers Education college Percentage 11.4 colleges 0.9 Distance Broadcast college 9.1 Evening Self- learning university university study 36.8 7.6 3.3 28 Others 2.9 (Wu, 2008) From Table 6, we can see that most of the primary English teachers in China have not been professionally trained as teachers of English. So they have to go back to universities to get training in teaching methodology and in language skills. However, Wu (2008), the percentage of primary English teachers who have been trained in teaching methodology is 71.8 for teachers in Beijing, the capital of China, 54.2 for teachers in Zhejiang Province, which is a more developed coastal province, and 41.4 for teachers of Anhui Province, which is a less developed province. 6. English education at university level 6.1. Overall aims of the syllabi for university students College English is a basic course given to non-English majors at all universities and colleges in China. All university students have to take it. It usually lasts for two years and the number of teaching hours for each week is 4. in universities with master’s degrees and doctorate degrees, master candidates have to take a basic English course for half to one year, with 4 teaching hours each week, and doctoral candidates have to take a basic English course for half a year with 4 teaching hours each week. Universities and colleges have this kind of basic English course for their undergraduate and graduate students because high school pupils are not good enough at English. This was true 30 or 20 years ago. But now students are much better at English and this course is still given at universities and colleges. So arguments arise against this course. This kind of English course is still given because the students are not good at English so as to communicate in English with English-speaking people, they have to learn to use English in their research field, which is English for specific purposes (ESP), and many students from rural and remote areas are still poor in English, especially in speaking and listening. The first college English syllabus was issued in 1962, but was not carried out because of the Cultural Revolution beginning in 1966. In 1980, a revised syllabus based on the one in 1962 was issued. In 1985 an English syllabus was issued for students of science and technology and a year later another English syllabus was issued for students of arts and sciences. Both syllabi define the general aims of college English as follows: to develop in students a relatively high level of competence in reading, an intermediate level of competence in listening (and translation for the 1985 version) and a basic competence in writing and speaking. After completion of the course, students should be able to use the English they have learned as a means to obtain information they need in their fields of specialization and also as a solid foundation for further improvement of their command of the language. In 1999, a new college English syllabus was issued which was designed for all university students in China. The overall aims of this syllabus are to develop in students a relatively high level of 170 competence in reading, an intermediate level of competence in listening, speaking, writing and translation. After completion of the course, students should be able to use the English they have learned as a means to exchange whatever information and also as a solid foundation for further improvement of their command of the language. Students should also master a good language learning method, improve their cultural quality in order to meet the needs of the social development and economic construction. In 2007, a new syllabus called College English Curriculum Requirements was issued (its trial implementation version was issued in 2004). The overall aims of this syllabus is to develop students’ ability to use English in a well-round way, especially in listening and speaking, so that in their future studies and careers as well as social interactions they will be able to exchange information effectively, and at the same time enhance their ability to study independently and improve their general cultural awareness so as to meet the needs of China’s social development and international exchanges. 6.2 Comparison of the three syllabi Comparing the three syllabi in 1985/1986, 1999, and 2004, we find the following differences. 6.2.1 The language skills are put in different levels in the three syllabi.  For the 1985/1986 syllabus, there are three levels, first reading, second listening (and translation), and third speaking and writing. For the 1999 version, there are only two levels: first reading, and second listening, speaking, writing and translation. Speaking and writing are emphasized, and considered as important as listening and translation. In the 2004 version, listening and speaking are upgraded to the first level, and the other skills are at the second level.  In the 1985/1986 syllabus, students are only required to read English materials in their own academic fields, but in the latter two, students are required to exchange information.  In the 1999 and 2004 syllabi, language learning strategies are mentioned, and in the 2004’s, independent study is mentioned.  In the 1999 and the 2004 versions, cultural quality is mentioned.  The 2004 syllabus is a set of requirements so each university can design its own syllabus. 6.3 Vocabulary size for university students Table 7 Vocabulary size for university students Time Number of words 1962 1400 1980 1500~1800 Basic requirements (Band IV) 1985 (for students 3800~400 of science and (productive level: 2500) technology) Intermediate requirements (Band VI) 5000~5300 (productive level: 3000) 171 Higher requirements 1985 (for students 4000 of arts and (productive level: 2300) sciences) 1993 (for all university 4000 students) 4200 1999 2004 (productive level: 2500) 4500 (active voc.: 2000) 2007 (revised 4795 (active voc.: 2000) version of 2004) 5300 (productive level: 2800) 5300 5500 (productive level: 3000) 5500 (active voc.: 2200) 6395 (active voc.: 2200) 6500 (productive level: 3300) 6500 (active voc.: 2500) 7675 (active voc.: 2360) From Table 7, we can see that active vocabulary is used instead of the productive level. The number of words is not so great compared with that for high schools. Table 8 Time 1999 Phrase size for university students2 Basic requirements Intermediate requirements (Band IV) (Band VI) certain number of phrases with words in the level 2004 2007 (revised version of 2004) certain number of phrases with words in the level Higher requirements 2200 700 1200 1700 700 1200 1870 From Table 8, in comparison with Table 3, we can see that the number of phrases is much greater than that found in the syllabi for high schools. The same as the Standards for primary and high schools, the vocabulary has meanings in the former ones but has no meanings in the newest 2004’s. 7. English examinations in China When it comes to the English teaching and learning in China, one thing has to be mentioned, that is, the English examination systems in China. China is an examinations-oriented country. According to research, among the top thirty core words in Chinese language consciousness, examination ranks ten. There are many kinds of English examinations in the country. Public English Test System (PETS) is a national examination system for people who have learned English in any way, in universities, in high schools, on their own, etc. The national university entrance examination is for students who want to 2 In the 1962, 1980, 1985, 1986 and 1993, certain number of phrases is mentioned for each level. 172 study in universities or colleges after their senior high schooling. Junior high school pupils have to take a test to choose a better senior high school. Undergraduate students who want to pursue their master’s degrees have to take the entrance examinations with English as one part of it. Band IV and Band VI are college English tests for non-English majors at the university level. Many provinces have Band II or Band III tests for their own college students. Students in two-year or three-year colleges have to take tests specially designed for them. English majors at the university level have to take Level IV or Level VIII of a Test for English Majors (TEM). There are tests for interpreters and translators respectively. There are TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), IELTS (International English Language Testing System), BEC (Business English Certificate), BULATS (Business Language Testing Service) from Britain and the U.S.A. for different purposes and different test-takers. Thus with these tests and examinations, Chinese students are eager and spend a considerable amount of time doing different kinds of simulated tests so as to get better scores. Thus they have less time to practice their English. This is one of the reasons that many Chinese students can score very high in TOEFL but could not communicate with English-speaking people. Conclusion From the above, it can be concluded that foreign language education, especially English education has already been improved at different levels in China these years. But there is still a lot to do in the near future. 1) To give better training to the teachers in rural and remote areas so that they can become qualified teachers of English. 2) To give further training to the teachers in big cities and coastal provinces so that they may have a master’s degree in language teaching. 3) To train more teachers of English so that the class of English can be divided into a smaller one with about 20 pupils in one class so that the pupils may have better language contact. This means the number of teachers of English has to be doubled, which is a great job for the government. 4) To have more other languages taught besides English at primary or at least at high school phase. Languages like French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and German should be given more priority. 5) The teaching hours each week at primary schools should be increased, say, to 5 or 6 hours. Thus pupils will have better training in English when they are young. If the pupils can have good training in English in the primary and high school phase, basic English course 3 is not necessary at university. Thus university students will have more time for their own academic research and for English for specific purposes (ESP), and they may have time to learn a second foreign language which would be more useful in their future work. 3 The basic English course is given in each university and college in China as a required course for two to four semesters for non-English majors. And at the end the course, they are required to take the National Band IV CET (for some key universities, students have to take the National Band VI CET). 173 6) More teaching equipment and apparatus have to be provided for schools in the rural and remote areas. 7) The number of words required in the syllabi should be increased. 8) There should be fewer national or provincial tests and examinations in English so that students will have more time to learn English with interest, which will help them learn the language better. 9) In China, the standards of English Teaching for primary, junior high and senior high schools, the Requirements for College English, and the English Syllabus for Graduate Students are designed by three different groups of specialists. So what they have worked out is quite different. In fact, they are specialists in their own language teaching fields, that is, primary to senior high school English education, college English education, and graduate English education, but their students are quite different. This way, my last but not the least important suggestion is: foreign language education has to be integrated from primary schools to universities. Scholars of syllabus design for primary schools, high schools, universities have to work together to design an integrated syllabus / requirement /standard for English learners in China. Thus, a student who begins to learn English at the age of nine will learn it in a step-by-step way, and avoid learning something again and again. Now with the revised English syllabi both at primary and high school level and university level, Chinese children have to learn English from grade 3 or even from grade 1, and they have more opportunities and time to improve their English. With more and more people from other countries coming to China to do business or to go sightseeing, Chinese students have more chance to practice their English. We hope that in the near future, they will communicate better in English or in other languages with people all over the world. References Cheng Xiaotang(程晓堂) (2003): Guidance to teacher training for the new curricula for basic education: Primary English, Beijing Normal University Press. Ellis, R. (1985):Understanding Second Language Acquisition, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (1994): The study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Huang Jianbin(黄建滨), et al. (2007): On the Vocabulary Size for Chinese English Learners. In: Polyglossia, Vol. 13. Institute of Curricula and Teaching Materials (2001): Collections of curricula and syllabi for primary and high schools in China in the 20th century. In: Foreign languages: English, People’s Education Press. Lu Lianghuan(吕良环) (2003): Theory of curricula and teaching of foreign languages. Zhejiang Education Press. Ministry of Education of the People’ Republic of China(中华人民共和国教育部) (1985): National Syllabus for College English. Higher Education Press. 174 Ministry of Education of the People’ Republic of China(中华人民共和国教育部) (1986): National Syllabus for College English. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Ministry of Education of the People’ Republic of China(中华人民共和国教育部) (1999): National Syllabus for College English (Revised edition). Higher Education Press. Ministry of Education of the People’ Republic of China(中华人民共和国教育部) (2001): English curriculum for high schools. People’s Education Press. Ministry of Education of the People’ Republic of China(中华人民共和国教育部) (2003): English curriculum for senior high schools. People’s Education Press. Ministry of Education of the People’ Republic of China(中华人民共和国教育部) (2004): College English Curriculum Requirements (For Trial Implementation). Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Ministry of Education of the People’ Republic of China(中华人民共和国教育部) (2007): College English Curriculum Requirements, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Ministry of Education of the People’ Republic of China(中华人民共和国教育部) (2004): College English Curriculum Requirements, People’s Education Press. Ministry of Education of the People’ Republic of China(中华人民共和国教育部) (2011): English curriculum for Junior high schools. Beijing Normal University Press. Prabhu, N. S. (1987): Second Language Pedagogy, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Qin Xiaoxing (秦晓星) (2006): Report of a survey of English education in primary schools. In: Liu Limin (刘 利民) (ed.): Beijing Forum of Foreign languages and literatures. Central Compilation and Translation Press. Wang Qiang(王蔷) (2003): Course-book of teaching methodologies of primary English. Higher Education Press. Wu Xin(吴欣) (2008): Survey and analysis of the present condition of China’s primary and high school English teachers. People’s Education Press. Zhou Liuxi(周流溪) (1995): An encyclopedia of English education in middle schools of China. Northeastern University Press. 175 The Application of the Common European Framework for Language Instruction in Taiwan Chuang, Yuangshan (莊 永山) Introduction The Common European Framework of References for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment was created in 2001 by the Council of Europe (www.coe.int), which consists of 47 member countries. The Framework has been integrated into the education system in all these countries, which means that the countries use the same system, standard, and guidelines for language learning, teaching, and assessment. Therefore, it is of great importance for other countries to adopt the Framework if they would like their language certification and products for language instruction such as textbooks, CDs, and online courses to be accepted by countries in the Council of Europe. Taiwan is no exception. Adopting the Common European Framework is extremely important to Taiwan if Taiwan would like to play a good role in international collaboration in language instruction and assessment. This paper addresses the application of the Framework for language instruction and assessment in Taiwan and applies NETPAW (www.test.org.tw) as an illustration. NETPAW stands for the National English Test of Proficiency for All on the Web, which was initiated and funded by Taiwan Ministry of Education. NETPAW tests were created based on the Common European Framework. NETPAW has been used by universities, schools, and private and public institutes not only in Taiwan but also in other countries. 1. The importance of the Common European Framework The Common European Framework of References for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (COE, 2001) is a system for language instruction and assessment. The system is delicately illustrated in a book that contains nine chapters that include language learning, teaching, and assessment. The framework makes communication among students, language educators, and school administrators easier and more effective since it offers clear language descriptors for language skills at six language proficiency levels, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2. A1 is the initial level and C2 is the highest. The framework also enhances workforce mobility and mutual recognition for language ability among countries. 2. The adoption of the Common European Framework in Taiwan At the very beginning, governmental institutes, universities and schools did not really know what the framework was or how to make use of it. Later, some measures were taken to make the application of the Common European Framework much more successful. For example, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taipei issued a document (Appendix 1) in 2005 to all governmental institutes, universities and schools, stating that the MOE would adopt the Common European Framework for English instruction and that all testing institutes should create a CEFR reciprocal table with their English 176 tests and have it published in their web site. A sample reciprocal table is illustrated with the NETPAW Reciprocal Table as indicated in Appendix 2. The Ministry of Education also stipulated that all universities and colleges of technology report the number of English certificates from each academic year that were issued to students who passed English tests created based on the Common European Framework. The number of English certificates is one of the important factors that the Ministry of Education uses to allocate education funding for universities and colleges. The Ministry of Education also uses it to decide on which universities and colleges can receive funding for education excellence. 3. The success tory of NETPAW Using the Common European Framework, and the Framework of NETPAW for CATPAW, JATPAW and TATPAW English has been playing an increasingly significant role in international trade, tourism and telecommunications in Taiwan. Enhancing English proficiency has been gathering more and more momentum. As in many other countries, English is used as the most important foreign language in Taiwan. Increasing numbers of both business people and students are trying their best to have a good command of English. This is paralleled by the efforts of Taiwan’s government to expand and strengthen opportunities and resources for English learning, including support for purchasing computers, building the Internet infrastructure, and developing multimedia English courseware on the Web The Ministry of Education understands the importance of online testing. Therefore they initiated NETPAW based on the E-era Manpower Development Project, one of the ten projects under Challenge Year 2008 —Important Projects for National Development and gave a grant to ROCMELIA for designing online English proficiency tests with the project of NETPAW, which stands for the National English Test of Proficiency for All on the Web. The integration of testing with online computing makes the integration of testing and instruction both easier and more efficient. ROCMELIA, the Multimedia English Learning and Instruction Association in Taiwan, has sponsored 13 international conferences on multimedia language instruction and offered five national English listening and reading proficiency tests on the World Wide Web before NETPAW, and started to offer the first NETPAW tests on November 6, 2004. For the NETPAW test, there are already five levels of proficiency tests created: Beginning (CEFR A1-1), Basic (CEFR A1), Elementary (CEFR A2), Intermediate (CEFR B1), and High-intermediate (CEFR B2). The worldwide web provides an excellent platform for language acquisition evaluation. It is special in that it can provide multimedia and hypermedia, allowing teachers and students to instruct and learn the target language in a non-linear and creative way. It helps promote instruction because of its immediate, international and integrative features. Moreover, there is no paper needed for online testing, which contributes to protection of the environment. This section will elaborate not only on NETPAW’s purposes, testing specialties, and expected results but also on relating NETPAW tests to the Common European Framework, creating CATPAW, JATPAW, and TATPAW tests based on the NETPAW Framework, and governmental application of the Common European Framework. 177 3.1 The purposes of NETPAW The Government of Taiwan has directed its support to the Policy of Manpower Development and the Policy of Continuing Education for All People. NETPAW is one of the key projects for this manpower development movement. There are several purposes in offering NETPAW:  promoting online English learning for all people;  making education and life interesting, informational and international with multimedia;  protecting trees from being cut down thanks to paperless test;  saving time due to immediate feedback on students’ test results from the computer;  improving all people’s English abilities;  enhancing Taiwan’s competitive power in the world. 3.2 Testing specialties NETPAW is of great importance for Taiwan’s future. It will be easier to understand this from the following points of view on NETPAW:  NETPAW was designed based on educational principles: Step by Step, Proactive Participation, and Student-centered.  NETPAW was created with three learning theories in mind: Fun, Efficiency, and Association Theories.  NETPAW is environmentally friendly since it is digital, can be reused, and uses no paper.  NETPAW is a fair test since it was initiated and funded by the Ministry of Education and created by great scholars from Taiwan and abroad, and it is also impossible for testees to cheat in the test because of the random mechanism in distributing test questions.  NETPAW saves a lot of money because it uses the existing computers and infrastructure, integrates existing resources and manpower, and is run by a non-profit, academic organization.  NETPAW is outstanding also because it provides faster access to knowledge through the Internet, the quality is better with computing assistance and management, and it shrinks the  city-country differences in information access. 3.3 Expected results 1. NETPAW can increase the application of the computer multimedia network. 2. NETPAW can provide good and effective English learning materials. 3. NETPAW can examine the effectiveness of English instruction and enhance English instruction. 4. Everybody can test their own English abilities on the Web and apply it by interacting with their family members. 5. Everybody can attend the All People English College on the Web to enjoy learning English, and can ask questions of scholars from around the world. 6. Everybody can improve English abilities interestingly and effectively. 178 3.4 The discrimination index of NETPAW test questions The choice of NETPAW test questions is based on the discrimination index. A test question will be chosen if it has a good discrimination index. On the contrary, the question will be revised or removed from the test bank. There will be a listening test question and a reading test question used to illustrate the application of the discrimination index in choosing good test questions for NETPAW tests. Example 1: A NETPAW Listening Test Question Test takers of the CEFR B2 level watch news video clips. The content of an example is transcribed below. Based on Figure 1, the discrimination index of this test question is good based on the Item Characteristic Curve of this test question, which means that a student with higher listening proficiency reflected by the theta can answer the question correctly at a higher probability. On the contrary, a student with lower listening proficiency will answer the question correctly at a lower probability. Therefore, this listening test question is included in the test bank. Well, the residents of Huntersville have some new bragging rights. The small Mecklenburg County city was named one of the top-rated smaller cities across the country. Huntersville was among sixtyU.S. cities chosen by Grayhouse Publishing. All the cities were judged according to their history, community appeal, business community, population growth, and quality of life. Small cities aredefined as metropolitan areas with populations between twenty-five and ninety-nine thousand. Q: What is the main theme of this short talk? (A) People love the town because of its good quality. (B) People are moving out of the small town. (C) The town is losing its business. (D) The town is planting more and more trees. 179 Figure 1. The ICC of a Listening Test Question Example 2: A Reading NETPAW Test Question Test takers of the CEFR B2 level may read the following passage. Based on Figure 2, the discrimination index of this test question is good based on the Item Characteristic Curve of this test question, which means that a student with higher listening proficiency reflected by the theta can answer the question correctly at a higher probability. On the contrary, a student with lower listening proficiency will answer the question correctly at a lower probability. Therefore, this reading test question will be included in the test bank. Some people silently marched Tuesday in uptown Charlotte to speak out against domestic violence. They (1) to the streets to remember the death of Leon Thompson, who was murdered last week (2) domestic violence. Marchers said even though most victims of domestic violence are female, it is still a problem for both sexes. A silent march is usually (3) on the Tuesday after any death caused by domestic violence. “A lot of people may think it's a woman's issue, but it's not.” said Vicky Suarez of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. It's a social issue. It happens to men and women, and we want to 2. (A) held (4) equal attention is brought to both. (B) kept (C) affected (D) marked Figure 2. The ICC of a Reading Test Question 3.5 Relating NETPAW tests to the Common European Framework As mentioned previously, Taiwan Ministry of Education stipulated that each test institute should 180 relate their tests to the proficiency levels of the Common European Framework. Educational Testing Service (ETS) already related TOEFL to the proficiency levels of the Common European Framework. Besides ensuring the quality of NETPAW test questions, ROCMELIA also related NETPAW tests to the proficiency levels of the Common European Framework by three procedures. First, NETPAW test question writing experts created test questions based on the proficiency descriptors of each proficiency level. Second, NETPAW test experts followed the same procedure used by the experts of ETS to make sure that test questions are classified appropriately for different proficiency levels. That is, NETPAW test experts used CEFR proficiency descriptors to classify test questions into different proficiency levels. Then students who took TOEFL were invited to take NETPAW CEFR B2 listening, reading, speaking, and writing tests. Their test scores in NETPAW were compared with their test scores in TOEFL. Figures 1 through 4 show the good relationship between their NETPAW test scores and their TOEFL scores. The higher their TOEFL scores, the higher their NETPAW test scores. The final NETPAW-CEF reciprocal table is created as indicated in Appendix 2. Figure 3. The Correlation between NETPAW Listening Test Scores and TOEFL Test Scores. Figure 4. The Correlation between NETPAW Reading Test Scores and TOEFL Test Scores. 181 Figure 5. The Correlation between NETPAW Speaking Test Scores and TOEFL Test Scores. Figure 6. The Correlation between NETPAW Writing Test Scores and TOEFL Test Scores. Because NETPAW applied the Common European Framework to create test questions with authentic English materials such as news video clips and the Internet to offer online tests, it has enjoyed great acceptance by students from more than 1000 universities, schools, and other public and private institutes, including the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of Southern Queensland, and the City University of Hong Kong. 3.6 Using the framework of NETPAW to create CATPAW, TATPAW, and JATPAW It is generally good practice to duplicate success. NETPAW was created based on sound theory and practices and has become very successful. The Framework of NETPAW tests was adopted for CATPAW tests for Chinese online test, TATPAW tests for Taiwanese online tests, and JATPAW for a Japanese online test. SATPAW is under way. Hopefully, it will be available in the near future. It is worth mentioning that Inspector General Bellassen of the French Ministry of Education has been 182 collaborating on the CATPAW project. The very reason why he would like to work with us is that NETPAW adopted the Common European Framework and the Internet platform. 3.7 The governmental application of the Common European Framework In order to make a new education system successful, the support from governmental institutes is of great importance. The three most important governmental institutes in Taiwan are the Ministry of Education, the Central Personnel Administration, the Academia Sinica, respectively for education, administration for public employees, and research. The Ministry of Education, as stated previously, issued a document in 2005, stating that it would adopt the Common European Framework for enhancing English instruction and that each test institute should create a CEFR reciprocal table for their tests. This policy led to the decisions of the Central Personnel Administration that each public employee should obtain an English certificate which shows that they have the English ability of CEFR A2 or above and that each city or county government can prepare a reciprocal table for all kinds of tests that they would like to include for their employees. Figure 7 is one of the examples, which was prepared by the Government of Kaohsiung County. Moreover, the Academia Sinica invited us to design the English tests for their international students, as shown in Appendix 3. The English test in the English interface was created also based on the Common European Framework. NETPAW was already used by universities from other countries such as Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States. Conclusion The success story in Taiwan with the Common European Framework has been told in this paper. The experience should be good for not just European countries but also other countries that plan to adopt the Common European Framework. We would like to sincerely and deeply thank the Council of European for their authorizing us to have the Common European Framework translated into Chinese. As stated on the first page in the book of the Common European Framework, “The provision of objective criteria for describing language proficiency will facilitate the mutual recognition of qualifications gained in different learning contexts, and accordingly will aid European mobility.” Countries other than European countries will also find it essential to adopt the Common European Framework. The Council of Europe authorized ROCMELIA to have the Common European Framework translated into Chinese. This is the first and only authorization for Chinese translation. Now China has also enjoyed using the Common European Framework in simplified Chinese, which means that the world’s most populous country has recognized the importance of the international standard. This is sure to lead to more and better mutual recognition among countries in the world. Its influence is sure to be comprehensive and revolutionary as emphasized by Inspector Joe Bellassen of the French Ministry of Education in his speech made at National Kaohsiung Normal University when he came to Taiwan for the collaboration on the CATPAW project 183 Figure 7. The Reciprocal Table of All the Tests Adopted by the Government of Kaohsiung County. References Academia Sinica (2006): The document issued by the Academia Sinica and coded 0950192760. Taipei: Academia Sinica. Council of Europe (2001): The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Council of Europe. Cambridge Fu, S-L., Chuang, Y., and Beasley, R. (2009): The inspiration of NTU’s entering the Web 100 University Club and ISU’s NETPAW. Kaohsiung: ROCMELIA. 184 Appendix 1: The Document Issued by the Ministry of Education Appendix 2: The NETPAW-CEFR Reciprocal Table 185 The NETPAW-CEF Table Users CEFR The CEFR Can-do List NETPAW Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. Can summarise information from different spoken C2 and written sources, reconstructing arguments and Mastery accounts in a coherent presentation. N/A Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations. Proficient Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer User texts, and recognize implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously C1 without much obvious searching for expressions. Can Effective use language flexibly and effectively for social, Operational academic and professional purposes. Proficiency Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use N/A of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices. Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity B2 that makes regular interaction with native speakers Vantage quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of HighIntermediate subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue In- giving the advantages and disadvantages of various dependent options. User Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. B1 Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst Inter- Threshold travelling in an area where the language is spoken. mediate Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes 186 and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, A2 Waystage shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of Elementary information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need. Basic User Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the Basic satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask A1 and answer questions about personal details such as Breakthrough where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Beginning Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. 187 Appendix 3: The Document Issued by the Academia Sinica Ministry of Education. 2005. The MOE document coded 0940120158. Taipei: Ministry of Education. 188 Part III Reports from Practice Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin (SESB) Schumacher, Birgit 1. Einleitung Im Oktober 2005 stellte ich im Rahmen des internationalen Symposiums „Foreign Language Education for Young Children“ an der Universität Seitoku Matsudo die Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin (SESB) vor. Ein Jahr später wurde daraus ein Buchbeitrag. Die seit 2004/2005 eingeleitete Reformphase im Berliner Bildungssystem ist abgeschlossen. Sie betraf zuerst die Grundschulen, anschließend die Kindertagesstätten (Kitas) und dann die Sekundarstufen I und II. Die Veränderungen in der SESB sind eingefügt, sowohl die in der Grundschule als auch in der Sekundarstufe I und II. Die Veränderung des Berliner Schulsystems Zusammenfassend stellt sich das alte und neue Berliner Bildungssystem wie folgt dar: Primarstufe (Grundschule) Anfangsphase Grundschule 1. － 2. 3.－4./5.－ 6. Schuljahr 5.5 － 7.5 7.5 －10.5 Lebensjahr Primarstufe (Grundschule) Grundschule früher Sekundarstufe I Sekundarstufe II Hauptschule; Verbund. Haupt-/Realschule; Verbund. Haupt-/Realschule; Realschule; Realschule; Gesamtschule; Gesamtschule; Gymnasium grundständiges Gymnasium 7.－10. 11.－13. 10.5 －14.5 14.5 － 18.5 seit 2011 Sekundarstufe I Sekundarstufe II Integrierte Sekundarschule(ISS) Berufliche Gymnasium Anfangsphase Gymnasium grundständiges Gymnasium Gemeinschaftsschule 1. － 2. Schuljahr 5.5 － 7.5 Lebensjahr 3. －4./5. － 6. 7.－10. 11.－13. 7.5 －10.5 10.5 －14.5 14.5 － 18.5 Die Primarstufe (Jahrgangsstufe 1-6) umfasst jetzt die Altersgruppe 5,5 bis 11 Jahre mit zwei 191 Jahren Schulanfangsphase und vier Jahren Grundschule. Die Kinder werden in dieser Phase altersübergreifend unterrichtet, man nennt dies jahrgangsübergreifendes Lernen. Im Schuljahr 2009/2010 praktizieren 314 von insgesamt 367 Grundschulen diese flexible1 Schulanfangsphase. Es gibt Grundschulen, die einen Antrag stellen, das jahrgangsübergreifende Lernen nicht zu praktizieren. In diesem Fall muss ein Antrag der Schule vorliegen, der von der Senatsbildungsverwaltung geprüft wird. An der äußeren Organisation der Grundschule hat sich nichts geändert. In Berlin gibt es keine frühe Selektion wie in anderen Bundesländern, in denen die Primarstufe nur vier Jahre dauert. Es gibt aber die Möglichkeit, bereits nach der 4. Jahrgangsstufe auf ein grundständiges Gymnasium (Jahrgangsstufen 5-12) zu wechseln. Die Sekundarstufe I gibt es in zwei Schularten: Im Gymnasium und in der Integrierten Sekundarschule (ISS). Beide Schularten sind gleichwertig. Es gelten die gleichen Bildungsstandards und alle Schulabschlüsse einschließlich Abitur sind erreichbar. Alle Integrierten Sekundarschulen sind Ganztagsschulen, Gymnasien sind keine Ganztagsschulen.2 Die Weiterentwicklung der Schulstruktur führt mit ihren Änderungen die Qualitätsentwicklung in der Sekundarstufe I fortführen und soll eine bessere Chancengleichheit herstellen, damit alle Schüler zum bestmöglichen Schulabschluss geführt werden. Die Abhängigkeit des Schulerfolgs von der sozialen Herkunft und vom Migrationshintergrund soll deutlich verringert werden3. Parallel hierzu gibt es das Modell „Gemein-schaftsschule“, das eine Gliederung des Schulsystems grundsätzlich ablehnt und alle Schüler4 integriert. Die Unterschiede zwischen dem Gymnasium und der Integrierten Sekundarschulen sind folgende: Im Gymnasium gibt es ein Jahr Probezeit, in der Integrierten Sekundarschule nicht. Im Gymnasium muss ein bestimmtes Leistungsniveau nachgewiesen werden, in der Integrierten Sekundarschule werden Schüler aller Leistungsniveaus bis zum Ende der 10. Jahrgangsstufe differenziert, also nach der erreichten Kompetenz. unterrichtet. Ein weiterer Unterschied zwischen Gymnasium und ISS besteht in der Anzahl der Schuljahre bis zum Abitur: 12 Jahre im Gymnasium und 12 oder 13 Jahre in der ISS.5 1 2 3 4 5 Man kann die Jahrgangsstufen 1 und 2 oder 1, 2 und 3 in einer Klasse zusammenfassen; die Kinder können den Lernstoff in einem, zwei oder wenn notwendig auch in drei Jahren lernen. Darstellungs der Berliner Schulstruktur: http://www.berlin.de/imperia/md/content/sen-bildung/bildungspolitik/schulreform Dort geht auch ein Link zum neuen Bildungsfahrplan. Ganztagsschule gilt für die Grundschule, die Kinder sind verbindlich von 8 bis 16 Uhr in der Schule, dabei wechseln sich Unterricht und Phasen mit außerunterrichtlichen Aktivitäten ab. Die Halbtagsschule endet um 13.30 Uhr. Betreuungszeiten sind von 6 bis 7.30 Uhr, nach 13.30 Uhr oder nach 16 Uhr jeweils bis 18 Uhr, dafür müssen die Eltern extra. Weitere Informationen unter: http://www.berlin.de/sen/bildung Die männliche Form aller Personenbezeichnungen, z.B. Schüler, Lehrer u.ä. stehen für beide Geschlechter www.berlin.de/sen/bildung/bildungswege/ 192 2. Vom Schulversuch „Staatlichen Europa-Schule Berlin“ zur „Schule mit besonderer pädagogischer Prägung “ Die Berliner Schullandschaft ändert sich und reflekitert den gesellschaftlichen Wandel. 1992 reagierte Berlin auf die multikulturelle Situation der Stadt, die Hauptstadtperspektive und das zusammenwachsende Europa mit dem Schulversuch „Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin“, einer bildungspolitischen Antwort auf diese drei Faktoren6 . Ziel dieses Schulversuchs war „die integrierte Erziehung bilingualer Lerngruppen bei durchgehend zweisprachigem Unterricht“7 von der Schulanfangsphase bis zum Abitur. Dies war die Basis, auf der alle Standorte mit den einzelnen Sprachkombinationen eingerichtet wurden. Die SESB war und ist eine staatliche Schule und daher eingebettet in das Berliner Schulsystem. Die SESB war ein spezifischer Berliner Schulversuch, der sich von den anderen in der Bundesrepublik zahlreich existierenden Schulen unterschied, die die Bezeichnung Europaschule führen. Die meisten Europaschulen sind weiterführende Schulen, die keinen durchgängig zweisprachigen Unterricht mit muttersprachlichem Lehrpersonal anbieten. Daher ist das Konzept der SESB viel umfassender. Eine Arbeitsgruppe der Ständigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der Länder in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (KMK) 8 arbeitet an einer Zusammenstellung von Minimalstandards, die eine Schule erfüllen muss, um den Titel Europaschule tragen zu können. Auch die Europäischen Schulen, die gemeinsam von den Regierungen der Mitgliedstaaten der Europäischen Union gegründet wurden, arbeiten nach einem völlig anderen Prinzip. Die SESB wird bis heute an 17 Grundschulen und 14 weiterführenden Schulen in den Sprachkombinationen Deutsch-Englisch, Deutsch-Französisch, Deutsch-Griechisch, Deutsch- Italienisch, Deutsch-Polnisch, Deutsch-Portugiesisch, Deutsch-Russisch, Deutsch-Spanisch und Deutsch-Türkisch durchgeführt. Dabei ist immer eine Sprachkombination an einer Schule vertreten. Begonnen wurde in sechs Grundschulen, je zwei mit derselben Sprachenkombination in den Vorklassen mit Deutsch-Englisch, Deutsch-Französisch und Deutsch-Russisch. Im Schuljahr 2005/2006 legten die Schüler dieser Pilotklassen das Abitur ab. Die Wahl dieser drei ersten Sprachkombinationen hing noch mit der geschichtlichen Situation und den Alliierten in Berlin zusammen. Es folgten 1994 Deutsch-Italienisch und Deutsch-Spanisch, Abitur 2008, 1995 Deutsch-Griechisch und Deutsch-Türkisch, Abitur 2009, 1997 Deutsch-Portugiesisch, Abitur 2011 und 6 7 8 Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung, Internetseite unter: http://www.berlin.de/sen/bildung/besondere_angebote/staatl_europaschule/ Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin (1993): Erweiterung des Angebots der Staatlichen Europa-Schule Berlin (SESB) mit Beginn des Schuljahres 1993/1994, Drucksache 12/2731, Berlin, S. 1 Weitere Informationen zur Europabildung unter: http://www.kmk.org/bildung-schule/allgemeine-bildung/faecher-und-unterrichtsinhalte/weitere-unterrichtsinhalte/eur opabildung-in-der-schule.html 193 1998 Deutsch-Polnisch, Abitur 2012, als bislang letzte Sprachkombination. Berlin reagiert mit diesem schulischen Angebot auf die Sprachenvielfalt in der Stadt; es gibt allerdings weitere Fremdsprachen, die von größeren Gruppen gesprochen werden, wie z.B. Arabisch oder Vietnamesisch. Eine Erweiterung der SESB auf andere Sprachen ist jedoch momentan nicht vorgesehen. Die SESB-Standorte wurden für Sprachen eingerichtet, die zu den europäischen Sprachen gehören; viele nicht deutsche muttersprachliche Schüler kommen auch aus dem außereuropäischen Ausland von allen Kontinenten. Die Herkunft spielt keine Rolle, sondern die Beherrschung der beiden Sprachen einer Sprachkombination, eine auf muttersprachlichem Niveau, bei der Partnersprache sollten Grundkenntnisse vorhanden sein. Die Standorte der SESB sind über das gesamte Stadtgebiet in neun von zwölf Bezirken Berlins verteilt. Die SESB beginnt mit der Schulanfangsphase und führt bilingual zu allen in Deutschland staatlich anerkannten Schulabschlüssen, d.h. nach der 10. Jahrgangsstufe zum Mittleren Schulabschluss (MSA), im 12. bzw. 13. Jahrgang zum Abitur. Dabei erreichen die Schüler in der ehemaligen Partnersaprache ein sprachliches Niveau von C2 entsprechend der Kriterien des Gemeinsamen Europäischen Referenzrahmens der Sprachen (GER). Die Anerkennung der bilingualen Abschlüsse durch die Partnerländer wird angestrebt bzw. liegt bereits von britischer, französischer, griechischer, italienischer, portugiesischer und spanischer Seite vor. Im Schuljahr 2012/2013 gibt es 17 Grundschulstandorte und 14 Standorte der weiterführenden Schulen, der SESB, die etwa 6.500 - 7000 Schülerinnen und Schüler besuchen Nach der 6. Jahrgangsstufe erfolgt der Übergang in die weiterführenden Schulen, die die jeweilige Sprachkombination betreuen. Die sind drei Gymnasien mit kooperierender ISS und sieben ISS mit gymnasialer Oberstufe.9 Die Schüler erreichen im Abitur die Kompetenzstufe C2, teilweise C1 des Gemeinsamen Europäischen Referenzrahmens für Sprachen und B2 am Ende der 10. Jahrgangsstufe.10 Im Schuljahr 2011/2012 wurde der Schulversuch als beendet angesehen und die SESB wurde in eine Schule besonderer pädagogischer Prägung umgewandelt. Das bedeutet, dass sie nun fest im Berliner Bildungssystem verankert ist. Die Evaluation beginnt mit vorbereitenden Maßnahmen im Jahr 2012/2013, die praktische Durchführung wird im Jahr 2014 begonnen werden. Im September 2012 feierte die SESB mit mehreren Festen und Aktivitäten ihr 20-jähriges Bestehen. Am 26.. September 2012 fand ein Festakt im Roten Rathaus statt, dem Sitz des Regierenden Bürgermeisters. Gäste waren die Vertretungen der Botschaften von Frankreich, 9 Weitere Informationen der Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft und zu allen Standorten der SESB unter http://berlin.de/sen/bildung 10 Weitere Informationen, auch zu allen Schulstandorten, sind erhältlich bei der Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung: www.berlin.de/sen/bwf/ 194 Griechenland, Russland und der Türkei, der britischen, französischen und russischen Kulturinstitute, Elternvertreter, Schulleiter, Lehrer, ehemalige Schüler. Nach Grußworten der Senatorin, Frau Scheeres und den Botschaftsvertretern hielt Professor Göhlich die Festrede. Ehemalige Schüler äußerten sich positiv zu ihrer Schullaufbahn.11 Am 27. September fand das große Fest für alle Schulen im Russischen Haus statt. Jeder Standorte präsentierte sich mit einem Mit-Mach-Angebot, und Informationstafeln. Die Kinder der Grundschulen präsentierten Lieder und Tänze der Partnerländer. Alle sangen das Lied „Wie viele Sprachen sprichst du?“, eine eindrucksvolle gemeinsame Darbietung, von 500 Kindern. Die Schüler der weiterführenden Schulen führten darüber hinaus noch Theaterszenen vor und hielten Kurzreferate. Die beteiligten Pädagogen äußerten sich sehr zufrieden über vereinte Darstellung aller Standorte der SESB. 3. Das Besondere des Konzeptes Was unterscheidet die SESB von anderen sprachbetonten Angeboten oder Europaschulen? Diese Frage wird oft gestellt, denn es gibt an anderen Schulen sowohl ・ das frühe Fremdsprachenlernen ab der 3. oder schon ab der 1. Jahrgangsstufe, ・ den bilingualen Unterricht in der weiterführenden Schule, ・ und viele Schulen im gesamten Bundesgebiet, die sich Europaschule nennen. Die SESB entwickelte ein besonderes Profil, in dem das zweisprachige Prinzip und das interkulturelle Lernen alle Bereiche bestimmen. Die SESB ist ein spezifischer Begriff; er zeichnet sich durch mehrere Punkte aus, in denen er sich von anderen bilingualen Konzepten oder so genannten Europaschulen unterscheidet: Sie ist „ein eigenständiger Spracherwerbstyp der schulisch vermittelten Sprachaneignung“12, eine bilinguale Begegnungsschule mit dem Ziel, Kinder von Schulbeginn an bis zum Abitur in bilingualen Lerngruppen zu unterrichten und zu erziehen. Dies bedeutet als Zielvorgabe:  eine paritätische Zusammensetzung der Lerngruppen mit einer festgelegten Verteilung der Sprachen auf die einzelnen Unterrichtsfächer.  eine Erteilung des Unterrichts von muttersprachlichen Lehrkräften. 11 Siehe dazu einzelne Internetadressen der SESB Standorte, die Kontaktdaten aller Standorte der SESB sind zu finden unter: www. Berlin.de/sen/bildung/besondere_angebote/staatl_europaschule/ Die Festrede steht z.B. auf der Internetseite der Märkischen Grundschule unter www.staatliche-europa-schule.de/Europäische Dimension/20 Jahre SESB 12 Wolfgang Zydatiß (2000): Bilingualer Unterricht in der Grundschule, Ismaning, S. 40 195  eine Weiterführung der zweisprachigen Aktivitäten in der gebundenen und ungebundenen Freizeit zwischen 8 und 16 Uhr. Daraus resultieren die Besonderheiten der SESB:  der qualifizierte Muttersprachenunterricht in neun nichtdeutschen Sprachen von der ersten Jahrgangsstufe bis zum Abitur  der Partnersprachenunterricht in zehn Sprachen bis zum Ende der 8. Jahrgangsstufe  der Sachfachunterricht in zehn Sprachen  die besondere Berücksichtigung der Europäischen Dimension und des interkulturellen Lernens  die Verbindung von Sprache und Aktivitäten in einem gemeinsamen Schulalltag mit zwei verschiedenen Erstsprachen  die Gleichberechtigung beider an einer Schule vertretenen Sprachen, ausgedrückt im Partnergedanken und dem Tandemprinzip. Diese Besonderheiten bedingen eine besondere inhaltliche Form sowie einen besonderen organisatorischen Rahmen:  Es gibt besondere vorläufige Unterrichtspläne für die neun nichtdeutschen Muttersprachen13.  Es gibt besondere vorläufige Unterrichtspläne für die zehn Partnersprachen.14  Für alle anderen Unterrichtsfächer gelten in der SESB die Berliner Rahmenlehrpläne, die modifiziert werden durch die besondere Berücksichtigung europäischer Inhalte und der Curricula der Partnerländer, sodass das interkulturelle Lernen einen hervorgehobenen Stellenwert bekommt. Die Europäische Dimension wird hierdurch inhaltlich bereichert und das Einüben des Perspektivenwechsels ist beständiger Teil des Unterrichts.  Es werden auch Materialien aus den Partnerländern benutzt, die die Reflexionen zu Themen der Europäischen Dimension vertiefen, stellen jedoch die Lehrer vor die Schwierigkeit, sie den Berliner Rahmenlehrplänen anpassen zu müssen. In einigen Ländern gibt es gar kein Material zu den Berliner Themen. Und es werden spezielle Materialien für die SESB entwickelt, die die Zweisprachigkeit, die Europäische Dimension und die Verknüpfung der einzelnen Lernbereiche berücksichtigen.  Die Aufteilung der Unterrichtsfächer auf die beiden Sprachen einer Sprachkombination: Grundschule (GS), weiterführende Schule (WS) 13 Senatsverwaltung für Schule, Jugend und Sport Berlin (Hrsg.) Vorläufiger Unterrichtsplan für die Muttersprachen. Berlin 2000 14 Senatsverwaltung für Schule, Jugend und Sport Berlin (Hrsg.) Vorläufiger Unterrichtsplan für die Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin. Partnersprachen. Berlin 2000 196 In deutscher Sprache In der nicht deutschen Sprache Deutsch als Erstsprache (GS, WS) Nicht deutsche Erstsprache (GS, WS) Deutsch als Partnersprache (GS, WS) Nicht deutsche Partnersprache (GS, WS) Mathematik (GS, WS) Sachunterricht (GS) Chemie (WS) Geografie (GS) Physik (WS) Geschichte/Politische Bildung (GS) Biologie (WS) Erdkunde (WS) Sozialkunde (WS) Politikwissenschaft (Gymnasiale Oberstufe) Folgende Fächer können je nach Kapazitäten in den einzelnen Standorten in der einen oder anderen Sprache erteilt werden: Naturwissenschaften (GS), Musik , Kunst, Sport (GS, WS) und Ethik (WS) *Das Gleichgewicht beider Sprachen muss gewährleistet sein.  Über 300 nicht deutsche Lehrkräfte arbeiten im Schuljahr 2008/2009 in der SESB.  Die SESB als gebundene Ganztagsschule mit alternierenden Phasen von Unterricht und Freizeit von 8 bis 16 Uhr hat einen rhythmisierten Schulalltag. Bilinguale Angebote, die alle Unterrichtsfächer und ein unterrichtsergänzendes Angebot umfassen, gibt es sonst nicht in Berlin und in der Bundesrepublik.  Die Stundentafel der SESB ist umfangreicher als die der Regelschule, da die Schüler Unterricht in der Partnersprache haben. Dieses Fach ist vom Stundenumfang höher angesetzt als die 1. Fremdsprache in der Grundschule. Auch der Förderunterricht in der Grundschule ist für die gesamte Gruppe einer Sprache vorgesehen, so dass eine zusätzliche Stunde anfällt. Stundentafel der SESB Grundschule ab dem Schuljahr 2004/2005 Schulanfangsphase Jahrgangsstufen 1 2 3 4 5 Regelschule 20 21 24 27 30 31 SESB 23 24 26 28 33 34 Hinzu kommen pro Jahrgangsstufe noch zwei Stunden für den 6 . Religions- bzw. Lebenskundeunterricht.15 Für die SESB Standorte der weiterführenden Schulen gelten Sonderregelungen.  Vor der Einschulung werden die Sprachkompetenzen der Kinder ermittelt, sowohl in der 15 Die aktuellen Stundentafeln für die verschiedenen Schularten der weiterführenden Schulen können im Internet auf den Seiten der Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung eingesehen werden. http://www.berlin.de/imperia/md/content/sen-bildung/schulorganisation/vv_schule_9_2009_zumessung.pdf 197 Muttersprache als auch in der Partnersprache.  Der Unterricht findet für alle Schüler zusammen etwa zur Hälfte in der einer und anderen Sprache statt. Es gilt das Prinzip „eine Person, eine Sprache“ und die Gleichzeitigkeit der Vermittlung beider Sprachen als Mutter- und als Partnersprache. Beide Sprachen sind gleichwertig. Alle Beteiligten － Schüler, Pädagogen, Eltern－ haben die wichtige Aufgabe, das Gegenüber als Partner in der Sprachvermittlung zu sehen und einzubinden in interkulturelle Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen. Ziel ist ein ausgeglichenes und aktives Partnerverhältnis, das Lernen in zwei Sprachen und die Ausbildung von sprachlichen, sachlichen und interkulturellen Kompetenzen. Auf kognitiver und emotionaler Ebene wird sprachliches und, damit verbunden, interkulturelles Handeln gelernt.  Nur im Sprachunterricht sind die Schüler nach Erst- und Partnersprache bis einschließlich der 8. Jahrgangsstufe getrennt. Danach werden beide Sprachen für alle Schüler auf muttersprachlichem Niveau unterrichtet.  Die Alphabetisierung in der Erstsprache findet in der 1. Jahrgangsstufe statt, der Schriftspracherwerb in der Partnersprache beginnt im Laufe der 2. Jahrgangsstufe.  Alle Kinder haben eine einjährige Probezeit.  Englisch bzw. Französisch als Fremdsprache wird ab der 5. Jahrgangsstufe unterrichtet; in der Regelschule beginnt der Fremdsprachenunterricht ab der 3. Jahrgangsstufe.  Es gibt besondere Zeugnisformulare, die die Unterrichtsfächer Mutter- und Partnersprache berücksichtigen und die Fächer ausweisen, die in der nicht deutschen Sprache erteilt werden. Auf dem Zeugnis für den Mittleren Bildungsabschluss und das Abitur werden die Besonderheiten des bilingualen Unterrichts auf einem zusätzlichen bilingualen SESB-Zertifikat vermerkt. Einige Partnerländer, wie z.B. Großbritannien, Frankreich, Italien, Griechenland, Portugal und Spanien haben die Abschlüsse bereits anerkannt.  Das Kollegium setzt sich aus deutschen und nichtdeutschen Lehrkräften und deutschen und nichtdeutschen Erziehern zusammen. Sie sind für die Gestaltung des Unterrichts, der Lernzeiten und der Freizeitangebote verantwortlich. Alle an der Planung und Durchführung Beteiligten müssen kooperieren, um eine möglichst effektive Verzahnung von Sache, Sprache und Aktivitäten zu gewährleisten. Dies erfordert Teamfähigkeit. Zu einem Team einer Jahrgangsstufe in der Grundschule gehören mindestens vier Personen (je ein Lehrer und ein Erzieher jeder Sprache), bei einem erweiterten Team können es bis zu zehn Personen sein. Die Organisationsstrukturen in der weiterführenden Schulen sehen anders aus.  Die SESB lebt Europa nicht nur täglich, sondern schaut über den europäischen Tellerrand hinaus, da Kinder, Eltern und auch Pädagogen aus allen Teilen der Welt kommen. Daraus ergibt sich die Notwendigkeit des interkulturellen Lernens, da in der SESB sehr unterschiedliche interkulturelle Erfahrungen gemacht werden, die bewusst reflektiert werden, um sie als Vorteil zu begreifen und um sie sich nützlich machen zu können. Diese Vielfalt wird als Bereicherung verstanden und in verschiedenen Bereichen sprachlich-kulturell in Projekten 198 und schulübergreifend in gemeinsamen Veranstaltungen umgesetzt. Jeder SESB-Standort zeichnet sich durch Aktivitäten aus, die dem besonderen kulturellen Zusammenhang mit dem nichtdeutschen Land entspringen. Wichtige nichtdeutsche und deutsche religiöse und weltliche Feiertage werden mit Bräuchen und besonderen kulinarischen Angeboten in allen SESB-Standorten zelebriert. Die Vielfalt und der Reichtum des interkulturellen Lebens und Erlebens Empfehlungen der KMK16, geht über die zur „Europabildung in der Schule“ vom 5.5.2008 weit hinaus,17 z.B. die Angaben zur inhaltlichen Arbeit der Quentin-Blake-Grundschule (Deutsch-Englisch), der Märkischen Grundschule(Deutsch-Französisch), der Finow-Grundschule, Deutsch-Italienisch, der Lew-TolstoiGrundschule, Deutsch-Russisch.18 Siehe „die Praxis“ in diesem Bericht!  Die SESB jetzt als Schule mit besonderer pädagogischer Prägung stellt weiter an alle Beteiligten (Schüler, Pädagogen, Eltern) auch besondere Anforderungen: Eine besondere Motivation sowie Toleranz und Offenheit gegenüber der Partnersprache und den Partnern, um das Konzept der SESB zu vermitteln, zu praktizieren und mittels Reflexion zu gestalten und zu entwickeln.  Es gibt ergänzend drei Koordinatoren: Je einen für die weiterführenden Schulen, für die Grundschulen, für die Erzieher, sowie für jede Sprache Moderatoren für alle Schulstufen. Alle sind Kollegen an einem SESB-Standort und bekommen in unterschiedlichem Umfang Ermäßigungsstunden für ihre vielfältigen Aufgaben:  Sie fördern den Erfahrungsaustausch innerhalb der Schulen, die Kooperation mit bilingualen Kindertagesstätten und zwischen den Standorten gleicher Sprachkombination, unterstützen sprachübergreifende Projekte und Veranstaltungen und arbeiten mit der Senatsverwaltung zusammen.  Sie unterstützen die Schule besonderer pädagogischer Prägung durch Empfehlung von Unterrichtsmaterialien und die Beratung der Lehrkräfte und Erzieher.  Sie betreuen besondere Aktivitäten, die der Darstellung der SESB nach außen dienen.  Sie bieten spezielle Fortbildungen für die SESB an.  Sie entwickeln die Prüfungsaufgaben für den Mittleren Schulabschluss und das Abitur. Eine ausführliche Zusammenstellung der Aktivitäten zur „Europabildung in der Schule“ gemäß den Empfehlungen der KMK ist auf den Internetseiten der einzelnen Grundschulstandorte zu finden. 17 Europabildung in der Schule, Empfehlungen der Ständigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der Länder der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Beschluss der Kultusministerkonferenz vom 8.6.1978 i.d.F. vom 5.5.2008, http://www.bildungsserver.de/zeigen.html?seite=5456, Link: Europabildung in der Schule – Neue Empfehlungen der Kultusministerkonferenz 18 Quentin-Blake-Grundschule: www.quentin-blake-schule.cidsnet.de Märkische Grundschule: www,staatliche-europa-schule.de Finow-Grundschule: www.finow-grundschule.de Lew-Tolstoi-Grundschule: www.lew-tolstoi-g.cidsnet.de 16 199 4. Neue Rahmenvorgaben Die Berliner Schulstruktur erlebt seit dem Schuljahr 2004/2005 Entwicklungen in allen Bereichen. Die Prioritäten liegen dabei eindeutig auf dem Gesamtsystem der Berliner Schule und nicht auf einem einzelnen Schulversuch, wie SESB. Daher befinden sich einzelne, zu bearbeitende Punkte der SESB in einer „Warteschleife“. Und diese neue Rahmenvorgaben fordern auch auf die SESB Neuerungen in verschiedenen Bereichen. 2004/2005 wurden neue Rahmenlehrpläne für alle Fächer der Grundschule eingeführt. Diese mussten schulintern bearbeitet werden, damit die speziellen Aspekte der SESB Berücksichtigung fanden.  Die Anpassung der vorläufigen Unterrichtspläne für die neun nichtdeutschen Muttersprachen und die zehn Partnersprachen ist geboten. Die neuen Inhalte werden zwar im Rahmen der Fortbildungen vermittelt, aber eine Vereinheitlichung würde zu einer besseren Verankerung der SESB im Berliner Schulsystem beitragen, die dann auch online zur Verfügung stehen würde.  Die Rahmenlehrpläne für die Sekundarstufe I (nichtdeutsche Muttersprachen und alle Partnersprachen) liegen (mit Ausnahme von Türkisch) in einer genehmigten Version vor. Für die Sekundarstufe II werden derzeit ergänzende Rahmenlehrpläne für die nichtdeutschen SESB-Sprachen entwickelt. Hier liegt bisher als nicht genehmigter Pilotplan ein Ergänzungsplan für Spanisch vor.  Das Fach Biologie wurde erweitert auf das Fach Naturwissenschaften, das nun auch Komponenten der Physik und Chemie enthält. Das neue Fach Naturwissenschaften musste in den neun nichtdeutschen Sprachen erarbeitet werden und es mussten schulinterne Pläne entwickelt werden. Zusätzlich zu Fortbildungen in deutscher Sprache nehmen die nichtdeutschen Kolleginnen adäquate Fortbildungen in ihrer Muttersprache wahr.  2005/2006 wurden die Vorklassen abgeschafft. Die war eine einschneidende Veränderung mit vielen Konsequenzen:  Die Kinder bekommen keine sprachliche Vorbereitung mehr auf die SESB in einer staatlichen Bildungseinrichtung.  Es gibt noch keine einheitlichen Standards in den KITAS, die eine eventuelle bilinguale Erziehung der Kinder betreffen.  Die Zahl der bilingualen Kindertagesstätten wuchs enorm; die Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung entwickelte Standards für Europa-KITAS, die aber noch nicht veröffentlicht sind. Solange diese Qualitätsmerkmale nicht verbindlich sind, muss die aufnehmende SESB-Grundschule die muttersprachlichen Kenntnisse aller Kinder und die partnersprachlichen Kenntnisse der germanophonen Kinder überprüfen.  Eltern müssen sich jetzt sehr frühzeitig für eine bilinguale und bikulturelle Erziehung 200 entscheiden; auf Grund der sehr großen Nachfrage stehen in den KITAS keine freien Plätze für das letzte Jahr vor der Einschulung zur Verfügung.  Die Vorklasse war kostenfrei, für einen KITA-Platz müssen die Eltern bezahlen, die Kosten sind je nach Betreiber sehr unterschiedlich. Seit 2011 ist ein Kita-Platz für drei- bis sechsjährige Kinder kostenfrei. Die Senkung des Einschulungsalters von 6 auf 5.5 seit 2005 erfordert einen anderen pädagogischen Umgang mit den Kindern. Sie benötigen eine längere Anpassungsphase an den Schulrhythmus. Die Inhalte der Rahmenlehrpläne wurden jedoch nicht angeglichen; die Anforderungen sind dieselben, wie zuvor für sechs-jährige Kinder.  Das jahrgangsübergreifende Lernen in der Schulanfangsphase wird in der Hälfte der SESB-Standorte praktiziert, neun Standorte haben sich mit Argumenten dagegen ausgesprochen, da sie es nicht mit dem Konzept der SESB kompatibel finden. Eines der Argumente ist dabei der Partnersprachenunterricht, der in der 1. Jahrgangsstufe mündlich erteilt wird, erst im Laufe in der 2. Jahrgangsstufe kommt der Schriftspracherwerb hinzu. Im Jahr 2012 praktizieren noch 5 von 17 SESB Grundschulstandorten das jahrgangsübergreifende Lernen. Alle anderen haben es entweder gar nicht eingeführt oder wieder abgeschafft, weil es sich nicht als positiv erwiesen hat.  Die Erzieheri für das unterrichtsergänzende Angebot in den unterrichtsfreien Phasen in der Grundschule hatten in den ersten Jahren die Verantwortung für eine Klasse. Für die Kinder und das Pädagogenteam bedeutete dies eine feste Bezugsperson in dem ansonsten mehr Fachlehrern orientierten System. Diese Form der Betreuung ist wieder gegeben.  Die Einstellung muttersprachlich nichtdeutscher Erzieherinnen ist weiterhin nicht geregelt und wird oft noch durch die Eltern finanziert, indem die Fördervereine der Schulen nichtdeutsche Honorarkräfte anstellen.  Zu Beginn der Schulanfangsphase in der 1. Jahrgangsstufe zwischen der Einschulung und den Herbstferien wird die Lernausgangslage der Kinder ermittelt.  Die Ermittlung der Lernausgangslage findet in den Fächern Deutsch und Mathematik und für die Feinmotorik statt. Für die nichtdeutschen Muttersprachen wurden bisher keine Aufgaben entwickelt, mit denen die Lernausgangslage ermittelt werden kann.  Es wurden Vergleichsarbeiten in den 2. und 4. Jahrgangsstufen in den Fächern Deutsch und Mathematik eingeführt, seit 2008/2009 finden sie in der 3. Jahrgangsstufe statt. Die Vergleichsarbeiten werden seit mehreren Jahren geschrieben. Die Festlegung auf die 3. Jahrgangsstufe scheint nun endgültig, sodass in den nichtdeutschen Sprachen ebenfalls Vergleichsarbeiten entwickelt werden können. 201  Einführung des zentral organisierten Mittleren Schulabschlusses und des Abiturs, beide Prüfungen mit Präsentationsprüfungen.  MSA: Die Schüler der SESB können die nichtdeutsche Partnersprache als Fremdsprache wählen. Hierzu werden in Kooperation mit dem LISUM (Landesinstitut für Schule und Medien) für die Sprachen, die nicht in der Berliner Regelschule unterrichtet werden, zentrale Aufgabenformate entwickelt.  Abitur: Die Schüler besetzen die Prüfungsfächer paritätisch und führen alle Fächer in der jeweiligen Sprache fort, die auch in der Sek I dem SESB-Profil entsprechen. In der 5. Prüfungskomponente, d.h. einer Präsentationsaufgabe, oder einer schriftlichen“ Besonderen Lernleistung“ ist die Prüfungssprache diejenige, in der das Fach zuvor unterrichtet wurde.  Die Zeugnisformulare sind für die SESB modifiziert wie oben beschrieben. Seit 2010 Jahren gibt es in Berlin indikatorenorientierte Zeugnisse für die Regelklassen der Jahrgangsstufen 1 bis 4. Sie wurden ergänzt durch das Fach Partnersprache, sodass sie auch in der SESB benutzt werden können.  Seit 2009/2010 ist die Kooperation zwischen Grundschule und KITA und zwischen Grundschule und Sekundarstufe I verbindlich im Schulgesetz festgeschrieben. Die Kooperation zwischen KITA und SESB-Grundschule existierte bisher in einer lockeren Form, was zumeist mit der geografischen Lage der KITAS zusammenhing. Je näher die Lage, desto enger war die Kooperation:  Gegenseitige Einladungen zu Festen;  Besuche in der Grundschule, um zusammen mit den Grundschulkindern „Unterricht“ zu erleben;  Schulkinder lesen Texte in beiden Sprachen in der KITA während der „Lesewoche“ vor;  Absprachen zwischen den Leitungen und den Kolleginnen beider Einrichtungen,  gegenseitige Teilnahme an Festen,  Informationsabende für interessierte Eltern. Sobald die Standards für Europa-KITAS veröffentlicht sind, werden die SESB-Moderatoren Fortbildungen für die Kollegen der KITAS anbieten, die das Konzept SESB und die Verzahnung von Sprache und interkulturellem Lernen beinhalten. Die Kooperation zwischen Grundschule und Sekundarstufe I wird bereits praktiziert. Dazu gehören:  der Austausch von Informationen zur Leistungsermittlung und Leistungsbewertung in den 202 einzelnen Fächern,  Absprachen zu den Rahmenlehrplänen und Unterrichtsmaterialien,  Hospitationen der Kollegen und Besuch der Schülern in der weiterführenden Schule,  ein Informationsabend für die Eltern und Schüler über die Fortsetzung der SESB in der weiterführenden Schule mit Begehung der Räumlichkeiten. 5. Umwandlung zur Schule mit besonderer pädagogischer Prägung Mit der Umwandlung zur Schule mit besonderer pädagogischer Prägung im Schuljahr 2011/2012 gibt es für die SESB neue Rahmenvorgaben in Form einer Einrichtungsverfügung, in denen das Konzept der SESB dargestellt wird und alle vom allgemeinen Schulsystem abweichenden Sachverhalte geregelt werden. Dies gilt vor allem für das Aufnahmeverfahren: a) Allgemeines Der Besuch der SESB ist freiwillig und bedarf der schriftlichen Zustimmung der Erziehungsberechtigten, die zuvor über Inhalt, Dauer, Beobachtungszeit, Sprachintensität des Lerntyps und mögliche zusätzliche Belastungen ihrer Kinder eingehend zu informieren sind. Insbesondere sind sie darauf hinzuweisen, dass sich beim Verlassen des Bildungsganges Nachteile ergeben, da eine Fortsetzung des Unterrichts in der nichtdeutschen Partnersprache nicht oder zumindest nicht niveaugerecht möglich ist. Eine solche Einverständniserklärung ist allerdings entbehrlich, wenn der Bildungsgang innerhalb der SESB fortgesetzt wird. Die Aufnahme in die SESB erfolgt unabhängig vom Wohnort, in der Regel in Jahrgangsstufe 1. b) Grundschule Die SESB nimmt im Rahmen der Einschulung zur Hälfte Kinder auf, die Deutsch altersgemäß wie eine Muttersprache beherrschen, zur Hälfte Kinder, die die jeweilige nichtdeutsche Sprache altersgemäß wie eine Muttersprache beherrschen. Ansonsten ist －auch bei freien Kapazitäten－ keine Aufnahme möglich (Mindesteignung). Beide Sprachen sind gleichberechtigte Partnersprachen. Erziehungsberechtigte, für deren Kinder beide Unterrichtssprachen als Muttersprachen in Betracht kommen, müssen sich bei der Anmeldung entscheiden, welcher Sprachgruppe ihr Kind zugeordnet werden soll. Übersteigt die Zahl der geeigneten Anmeldungen die der verfügbaren Plätze, erfolgt die Auswahl getrennt nach beiden Sprachgruppen. Die Aufnahme richtet sich jeweils nach folgenden Kriterien in abgestufter Rangfolge: 1. Grundkenntnisse der Sprache am SESB-Standort, die nicht Muttersprache ist, die eine erfolgreiche Teilnahme am Unterricht erwarten lassen; dies gilt nicht bei Kindern mit der nichtdeutschen Sprache als Muttersprache, die kürzer als ein Jahr in Deutschland leben. 2. Kinder, die gemäß § 42 Absatz 1 SchulG 19 19schulpflichtig werden. Mit Beginn eines Schuljahres (1. August) werden alle Kinder schulpflichtig, die das sechste Lebensjahr vollendet 203 3. Kinder, deren Geschwister sich bereits am selben Standort in der SESB befinden oder an einem anderen SESB-Grundschulstandort in derselben Sprachkombination unterrichtet werden. Im Übrigen entscheidet das Los. Eine weitere Unterscheidung, insbesondere nach der Qualität des bereits erreichten Sprachniveaus, erfolgt nicht, ein Ranking ist unzulässig. Vor jeder Aufnahme sind die den Anforderungen entsprechenden Kompetenzen in beiden gleich-berechtigten Unterrichtssprachen in einer von der Schulaufsichtsbehörde einheitlich genehmigten Über-prüfung nachzuweisen, deren Ergebnisse nachvollziehbar zu dokumentieren sind. Maßgeblich sind die zum Zeitpunkt der jeweiligen Überprüfung festgestellten Sprachkenntnisse. In der deutschen Sprache erfolgt diese Überprüfung in der Regel durch das Sprachstandsfeststellungs-verfahren gemäß § 55 des Schulgesetzes 20 . Kinder, bei denen kein Sprachförderbedarf festgestellt wird, erfüllen grundsätzlich die Voraussetzung für Deutsch als Muttersprache, Kinder mit Sprachförderbedarf, die regelmäßig an Maßnahmen der Sprachförderung teilnehmen, die Voraussetzung zu Nummer 1. der obigen Kriterien. Sofern trotz Sprachförderbedarf die Aufnahme mit Deutsch als Muttersprache beantragt wird, sind zeitnah zur Anmeldung in der Schule erneut die Deutschkenntnisse, diesmal durch den gewünschten SESB-Standort, zu überprüfen. Die SESB darf die Aufnahme von Kindern mit Deutsch als Muttersprache von einem schuleigenen Test in deutscher Sprache abhängig machen, wenn Anhaltspunkte dafür vorliegen, dass ein Kind zwar keinen Sprachförderbedarf, aber trotzdem erkennbare Defizite in der deutschen Sprache hat, die den erfolgreichen Besuch der SESB gefährden. Die Überprüfung der Sprachkenntnisse in der nichtdeutschen Partnersprache erfolgt durch die SESB. c) Sekundarstufe I In die Jahrgangsstufe 7 der SESB werden zunächst Schüler aufgenommen, die aus Jahrgangsstufe 6 eines Zuges der SESB mit derselben Partnersprachkombination aufgerückt sind. Danach werden im Rahmen freier Plätze Schüler aufgenommen, die Deutsch und die jeweilige Partnersprache auf einem Niveau beherrschen, das dem Anforderungsprofil der SESB entspricht, so dass eine erfolgreiche Teilnahme am Unterricht zu erwarten ist. Über die entsprechende Vorbildung ist gegebenenfalls ein Nachweis in beiden Sprachen zu erbringen. Darüber hinaus führt die Schule zur Feststellung der Sprachkenntnisse ein Aufnahmegespräch durch, das durch weitere Überprüfungen ergänzt werden kann. Sofern der Bildungsgang der SESB an Schulen unterschiedlicher Schularten fortgesetzt werden kann, werden am Gymnasium vorrangig Schüler mit einer Förderprognose für das Gymnasium aus Grundschulklassen der SESB aufgenommen, danach solche mit einer Gymnasialempfehlung und Schülern einem der SESB vergleichbaren Sprachstand in der jeweiligen Partnersprachkombination 20 haben oder bis zum folgenden 31. Dezember vollenden werden. Über die Aufnahme in die Grundschule entscheidet die zuständige Schulbehörde im Benehmen mit der Schulleiterin oder dem Schulleiter. Im Übrigen entscheidet über die Aufnahme in die Schule die Schulleiterin oder der Schulleiter im Auftrag der Schulbehörde. 204 und schließlich Schüler aus der SESB ohne Gymnasialempfehlung. Das Recht der Erziehungsberechtigten auf die freie Wahl der Schulart wird gemäß § 56 Absatz 1 SchulG －bezogen auf den Besuch der SESB － eingeschränkt. Kann der Bildungsgang der SESB an mehreren ISS fortgesetzt werden, stimmen sich die beteiligten Schulen im Rahmen des Aufnahmeverfahrens miteinander ab. Sofern die Anmeldungen die Kapazitäten einer Schule unter- und einer anderen Schule überschreiten, werden zunächst all jene aus Grundschulzügen der SESB kommenden Schüler aufgenommen, die sich an der weniger nachgefragten Schule angemeldet haben; die übrigen Plätze werden －wiederum zunächst unter den Schülern, die ihren Bildungsgang an der SESB fortsetzen－, den jeweiligen Schulen zugelost. d) Gymnasiale Oberstufe In die gymnasiale Oberstufe der SESB werden alle Schüler übernommen, die den gewählten Bildungsgang innerhalb der SESB mit derselben Partnersprachkombination fortsetzen wollen und die Voraussetzungen zum Besuch der gymnasialen Oberstufe erfüllen. e) Aufnahme in einen bereits eingerichteten Bildungsgang Nach Maßgabe freier Plätze können Schüler in eine bereits eingerichtete Klasse aufgenommen werden, die die beiden Sprachen der jeweiligen Sprachkombination so beherrschen, dass eine erfolgreiche Teilnahme am Unterricht zu erwarten ist. Über die entsprechende Vorbildung ist ein geeigneter Nachweis zu erbringen; darüber hinaus führt die Schule ein Aufnahmegespräch zur Feststellung der Sprachkenntnisse in beiden Sprachen durch, das durch weitere Überprüfungen ergänzt werden kann.“21 6. Beispiele aus der Praxis Die im Folgenden dargestellten Projekte haben alle die Europäische Dimension zum Inhalt und fördern sowohl die Sprachkompetenz als auch das interkulturelle Lernen. Sie sind SESB spezifisch und finden standortübergreifend statt.  Vorlesewettbewerb in Deutsch als Partnersprache Diesen Wettbewerb gibt es bereits seit 1999. Er wird nach den Kriterien des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V. durchgeführt. Die 6. Jahrgangsstufen nehmen daran teil. Seit 2003 sponsert der VBKI (Verein Berliner Kaufleute und Industrieller) den Vorlesewettbewerb und ermöglicht Preise für die Kinderjury wie auch Buchpreise für alle Vorleser mit einem besonderen Preis für den Gewinner.  Vorlesewettbewerb in nichtdeutschen Partner- und Muttersprachen 21 Einrichtungsverfügung für die Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin (SESB) als Schule besonderer pädagogischer Prägung (Rahmenvorgaben) der Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft vom 30.3.2012 205 Nach dem Prinzip des Vorlesewettbewerbs Deutsch finden auch Wettbewerbe in anderen Sprachen statt, z.B. in Englisch, Französisch, Griechisch und Italienisch. Dabei treffen sich die Schüler aus den Standorten mit gleicher Sprachenkombination und ermitteln die besten Leser in der nichtdeutschen Mutter- und Partnersprache.  Gedichtwettbewerb Russisch 2005 fand zum ersten Mal ein Gedichtlesewettbewerb zwischen allen Schulen mit der Sprachkombination Deutsch-Russisch statt. Es nahmen daran die beiden Grundschulstandorte, die weiterführende Schule sowie die Botschaftsschule teil.  Schreibwettbewerb in der Partnersprache 2003 wurde ein Schreibwettbewerb in jeweils drei Partnersprachen für die 6. Jahrgangsstufe der Grundschule und die 8. Jahrgangsstufe der weiterführenden Schule ins Leben gerufen, ebenfalls gesponsert vom VBKI. Alle Teilnehmer schreiben in ihrer Partnersprache nach festgelegten Kriterien (Thema, Wortanzahl, Gestaltung) und stellen damit am Ende der Grundschulzeit beziehungsweise am Ende der Phase des getrennten Sprachunterrichts in der weiterführenden Schule (8. Jahrgangsstufe) ihre Lernfortschritte in der Partnersprache unter Beweis. Eine Jury ermittelt die Sieger. In einem Festakt zeichnet der VBKI unter Beteiligung des Senators für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft und Botschaftsvertretern die Preisträger aus. Der Schreibwettbewerb ist die erste gemeinsame Veranstaltung zwischen Grundschule und Sekundarstufe I und zeigt eine Verknüpfungsmöglichkeit, wie der Übergang von der einen in die andere Stufe inhaltlich und methodisch-didaktisch gestaltet werden kann.  Projekt „Redewendungen in 10 Sprachen“ Dieses Thema wurde im Schuljahr 2003/2004 als gemeinsames Projekt von 14 SESB-Grundschulen in den Jahrgangsstufen 5 und 6 durchgeführt unter dem Titel: „Andere Länder – andere Sitten? Andere Sprachen, andere Sprüche! Oder: Jeder Vogel singt, wie ihm der Schnabel gewachsen ist.“ Ausgehend von einer deutschen Redewendung, in der ein Tier vorkommt, wurde die Entsprechung in einer der neun anderen Sprachen gesucht. Beide Redewendungen wurden bildnerisch dargestellt und als Bildunterschrift festgehalten. Die Schülerarbeiten wurden zwischen Mai 2004 und Februar 2005 an verschiedenen Orten in Berlin ausgestellt. Mit ausgewählten Bildern wurde der SESB-Jahreskalender 2005 gestaltet. 22 Die Durchführung in den einzelnen Jahrgangsstufen basierte auf einer Verknüpfung der Fächer Muttersprache, Partnersprache und Kunst und einer daraus resultierenden Zusammenarbeit der Kollegen.  Grand Prix de la petite chanson Dieses Fest aller Grundschulen wird seit 1999 während der Europawoche im Mai gefeiert. 22 Cf. 外国語教育 IV －小学校から中学校へ S.109､111 206 Während dieses kulturellen Höhepunktes werden die verschiedenen Sprachen und Kulturen für die Kinder und Erwachsenen konkret sichtbar und hörbar. Jede Schule präsentiert musikalisch-szenische Beiträge aus dem kulturellen Hintergrund der jeweiligen Sprachkombination. Während des Grand Prix 2003 überreichte Frau Barbara John allen SESB-Grundschulen den Integrationspreis des Beauftragten des Senats für Integration und Migration. 2009 nahmen rund 1 100 Kinder aus 16 Schulen an diesem Fest.  Fußball-Europameisterschaft der SESB Seit 1998 findet dieses sportliche Ereignis jährlich gegen Ende des Schuljahres statt. Anfänglich kämpften 18 Mannschaften um den begehrten Pokal; 2004 waren es bereits 34 in 3 verschiedenen Alterskategorien, 2009 tummelten sich 1 500 Kinder auf den Sportplätzen. Bei diesem Turnier hallen Anfeuerungsrufe der Trainer, Eltern, Erzieher, Lehrer und zuschauenden Klassenkameraden in 10 Sprachen über die Sportplätze. Die ehrenamtlichen Schiedsrichter bewerten nicht nur die spielerischen Leistungen, sondern vergeben ebenfalls einen durch die Kinder selbst initiierten Fairnesspokal „Ich spiele fair“.  Brennballturnier Als sportliches Gegengewicht für die Mädchen, die zahlenmäßig beim Fußball unterrepräsentiert sind, finden in unregelmäßigen Abständen kleinere Turniere zwischen mehreren Schulen statt. Dabei gibt es zwar weniger Teilnehmer, aber mehr persönliche Kontakte zwischen den Mannschaften. Es ist ein Spiel, bei dem sich zwei Mannschaften in zwei Feldern gegenüberstehen. Ziel jeder Mannschaft ist, die Gegener abzuschießen: das ist der Fall, wenn der Ball nicht gefangen werden kann oder man wird von ihm berührt. Dann scheidet man aus.  Jahreskalender Der seit 2003 erscheinende Kalender entwickelt sich zu einer Darstellung von Ergebnissen sprachlicher und interkultureller Projektarbeit. Bisherige Themen: 15 offene Türen nach Europa －Vorstellung der Grundschul-Standorte, Eine kulinarische Reise, Redewendungen in zehn Sprachen, Spiele aus unseren Ländern, Märchen in zehn Sprachen. Seit 2008 ruht das Projekt Kalender, da die Finanzierung nicht gelöst werden konnte.  Olympische Spiele Die ersten „Olympischen Spiele“ feierten 12 Grundschulen im Mai 2004 anlässlich der Sommerspiele in Athen. Dazu hatten die beiden deutsch-griechischen Grundschulen eingeladen. Wie bei den „Großen“ wurde in Gegenwart eines Vertreters der griechischen Botschaft das olympische Feuer entzündet, der Eid auf Griechisch gesprochen, es gab einen sportlichen Dreikampf, eine abschließende Staffel und eine Siegerehrung, bei der die Athleten einen Olivenkranz als Auszeichnung erhielten. 207  Komm, wir schauen übern Tellerrand Dieses Projekt entwickelt sich seit 2007. Gegenseitige Besuche von Kindern verschiedener SESB-Standorte fanden schon häufiger unter unterschiedlichsten Aspekten statt, teils als „lockere“ Besuche im Rahmen einer Einladung, um an einer Lesung teilzunehmen, teils sind es auch feste Kontakte über ein oder zwei Schuljahre mit regelmäßigen Unternehmungen, Arbeiten und Lernen in Projekten (deutsch-französisch-türkische Projektwoche zum Thema „Die Nacht“, deutsch-französisch-italienischer Austausch rund um das Thema „Pizza“). Es fanden auch schon gemeinsam durchgeführte Klassenfahrten statt und standortübergreifende Projekte werden durchgeführt. Anlässlich der Schulleiter-Tagung für die Grundschule im September 2008 wurde die Durchführung von zwei gemeinsamen Projekttagen innerhalb der Europawoche 2009 beschlossen. Es fanden zahlreiche thematisch orientierte Treffen statt, die einen Einblick in die Arbeit einer Klasse an einem anderen Standort gaben, oft in einer anderen Sprachkombination als der eigenen. 2008 umfasste dieser Austausch nicht einmal zehn Klassen; 2009 waren es bereits 35 aus 12 Standorten und neun Sprachkombinationen. Diese Kontakte werden weitergeführt und noch ausgedehnt werden. Die Artikel verschiedener Schulen (Märkische Grundschule, Homer-Grundschule, Finow-Grundschule, Aziz-Nesin-Grundschule) geben Einblicke in den Ablauf eines solchen Tellerrand-Projektes.  Italienisch-Spanisch-Türkisches Projekt „Europa-Kind + Europa-Schule“ Ein Kooperationsprojekt zwischen dem Kollektiv Migrantas und den drei SESB-Standorten Aziz-Nesin-Grundschule (Deutsch-Türkisch), Finow-Grundschule (Deutsch-Italienisch), Joan-Miró-Grundschule (Deutsch-Spanisch) vom 9. bis 15. September 2011. Die Schüler entwickeln unter Anleitung „Bilder der Vielfalt“ durch Zeichnungen, Fotografien, Collagen und Computer-Animationen, Bilder von Europa-Kindern, die das gelebte interkulturelle Selbstverständnis und die Mehrsprachigkeit sichtbar machen. Zwei Wochen lang wurden Ergebnisse in der U-Bahn im „Berliner Fenster“ ausgestrahlt. Die Grundschul-Aktivitäten wurden zusammengefasst im Online-Magazin „Eu-Schulnewsletter“ der Berliner Senatskanzlei veröffentlicht. 23 Die Verööfentlichung des EU-Schulnewsletters wurde zu Beginn des Schuljahres 2012/2013 eingestellt; über eine neue Form der Information durch die Senatsbildungsverwaltung wird noch beraten. Die weiterführenden Schulen führen ebenso wie die Grundschule eine Vielzahl von Projekten durch: innerhalb Berlins, internationale bilaterale Projekte und internationale multilaterale Projekte: 23 Berliner Senatskanzlei, http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/europa/oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/europa_in_der_schule.html, Link: EU-Schulnewsletter 208  Ein Koffer für Europa Jugendliche aus verschiedenen Stadtteilen, aus unterschiedlichen Ländern, mit mehreren Sprachen: Gemeinsam ist ihnen, das sie Schüler der SESB sind, entweder besuchen sie den deutsch-russischen Standort der Mildred-Harnack-Oberschule in Berlin-Lichtenberg oder den deutsch-türkischen Standort der Carl-von-Ossietzky-Oberschule in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Während des Projektes „Ein Koffer für Europa“ lernen sich 14- und 15-jährige Jugendliche aus den beiden Stadtteilen näher kennen, besuchen sich gegenseitig und finden heraus, was sie verbindet und was sie vielleicht noch trennt. Wie fühlt es sich an, Europäer, Deutscher Russe, Türke auf einmal zu sein? Die Erfahrungen werden auf einer Internetplattform festgehalten.  Sprachuhr Wertschätzung durch die richtige Wortwahl ist hier der Inhalt des Projektes. Kleine Höflichkeitsformulierungen in anderen Sprachen sollen ein Zeichen setzen für die Anerkennung anderer Kulturen. Auf Drehscheiben in handlicher Größe, die man auf die zehn verschiedenen Sprachen der SESB einstellen kann, erfährt man z.B., was „Wie geht es dir?“ auf Italienisch heißt und was man auf diesen Gruß erwidert. Auf der Vorderseite der Sprachuhr ist ein Chameleon abgebildet, das Symbol für Vielsprachigkeit in Europa. Die Rückseite zeigt die Europakarte. Ein Modell dieser Uhr hängt mit den Maßen 2m x 2m in der Carl-von-Ossietzky-Oberschule, in der das Projekt initiiert wurde.  Youth and Migration (YAM) YAM ist ein Projekt zwischen mehreren SESB-Standorten der weiterführenden Schulen. Es finden „Familienbesuche“ und eine Auswertung in einem gemeinsamen Plenum statt. Jeweils zwei Kinder besuchen ein Kind einer Familie aus einer anderen SESB –Schule und begeben sich damit auf eine Reise in ein fremdes Land. Auf diese Weise bekommen sie Einblick in Familien mit anderen kulturellen Hintergründen, sie schauen übern Tellerrand. Schüler der 7. und 8. Jahrgangsstufe nehmen daran teil. Die Besuche finden in einem vereinbarten Rahmen statt:  Es wird zusammen ein besonders beliebtes Gemeinschaftsspiel gespielt.  Von einem ganz besonderen Tag im Leben des Kindes der Familie wird －vielleicht mit einem Blick ins Familienalbum－ erzählt, so dass die Gäste etwas kennen lernen, das speziell in dieser Kultur besonders bedeutsam ist.  Es wird von einem besonderen Familienurlaub berichtet.  Was erinnert im Wohnzimmer oder in der Küche an das Herkunftsland der Familie?  Woher kamen die Großeltern bzw. die Urgroßeltern und wo haben sie früher gelebt?  Welche Bedeutung hat die Muttersprache für die Beteiligten? Den Abschluss des Besuchs bildet ein ganz normales Werktagsabendessen im Kreis der Familie. Der Besuch wird mit Hilfe der Gastgeber dokumentiert, z.B. mit Fotos. 209 Jeder Besuch wird mit einem beschrifteten Fotomosaik festgehalten und beim abschließenden Plenum aller beteiligten Schüler vorgestellt. Die deutsche Sprache ist dabei das zentrale Verständigungsmittel zwischen den verschiedenen Sprachgruppen, sowohl bei der Gestaltung der Dokumentation als auch bei den einzelnen Treffen. Die Schüler kommen gegebenenfalls auch in die Rolle der Sprachmittler, wenn ein Familienmitglied die deutsche Sprache nicht ausreichend beherrscht. Das Projekt läuft über ein ganzes Schuljahr. Im Jahr der Geisteswissenschaften 2007 wurde das Projekt besonders ausgezeichnet.  Nationale Feste – Internationale Brücken, Comenius-Projekt (ein Beispiel eines multikulturellen Projektes der SESB) Dieses dreijährige Projekt wurde von einer türkischen, einer griechischen, einer finnischen Schule und zwei Berliner SESB – Schulen, der Carl-von-Ossietzky-Oberschule (Deutsch-Türkisch) und dem Heinrich-von-Kleist-Gymnasium (Deutsch-Griechisch) durchgeführt. Im Fokus stand die Auseinandersetzung mit kulturellen und nationalen Identitätsmustern, festgemacht an den Nationalfeiertagen der beteiligten Partnerländer. Im Mittelpunkt standen das gemeinsame Erleben ausgewählter Feste in den Partnerländern, ein intensiver Erfahrungs- und Informationsaustausch darüber und die Vorstellung der gebräuchlichen lokalen bzw. nationalen Unterrichtsmaterialien und –methoden. Gemeinsam wurden neue Unterrichtsmaterialien entwickelt und erprobt, die den Anspruch der Multiperspektive als grundlegendes Element berücksichtigen und auch anderen Schulen als Unterrichtsmaterial zur Verfügung gestellt werden.  Russisch-Olympiade: Ein Wettbewerb, an dem die deutsch-russischen Standorte teilnehmen. 70 der besten Russischschüler wetteifern in 6 verschiedenen Stufen um die besten Plätze im Lesen und im Präsentieren von kreativen Arbeiten.  Europäischer Tag der Sprachen: Seit 2009 kooperiert die SESB mit EUNIC Berlin (European Union of National Instituts of Culture) am 26.9. jeden Jahres sowie mit der Ständigen Vertretung der EU in Berlin und beteiligt sich an Aktivitäten oder bietet sie an, z.B. 2012 Sprachenbad: Die Kulturinstitute bieten „Minisprachkurse“ in vielen Berliner Stadtbüchereien für Grundschulklassen an. Oberstufenschüler der in der SESB vertretenen Sprachen beteiligen sich als Sprachenbotschafter an der Vorbereitung und Durchführung dieser Kurse. Die oben genannten Aktivitäten haben sich in den vergangenen dreizehn Jahren entwickelt und gehören mittlerweile zum festen Bestandteil der SESB. Sie bewirken bei Erwachsenen, Kindern und Jugendlichen die Entwicklung und Stärkung eines Wir-Gefühls und lassen sie die Europäische Dimension durch das Gelebte erfahren. 210 7. Fazit Die „Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin“ entwickelt sich beständig weiter. Es gibt viele unbeantwortete Fragen, zu regelnde Aufgaben, konzeptionelle Entwicklungen. Immer wieder entstehen Probleme, aber es werden auch immer wieder Lösungen gefunden und das dank des Engagements vieler Kollegen und der Schulleitungen, der Eltern und des Enthusiasmus der Kinder und selbstverständlich der Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft. Die SESB ist aus dem Berliner schulischen Angebot nicht mehr wegzudenken, ihr Bekanntheitsgrad reicht weit über Europa hinaus. Ihre Stärken, aber ebenso ihre Schwachstellen werden in der Evaluation herausgestellt werden, um Wege der Verbesserung zu erarbeiten und eine Weiterentwicklung aufzuzeigen. Im Oktober 2012 wurde die SESB bei Flemish Education Council in Brüssel vorgestellt. Der Bekanntheitsgrad der SESB wächst, sie ist ein interessantes und zukunftsweisendes Angebot von schulisch erlernter Zweisprachigkeit im urbanen Raum. Ich fühle mich weiterhin wohl wie ein Fisch im Wasser in meiner zweiten Sprache und meiner Partnerkultur, ich lerne und praktiziere seit nunmehr 16 Jahren in der Staatlichen Europa-Schule Berlin an einem Standort mit der Sprachkombination Deutsch-Französisch und es ist für mich immer noch das spannendste schulische Angebot Berlins. Es mag sehr euphorisch klingen, aber ich fühle mich wohl, und das aus mehreren Gründen:  Meine Französischkenntnisse nutze ich im deutschsprachigen Unterricht, um mit den Kindern Parallelen und Unterschiede in Deutsch und Französisch zu besprechen und Vergleiche zwischen       beiden Sprachen anzustellen. Ich nutze sie auch im Umgang mit einsprachigen, frankophonen Kindern, wenn deren Gefühlslage es erfordert und sie Zuspruch in ihrer Erstsprache benötigen. Diese zweite Sprache hilft mir bei Kontakten mit frankophonen Eltern, die nicht über ausreichende Deutschkenntnisse verfügen. Mit meinen frankophonen Kollegen kann ich je nach Bedarf in der einen oder anderen Sprache sprechen. Im Unterricht bin ich Tandempartnerin meiner frankophonen Kollegen. Im Rahmen der Austauschprojekte unserer Schule mit frankophonen Klassen kann ich mit allen Beteiligten kommunizieren. Meine interkulturellen Kompetenzen, die ich während meiner elfjährigen Tätigkeit in Frankreich erworben habe, sind mir nützlich. Sie helfen mir nicht nur in meiner eigenen Schule und im frankophonen Umfeld, sondern in allen SESB - Standorten. Durch das intensive Leben und Erleben der französischen Kultur erkenne ich sehr schnell meine persönlichen Kenntnislücken in anderen Kulturen. Ich kann besser Fragen stellen, um fehlende Informationen zu erhalten. Mein interkulturelles Lernen befindet sich in einem ständigen Fluss. 211 Wo ist dies in dieser konzentrierten Form „SESB“ mit zehn verschiedenen Sprachen und kulturellen Prägungen aus der ganzen Welt in diesem Maße möglich? BIBLIOGRAFIE (Die Angaben folgen der Nennung im Text) http://www.berlin.de/sen/bildung Pierre Obajtek, Praktikant in der Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung 2009 Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung, Internetseite unter: http://www.berlin.de/sen/bildung/besondere_angebote/staatl_europaschule/ Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin (1993): Erweiterung des Angebots der Staatlichen Europa-Schule Berlin (SESB) mit Beginn des Schuljahres 1993/1994, Drucksache 12/2731, Berlin, S. 1 Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung: www.berlin.de/sen/bwf/ Wolfgang Zydatiß (2000): Bilingualer Unterricht in der Grundschule, Ismaning, S. 40 Senatsverwaltung für Schule, Jugend und Sport Berlin (Hrsg.) Vorläufiger Unterrichtsplan für die Muttersprachen. Berlin 2000 Senatsverwaltung für Schule, Jugend und Sport Berlin (Hrsg.) Vorläufiger Unterrichtsplan für die Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin. Partnersprachen. Berlin 2000 http://www.berlin.de/imperia/md/content/sen-bildung/schulorganisation/vv_schule_9_2009_zumessun g.pdf Europabildung in der Schule, Empfehlungen der Ständigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der Länder der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Beschluss der Kultusministerkonferenz vom 8.6.1978 i.d.F. vom 5.5.2008, http://www.bildungsserver.de/zeigen.html?seite=5456, Europabildung in der Schule – Neue Empfehlungen der Kultusministerkonferenz Quentin-Blake-Grundschule: www.quentin-blake-europe-school.de Märkische Grundschule: www.staatliche-europa-schule.de Finow-Grundshule: www.Finow-Grundschule.cidsnet.de Lew-Tolstoi-Grundschule: lew-tolstoi-g.cidsnet.de Berliner Senatskanzlei, www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/europa/oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/europa_in_der_schule.html, Link: EU-Schulnewsletter Monika Ebertowski, Koordinatorin SESB Sekundarstufe I und II bis Juli 2009 212 Link: EOLE APPROACHES IN JAPAN: A Trial for Practicing in an Initial Training Course, Reflection and Suggestions for the Application of the Approach into Japanese Contexts Shiga, Yoshiko Yoshijima, Shigeru Foreword It was decided to introduce compulsory “English Activities” into elementary schools in Japan at the fifth grade from 2010. This proposal to introduce English into elementary schools was made over ten years ago but discussion delayed its actual implementation until recently, mainly due to a lack of clearly described aims. Shiga, as a teacher at a university where the primary educational aim is to educate good teachers for kindergarten, nursery schools and elementary schools, has long been concerned with this issue. In Switzerland she met Chiristiane Perregaux, Elisabeth Zurbriggen of the educational board, and teachers practicing the concepts of the EOLE, and, supported by these people, she has dealt with EOLE approaches for over ten years. These approaches were first proposed by Hawkins and adapted to kindergartens and elementary schools in Switzerland. She saw there the possibility to realize the aims1 provided by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) through their introduction at the elementary school level. However, there was no opportunity to practice this approach directly in her classes and the EOLE approaches were not practiced generally in Japan, except at one school belonging to Nara University of Education. So she began to experiment by preparing classes for students’ future jobs. The first part of this paper is a report of these trials with her class and her reflection on the experiences in regard to the future implementation of the EOLE in Japan. The second part of this paper2 is a supplement by Yoshijima, his interest in the EOLE inspired by her and the experience of working with her on several research projects. After Shiga’s retirement, he further researched recent developments in EOLE approaches and revised her initial draft from a theoretical point of view, also adding some practical suggestions. Shiga explained in her class first the main ideas and objectives of the EOLE approaches as in the section 1 and 2 in this paper, showing some video pictures she 1 2 Cf. Chapters by Yoshijima and by Sano in this volume. This part is a revised text of the speech held by Shiga at the symposium 2008 at Seitoku University, Japan, reflecting developments in Switzerland since then. 213 had taken in Switzerland. She then tried to work with the Material Book for the EOLE activities. The following is a brief sketch of the syllabus for her class. Syllabus The title of the seminar: European child care and educational approaches to open their mind to the diversity of languages and cultures. Introduction: concepts of personal ideals required in the internationalized society (symbiosis, dis-ethnocentrism, multidimensionality, multidimensional identity, communicative competences, metacognition etc.) and the necessary implementation of the EOLE approaches in education. Educational ideals of multilingualism and multiculturalism for the elementary school. Examples in France and Geneva, Switzerland, The 11 Educational aims of the EOLE approach. Showing video clips of EOLE activities taken in Switzerland, with the aim of students understanding the eleven aims of the EOLE inductively. Practicing the EOLE activities: these are taken from the 35 activities in the EOLE Material Books. 1. Classmates should play the role of the teacher or the kindergarten or elementary school children in the EOLE activities, discuss the functions of the activities by referring to the teacher guidebooks. They consider how they should address the children at the beginning phase of the activities. 2. Greeting forms: they discover by themselves the multilingual situation in the class and on the streets in near and remote towns. Comparison of the greeting forms in sounds and in written forms. Activity for four to five year old children in preschool. CD’s from the EOLE Material Book. 3. Counting songs in different languages versions, comparison of naming, numbers, gestures, use of the fingers for counting: for four to five years old preschool children 4. Play with self-made dolls of a parrot. Greetings in different languages. Awareness of the function of a common language, having encountered different words and forms with same meanings/functions in different languages. Relativization of own language. For four to five years old preschool children. 5. Listening to poems including unknown words and observation of their written forms. Children guess the meanings of the unknown words through context and by illustration. A game to guess which of the poems is being recited, and the comparison of letters and sounds lead children to the awareness of different writing and phonetic system and their features. 6. Poems with onomatopoeia and play through guessing which animal matches the onomatopoeia helps children recognize the fact that language is an artificial product, and leads them to the relativization of their own language. From four year old children to grade 2. 7. Putting the toys and books in order, children consider the criteria for classification/sorting. 214 8. Making labels for the classified groups with concepts/letters and pictograms. For 4th and 5th graders. 9. Discover means for conveying the meanings instead of language. Pictures, pictograms, signs, classification/matching of pictograms. Personal and cultural differences by conceptualizing 10. Relativization on the personal levels. For children in preschool to the 2nd grade. 11. Different classification of nouns and plural forms respectively by language. For 3rd and 4th graders. 12. Guess the plural forms in Swahili, using the wordlist; for 5th and 6th graders. 1. What are the EOLE approaches? 1.1 What does EOLE mean? EOLE is an abbreviation of the French “Éveil au Langage / Ouverture aux Langues à l’Ecole”. It is translated in English as “Awakening to Language / Openness to Languages”. What we see in this translation is that the clear distinction is made in French between two terms, “langage” and “langues”, while in English it is described subtly using the singular form “language” and the plural form “languages”. The objective of Éveil au Langage (Awakening to Language) is to “stimulate pupils to reflect upon how various languages are used, constructed and work so that the language in general will be the object of study and reflection”. It is to develop pupils’ metalinguistic skills by means of comparison between several languages. On the other hand, the objective of Ouverture aux Langues (Openness to Languages) is to “arouse pupils’ curiosity and interest in other languages so that they will acquire the respect and linguistic decentralization, indispensable in a social context becoming more and more multilingual”. It is to promote pupils’ plurilingual and pluricultural socialization through their confrontation with various languages and cultures different from their own. In other words, Awakening to Language, concerning the cognitive aspect, aims at the development of aptitude (savoir, savoir faire), but on the other hand, Openness to Language, concerning the affective aspect, aims at the development of attitude to social and physical issues (savoir être, savoir apprendre). Both these aspects are dependent on “a pluralistic approach to languages and cultures” and lead to “a plurilingual and pluricultural competence”3 defined by the Council of Europe as a competence consisting of the language communication and cultural interaction skills which are acquired through the experience of diversity, comparison and relativization. 1.2 Where do the ideas behind the EOLE approaches come from? The ideas backing the EOLE approaches were originally found in the theory of “Language Awareness”, which Eric Hawkins advocated in the UK in 1974 in order to support the learning of “pupils from a diversity of language backgrounds” and to challenge “linguistic parochialism and prejudice”, a “product of insecurity and fear of the unknown”. His method is based on “a contrastive 3 CEFR : pp. 4-5 215 study” of patterns of one’s mother tongue with those in other languages such as “foreign languages studied in class as well as the ethnic minority tongues of classmates”, so that pupils “get insight and confidence in grasping the patterns in language”. To this cognitive aspect, Hawkins added an affective one: “The exchange of different language experiences can promote confidence, tolerance of difference, and understanding; multilingualism may thus come to be seen as the enrichment it surely is, rather than as one more problem for the hard-pressed teacher”.4 This language awareness movement then spread across the continent of Europe, where school teachers were facing the challenges of augmenting immigrant pupils and linguistic diversity. The idea of Awareness of Language was introduced in France as Éveil aux Langues, in Germany as Begegnungsprache into elementary schools, in Italy as Educazione linguistica and in French speaking Switzerland as EOLE “Éveil au Langage / Ouverture aux Langues à l’Ecole”. It can be said that EOLE, “Awakening to Language / Openness to Languages” is the best interpretation of Hawkins’s theory in conveying faithfully to us the twin objectives, cognitive and affective. Nevertheless, the EOLE approach is generally not yet so widely known, even in Europe. In France, Switzerland and in Catalonia/Spain it is somewhat practiced, but in Germany Begegnungsprache attracts less interest5 than it once did. Here the important aspects in the EOLE, culture and language, seem to be realized through their integration into the curriculum and syllabus, and the comparison is made usually merely between their own language/culture and those of the target language. In the case of Japan, no other trials are known besides the above mentioned case. Moreover, we recognize differences between the EOLE approach and other approaches practiced in other countries in Europe such as CLIL. In the EOLE, aims other than linguistic and cultural ones are realized, as we see in section 2.2. 2. How the EOLE approaches have been practiced in French-speaking Switzerland 2.1 EOLE Curriculum The EOLE approaches were first put into experimentation in kindergarten and primary classes in Geneva pilot schools by a research group of school teachers led by Christiane Perregaux. The group reached the following conclusions:  bilingual pupils acquire more interest in languages and develop more aptitude in reading and writing than monolingual ones.  sensitization to language diversities allows pupils to have more favorable attitudes towards the variety of languages and the peoples who speak them and to have more ambition to learn them. Through these practices in pilot classes, the significance of the EOLE was affirmed not only for 4 5 Hawkins (1987): Foreword Peter Doyé (2007): Das Fremdsprachenlernen in der Grundschule als integraler Bestandteil der Grundbildung. In:Foreign Language Education IV: From elementary school to middle school .pp.22 Asahi-Shuppan 216 immigrants but also for all the pupils, including native Swiss children, even within an entirely monolingual class composed solely of French-speaking pupils. In 1998, the Perregaux study group, in response to the request of the Commission Romande des Moyens d’Enseignement (COROME), the French-speaking Swiss Commission on Teaching Methods, drafted a curriculum covering 11 years of education from Kindergarten to Junior High School to provide a framework for putting the EOLE approaches into practice in public schools in general. This EOLE curriculum aims at diverse objectives relating to three points of view, which are6: 1. pupils’ representations and attitudes toward languages and peoples who speak them 2. pupils’ knowledge concerning language and the languages 3. pupils’ aptitude of observation, analysis, reflection on languages and their learning. 2. 2 General objectives of the EOLE approaches On the basis of these three points of view, the general objectives of the EOLE approaches are fixed as follows: 1. Welcoming and legitimating the languages of all the pupils for the development of self-esteem and the establishment of identity. 2. Making them aware of the social role allotted to French, a common language at school and in the community. 3. Developing consciousness of the plurilingualism and the pluriculturalism in close or distant environment for stimulating their curiosity to the differences. 4. Structuring pupils’ linguistic knowledge by means of multi-perspective reflection on various languages in comparison with their own language. 5. Promoting linguistic, cultural and ethnic decentralization for making pupils eager for knowledge and learning. 6. Cultivating auditory and visual discriminatory capacity through the comparison of different sounds and different letters or characters. 7. Broadening pupils’ knowledge of the world in studying Loan Words from other languages historically connected with their own language. 8. Demonstrating the notion of socially constructed language by the comparison of onomatopoeia, representing the arbitrary nature of Sign (Signe) 9. Providing the comparative and multi-perspective research methodology (learning strategy) to pupils in developing their meta-linguistic reflection. 10. Developing socialization and openness to languages and to the peoples who speak them by removing pupils’ fear of encounters with the unknown. 6 Commission Romande des Moyens d’Enseignement (COROME) : Éveil au langgage/Ouverture aux langues ; Avant-projet du groupe d’étude, p.2 1998 July 217 11. Developing pupils’ language, culture and attitudes open to plurilingualism and to pluriiculturalism. 2.3 Activities practiced in the EOLE and their relation to the general objectives To understand these objectives better, some EOLE activities shall be shown: these are practiced in kindergarten and elementary schools in Geneva7. The number at the end of each activity shows the relation to the objectives mentioned above. As there are foreign pupils in this class, the teacher introduces all their languages in each activity. This refers to “Welcoming and legitimating the languages of all the pupils” (1). No.1: A guessing game with a Portuguese song In this activity children have to guess the heritage of the song played on the piano. A girl named Sarah, just arrived from Portugal, is feeling alienated from the group. Her teacher plays a Portuguese song which is familiar to Sarah. Immediately she raises her hand, but her hand comes down and down, overwhelmed by the power of her classmates. The teacher knows exactly where the right answer is to be expected but he does not call on Sarah at first, but allows other children who may give wrong answers to guess. And at the end the teacher comes to Sarah and succeeds in drawing the right answer. So Sarah regains her self-confidence and she was proud of herself when she sang the song in her maternal language. In this game, the aim is not to get the right answer so that the children get knowledge of a foreign song. It is rather a secondary or co-success to get knowledge of the foreign song. The aim is “the development of self-esteem and the establishment of identity” (1). A comment should be made here on teaching skills necessary in order to apply this approach successfully. First, the class should have an atmosphere which allows the children to express themselves freely but in a disciplined manner. The teacher should avoid allowing a situation where many children come to speak at once. In fact, in the class we visited in Basel, Switzerland we found the slogan on a poster that states: “jemand spricht einmal (Only speak one at a time)”. However in Geneva there were some teachers who preferred the free talking style as in the USA. This seems to be an issue for the teachers or a local decision. The second is the atmosphere that encourages children to risk mistakes or errors. This is a problem in Japan, for example, where only the correct answer is evaluated so pupils often hesitate to offer their mere suggestions. The third is the skill of the teacher to deal with a correct answer which is given by a child accidentally before the teacher reaches the intended child and achieves the purpose of helping the child gain his or her self-confidence. Teachers should have developed the skills/techniques to achieve the initial purpose even by such an accident. The flexible teaching skills required here, including plan repairing, are desired not only from language teachers but are common to teachers of all subjects. Furthermore, they are very important to fulfill the aims of the EOLE activities. 7 The following activities were shown through video in my speech by the symposium. 218 The foreign language songs handled in the activities are always translated into French, so that children recognize that French is “the common language” (2) in their class and that they have to learn it for mutual communication. At the same time, however, the mother tongues or the heritage languages of immigrant children are respected at school, and effective programs to support them are developed. No. 2 Onomatopoeia: (8),(3),(5),(10) In a class where onomatopoeia is handled, children can recognize the arbitrary features of a language by learning the different ways of reproducing, for example, a cock’s cry. Another example is offered in the EOLE Material Books. The song “Brother John” is provided in several language versions8 and shows diverse recognition of the sound of bells in respective cultures. These simple, harmless and amusing recognitions help the children to remove the fear of encountering unknown objects. Furthermore the name of the monk varies from one song to another and according to the respective culture; English Brother John, German Bruder Jacob, French Frère Jacques, Italian Fra Martino and so on. In a Japanese version, a translation of the text for the elementary school (subject music), his name and his occupation as monk are entirely ignored and the song describes only the peaceful morning scene in a city, (the scene in the original song surely cannot be found in any city in Japan). The diverse texts can offer the learners a chance in a later step of a spiral constructed syllabus to challenge to a small exploration of relations between the naming (language) and musical rhythms, and about the cultural background why the monk is ignored in the Japanese translation. No.3 Languages and characters/script system:（6),(7) It is well known that each language has its own writing system to express sounds or meanings. This is one of the most exciting issues which stimulates pupils’ curiosity in a language. Alternatively it can shock them, if they consider their own system as the natural and best one. Here the title pages of several versions of a picture book are shown to the pupils. Namely “Spot”. Pupils can identify through the picture that it is the same story in different editions and languages. In one edition pupils see that the book is to be opened backwards and the scenes are drawn in the opposite direction. And in group work, even if there are not any pupils from that country, pupils will very soon notice that the text is written from right to left. Pupils discover familiar words in the picture books in foreign languages which should bring them to reflect upon or to question why they are similar. That is the initial insight into the relation of languages. Yoshimura of Nara University of Education in Japan has applied this activity using video. He pictured speakers of some languages: he let them write a greeting form and a text for self-introduction on the white board and then read it aloud or speak it. The four alternative answers were shown on the screen to guess which language, and then in the next scene the right answer was given. It is perhaps a good method if we have few chances to invite native speakers into the class and it was very interesting to see that in the same culture and country the same greeting form is 8 Further in Spanish, Albanian, Portuguese; Chinese variations has changed its topic from monk to two tigers and there are no more onomatopoeias. This change can help for Chinese learners to a similar consideration as Japanese. 219 written in another writing system. The pupils would have great difficulties in guessing the language by seeing the same person speaking the same sounds (greeting) but writing perfectly different characters. (It is possible in Japanese as well; we have three or four (if we count the European alphabet) parallel writing systems.) These general objectives of the EOLE approaches are not intended to be attained in the short term, but over 11 years from kindergarten to junior high school. In the EOLE Curriculum of 1998, detailed objectives for each grade are prescribed, in correspondence to the language learning objectives of the School Curriculum. We can see there the coherent characters of the EOLE in learning/teaching in details. 2.4 Teaching materials of the EOLE9 In order to put the EOLE approaches into practice, a collection of teaching materials “Education et ouverture aux langues à l’école” was published in 2003 from the CIIP (Conference Intercantonale de l’Instruction Publique de la Suisse romande et du Tessin, = French and Italian speaking Cantons’ Conference on Public Education). This collection, in two volumes, comprises 35 activities for pre-school and primary level from 4 to 12 years old, leaving the secondary education stage for the future. In this publication, the EOLE is not considered as an abbreviation of “Awakening to Language / Openness to Languages (Éveil au Langage / Ouverture aux Langues)” as it was before, but “Education and Openness to Languages in School (Education et Ouverture aux Langues à l’Ecole)”. The original idea of the EOLE “éveil” is replaced by “education” and “at school” is added with the reasoning that the goal to attain at the end of Primary level is not the awakening any more, but the education itself.10 In this collection, therefore, the 35 EOLE activities are placed one after another in such a way that the idea of spiral learning can be realized in continuity from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of elementary school. The list is provided in the appendix. 2.5 The EOLE in the National Curriculum of Geneva Already before the implementation of Plan d’études Romand (PER) the utilization of these new teaching materials was officially recommended in the National School Curriculum of Geneva with detailed and concrete explanations. In this School Curriculum, the EOLE activities are placed in the Languages’ Sector (Secteur des langues) composed of four subjects, which are French, German, Writing-grapheme (Ecriture-graphisme) and Openness to Languages (Ouverture aux langues). For the first Cycle (Cycle elementaire) covering two years in Kindergarten and the first two years in Elementary School, the EOLE activities are supposed to be practiced 30 minutes a week. For the second Cycle (Cycle moyen) covering the last four years in Elementary School, 70 to 80 minutes are 9 10 These materials now are available for download from the Internet. http://www.irdp.ch/eole/ At the lower level of primary stage however we should be satisfied to set the goal on “awareness” that means somewhat affirmative and sensitive recognition of the issues. And at the later higher level it should be done on the cognitive and reflection level. 220 allocated to the EOLE and German, the first foreign language to be learned in public schools in Geneva. The EOLE activities can be integrated into different disciplines as follows: 1. Languages 2. French: Strategy for lecture; Grammatical study by comparison with other languages. 3. German/Latin: Comparative reflection on where to put certain words in a phrase. 4. German/English: Clarifying the relationship of cognates. 5. History: Loan Words through human history; Genealogy of languages. 6. Geography: Distribution and importance of languages across the world; Toponymy 7. Citizenship education: Recognition of linguistic plurality in close and distant environment and its place in school; Discovery of communication systems such as Braille11, sign language. 8. Plastic art: Discovery of calligraphies in different languages. 9. Song and music: Openness to new tones and new rhythms. Here we can see the inter-disciplinary and transversal characteristics of the EOLE approaches clearly and especially their impact on the learning of languages. Actually in the National School Curriculum of Geneva, the nature of EOLE is expressed as follows: The aim of the EOLE activities is not to teach one or another language, but to get ready the pupil’s knowledge (savoir), attitude (savoir être), and know-how (savoir faire) useful for learning of languages. The EOLE activities also promote the openness to linguistic and cultural diversity. From the viewpoint of public education, the importance of the EOLE activities is therefore recognized in two aspects. One is to cultivate the meta-linguistic skills of pupils by means of comparisons between various languages and to bring about a strategy for learning languages, such as French, the national language, German – the first foreign language in the Canton of Geneva but one of the National Languages of Switzerland – and English, the second foreign language in the public education of Geneva. The other is to open the mind of pupils to other languages and cultures and to stimulate their interest in all the subjects at school through encountering differences. Following on from the Geneva canton, the EOLE approaches have also been applied in the other French-speaking cantons. This development was promoted by the educational reform plan for the whole of Switzerland, named “Haromonisierung der obligatorischen Schule (HarmoS) (Harmonizing of compulsory schools – Concordat)”, enacted in August 2009, which will not make uniform nor centralize the whole educational system of Switzerland but provide a common juristic 11 It is perhaps interesting: the Braille system is loaned in a Japanese detective mystery in which the six points were replaced through six Chinese signs of a sutra. In European context the sutra can be substituted for example through six numerals from 1 to 6, with which the class can develop a secrete language for itself. 221 basis for the education in compulsory schools. It recognizes the multilingual realities of Switzerland and gives prescription only on the most important issues of framework. Therefore this concordat should be made concrete at the Canton level. For the German-speaking Cantons there is “Lehrplan 21 (Curriculum 21st Century)”, for the francophone Cantons “Plan d’études Romand (PER) (Educational Curriculum for the romance language Cantons)” and for the Tessin canton “Sito didattico della scuola ticinese (dicactical site for schools in Tessin)”. In the PER, the domain “langue” is divided into 8 aspects/competences. They are ”comprehension of written texts”, “text-writing”, “oral comprehension”, “oral production”, “literature”, “function of the langue”, “inter-linguistic approaches” and “communication skills”. These learning fields are common to all subjects in the domain “langue”. “Éveil aux langue” should be a fundamental means for the activities of “inter-linguistic approaches”, where several languages are compared and reflected on. At the first grade, French, the National Language of this canton is compulsory. From the third grade the first foreign language, German, and from the fifth grade, English are compulsory. In the new Geneva curriculum the “éveil aux language (language awareness)” approach is integrated into French as a subject from the first to third grades, and from the fourth grade it is allotted weekly 2.5 45-minute periods (there are a total of 21 weekly learning hours at the fourth grade). On the basis of “Lehrplan 21” for the German-speaking areas of Switzerland, new curricula are being developed in each canton. For the 6 cantons on the German-French borders, a new concept of foreign language teaching in primary schools, PASSEPARTOUT12 has been developed, where the ELBE13-approaches are set as basic teaching means. This is an abbreviation of “éveil aux langues”, “Language Awareness” and “Begegnung mit Sprachen und Kulturen (encounter with languages and cultures). This means that the EOLE approaches have received acknowledgement across the whole of Switzerland. 3. Teacher training for the application of EOLE approaches 3.1 EOLE in Teacher training of French-speaking Switzerland The application of a new approach such as EOLE can be never successful without the necessary accompanying teacher training. In French-speaking Switzerland this was already actually in practice as a part of the initial and in-service training of elementary school teachers before being prescribed in the official curriculum by HarmoS. In-service training is generally given by university teachers or ministry of education officials from each Canton who contributed to the publication of teaching materials in the two volumes mentioned above. During a seminar, teachers learn how to use these materials and how to put EOLE activities into practice, adjusting to the age of pupils of their class, and doing so in a spiral progression. In the initial training course, university students take time to learn the principles of the EOLE approaches and in putting the theory into practice 12 13 http://www.passepartout-sprachen.ch; http://www.passepartout-bs.ch Cf. In this volume. Perregaux: Quand l’Education et l’Ouverture aux Langues à l’Ecole (EOLE) s’internationalisent et se diversifient. 222 during their training at school classes. Their practice teaching serves also as an occasion for other teachers in the school to get to know the EOLE activities. The several in-service training seminars and initial training classes Shiga visited showed that the teaching techniques for practicing the EOLE approaches are relatively easy to acquire in the training, as the teachers’ manual is very helpful. The crucial point is, however, how to raise their own consciousness of language and how to promote their own openness to difference. Introduced here is an activity often used for in-service training in Switzerland to show the difficulties of this approach when practiced in the school. In this activity teachers have to find the rules for plural forms in Swahili. A number of Swahili words are shown. The participants of the seminar must find the conjugating rule of singular and plural forms. In the picture card, singular items are shown through an object and the plural through two objects. In the picture cards of course French equivalences are given and equivalent sounds are given using the French alphabet. Otherwise it would be too difficult. The worksheets Shiga used in her class are shown in the appendix of this paper. In the seminar visited in Switzerland almost all teachers were enjoying cooperatively finding out the rules of the foreign language and appeared so excited to have found out a logic so different from their own. This cooperative solution is one of the key aims of the EOLE in general education, which the teachers should implement in their own classes. Nevertheless, one of the participants, distancing himself from his colleagues, just opened the teachers’ manual to immediately obtain the answer without enjoying this brain training. It is apparent that the aim of this kind of activity was not to train the teachers linguistically in order to find the rule, but to develop the general skill of observation and reflection which promotes learning strategies. In other words it is the heuristic, procedural competence which is to be developed, namely savoir faire and savoir apprendre recommended in CEFR. This so developed heuristic competence should help students not only in language learning, but also in all subjects generally and furthermore in their future lives in the era of life-long learning. Furthermore we have to pay attention to the teaching method to be taken for the EOLE activities. This is referred to as the “Socio-Constructive Method”, based on the interaction between pupils, or between pupils and teachers. The discussion between them leads them to confrontation of viewpoints, observation, reflection, discovery and finally to the synthesis. These confrontations are often led from the experiences, observations and reflections on other languages and cultures in comparison with one’s own. Even if synthesis could not be reached, it would be itself a recognition, which motivates to further occupation with the questions and to further reflection. Summarizing, the success of the EOLE approaches depends on the attitude of teachers themselves, whether they are interested in the unknown or not, open to diversity or not, capable of relativizing or not. Sensing so, it is the response of the educational organization and training to lead and motivate the teachers towards openness and the readiness to heuristic approaches. 223 3.2 EOLE in the Initial Teacher Training Course at Seitoku University, Japan It was in 2004 that Shiga first introduced the EOLE approaches in her class entitled Sogo Enshu (seminar in liberal arts) for students majoring in pre-school and elementary school education. The purpose of this class is defined by the Ministry of Education as “a seminar treating themes common to human beings such as Internationalization”. For four and a half years, she observed the effects of the EOLE approaches on these students in this teacher training course. At the beginning, in a class of 50 students, hardly any of the students showed any interest in the EOLE activities, except one whose mother was a foreigner. Once, after a class which ended without any success, this student came to Shiga and said: “Your effort will be fruitless, as I, myself, have already tried to open the mind of my friends for years, but in vain!” In another class, there was a foreign student whose presence could be precious for putting the EOLE approaches into practice. So Shiga tried to make good use of her language and culture in an EOLE activity for the sake of class and especially for the sake of the student herself. Against her wishes and expectations, the student looked displeased. After the class, her Japanese friends came to her and said: “You should not have treated her differently from us”. At that moment, nine years ago, there was a tendency among the students to maintain uniformity by rejecting heterogeneous elements and that poor foreign student was just trying to assimilate herself into the group of Japanese students, hiding her heritage language and culture. Another difficulty experienced in practicing the EOLE is that many students were not very eager to play games with foreign languages. Some students refused to open their mouths even to say just one word “hello!” in Chinese, Korean, English, Germany, French, or Spanish. And other students were taking a critical attitude against the introduction of foreign languages into the activities for kindergarten or elementary school. Even after having heard the explanation that the EOLE is not to teach one or another foreign language but to bring about openness of mind and meta-linguistic skills, they could not help being skeptical about its effect on the cognitive and affective development of children. The most embarrassing experience encountered was the complaints of some students after a class: they said: “We do not understand these activities at all, as you have never given us a clear and accurate answer to all those questions!” The response to the complaint: “Because there would be more than one answer which each of you must have found out by yourself during the class. The process of thinking is much more important”. Some students felt lost or a sense of panic, they were not familiar with this kind of learning procedure. Especially those who were not used to discussion or the confrontation of viewpoints with their classmates could not appreciate the Socio-Constructive method of the EOLE approaches. Little by little their attitude changed, thanks to the augmentation of foreign pupils in kindergartens or elementary classes where they went for their practical training/studies. This experience at school considerably helped to raise their consciousness of the problems of foreign pupils alienated from the mono-lingual and mono-cultural group of Japanese children. After having come back to the class, they gained much more interest than before in the EOLE approaches, which 224 would provide them with the possibility to solve the problems not by means of the assimilation of foreign pupils, but through their integration based on intercultural education. Being immersed in the EOLE activities, her students themselves acquired the openness not only to the foreign languages, but also to the dialects of their Japanese classmates. Thanks to this change in atmosphere, the students, who used to hide their dialect, are encouraged and rather pleased to speak out with their proper accent during the class and even afterwards. Foreign students and Japanese who had been in foreign countries began to disclose their special knowledge and ability to impress their classmates There were other factors contributing to the rise in the interest levels of the students towards the EOLE approaches, principally the decision of MEXT regarding the introduction of English into elementary schools. As future teachers, they suddenly became eager to learn its teaching methods and the idea of cultivating meta-linguistic skills through the comparison of various languages responded to their needs. 4. Conclusion and some unresolved problems for the application of EOLE in Japan Now we have reached the following conclusions concerning the role of the EOLE approaches in the teacher training of Japanese students and various problems observed: 4.1 Positive achievements Above we have seen that the EOLE approaches help students in the initial teacher training to the objectives as follows: 1. awareness of the presence of various languages and cultures in Japanese society and the attitude of decentralization and openness in front of their pupils who are becoming more and more diverse. 2. cultivation of their own metalinguistic skills through comparison of various languages and to develop their aptitude for teaching and learning together with pupils. These attitudes and aptitudes are preconditions, without them teachers will never be able to lead their pupils to acquire the relativization based on plurilingual and pluricultural competence. Furthermore, these attitudes and aptitudes are very important as they would support the learners in all subjects and their transfer to another field guarantees the competence of savoir apprendre which is indispensible for the 21st century in the era of life-long learning. 4.2 Some issues to be overcome or to be taken in consideration As already pointed out above, there are some problems that need to be overcome for the successful implementation of the approaches. Now the EOLE approaches are reflected on from the two aspects that determine them: namely from the aspect of social, educational background and of pedagogical principles, especially in Japan. 225 4.2.1 Social background: The greatest problem is the traditional understanding of the foreign language education as an additional skill training, supplementary to the other competences gained in the core school subjects. Thus English was not considered as a necessary competence for all citizens in Japan14. This attitude to foreign language education is the first barrier to be overcome in Japan in order to gain success in this area. As we have seen, the EOLE approaches start from the integration of items and themes into other school subjects. This has already begun in Europe and other areas of the world. A good example can be seen in the Language Profile (Sprachprofile) in Basel, Switzerland, or in CLIL approaches which combine the thematic and language learning together working reflexively. The precondition for success is the acceptance of this direction by the Japanese educational world. The second barrier is seen in the separation of subjects and the discontinuity of education. That is simultaneously a problem of the system of teacher education. As seen above, the EOLE is planned for the long term. That means the curriculum should be developed for all stages of education, from pre-school to primary to the tertiary stage. Teacher education needs to go hand in hand with the curriculum. In Japan, however, teacher education is divided in two, namely the training of elementary school teachers and that for secondary stages. For the tertiary stage (university), no legally defined qualification for teaching is required, but foreign language learning is compulsory at this stage too. This lack of continuity inherent in the system alone causes some problems by introducing the English Activities into the elementary school. Though gaps between these three stages are expected to some degree in all countries, it is the one between the primary and the second stage that causes most problems in the area of language education. We should try to reform this system, as already done in Finland, and even if this is not immediately possible, intensive cooperation between teachers of all subjects through the stages will be strongly required. A further problem is the general concept of Japanese citizens that they could communicate when they have mastered the target language formally, especially in vocabulary and grammar. This tendency is found not only in Japan but is common to many other countries. It was observable in China or Korea, at least until very recently. This attitude has all but vanished from official documents, but probably still exists in the real world15. We should fight against these beliefs for and through EOLE approaches. 4.3 Pedagogical questions The next problematic field concerns the concept of EOLE itself. It must be evaluated from the pedagogical perspective; exemplariness and effectiveness/efficiency. Exemplariness is a central principle in pedagogics generally, for we can never work with the 14 15 Cf. Sano in this volume. Cf. Lee in this volume. 226 whole of any target subject exhaustively. Furthermore our target subjects, “languages”, are not closed systems but are open and developing systems. We must make selections on the basis of comprehensiveness and this selection must be done as effectively and efficiently as possible. 4.3.1 The first question of selection concerns the number of the languages and cultures: The EOLE will work with a plurality of languages and cultures at once. Supporting this concept, we have the question how to select the languages and cultures. Linguistics ascribes all languages equal value, and so anthropology does the same for all cultures. But we can take neither all languages nor all cultures of the world into consideration. Nevertheless, the necessary selections should not be arbitrary, they must offer representative exemplars which help and support the learner in the goal of further effective and efficient learning. The number: We start from our observation and experience. If one knows only one language and culture, one’s perspectives are limited in both areas. Such an individual may have a tendency towards ethnocentrism. Knowledge of two languages and their cultures may not help the learner so much, as they may tend to divide the world into these two, not recognizing the possible existence of others. They reject other unknown worlds. 16 Or they may come to consider the first foreign language as the agent of all foreign languages and believe they are all the same. Therefore it is strongly recommended to take minimally three languages and cultures into consideration. This criterion “three”17 is very significant too in order to avoid creating stereotypes in the minds of learners through the activities, as the attainment of multi-perspective competence of relativization is the main aim of the EOLE. It depends on the social and pedagogical circumstances whether or not a fourth or fifth is added to the basic three. As a criterion for selection of these three we can take the concept of distance: geographical, linguistic and cultural/social distance. The first language should be of course the mother tongue or the first language of the learners, in Geneva for example, French should play the role of tertium comparationis as the central comparison method. For the selection of target languages and cultures several criteria may be considered: if there are some children with other languages and other cultural background in the class, it would be recommended to employ these, for the respect of the pupils themselves. This is the pedagogical aspect. In another case several options would be possible; similarly by the selection of a first and second foreign language. In the EOLE Material Books we see more European languages than Asian or African languages and cultures. It is reasonable to give more attention to the Europeans as neighboring countries of Switzerland. This choice is done from geographical and sociopolitical perspectives: because of the locational closeness and of intercourse between them, and that often means linguistic and cultural similarity. This is one of the criteria which is often utilized in the selection of a first foreign language. 16 17 Cf. Doyé in Foreign Language Education III By each concrete theme it would be recommended to show three examples minimally: two of them should have an opposite position each other and the third an intermediate one. And these examples should be taken from the real present world, otherwise it can show merely a curiosity and raise incorrect stereotype which to correct one should take much time and efforts. 227 In this sense we Japanese should pay more attentions to Korean or Chinese, and even to Russian, with which the people in northern Japan have more contact. However, in Japan there has been a belief for over 100 years that learning European languages is of some value. That is surely one of the reasons for the introduction of English as the leading language into the English Activities elementary schools. The opposition to this activity was directed not at the English itself, but at the introduction of a foreign language in general. Another choice criterion would be the linguistic and cultural distance of the target language and culture from those of the learners: namely similarity and difference. In the European context, it can be said that English and German, for example, are very close to each other18, and French has distance from these both languages. However, from the Asian linguistic point of view, from the Japanese perspective, these three languages are equally distant from Japanese. In this sense we can take one of them as a representative of the European language group, it could be English, German, French, Italian or another European language. The background cultures of these languages are more or less similar to each other in comparison to Japanese. On the other hand Japanese, Korean and Chinese have similar historical-cultural backgrounds, but linguistically (typology and comparative linguistics) they are divided into Chinese and the group of Japanese and Korean. The linguistic proximity, on the other hand, sometimes causes conflicts in intercultural communication for pragmatics, verbal habits in these two cultures, are not equal as is often presented in novels or comparative surveys. In this sense these three are a good combination from which we can establish as a foundation. When we take English, Chinese and Korean and Japanese by setting Japanese as the tertium comparationis, we already have enough to do. Yet here is one further problem: we Japanese have lived for over a hundred years under the strong influence of European culture, and now the reality is that European languages other than English are learnt less and less. This could cause a dangerous belief that will come to regard English and English culture as the European language and culture itself and ignore the great diversity that exists inside this area. In this sense, and because we Japanese find value in these European languages we should add one more European language to these three foreign languages, even if only for occasional comparisons/reflections. Other languages can be applied according to the topic that is being handled in the respective classes. Language and culture awareness is the first goal of the EOLE approaches. This goal is to be followed for the whole period of general and formal education, and the awareness has to be developed in the later stage more and more with cognitive insight, recognition and reflection. To realize this aim we should consider not only the number of target languages but also their function. Therefore we propose a way for Japan that includes some compromises. The EOLE approaches should be harmoniously integrated within foreign language learning; in other words they should support each other. They should help the learning of languages. The learning of the mother tongue and foreign languages should support the insight gained through the EOLE both culturally and linguistically. 18 This fact is the motivation to implement the new method Intercomprehension. 228 In this sense the request expressed in the paragraph above is implemented in Switzerland to some extent. For the EOLE is there an independent activity besides other foreign languages subjects (cf.3.5), and French is set in the center of these activities as the mother tongue or common language and tertium comparationis. However, in the case of Japanese English Activities, the status of Japanese is not clearly defined, it is not the starting point for comparison. Has English then to play the role of tertium comparationis? We see here again the historical and cultural background of Japanese society, namely the tendency to handle language and culture separately, whereby Japanese culture is considered as difficult for foreigners to understand, at least until very recent times, and especially by older generations. The attitudes to Japanese and its culture are different (or we should say, much more different than in many other countries) between the teachers of Japanese as a national language and those of Japanese as a foreign language. Here to overcome the barrier between the instruction of Japanese as national language and that of foreign languages we need to find common aims whereby they have merely other weightings caused from idiosyncrasy (example for Japanese can be found in the fields of orthoepy and orthography) for concrete purposes. The common aim should be found from the perspective of what language is necessary and what it is used for, as Mizutani proposes19. This means the teaching in the EOLE approaches in Japan should keep the existence of this gap in mind and supply it by developing materials from the perspective of Japanese as national language and its dialects even as constructing parts of the Japanese culture. From this point the discussion between the teachers for these both “Japanese instructions” may be initiated. 4.3.2 Relations between language learning and the EOLE activities (awareness) The uncertainty of elementary school teachers surrounding foreign language activities is caused by the prescription by MEXT that no languages should be taught there, the focus should be laid on cultural and language awareness. It sounds as if English instruction is forbidden. This message is however a political one, in order to meet the critics of foreign language instruction in elementary schools, as we will discuss below. The uncertainty of the teachers is also due to a further lack of clarity as to the aims of the English Activities. If MEXT is considering these activities as preparation for the subsequent English learning at junior high school, we can understand why English is selected as the working language. If this is the case, then we would like to know the link between the activities without linguistic training and how these activities support or help the students in their later learning. The EOLE approaches offer interesting activities with languages, but one could ask if they alone promote language learning. It seems that they are not organized systematically, they show no progression in regard to language competences. That is the main reason why the Begegnungsprache approach does not find much support in Germany at the present time. 19 Cf. Mizutani, Osamu : Kokugo kyouiku to nihongo kyouiku wo megutte (About Instruction of Japanese as National Language and of Japanese as Foreign/Second language) in “Gengo Seisaku (Language Policy)” Vol. 5. 2009. P.88-98. Japan Association for language Policy. 229 As far as we understand, the EOLE does not contribute directly to the concrete learning of a certain language. Its aims are to be reached only in the long term, and that on the base of transfer of the experiences gained by EOLE activities onto other learning, a sort of savoir apprendre. It would function only when one accepts plurilingualism or pluriculturalism, or as noted above in footnote 13, when one aims at a contribution to the cognitive, humanistic development of the learners in general. If the EOLE approaches should shift their focus from merely awareness in the initial stages of learning to cognitive reflection it should show the exemplary activities at the secondary educational stage. The activity with linguistic forms in Swahili can be an example of this, not only for the fourth or sixth grade but also for junior high schools or even for us adults? As the EOLE will support foreign language learning, and that for successful intercultural communication, one field of linguistics needs be taken into consideration, at least for the later, higher level on the spiral progression. That is linguistic pragmatics. For as mentioned above the cultural differences in linguistic pragmatics can cause significant conflicts in intercultural communication and it is very difficult to recognize or feel this difference at the initial stage of learning. Here, offered only as an example, is the act “gratitude’ representing one of the most important means of establishing a human social relationship. In Japan a husband should thank his wife for an offering, but in Korea it should not be done, and this is even the case for good friends as well. It could mean lost intimacy. The convention varies and changes, of course, according to social relations and to the historical development of the society. These comparisons on the level of linguistic pragmatics are only possible when one has learnt one language intensively and reached a certain level of competence in the usage and forms of the respective language. To reach this competence, the PER curriculum offers an instructive example: There in the domain “Langue” the EOLE activities (inter-linguistic approaches) and language learning are going hand in hand. 4.4 A concrete proposal for English Activities Considering the above, we would like to propose the following: First we should select English as the main foreign language to be handled in the activities, because in Japan English is traditionally accepted as the first foreign language. However, its instruction has generally not met with great success. We should first improve the English instruction, to which the EOLE approaches would contribute much, as we are sure, when the competence in formal aspects is less emphasized in assessment over the other aspects which contribute to the development of human personality. Moreover, since the idea of plurilingualism is scarcely accepted in Japan, we may have to wait several decades till we can work with a second or third foreign language as learning objects and work fully with the EOLE approaches. We would be very happy if a second foreign language, even if as an option, could be taught in junior high schools in the near future. Even in high schools the instruction of second foreign language is not yet widely available. Literature: European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe (2004): Janua Linguarum – The gateway to languages. 230 CREOLE (1999): automne Council of Europe (2001): Common European Framework of Reference for Languages Hawkins, Eric (1987): Awareness of Language: An Introduction, pp.1-5 Cambridge university press. revised edition Mizutani, Osamu (2009): Kokugo kyouiku to nihongo kyouiku wo megutte (About Instruction of Japanese as National Language and of Japanese as Foreign/Second language) in “Gengo Seisaku (Language Policy)” Vol. 5. . P.88-98. Japan Association for Language Policy Perregaux, C., et al. (2003): Education et pivertire aus langues à l’école. Volume I & II. Conférence intercantonale de linstruction publique de la Suesse romade et Tessin, Neuschatel,. ISBN 2-88451-043-5. These books will be uploaded on the Internet. 231 APPENDIX EOLE Documents reproductible. Volume 1 1Buenos dias madame Callas, Bonjour monsieur Silour (activité d'entrée) (lE-2E)' 2. Simple comme bonjour ! (activité d'entrée) (1P - 2P) 3. Frère Jacques (1E - 2P) 4Le papagei (lE - 2E) 5Picto, pictogrammes et ratatam (1E - 2P) 6. Le tapis volant (1E - 2P) 7. Vous avez dit KIKIRIKI ? (2E - 2P) 8. Silence, nous écoutons (lP - 2P) 9. Le petit cheval au carnaval des langues (lE-1P) 10. Yoyo, bonbons et compagnie (1P - 2P) 11. Le téléphone à ficelle (1P - 2P) 12. Ciel et Nuages (2P) 13. Julie, Julieta et Giuliana (1P-2P) 14. Fruits et légumes en tous genres (2P) 15. Le p'tit déj (1P - 2P) 16. Quelle langue parlons-nous donc? (2P) Volume 2 1. Le Yatzy des langues de ma classe (activité d'entrée) 2. Le rap des langues de ma classe (activité d'entrée) 3. Le voleur de mots 4 Des animaux en nombre 5. Une écriture pour les doigts, le braille 6. Schi vain ün auto... 1: Découvrir le romanche et les autres langues de la Suisse 7. Schi vain ün auto... 2 : Les langues de la Suisse 8. Parlez-vous europanto ? 9. Un air de famille 10. Bingo (activité d'entrée) 11. Digame ! (activité d'entrée) 12. A la découverte des mots venus d'ailleurs 13. Et pourquoi pas «la» soleil et «le» lune ? 14. Alpha, bêta et les autres 15. Un monde de chiffres 16. Paroles en actes 17. Moi, je comprends les langues voisines 1: italien, espagnol, portugais... 18. Moi, je comprends les langues voisines 2: l'allemand, l'anglais et les autres langues germaniques 19.Hanumsha, Nora, Jean-Yves : histoire de langues 232 Observe et compare entre eux les noms qui figurent sur les cartes. Trouve comment tu dois les placer dans le tableau et essaye d’expliquer comment les noms son classé dans cette langue Class A singulier Class B pluriel singulier Class C pluriel singulier Prenom: D’autres manières de classer les noms Classe D pluriel Mots kitabu mtu mti uzee le livre l’homme l’arbre la vieillesse élève 1 233 EOLE – 5e/ 6e ET pourquoi pas « la » soleil et « le » lune ? Document Critères de Classement 1 234 English Language Teaching at Keio Schools in Japan: ELTactivities in practice and its attempt to establish a link between primary and secondary education Ito, Ohgi Shimizu, Kenji Ebato, Makoto Brandão, Renato Keio University （28,000 students) Keio Girl’s Senior High School ( 200×3 Years) Chutobu Junior High School [ co-ed] ( 240×3 Years) Keio Shiki Boy’s Senior High School ( 250×3 Years) Keio Boy’s Senior High School ( 730×3 Years) I n addition, Correspondence: 9 ,0 0 0 students Postgraduate: 4 ,0 0 0 students Keio Academ y of New York [ co-ed] ( 120× 3 Years+ 60×1 Year) Futsubu Boy’s Junior High School ( 240×3 Years) Shonan Fujisaw a Senior High School[ co-ed] ( 240×3 Years) Shonan Fujisaw a Junior High School [ co-ed] ( 160×3 Years) Yochisha Elem entary School ( 144× 6 Years) Figure 1. Keio Gijuku institutional structure Introduction Private primary schools in Japan have a long history of teaching English to Japanese children from the early years, and now that state schools started foreign language teaching in 2011, there are some implications that we can draw from our teaching experiences and the new issue becomes the link between primary and secondary English education. Our parent body, Keio University, has a unique school system from primary school, junior and senior high schools, onto university, and it has started to tackle various challenges relating to the reform of English Language Teaching (ELT) in these affiliated schools. In this chapter four teachers, representing different aspects of that system, consider some of the possibilities for English language teaching in Japan. The chapter begins by describing the 235 background and general context and then moves on to introduce some of the unique, practical ELT activities and programmes adopted in our different schools. 1. Background contexts of the private primary school in Japan and ELTcurriculum of Keio Yochisha Elementary School, Tokyo Our institution, Keio Yochisha Elementary School, is one of 55 private primary schools in Tokyo and it is one of the eight schools affiliated to Keio University; at present (2010) the parent body has one primary school (from age 6 to 12), which is connected with three junior high schools (from age 12 to 15), which then lead to five senior high schools (from age 15 to 18), including one in New York. All the pupils and students in Keio schools are granted admission to secondary schools in a progression route to Keio University, one of the leading private universities in Japan (see Figure 1). English language teaching has been implemented since the foundation of this primary division in 1874, and as a private school, we enjoy the freedom of selecting our own educational policies with minimal control from the government. In all Keio schools, English language has been taught in unique and varied ways, as there is not the same need to accommodate the national entrance examinations to get to higher schools. The number of candidates for admission to our primary school has exceeded two thousand from 2003 to 2008, and its popularity derives presumably from this unique school system of Keio University. We believe that ELT in primary education has potential in children’s further learning of English, and our objectives for teaching English put emphasis not so much on language use or skills, but on language and cultural awareness, i.e., Savoir apprendre (CEFR ), and we actually attempt to facilitate young learners’ readiness to encounter new, unknown things. One important aspect of our background contexts is that our institution is clear about ELT objectives; for example, we do not intend to employ any immersion programmes, nor take the secondary English teaching in advance. Within limited lesson hours, we strive to offer an opportunity for our pupils to ‘experience’ using English and to get to know the language and some cultural differences. The system gives us, the teachers, freedom to choose what we want to teach and how to teach it. ELT in our school therefore is implemented as one of many opportunities to help our pupils bring out their individual potentials for development and interest in learning. Generally our pupils show enthusiasm in learning English, and they work hard for their first challenge with a foreign language. Their motivation and commitment seem to be connected with various factors; for instance, out of their own interests, family expectations, simply a competition among children or out of their social needs, particularly in a private school like ours. Our curriculum shows the approximate number of English lessons per year and pupils and teachers in each lesson (Table 1). There are 864 pupils in total, and we have pupils from Year 1 (age 6-7) to Year 6 (age 11-12). It is co-educational, boys and girls in the ratio of 2 to 1, and there are four classes K, E, I, O in each Year. Classmates and a ‘homeroom teacher’, or a form-taker, do not change for six years; this makes our school very unique and exclusive in Japan. The homeroom teachers teach ‘general subjects’, i.e. Japanese, mathematics and social studies, while other so-called ‘special subjects’ 236 such as science, PE, arts, music, ITC and English, are taught by specialised teachers . Table 1 Keio Yochisha English Curriculum (2010) Year (age) Year 1 (6-7) Year 2 (7-8) Year 3 (8-9) Year 4 (9-10) Year 5 (10-11) Year 6 (11-12) Class size 18 pupils 18 pupils 18 pupils 12 pupils 12 pupils 12 pupils Lesson frequency Total lesson hours per year twice a month twice a month once a week twice a week twice a week twice a week 15 15 30 60 58 56 Number of teachers involved Japanese [JPT] / Native English Teacher [NET] 1 teacher [JPT] 1 teacher [NET] 2 teachers [JPT/NET] 3 teachers [JPT/NET] 3 teachers [JPT/NET] 5 teachers [3 JPT / 2 NET] The class size in the upper years is relatively small for a Japanese school, in order to provide individualised teaching and as many speaking opportunities as possible. What we call ‘homeroom’ is divided into three groups for English lessons, which makes three classes of 12 pupils. The differences in lesson hours per year are affected by school events such as school excursions or sports competitions for Year 6. The market for young English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners – here we use ‘young’ in the orthodox sense of a child of around twelve years of age or under – has been growing in Japan (see Sano, this volume), and many people express the belief that ‘earlier is better’ in child language acquisition. However, it is a concerning issue for us teachers as to what can be done to facilitate English language learning for children in a very limited, ‘low-immersion’ context like Japan. We understand critical voices arguing that ELT is not necessary for Japanese children, or that English could be combined with social studies and linguistic input is not necessarily required. In addition, there is too much or too little expectation from parents without understanding the individual differences of each child. We do believe, however, that our methods of teaching English in our school, attempting to meet children’s individual needs for English language learning, certainly have positive effects, and that our practice might show some implications to improve primary English education in Japan. Our lessons for lower graders, Year 1 and Year 2, are basically aimed at the introduction of English language and sounds, with many songs and physical activities. The purpose of ELT at this stage is quite common, to get children familiar with the target foreign language. The middle graders, Year 3 and Year 4, start to experience some changes in their activities as well as in their learning attitudes. Particularly from Year 4, various activities and materials are integrated into the lessons in order to provide ‘individualised’ teaching and to provoke awareness for cultural differences. We do not stick to a mono-linguistic class management: it is all up to the teachers and, tactfully, both English and Japanese are used in our classes. 237 The higher graders, Year 5 and Year 6, experience a greater variety of activities in listening and speaking, and gradually start to perform reading and spelling tasks. Although their language use abilities are still very limited, many pupils start to see the world around them with more concrete perceptions. At this stage, pupils start learning how to read basic vocabulary and to recognise the structure of English, in a sense by their own instinct or by using their meta-language abilities. We start to notice quite obvious differences in pupils’ aptitude, competence, motivation and interest toward English language learning, and some of the pupils start to even fear for junior high school English studies. To motivate them for further learning and to develop their strengths, i.e. ‘what they can do well at this stage’ become a very important task for the English teachers at primary school, particularly in our school system of Keio institution. Therefore, from the actively-engaged teachers’ point of view, our ELT activities and programmes have seen certain positive outcomes, and children do enjoy listening and speaking English in primary education. As they grow, individual differences emerge and children are required to understand English sounds, vocabulary and basic forms and semantics of a totally different foreign language in order to prepare for secondary English education. This, of course, is not for every day purposes, which actually burdens some of the Japanese pupils. It would be discussed in the later sections by our junior high school teachers, but that is the contradiction in reality. Now that our background context has been specified, we would like to introduce some of the unique activities of our elementary school, which might highlight some implications to the field of Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) in Japan. (Ohgi Ito) 2. Introducing unique ELTactivities in class and international programmes at Keio Yochisha Elementary School In this section, we would like to introduce our unique ELT activities at Keio’s primary division, i.e. an original assessment system called ‘English Pro’, evaluation system, international programmes and intercultural exchange projects conducted in classes. Figure 2. Grade 2 English lesson; 2.1 English Pro Keio Yochisha Elementary School, Tokyo. English Pro is an assessment system developed originally by Keio Yochisha English Department. It was first developed by our English teachers in 1980s and has gone through a number of minor changes before reaching its current shape. In the past, a black and white printed textbook and a cassette tape were used, but now thanks to modern technology, we are able to provide our pupils with coloured printed textbooks and CDs for them to practice at home. 238 ‘English Pro’ is held once every term from Year 4 and pupils take individual sessions with teachers. The pupils are awarded a card and stickers when they succeed in tasks, and after completing each level, they can take a memorial photo with the Headmaster and get his signature on the card. English Pro is a collection of 45 short dialogues based on pupils’ daily life at home and at school, and everyday vocabulary and phrases are used. First, the pupils start from ‘listening’ to English sounds with chants and sample conversations, then ‘mimicking’ and ‘speaking’, until they are able to proceed to more advanced skills of “writing” and “reading”. On the actual day of English Pro, we have visiting teachers from other Keio schools, Figure 3 Yochisha English Pro (2005) and CD; and pupils get a valuable opportunity to spend time Keio Yochisha Elementary School, Tokyo with the teachers from their future schools. This is also a meaningful experience also for the teachers from Keio secondary schools because they usually do not know much about primary education in their gigantic institution. 2.2 Report Card Our evaluation system is a Report Card that we give to our pupils at the end of each term. It was extremely difficult at first to introduce this new system into our school. Back at that time, we had a number of teachers who had negative attitudes toward the concept of ‘evaluation’ itself, particularly of some school subjects that might need special attention for pupils. As the homeroom teachers would be involved in the system, we needed approval from them through staff meetings; the main opposition was that by evaluating children, more pupils might go to English cram schools and get busier with their after-school activities, or that some pupils might start to dislike English before going to junior high school. Our report card, however, includes much more than the actual word ‘evaluation’; it informs ‘ongoing’ teaching and learning of our ELT activities, and we believe that it has Figure 4 Report Card: Keio Yochisha English Department potential to improve both teachers and learners. Through the effective promotion of that belief, we were able to tentatively start the report card system and even a new staff 239 group named ‘English curriculum committee’ was organised. After one year we finally received formal approval from the school to adopt the evaluation in 2000. Depending on the year and the content taught in class, there are several categories in the Report Card such as Listening, Speaking, Writing, Reading, Phonics, Attitude, and Achievement. We use our original illustrative marks to ensure that it is simple for the pupils to understand their assessments. As many adults, such as parents, homeroom teachers and English teachers, are involved in this evaluation system, we can also see how the children study English at school at home and how they perceive English language learning. We can also provide necessary advice for their further learning. Different from the typical one-way process of evaluation, we are capable of supporting a child’s learning environment from different perspectives. Below are some Year 4 and Year 5 parents’ comments: “It seemed as though he wasn’t very interested in English before, but from Year 4 he started enjoying listening to CD and got really interested in studying English.” (Comment from a Year 4 boy’s parent) “I was surprised to see my son using sentences from the English Pro dialogues, for example, he used a sentence ‘That’s not fair!’ when he was playing card games with his sister.” (Comment from a Year 5 boy’s parent) “We had a 16-year-old boy from Washington as a home stay student this summer. Although my son couldn’t talk much with him in English, I was quite surprised to hear a sentence from Dialogue 10 in English Pro when we got in a boiling hot car. He spontaneously said, “It’s so hot in here. Will you open the window?” (Comment from a Year 5 boy’s parent) 2.3 International exchange programmes At Keio Yochisha, we have a variety of programmes for our pupils to experience different and diverse cultures and also to intrigue their interests towards the world and to encourage them to think in global perspectives. We have had a cultural exchange programme with the Dragon School in Oxford (UK) for over 15 years, and every year about 12 to 15 students visit each other’s school, attend classes together, and experience many things during their home stay. It must be Figure 5 International exchange programme with the Dragon School in Oxford noted that not only the children but the staff 240 members learn greatly from experiencing different cultures and admiring each other’s schools, which could lead to some improvement in education. We also have a programme based in Keio Academy of New York where our pupils attend a day camp in Mohawk for a period of three weeks, and some senior pupils go on to Wyoming to participate in Jackson Hole Valley Wild Camp. In addition, we have a summer programme in the UK mainly focusing on English language studying and experiencing different culture with local English teachers. These international programmes provide our children with a chance to achieve a global view of the world and to learn how to use English in an authentic environment. 2.4 English classes and projects in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) For several years by now, we have been introducing English classes and projects which could lead to intercultural understandings, making a use of computers and the Internet. Up to 2003, Keio Yochisha had sent e-mails, video letters, and letters to 15 elementary schools in 11 countries; Finland, USA, UK, India, Australia, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, Slovakia, Maldives and Bhutan. A project named ‘Travel-buddy’ was a favourite Figure 6 Travel-body Project with St. Therese’s in Australia among our pupils and met with great success. We sent a Miffy cuddly toy and journal to St. Therese’s, a primary school in Tasmania, and in return they sent us a Tasmanian devil cuddly toy and journal. The pupil in charge took Miffy to classroom or one day to the beach and wrote a journal there, which was passed on to the next pupil. At St. Therese’s they studied Japanese as their second language at that time, so they wrote the journal in Japanese, and Keio pupils wrote in English. For example, our pupil took the Tasmanian Devil (‘Nevil Devil’ ’) to Tokyo Tower and took pictures of him with the view of whole Tokyo city. In the journal they wrote: ‘Today Nevil visited Tokyo Tower’ and then an explanation of Tokyo Tower was started. It was difficult for our pupil to explain what Tokyo Tower was in English, but he tried hard, hoping to inform the Tasmanian friends about the famous Tokyo landmark. It was no more than a cuddly toy, but it played an important role in motivating Japanese children to write messages in a foreign language in which they were not yet proficient. As there is only a one-hour time difference between Australia and Japan, another project using the Internet was conducted with St. Michael’s Grammar School in Melbourne; in this school pupils studied Japanese as their second language from kindergarten, and the preparatory school children sang ‘Sakura ’, a traditional Japanese song, for us. Not only did we talk on certain topics, but we also sent them in advance 20 sets of “Kendama ”, a traditional Japanese toy with a cup and a spoon, and did a Kendama demonstration via the Internet. It was a great success. These past few years, we have been working with a private school in Taiwan, the Wego School since 2006. Similar to Keio, this school covers education from kindergarten to high school, and English 241 language is taught from kindergarten. Japanese language is elective, but is taught from elementary school and is one of their popular classes. First we started with exchanging letters, then video (DVD) letters, and finally went on to Internet conferences. When we started from self-introductions via letters, some pupils just arranged words, being unable to write correct sentences in English, but every pupil worked diligently, using dictionaries and asking teachers for help. Drawing pictures and gluing photos to convey images and messages are the ways children are very good at in order to express their thoughts; some may say that children and dictionaries do not match well, but young learners who are highly motivated do use dictionaries actively. Figure 3. Internet Conference with Wego Elementary School in Taiwan When attempting to acquire languages, ‘interest’ and ‘desire to communicate’ become truly important factors. Unconsciously, from the processes of conveying messages using English as a communication tool, children could acquire the target language. Through the various projects, children might realize that English is a communication tool rather than a school subject. There could be engaging topics for children, for example, food from their own countries, sports, popular characters and books, toys, games and popular ‘anime’ in each other’s countries. From these processes, our pupils started to understand that learning different cultures is learning about their own culture and country as well. After the project of the Internet conference, some stimulating comments were collected from our pupil’s journal: “It was just like watching news on TV. I knew what Lindsey (her pen-pal) looks like from the picture in her letter, but she looked totally different on the big screen. I asked her about her favourite movie. As was said in the letter, she said she liked Japanese food. I was able to talk with her in English. I was nervous at first, but got more confidence in my English. I wish I could talk more with her.” (a Year 5 girl’s journal: translated by the author) At Keio Yochisha, we would like to continue bringing forth to our children as many chances as possible for them to realize that ‘Learning English is fun’ or ‘English is easy’ rather than ‘English is 242 difficult’. We believe that ELT activities and projects in actual classes are full of possibilities to bring awareness of Japanese children to different languages and cultures. The only concern might be that how long these positive experiences of our pupils could last in their further learning of English language. The topic is now for the junior high school teachers to discuss the issue of establishing the link between primary and secondary English education in Japan. (Kenji Shimizu) 3. Perspectives from Keio Chutobu Junior High School In this section, we would like to discuss the possibilities for establishing links between our elementary and junior high schools and the unique practice they can bring. As mentioned earlier, Keio has educational institutions from elementary to graduate schools, and Chutobu acts as a bond between our elementary and senior high schools. Each Keio school does not actually conduct ‘consistent’ or ‘connected’ education, therefore, at every stage quite a Figure 8 Six categories of English language learning number of new students join through experience of Keio Chutobu newcomer students examinations and these newcomers all have different English language learning experiences. That presents a big challenge for the teachers at each school. The number of elementary school children learning English has definitely increased recently in Japan, however, their learning experiences vary greatly. At Chutobu, our students can be divided into 6 groups, depending on whether they received any English education during elementary school, and what kind of learning they have experienced. The ratio of boys to girls at Chutobu is approximately 2 to 1, and in 2012 the percentage of Yochisha graduates among our newcomer boys was 11 %, while 49 % of girls were from Yochisha; therefore a large number of differences can be seen between the boys’ and the girls’ learning experiences of English language at Chutobu. In regards to their route after graduation, if we look into our data from 2012, 84% of our boys went on to Keio Boy’s Senior High School in Yokohama, while all the girls, except three to Shonan Fujisawa Senior High School, proceeded on to Keio Girl’s Senior High School in Tokyo. There seems to be a tendency as to which Keio schools our graduates would proceed, however, the Keio school system gives our students freedom to choose their higher schools. What must be noted at this point is that all senior high schools have their own independent and diverse curriculum. As was mentioned previously, our curriculum must be diverse so that it is suitable for the students with different learning backgrounds. The students must also be well prepared to continue studying English at different high schools. 243 3.1 Diverse approaches to foreign language learning In order to accommodate our students various learning experiences as well as to meet future requirements, our curriculum is quite unique in the following five ways: the curriculum, the English-level streaming system, the testing system, international exchange programmes and other foreign language classes. First of all, our curriculum has three different courses (Table 2 ). ‘English 1’ focuses on grammar and is the core part of ELT at Chutobu. ‘English 2’ is a communicative language classes to reinforce English 1, while utilizing native-speaker in team-teaching. In ‘English 3’, each class is divided into two or three classes to supplement grammar lessons or enable activities such as reading, presentations and vocabulary. We Curric ulum 1st Ye ar Ele c tive * number of ways. First, our English (Ac tivitie s) English Fre nc h/ Spanish English 3 classes are comprised 1(1st te rm: Odd+Eve n) 3 2 (T.T:1)* 3rd Ye ar 2 2 2 (T.T:1) intermediate 2 (T.T.:1) levels 1 ( Basic / with basic, and advanced on students’ based English levels own choices. Also, intermediate ) 1 (inte rme diate of an English-level streaming system, (2nd &3rd te rm: Basic / Intermediate 2nd Ye ar our students’ varying levels in a Co mpulso ry English 2 English 1 (c o mmuni(Grammar) c atio n) accommodate 2( Intermediate & in our elective classes once a advanc e d/ Engl. week, / advanc e d) c o nve rsatio n) Fr./ Sp.Basic s Table 2 Keio Chutobu English curriculum (2012) of Keio Chutobu Junior High School, Tokyo. students intermediate or can choose advanced speaking courses taught by native English teachers. Our testing system is comprised of mid-term and end-term examinations. In addition, our students in Year 3 are required to take CASEC (Computerized Assessment System for English Communication), conducted by The Japan Institute for Educational Measurement, Inc. [http://casec.evidus.com], which is a large-scale test in Japan. The EIKEN, Test in Practical English Proficiency, conducted by The Society for Testing English Proficiency, Inc. [http://stepeiken.org], can also be taken at school, and EIKEN CAT, an e-learning program that tests students’ English abilities on the Internet developed by CHIeru [http://www.chieru.co.jp], is provided to all our students. International exchange programs are also diverse at Chutobu. Every summer, Chutobu and British students attend a summer camp in England, which has been running for 15 years. Moreover, as we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the foundation of Keio University in 2008, a program for cultural exchange was inaugurated in New York, where junior high school students from Japan and the USA work together and produce short movies. Also, October 2012 marked the tenth year of hosting students from Hockerill Anglo-European College in the UK, who visit Chutobu and attend classes as part of their Japanese learning programme. Every spring Chutobu students experience 244 both the lessons and homestay at Hockerill Anglo-European College and Wolverhampton Girls’ High School in England. In total Chutobu students can join four different international programmes, all of which not only lead to international understanding, but also motivate students for further learning of English language. Moreover, students have the opportunity to expand their ideas and experience other foreign languages, French and Spanish, in our elective classes. A clear tendency can be seen among the students graduating from Yochisha, who are now in their 8th year of studying English, choose French and particularly Spanish, in order to try something new. In the first half term of 2008, seven out of 21 students who chose French were from Yochisha, and four out of 10 for Spanish. In the latter half, eight out of 21 who chose French were Yochisha graduate, while four for Spanish. In 2009, four out of 12 who chose French were from Yochisha, and two out of two for Spanish. 3.2 Problems and future developments At Chutobu, the curriculum for regular English classes is set as the core, while at the same time our students are provided with an environment with various learning opportunities. However, one of the problems in regard to the link between elementary and secondary English language teaching is that we do not conduct any kind of placement tests for our newcomer students including the ones from Yochisha who have already studied primary English for six years. This means that those who have some learning experience have to start from English basics, such as the alphabet writing among the beginner learners. We are also unsure of what level to expect from those students entering after a certain number of years of English learning. In regard to this point, we are concerned about the students’ expectations of English/foreign language learning at Chutobu and at what level to be set for our standard accordingly. In the future, it would be ideal to have a common understanding or even a framework with our English education from elementary to graduate school in the Keio system, and to share ideas about both learning and teaching, which consequently would help students achieve their goals. To achieve this challenging task, we need to hold meetings on a regular basis and share information with other 核 Core Keio schools. From observing classes in Keio, we can get to know more about the students who will 多様性 Diversity come to school in the near future and, if possible, we might be able to do more teacher exchange so that we can continue to teach previous students 個性 Individuality 気づき Awareness and see how they make progress in their learning of English language. 自律性 Autonomy 3.3 Five key-words 動機付け Motivation Finally, we would like to introduce five keywords of English education that I am currently engaged 245 Figure 9 Five key-words in as a teacher in Japan (Figure 9 ). There is a core part to English language learning that all students need to acquire as a language user, which we believe is the grammar, and this should be taught during the classes. However, the main interest is what kind of teaching can be provided for the benefit of the students outside the regular classes. A diverse environment suitable for individual learners who have different levels and interests is necessary, and moreover, each pupil’s English level, which we would like to call ‘individuality,’ must be investigated from different angles. Different language experiences are essential among different learners, and the learners themselves must be aware of the various functions of the language they are studying. Because of the time restraints of English classes at school, there is a limit to how much can be taught in classrooms. Time spent studying at home by each learner, the learner’s individual learning processes, and obviously learner autonomy are becoming very important factors in secondary schools. In conclusion, we need to motivate our students constantly to study English as a necessity for their future. In my everyday teaching, I am always conscious of these five keywords, and believe that they are necessary in establishing a strong link between elementary and junior high school education. (Makoto Ebato) 4. Perspectives from a native ELT teacher; possibilities and potential problems in establishing a link between primary and secondary English education in Japan 4.1 Establishing a link Keio Gijuku, as other private educational institutions in Japan do, has an interlinked system of schools. This provides each student with a safe path from elementary right through to graduate school. There are obviously many advantages to this system and the possibilities for establishing a fruitful link between the schools are limitless and exciting, including, for example, an exchange of teachers between schools. In practice, however, these possibilities are not always explored in full, and we are constantly trying to swim against a tide of cultural, administrative and logistic obstacles. Despite our efforts to communicate with each other through regular meetings and a variety of documents, our experience shows that each school tends to have its own culture and learning environment, which is often conflicting or even contradictory with the others. Since its inception, Yochisha Elementary School has included English in its curriculum, and it would make sense to have a core curriculum or a common framework of this sort that could guide the English Departments in all the schools. This task, however, is easier said than done, as the heads of each department, while understanding each other’s opinions on pedagogy, are also keen to benefit from the relative freedom we all enjoy in the private schools’ system, for example, they might want to try out their own ideas. Besides, even if the English Departments were able to create a common framework, they might have difficulties implementing it in each school, since the perception of the importance and/or relevance of English teaching, while officially recognised by the whole institution, is not universally acknowledged to the same degree. These differences also seem to affect the way teachers are employed in each school, creating great disparities in the ratio between Japanese and foreign teachers as well as in their terms of employment and working conditions in each school. 246 4.2 Motivating different age groups It is a unique experience to be able to teach some of the same Keio students in elementary school and then again when they are in junior high schools. We can closely observe their development both as English students and as children, and assess their progress as a whole. The most striking difference in those two very distinct phases of their development is what motivates them to study and learn English. Naturally, one of the most important elements of teaching languages is the teacher’s ability to motivate students, especially if we are talking about the more recent “learner-centred” approach to pedagogy, where the students should feel more responsible for their own learning process. At elementary school, up to 4th or even 5th grade, most students are able to learn what is being taught and have fun at the same time, in a safe, positively competitive and congenial class atmosphere (Figure 5 ). The dynamics usually starts to change in the 5th and 6th grades, as some students realise that they are lagging behind. At this point it is essential for the teachers to make sure they do not lose motivation and are encouraged to work a bit harder to catch up with the others. In junior high schools, on the other hand, the students are suddenly faced with a very different reality, much more competitive and less fun. The methodology for English teaching is ‘mixed’, and we see teachers who, for example, count the number of new words taught in each term alongside teachers who use a more westernised approach. Also, the workload in all subjects, starts to increase very quickly; after a brief period of simple exercises, the students are very soon faced with pages and pages of grammar rules and exercises which they are told to understand and memorise, often with little or no opportunity to actually use English as a living language. There is a very clear reason for this; the examination system, even though at Keio it is less of a burden than in the public schools since our students can enter the next level using our own criteria. Whether we agree with it or not, we all know that as students enter junior high school, (not just in Japan, but in most industrialised countries) they start to prepare for endless tests and examinations. The students who also attend cram schools or take private lessons outside school have even more of an overload of homework and assignments. It is no wonder that so many of them lose motivation. They also start to become seriously sleep-deprived, develop Figure 10 Session scene from Yochisha English all sorts of skin disorders caused by stress, start Pro; Keio Yochisha Elementary School, Tokyo. to wear glasses and lose or gain weight. It is also at this age that they enter puberty with all its implications. English language learning becomes just another source of worry and stress for many students and its relevance in their lives becomes even more distant and vague. The main motivation in junior high school is to pass with good grades. When we ask the question “Why do you study English?” to students in both levels, and, in junior high school 247 they answer, in all honesty: “To pass the tests!” However, especially in a school like Keio, this is not true of all students. Some of them manage to remain highly motivated for a number of different reasons, such as their personal interest, travel experiences, aptitude for foreign language learning, their parents’ attitude towards English, their cultural awareness or their access to different resources, including going to cram school or private lessons and encountering diverse materials that stimulate the youth learners. The challenge for teachers is to include all students, even those who are very happy to let the motivated ones do all the work for them. At Chutobu and Futsubu, luckily, classes can also be divided into smaller groups to maximise individual attention. Currently classes have a maximum of 20 students at a time at Futsubu, and at Chutobu some elective classes had only 4 students. It was truly fortunate that, in both schools, there is the chance to focus on Communicative Skills, and give each student many opportunities to actually speak and think about English as a live language, explaining grammar after they have used it, and not the other way round. But it is Figure 11 Keio Yochisha International Programme difficult to say that all students have been to Mohawk and Wild camp (at Keio Academy of New York) successfully included in this process. Inevitably there will be times when some students are completely disconnected and all they really want to do is find a way to have a nap in class. Others find themselves still unable to read or properly understand what is being taught to them, or, more importantly, why. The way English is currently taught in junior high school in Japan needs to be seriously examined and reformed, because it could make an enormous difference in the ways students will relate to language learning in their adult lives. First, however, we need to find ways to make English language learning attractive, useful, relevant to their lives and interesting to them, instead of just another subject that many students hate but need to learn for the exams. 4.3 Other obstacles and challenges Despite all the difficulties listed above, our situation as private school teachers is rather privileged in Japan, and at Keio, in particular, those issues are being discussed and improved upon. Some of the obstacles and challenges we face are not related to our schools so much as they are a part of our jobs as English teachers in Japan. How relevant is the teaching of other languages and cultures in this country and how much do the Japanese students really want to learn them? Do they really need it? What is taught outside the classrooms is just as important as the content of our English lessons, a 248 fact that still puzzles many foreign language teachers, who are not used to the “all-encompassing approach” used in the Japanese schools. For example, some English teachers from abroad do not understand why they should also get involved in events such as Sports’ Day and Opening or Closing Ceremonies, among many other activities Japanese teachers would always attend because ‘that is how it is done in Japan’. Some foreign teachers come to Japan with great credentials, such as Doctor’s degrees in ESL or equivalent, and many brilliant ideas, but if they do not know how to effectively operate in this society and this education system, their effort will barely scratch the surface as we have painfully witnessed on many occasions. They feel frustrated and unappreciated and we feel helpless for not being able to help them get their message and ideas up the hierarchy of the schools in this country. Japan has come a very long way in this mere century and a half since the Meiji Restoration and the foundation of Keio Gijuku by Professor Fukuzawa, but we are still researching ways to bridge the cultural gap between the West and the ‘Non-West’; like our founder, we still seem to be looking for answers in language teaching models used in Europe or in the United States, but it is very clear that many of them simply cannot be imposed on Japanese students, precisely because they fail to acknowledge the enormous cultural and linguistic gaps between those countries and Japan. One of these models is the Language Passport currently being developed in Europe following CEFR. Actually, the Portfolio as a tool to link primary and secondary schools is one of the first themes we stated to discuss with researchers, however, we found that even attempting to pilot the UK version for children was much more difficult than we anticipated. As an experiment, a self-assessment questionnaire was piloted first last year to more than 6,000 Keio students, from Elementary to University levels, in order to explore the learners’ own perception of their learning profile, as well as their level of language awareness with possible descriptors. It soon became clear that, because of the cultural gap mentioned previously (among other various reasons), the Japanese students had difficulties, at that point, to assess their own learning processes even in the higher graders. In the attempt with the UK version of Language Passport translated into Japanese, child learners at the age of 11 to 12 were not yet old enough to assess their own language skills through can-do-statements, for example, some said easily ‘I can read newspaper in English’ or ‘I can speak with my American friend’. Therefore, for the last three years, we have slowly started to adapt and introduce the concept. We are still a long way from creating our own original Keio version of Language Passport, but the exercise constitutes a meaningful attempt to establish a link between the schools, towards the creation of a ‘core curriculum’ or common framework, so we will keep working on it and hopefully in the near future we would be able to implement and supply our students with Language Passport originated in Keio context. We have highlighted some of our achievements and obstacles in a specific private school context in Japan, but this, of course, is just a summary of a much wider scenario, with many aspects that could not be discussed in the context of research. We will continue to share our experiences and make an effort to create a consistent and effective core curriculum, according to our students’ needs and the 249 opportunities and limitations faced by each particular school of Keio. These will hopefully offer implications to improve English language teaching and learning in Japan. We hope that this paper has been interesting and useful for all readers who are in the field of foreign language teaching, and that it will generate a number of ideas and actions to improve teachers’ conditions to teach and the students’ potential to learn. (Renato Brandão) 250 Part IV Statiscal Research Into Practice Teachers’ Attitudes toward English Education in Elementary School Yabunaka, Masayo (translated by Ohashi, Rie) 1. Issues and Objectives English is becoming more and more important as the international lingua-franca in this age of internationalization and information-oriented society. The voice insisting on starting English education in Japan from the elementary school level has become louder. The Second Report by the Special Educational Council (1986) mentioned “reconsideration of the age for starting English education”, which publicly marked the beginning of the debate on whether to start English education in elementary school. From then on, many experimental elementary schools were designated among public schools throughout Japan. Furthermore, the report by the Central Educational Council (1996) entitled “The Japanese Education for the 21st Century” stated that “foreign language education in elementary schools” should be “provided by utilizing the class hours for General Learning or extracurricular activities as a part of the program for Understanding the International World, in order to give opportunities for students to become familiar with foreign language(s), such as participating in English conversation, as well as to familiarize them with the life and culture of foreign country (countries), in ways that are deemed appropriate for the conditions of the school or the local community”. The new National Curriculum Standards proclaimed in 1998 incorporated “foreign language conversation” as a part of the program for Understanding the International World, which should be taken up during the “General Learning” class period. Furthermore, from 2002 it became possible to teach English in elementary schools throughout Japan, and in March 2006 it was recommended that English be made into a compulsory subject from the 5th grade of the elementary school, on the basis of one class-hour per week (35 class-hours in a year). The transition period started in 2009, and the policy was formally implemented from 2011 in the renewed National Curriculum Standard. The Survey on the Implementation of Activities Using English conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology shows that the public elementary schools throughout Japan taking up Activities Using English have been on the increase; the corresponding figures were 88.3% in 2003, 92.1% in 2004, 93.6% in 2005, and 95.8% in 2006. The survey conducted by Benesse Education Development Center in 2006 shows that 94% of 3503 public elementary schools have started to provide English language classes. These surveys show that most public elementary schools are teaching English to their students in one way or another. The surveys also show that English language is taught in grade 1-2 in 80% of the elementary schools, whereas it is taught in grade 3 and above in 96% of the elementary schools. The content of the classes is mostly “getting familiar with, and getting used to, the sounds and the rhythms of English” and/or “listening to and speaking English”. 60.1% of the classes for Activities Using English are taught by Assistant Language Teachers, whereas 28.2% of the classes are taught by homeroom teachers. For upper grade students, there is a general tendency that the more class periods are spent on teaching English, the stronger the 253 trend is that the classes are taught by the homeroom teacher. To be more precise, the ratio of English classes taught by the homeroom teachers is 10.8% in schools which spend only 0 to 5 class periods per year on English, but the corresponding figures increase to 21.3% in schools which spend 5 to 14 class periods per year, 34.9% for schools which spend 15 to 24 class periods per year, 38.0 % for schools which spend 25-34 class periods per year, and for schools which spend more than 35 class periods per year on teaching English, 47.9% of those classes are taught by homeroom teachers. The survey by Benesse Education Development Center shows that most of the English classes in elementary schools are taught within the class periods of “General Learning”. Hence the details of the English classes that are to be provided in each school is under the discretion of respective schools, which is why there is so much variation among the English classes in Japanese elementary schools in terms of their hours and contents. Under such a state of affairs, it is no doubt difficult to accomplish the transition from elementary school to junior high school, much less to guarantee the equal opportunity for receiving education under the compulsory education system. In order to resolve such problems, the English language was made into a compulsory subject at the elementary school level in the National Curriculum Standard. By making English language a compulsory subject, all public elementary schools will be able to allocate a certain number of hours for English classes. Yet, making English language a compulsory subject will shift the issue from the matter of class period hours to the quality of the class contents. In foreseeing the English classes being made into a compulsory subject in the elementary school level from 2011, we must investigate how elementary school teachers on the job actually think about Activities Using English in elementary schools, so that the universities engaged in training elementary school teachers would be able to continue supporting teachers who teach English in elementary schools. 2. The study This study investigates how elementary school teachers in Tokyo are coping with the Activities Using English. In more precise terms: 1. What do teachers who teach the Activities Using English classes actually think about the activities? 2. Based on the in-class observations made by teachers who teach in Activities Using English, which activities do teachers feel that the students are interested in, actively participate in, and have a favorable/negative attitude towards? 3. Which instruction points do teachers who teach Activities Using English find difficult to teach? 2.1. Respondents and survey period The respondents for this study were 56 elementary school teachers from 4 public elementary schools in Tokyo (20 males, 36 females; 1 first-grade teacher, 8 second-grade teachers, 10 third-grade teachers, 15 fourth-grade teachers, 8 fifth-grade teachers, 8 sixth-grade teachers), all of whom were teaching Activities Using English. 20 respondents had been on the job for less than 10 years, 18 respondents had been on the job for 10 to 19 years, 12 respondents had been on the job for 20 to 29 years, and 6 254 respondents had been on the job for 30 years or more. All four schools had already started providing the classes for Activities Using English in one way or the other. The survey was conducted between December 2008 and March 2009. 2.2. The questionnaire The demographic items were followed by these questions in the survey: A question asking for the respondent’s opinion in regard to making English a compulsory subject: the respondents were asked to state whether he/she supports, supports under certain conditions, or does not support the Activities Using English classes. The reasons for their answers were also asked in the open-ended format. A question asking for the respondent’s current state of English learning: the respondents were asked whether he/she currently studies English, and if he/she does, the length of his/her study. Four question items in 5-point Likert format (5=strongly agree, 1= strongly disagree) asking how the respondent’s homeroom students participate in Activities Using English. Ten question items in 5-point Likert format (5=strongly agree, 1= strongly disagree) on the content of the activities which develop the students’ communicative competence. A question in open-ended format regarding the respondent’s evaluation of the Activities Using English classes. 2.3. Survey procedure The researcher contacted the school headteachers in City I and City A(both located in western Tokyo) to ask for their permission to conduct this research in their school. The survey was mailed to teachers (primarily those who teach the Activity Using English classes) in the four schools which granted permission. The completed survey was mailed back to the researcher; the response rate was 83%. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Opinions in regard to making English a compulsory subject As for the respondents’ opinions in regard to making English a compulsory subject, 27 respondents (48%) indicated that they will support it, 18 respondents (32%) indicated that they will support it if certain conditions are fulfilled, while 11 respondents (20%) indicated that they will not support it. As many as 80% of the respondents either fully support making English into a compulsory subject, or support it under certain conditions. Table 1 shows the respondents’ reasons for their answers. Many of those who support it mentioned “I want my students to acquire the ability to communicate actively.” and “I want my students to learn the culture and language of a foreign country.” as the reasons for their answers. Many of those who do not support it mentioned “Students’ Japanese education should be given precedence over their English education”. Table 1. Opinions with regard to making English a compulsory subject Number of responses Reasons for the answer 255 Support making English a compulsory subject, Support it if certain conditions are fulfilled I want my students to acquire the communicative competence to engage in 22 a conversation actively. I want my students to learn the culture and language of a foreign country. 18 Other countries are teaching English at elementary school level as well. 8 Teachers will attain the ability to teach English. 4 It is worth the trouble of curtailing the class periods of other subjects. 2 I am confident in teaching English. 2 Students’ Japanese education should be given precedence over their 11 English education. I want my students to acquire his/her communicative competence in 7 not Japanese first. Do support I am not confident in my own English ability. 5 making English a I do not know enough about the instruction methods and teaching 4 compulsory materials for English classes. subject It will mean more work and will lead to excessive workload. 4 It will curtail the class periods for other subjects. 4 Table 2 shows the breakdown of the answers by the respondents’ length of time being on the job as a teacher. A chi-square test was conducted in order to find out whether the length of time being on the job as a teacher will have any effect on the differences in answers. The data indicated that no significant differences were found between the respondents’ length of time being on the job as a teacher with regard to their answers for making English a compulsory subject (χ (6)＝5.52，n.s. ). This result shows that many respondents support making English a compulsory subject regardless of their length of time being on the job as a teacher. Table 2. The breakdown of answers by the respondents’ length of service as a teacher with regards to making English a compulsory subject Support making Support making English a Does not support English a compulsory subject if certain making English a compulsory subject conditions are fulfilled compulsory subject Less than 10 years on 9 the job as a teacher 10 to 19 years on the job 10 as a teacher 20 to 29 years on the job 5 as a teacher 30 years or more on the 3 job as a teacher * the figures indicate the number of responses 3.2 The respondents’ current state of English learning 256 8 3 6 2 2 5 2 1 In regard to the respondents currently state of English learning, 38 respondents (68%) answered that they have not studied English at all after graduating from their universities, while 10 respondents (18%) answered that they did study English for some period after graduating from their universities but are not doing so currently. Only 8 respondents (14%) answered that they are currently studying English. The result shows that as many as 86% of the teachers are not studying English currently; it seems that most teachers do not opt to study English on their own time or at their own expense. 3.3 The students’ participation in Activities Using English Teachers who actually teach the Activities Using English classes were asked to respond on what they thought about their students’ participation in the activities. The mean score on a five-point scale for the question item “The students are interested in the activities.” was 3.80 (SD=0.86), whereas the mean score for the question item “The students are happy to participate in the activities.” was 3.52 (SD=0.99). The mean score for the question item “The students are actively participating in the activities.” was 3.38 (SD=1.02), while the mean score for the question item “The students are looking forward to the next class period.” was 3.45 (SD=1.08). Overall, teachers regard the students’ participation in the Activities Using English classes as quite positive. 3.4 The content of the activities which develop the students’ communicative competence Table 3 shows the mean score on a 5-point scale for each of the question items regarding the content of the activities which develop the students’ communicative competence. Overall, “Free conversation with an ALT” was highly evaluated as the activity which develops the students’ communicative competence (M=4.05, SD=1.12). A one-way ANOVA was conducted in order to find out whether length of time being on the job as a teacher will have any effect on the differences in answers. A significant difference was found in the question item “Watching English videos (F(3,52)=3.46,p<.05). The result of the post-hoc multiple comparison test showed that the respondents who had been on the job for 10 to 19 years rated this item significantly higher for developing the students’ communicative competence, compared to those who have been on the job for less than 10 years or those who have been on the job for 20 to 29 years. 257 Table 3. The content of the activities which develop the students’ communicative competence Teachers who had been on the job for less than 10 years Teachers who had been on the job for 10 to 19 years Teachers who had been on the job for 20 to 29 years Greetings in English 3.85 4.00 3.83 3.17 n.s. Singing songs and doing chants in English 3.55 4.22 3.75 3.83 n.s. Playing games in English 3.70 4.06 3.92 3.83 n.s. Doing an exercise or dancing while singing English songs 3.20 3.89 3.42 4.00 n.s English conversation 3.75 3.83 3.42 3.50 n.s. Having English books read to them by their teacher 3.25 3.72 3.00 3.00 n.s. Watching English videos 3.30 4.00 3.08 3.83 3.40 3.67 2.92 3.33 n.s. 3.20 3.61 2.83 3.17 n.s. 4.10 4.33 3.58 4.00 n.s Practicing English pronunciation Acting in an English drama Free conversation with an ALT Teachers Result of the who had one-way been on the ANOVA job for over 30 years 3.46* 3.5 The respondent’s evaluation of Activities Using English Table 4 shows the answers to the open-ended question regarding the respondents’ evaluation of Activities Using English. The answers were categorized into (1) workload of teachers, (2) instruction policies of the Activities Using English classes, (3) the introduction of the Activities Using English classes, (4) effects upon the students, (5) transition to the English language classes in junior high school, and (6) others. As for teachers’ workload, almost all respondents answered that “the workload will increase”, but the respondents are divided in thinking whether it is worth it or not; some respondents think that “teachers will learn much from Activities Using English”, whereas other respondents think that “what teachers attain by the introduction of the Activities Using English classes is not worth the increase in the workload”. In regards to the classes’ instruction policy, many respondents stated that the policy can be improved; more precisely, many respondents requested an ALT who is competent in Japanese and can stay on the job for a long period of time. As for the introduction of the Activities Using English classes, some respondents asserted that “other subjects such as Japanese should be given precedence over English”, while other respondents positively claimed that “the introduction of the Activities Using English classes has had positive effects on other subject areas”. In terms of the effects upon the students, things such as “active participation in the 258 Activities Using English classes,” “reduce the reluctance to interact with non-Japanese people,” “development of communicative competence through active interactions with ALTs” were mentioned. Other comments such as “We need more textbooks,” “Are we really qualified to teach English even though we do not have a teaching qualification for teaching English?” “Please improve the in-service training program for teaching English,” “What is the minimum level of English competence that is necessary to teach English at an elementary school?” “How do I make my teaching plans?” “We should have fewer students in a class to develop their communicative competence” were also stated. Table 4. The respondents’ evaluation of Activities Using English Response category Number of responses Remarks (1) workload of teachers Increase in workload without much to learn for teachers 27 Increase in workload but the teacher-growth will override this 27 (2) instruction policies of Impossible to teach only by the homeroom teacher; want to the Activities Using cooperate with assistants and ALTs English classes Prefer to teach by the homeroom teacher only 1 Other subjects such as Japanese should be given precedence 9 (3) the introduction of the Activities Using English the introduction of the Activities Using English classes have classes had positive effects on other subject areas Positive (understanding of other cultures, communicative (4) effects students upon 39 the competence) 7 37 Not sure what effects Activities Using English have on the students The Activities Using English classes help the students’ (5) transition to the transition into junior high schools English language classes The Activities Using English classes does not help the in junior high school students’ transition into junior high schools 12 (6) others 13 9 5 4. Synthesis 4.1 Teachers’ attitudes toward introducing the Activities Using English classes to elementary schools The results of the current study investigating teachers’ attitude toward introducing the Activities Using English classes in elementary schools show that it is quite difficult to continue teaching English through homeroom teachers alone. At the same time, considering the fact that teachers have high expectations for the Activities Using English classes, it is not deemed impossible to introduce the Activities Using English classes to elementary schools, if teachers are given enough time and preparation for the classes, in addition to the improvement in instruction policy and the supporting structure of the ALTs. Such a finding may come as no surprise when we consider the best practices in English classes (English conversation, etc.) taught within the program of Understanding the International World conducted during the class period of “General Learning”. The creativity of elementary school teachers would be crucial to their successful introduction. 259 This study also reveals that many teachers consider the conditions for teaching English in elementary schools to be still much underdeveloped. Having 40 students in a class is beyond the limit for teaching a “communication” class. In addition, many teachers say that they want to spend more time to prepare for their English classes, but in reality they are unable to take the time because there are too many tasks to be performed on the job at elementary schools. On top of teaching 25 class periods per week, teachers take on the responsibility of non-curricular guidance and instructing extracurricular activities in addition to the preparation for teaching other subjects. How can they find enough time to prepare for their English classes? Teachers are coming close to being in despair; teachers must be given more leeway in terms of time to do their work. 4.2 The abilities required of elementary school teachers In addition to basic grammatical competence, what is necessary for teachers to teach the Activities Using English classes in elementary schools is oral/verbal communicative competence. In other words, they need the ability to read the flow of conversation, the ability to use appropriate words depending on the context, and the ability to repair the conversation when one has lost the words. The vocabulary used in English classes in elementary schools should of course be easy, but the actual words are primarily those that are associated with things and issues around children’s daily lives. These everyday words do not appear very often in the National Curriculum Guideline for junior high schools. In addition, much of the English education that elementary school teachers have had was probably geared towards the entrance examination for universities. Therefore, although teachers may know the difficult words that are likely to be tested for university entrance examinations, they may not necessarily be familiar with the everyday vocabulary that is needed in elementary school English classes. Besides, studying English as an entrance examination subject often results in the reinforcement of cognitive aspects; hence it may be argued that not many teachers would have acquired the ability to listen, talk, read, and write in a well-balanced manner. Furthermore, as Katsuura (2007) points out, we must shift our focus from teaching “correct English” to teaching “comprehensible” English. The Activities Using English classes in elementary schools must be communicative, and be useful in actual communication situations. Based on this fundamental change of attitude, teachers must refresh their English ability with a stronger emphasis on oral/verbal communicative aspect. As for language and culture, the knowledge that the teacher has of various languages and cultures, i.e., the attitude towards culture and language held by teachers themselves would be vitally important. How much interest the teacher has, and how much of that interest the teacher conveys to the students, has a large effect on how students participate in the Activities Using English classes. Teachers must always be on the alert for information on cultures, and think of ways to get their students interested in cultures that are not their own. Such a frame of mind can directly influence the development of students’ understanding of different cultures, and their positive attitudes towards cultures that are different from their own. The purpose of the Activities Using English classes in elementary schools is to provide opportunities for the students to experience communicating in English. With this purpose in mind, it 260 is important to engage the students in “activities in which students listen carefully to what the speaker is saying, think, and express their opinion without hesitation”. Such activities will naturally lead the students to “participate actively and fully within the means of one’s given limitations”. This attitude of self-growth and autonomy must be developed first. The primary goal of Activities Using English in elementary schools is not to make a student become a better English speaker; rather, becoming a better English speaker should come as a successful by-product of participating in Activities Using English. Activities which bring such outcomes are the best and the most worthwhile to be introduced into elementary schools. References Benesse .2011. ベネッセ教育研究開発センタ た英語教育と 小・中学校の英語教育に関す 調査：中学 年生の目から見 （Survey on English Education at Elementary School and Junior High School：A quick report ベネッセ教育開発センタ （2007 第 1 回小学校英語に関す 基本調査(教員調査) 報告書 研究所報 VOL.41. ベネッセコ ポレ ション Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). 2006. き 小学校英語活動実践の手引 (Practical Handbook for Elementary School English Activities) 波多野誼余夫 (2006) 英語教育の目的 日本の英語教育に必要 こと 慶応大学出版 勝浦 攻 (2007) 新 い時代の小学校英語活動の原則 明治図書 文部科学省 (2001) 小学校英語活動実践の手引き 開隆堂 文部科学省 (2004) 成 15 年度小学校英語活動実施状況調査集計結果 文部科学省 (2005) 成 16 年度小学校英語活動実施状況調査集計結果 文部科学省 (2006) 成 17 年度小学校英語活動実施状況調査集計結果 文部科学省 (2007) 成 18 年度小学校英語活動実施状況調査集計結果 文部科学省 (2008) 小学校学習指 要領解説 外国語活動編 東洋館出版社 大津由紀雄 (2006) 原理 き英語教育からの脱却をめ 汐見 稔幸 (2008) 言語力 視とこ からの教育 て 日本の英語教育に必要 こと 慶応大学出版 人間と教育 57 号 261 旬報社 The Needs to use English in Japanese Society: A Statistical Examination of Policies and Goals of English Education Terasawa, Takunori 1. Social needs to use English in Japan In the history of Japan’s postwar English education, social needs to use English have always been treated as a key issue for discussing policies and goals of English education. In 1947, when the new education system started, English, or more precisely “Foreign Language, 1” was introduced into junior high schools, which means that English became one component of the curriculum of compulsory education for the first time of the Japanese history. However, the first two versions of The Course of Study after WWII (Ministry of Education, 1947; 1951) did not necessarily assume that all students had strong needs to use English. Rather, they considered that English education should be an elective subject, not a compulsory one, since there was a considerable number of students who would not require the use of English in their future. Needs to use English were also the focus of well-publicized debates about English education. In the mid 1950s, Shuichi Kato, a well-known intellectual, had a debate on English education with other intellectuals, and he criticized the situation in which English education in junior high schools was about to become a de facto compulsory subject, and he proposed, instead, an intensive instruction of Japanese language and social studies especially to students who would not have opportunities to use English (Kato, 1955; 1956). Needs to use English were also a key concept in the Hiraizumi-Watanabe Debate in 1975 between Wataru Hiraizumi, a former politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, and Shoichi Watanabe, a famous intellectual (Hiraizumi & Watanabe, 1975). In the debate, both Hiraizumi and Watanabe, in spite of the fundamental difference in their views about English education, shared the same awareness that it was the only tiny minority who need to use English. In contrast to the two famous debates above, the English education policies recently proposed by the government has assumed that the use of English is relevant to the vast majority of Japanese (or even all citizens). For example, when the Prime Minister’s Commission on Japan’s Goals in the Twenty-First Century (2000) made a controversial proposition to make English the second official language in Japan. According to their statement, Japanese people in the twenty-first century should possess at least basic skills in English. Furthermore, in 2003, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) presented “an Action Plan to Cultivate ‘Japanese with English Abilities’,” which asserted, based on the awareness of “the progress of globalization,” that it was “important for all Japanese people to aim at achieving a level of English commensurate with average world standards” (MEXT, 2003:1; my emphasis). The same assumption lies in the current business discourse. A variety of business magazines and books (e.g., President Family, 2008; Moriyama, 2011) also point out increasing necessities of English 1 Although the subject called “Foreign Language” was introduced in 1947, almost all junior high schools chose English to teach. As a result, English became an almost universal component in the compulsory education in Japan. 262 language especially in an occupational context, and assert the importance of a mastery of English. This discourse also seems to prevail in some Japanese university students and teachers, as suggested by Matsuura, Fujieda, & Mahoney’s (2004) questionnaire study. According to their survey, more than 70% of 660 students and more than 60% of 50 university teachers of English agreed with the statement that “If Japanese can master English, they can get better jobs.” However, these beliefs in business and academic communities introduced above do not necessarily indicate that Japanese society has recently been shifting from a society in which people do not have to use English to a society filled with needs to use English, because there are still counter-claims to the business discourse above. For example, Makoto Naruke, the former president of Microsoft Japan, points out, in his sensational book Ninety percent of Japanese people do not need English (Naruke, 2011), that even in the twenty-first century, only a small number of Japanese people need to use English. The question, therefore, is which view of the needs to use English (i.e., the recent Government and business discourses vs. Kato’s, Hiaraizumi’s, and Naruke’s view) is more consistent with the social realities of Japan, in other words, how many people need to use English and how many people do not. The present study examined this question. 2. How to measure the social needs 2.1 Social statistics In order to measure the degree of Japanese people’s needs to use English, it is necessary to analyze a sample which properly represents the population, in this case, Japanese citizens. One —and probably the only— way to enable this is a social statistics approach based on a random sampling method. This approach statistically estimates how many people have a specific opinion or attitude in response to a researcher’s question by quantitatively analyzing a sample randomly extracted from the entire Japanese population. It is unfortunate, however, that as far as I am aware, before the 2000s, no one conducted any social survey which was based on a random-sample and contained items on the needs to use English2. It may be unsurprising if taking into account the fact that a random-sample survey requires a vast amount of time as well as economic and human resources, thus it is hard to include a seemingly less-important question such as the needs to use English compared to more commonly-studied issues in the mainstream of Japanese social sciences (e.g. one’s wages, political opinions, and employment status). Since 2000, however, some large-scale surveys in Japan have introduced a variety of questionnaire items on English language, and some of the datasets have become open to academic researchers. By analyzing these datasets, we can obtain a result which can be generalized to the whole society and we can gain proper insight of the social situation of the needs to use English in 2 It is true that the field of needs analysis also focuses on the needs to use English, and much research based on the approach has been already conducted in Japan (e.g. Shimizu & Matsubara 2007; Naito et al., 2007). The main interest of needs analysis, however, is not in the demography but in the types of needs of people who use English. Due to the presumption of this approach, therefore, it usually does not extract a random-sample so it is impossible to generalize its results to the entire Japanese society in most cases. 263 Japan. The present paper adopted this approach, which is called secondary analysis of social surveys (Kiecolt & Nathan, 1985), and examined the needs to use English in Japanese society. 2.2. Empirical studies The social-statistical examination of English language in Japanese society based on the random-sampling method has already been conducted by some (although not many) researchers (e.g. Kano, 2005; Carreira, 2011; Koiso, 2006; 2009; Sugita, 2004; Terasawa, 2011a; 2011b; 2011c; 2012a; 2012b; 2013b). Among them, Koiso (2006; 2009), Sugita (2004), and Terasawa (2011a; 2011c, 2013b) have examined one constituent of the needs to use English such as uses of English itself, or perceived effectiveness of one’s English skills, although the main concern of all the studies except for Terasawa (2013b) is not on the examination of the needs themselves. Terasawa (2013b) has separated the needs to use English for occupational purposes into (A) objective needs, which can be defined from one’s behavior and (B) subjective needs, which are equivalent to one’s awareness, feelings, or attitudes, and he has examined them, employing a statistical analysis of social surveys conducted from 2000 to 2010. According to his analysis, only a few percent of the respondents had used English in the workplace in a daily basis. This result suggests that the degree of the needs to use English in Japanese society in the recent years are extremely smaller than the assumptions of Japan’s Goals in the Twenty-First Century (2000) and the Action Plan (MEXT, 2003) discussed earlier. Rather, Terasawa’s conclusion is consistent with, for example, Naruke’s (2011) estimation. Similar results have also been reported by other studies. According to these studies, including the analyses of the actual use of English in the 2000s (Koiso, 2006; 2009; Sugita, 2004), workers’ perceived needs of English in 2000 (Terasawa, 2011c), and perceived usefulness of English in 2010 (Terasawa, 2011a), the majority of Japanese people do not seem to have needs to use English, which implies that the recent social situation is inconsistent with the recognition of government policy such as the Action Plan. The previous work seems to suggest that the needs to use English are still relevant only to a small minority of the Japanese people and the needs have not prevailed in the entire Japanese society yet. Nevertheless, it is still significant to examine what kind of Japanese people need to use English, because the understanding on the current social status of English in Japanese society can provide us with useful insight on future changes of the needs to use English in the society. Based on the discussions above, this paper conducted a secondary analysis on the data of social surveys, and examined the characteristics of the social needs to use English. In this sense, this study shared a similar framework with Terasawa (2013b), who exclusively focused on the needs to use English in a business context, but it is different in that this paper analyzed a variety of needs including the needs to use English for non-business purposes such as communication with foreign friends, one’s leisure, and overseas trips. 2.3. Needs and use Although the notion of the needs to use English involves some different meanings, the variable which 264 the present paper mainly dealt with was the use of English itself. It might seem that the notion of use is divergent from the notion of needs of the use, but the former can be deemed as a proxy for the latter, especially objective needs. The notion of the needs to use English can be divided into objective needs and subjective needs. The former refers to the needs estimated by one’s behavior (i.e., the use of English), while the latter indicates one’s perceptions or feelings about the necessities for using English. In this sense, whether one uses English or not can be regarded as similar to the objective needs to use English. This can be legitimatized if considering that when one uses English, she is likely to come under pressure to do so, and this pressure is regarded as a kind of need to use English. However, the analyses of this paper (Section 4 and Section 5) adopted the term use of English instead of needs to use English, in order to avoid misleading the readers. Although the objective needs to use English and its use itself are likely to have a considerable correlation, an exception can be also assumed. For example, it is not difficult to suppose that in spite of the fact that one has some potential needs to use English, she cannot use the language because of a lack of proficiency in English. In addition, it is also plausible to expect the opposite case: even though someone is not forced to use English at all, she does so on a purely voluntary basis. 3. Data and Variables The present study adopted the dataset of Japanese General Social Surveys, or JGSS, one of the largest-scale social surveys in Japan, which has been conducted since 2000, aiming to examine the behaviors and thoughts of Japanese people and the social structure of Japan3. Its sample is extracted from men and women aged 20-89 years living in Japan, based on the method of two-stage stratified random sampling. This feature, therefore, enables the results to be generalized to the entire Japanese people and society. Furthermore, the strength of the JGSS also lies in its well-structured design. Since many social researchers have participated in planning and designing it, due to the main purpose of JGSS as an academic research project, the dataset has been made to be highly accurate. In addition, it is also valuable that each JGSS dataset has a large number of cases, which enables a more detailed analysis than datasets with a small sample size. The datasets used in the present paper are the 2002 version, 2003 version (Form A), 2006 version (Form A), and 2010 version (Form A) (hereafter, JGSS-2002, JGSS-2003, JGSS-2006, JGSS-2010, respectively), all of which include questionnaire items on the use of English. Each sample size is N = 5000 in JGSS-2002, N = 3578 in JGSS-2003, N = 4000 in JGSS-2006, and N = 4500 in JGSS-2010, the number of valid responses in each dataset is 2953, 1957, 2124, 2505 respectively, and thus the valid response rate of each version is around 60% (for further information, see JGSS’s website). Although all the four surveys asked respondents about their use of English, the wording of their questions contained a major difference between the 2002/2003 versions and the 2006/2010 versions, therefore, they need to be analyzed separately. JGSS-2002 and JGSS-2003 asked respondents “Do you use English in your everyday life?” and required them to choose all the options that applied to them from seven options including the use of English in business, as a hobby, and for other purposes. 3 For more details, see the JGSS’s website: http://jgss.daishodai.ac.jp/english/index.html 265 JGSS-2006 and JGSS-2010, on the other hand, asked them “Have you ever read, listened, or spoken English for the following activities for the past 12 months?” and required them to select all the options that applied from seven options. While JGSS-2002/2003 asked about present opportunities to use English, JGSS-2006/2010 inquired about the actual experience of using English for the past 12 months. That is, the question in JGSS-2006/2010 was based on a much broader definition than the question in JGSS-2002/2003. Indeed, the uses of English in JGSS-2006/2010 had a higher percentage. According to Table 1, which exhibits the wording of each option as well as the percentages of the respondents who chose each option, the percentages of JGSS-2006/2010 were generally higher than the percentages of JGSS-2002/2003. Furthermore, there was also a difference in the options available. Therefore, it is hard to integrate the four datasets, so I analyzed the four datasets separately. Table 1. Use of English JGSS-2002 & 2003 (integrated） I frequently use English in business I sometimes use English in business Business use (total) 1.0% 5.1 6.1 I use English in socializing with foreign friends or acquaintances I use English to communicate with my family I use English for my hobby, entertainment or overseas trips Others 2.7 1.4 6.8 0.5 Non-business use (total) 9.8 I hardly have a chance to use English 85.9 N = 4910 JGSS-2006 & 2010 (integrated） Business 12.4% Socializing with foreign friends or acquaintances Watching movies, listening to music or reading a book The Internet Overseas trips Others Non-business use (total) 6.7 24.8 9.9 8.5 3.8 36.8 Not at all 58.4 N = 4626 In both datasets, the highest percentages are evident in the use of English as a hobby or leisure. The most frequently chosen options are “I use English for my hobby, entertainment or overseas trips” (6.8%) in JGSS-2002/2003, and “Watching movies, listening to music or reading a book” (24.8%) in JGSS-2006/2010. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the fact that the vast majority is composed of non-users of English. In JGSS-2002/2003, 85.9% of the respondents chose “I hardly have a chance to 266 use English,” and in JGSS-2006/2010, 58.4% chose “Not at all.” This result indicates that, even if the notion of the use of English is broadly defined to include only a few opportunities to use English for the past 12 months, the percentage of the users is about 40%, which falls well short of the majority. In Section 4 and 5, I analyzed a variety of uses of English in Table 1, but it should be noted that I made the following two changes. First, two options about the use of English in business in JGSS-2002/2003 such as “I frequently use…” and “I sometimes use… were integrated into one variable (“I use English in business”), since the number of cases of “I frequently use…” is very small. Secondly, “Others” was excluded from the analysis. As a result, the uses of English analyzed in the present paper were:  five categories of the use for JGSS-2002/2003, including (1) business, (2) socializing with foreign friends or acquaintances, (3) communication with family, (4) hobby, entertainment or overseas trips, and (5) none; and  six categories for JGSS-2006/2010, including (1) business, (2) socializing with foreign friends or acquaintances, (3) watching movies, listening to music or reading a book, (4) the Internet, (5) overseas trips, and (6) none. 4. Generational effects on the use of English One of the most important factors which have a strong impact on the use of English is one’s age. Many previous studies indicate that younger people are more familiar with English than older people (e.g. Koiso, 2006; 2009; Sugita, 2004; Terasawa, 2012a; 2013a; 2013b). This finding was also recognized in the use of English of the JGSS’s datasets. The percentages by generations of the five types of the present opportunities to use English in JGSS-2002/2003 are exhibited in Figure 1. As suggested by the percentages of the total, younger respondents were more likely to select one or more options than older respondents. The same trend (i.e., more frequent use of English of younger people) was also obvious in the percentages of “hobby, entertainment, or overseas trips” and “socializing with foreign friends or acquaintances” (although it might be difficult to see the age effect of “socializing with foreign friends etc” from Figure 1, the effect is statistically significant, and it has an effect size, χ2 = 72.889, df = 5, p < .001, Cramer’s V = 0.122). 267 People who answered to use English (%) 25 20 B S F H T T T Business Socializing with foreign friends etc Communication with one's family Hobby, entertainment or overseas trips Total T 15 T H 10 B 5 0 T B H B H B T S F S F S F B F S H S B F 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-89 F 20-29 H H S Age Figure 1: Present opportunities to use English (JGSS-2002/03) In contrast, one’s age did not seem to influence the opportunities to use English to communicate with family. This result is not unnatural because this type of use seems to be more strongly influenced by an accidental factor (e.g., international marriage) than other types of use, which more or less reflect users’ social situations, intentions or tastes. The percentages of the use of English in business, on the other hand, show a rapid decrease in the age group of the 60s or older, but it probably resulted from a relatively small share of workers in the population due to the retirement (in Japan, most company regular employees and public servants usually retire at the age of 60-65). Indeed, Terasawa (2013b) analyzed workers’ use of English in workplace based on the datasets of JGSS-2002/2003, and revealed that when non-workers were eliminated from the analysis, obvious generation effects disappeared. In summary, the present analysis suggests that, younger people are generally more likely to use English than older people, but the generation effect widely varies according to the types of use of English. These results imply the complicated relationship between use of English and life-cycle. The percentages by each age group regarding their experience of using English for the past 12 months in JGSS-2006/2010 are exhibited in Figure 2. Although it is a general trend that each percentage is about 2-3 times higher than JGSS-2002/2003, this was probably caused by the different wording as discussed earlier, rather than a radical change of the Japanese society from 2003 to 2006. 268 People who answered to have used English (%) 80 70 B S M I O T T T 60 T 50 Business Socializing w/ foreign friends etc Movie, Music, Books etc The Internet Overseas Trips Total M 40 T M M 30 I 20 10 B O S B I S O M B I S O B O SI M O B SI 40-49 50-59 60-69 0 20-29 30-39 T T M O S B I 70-89 Age Figure 2: Experiences of using English for the past 12 month (JGSS-2006/10) Similar to JGSS-2002/2003, the effects of generation were also evident in the use of English in JGSS-2006/2010. The uses of English which were largely influenced by age were “watching movies, listening to music or reading a book” (Cramer’s V = 0.324), “the Internet” (V = 0.259), and “business” (V = 0.214). In addition, “socializing with foreign friends or acquaintances” and “overseas trips” also received a statistically significant impact from age. What should be noted here is that, unlike the general downward trends (i.e., younger people use English more), the use of English in business has its peak at the ages 30 to 49. This inverted-U-shaped relationship was found to become more obvious when analyzing workers’ sample only (see Terasawa, 2013b). This result probably reflects job assignment customs in Japan’s businesses: the workers who mainly deal with international and/or highly-skilled transactions in Japan tend to be employees in their 30s and 40s. Such a job does not tend to be assigned to workers in their 20s because they generally do not have sufficient job experience. The workers in their 50s, on the other hand, are less likely to use English because they are likely to be engaged with managerial jobs and have fewer opportunities to deal with actual transactions. This suggests that, whereas the use of English in non-business situations largely reflects users’ intentions or tastes, the use of English in business is affected by a variety of external conditions such as workplace policy. As found in these analyses, although many types of the use of English were affected by one’s age, the relationship was not always identical to the assumption that younger people use English more often, but rather different uses of English yielded different effects of age. More importantly, even for the age group who used English the most frequently, the use of English did not seem to generally prevail in the whole generation. For example, as Figure 2 shows, the percentage of the respondents in their 20s who answered that they had some experiences of using English in the past 12 months was nearly 70%, the highest in the present study, but this also means 269 that more than 30% in their 20s answered that they had not used English at all in this period. Furthermore, it should be noted that this percentage (nearly 70%) logically includes the respondents with only limited exposure to English (even if a person had spoken, read, or written English only once for the past 12 months, she could answer “I have used English”). Therefore, if the estimation is based on a much narrower definition such as active use of English on a daily basis, the percentage of users will be much smaller. These results imply that it is not yet a general phenomenon in Japanese society that people are required to use English either in business or everyday life. 5. Genderand the use of English Another important factor is gender. There are plenty of empirical studies which have investigated a variety of genderized phenomena connected to English language in Japanese society (e.g. Bailey, 2006; Kelsky, 2001; Kitamura, 2011; Kobayashi, 2002; 2007a; Piller & Takahashi, 2006, Takahashi, 2013), and such studies highlighted Japanese women’s unique attitude and behaviors regarding English. However, it should not be regarded as a simplistic image that Japanese women in general are strongly orientated to English. It is true that this view has been held by not only general public but also some academic researchers (e.g. Tsuda, 1993), but it is definitely negated by empirical research. Terasawa (2013a) quantitatively analyzed many opinion-poll surveys conducted by the Cabinet Office of Japan in the postwar period, and revealed that females’ orientation to the English language is probably just a contemporary phenomenon (after the late 1980s), because all the opinion poll surveys up to the early 1980s reported that many more (adult) men studied English than women. In addition, although Japanese women in general are sometimes regarded to possess positive attitudes toward English, Terasawa also revealed that this is just a misrepresentation because, unlike the other genderized learning activities such as flower arrangement, English language learning was highly relevant to a specific group of women, especially the young, highly-educated women engaged in professional jobs and residing in urban areas. Based on these findings, similar results can be expected in an analysis of the use of English. Thus, this section examines this question. First of all, a simple comparison of the total percentage of use of English between men and women did not show an obvious difference. The variables with a relatively large size of effect were only “business” and “the Internet,” but the others showed no significant effect, or, if any, they had only a tiny effect4. Although these results might seem to indicate that a gender gap of the use of English has disappeared in the 2000s, this is not the case in fact, because the gender gap in the use of English was found through the interaction of one’s demographic factors such as age, education level, and social or job status (worker, student, the retired, and other status). The six tables in the appendix exhibit the percentages of the use of English by gender and other demographic factors. The results in these tables will be exhibited based on correspondence analysis. It is true that the same conclusion can be obtained based on a close examination of these six tables, but this is actually almost impossible because they are composed of a vast amount of information. That is, the six tables have no less than 374 values (5 + 6 items on the use of English multiplied by 17 categories of 4 By tradition, Cramer’s V = 0.10 is deemed as a “small” effect size. The effect size over V = 0.10 was recognized only in “business” in JGSS-2002/2003 (V = 0.103) and JGSS-2006/2010 (V = 0.136), and “the Internet” (V = 0.121). 270 demographic factors (6 + 3 + 8) and 2 categories of gender). To avoid confusing reader, this paper will present the results by depicting them based on correspondence analysis. The following interpretations are consistent with the conclusions that I obtained in the detailed examination of the tables. 5.1 Gender, generation, and education level The results of a correspondence analysis of the cross-tables are plotted in Figure 3-6. In a correspondence analysis, diversions in responses are plotted by relative distances on the two-dimensional surface. To be more specific, similar items (i.e. items which are chosen similarly by the respondents in the same group) are positioned in a similar location, while items with diverse responses are depicted far from one another. Furthermore, items which obtain somewhat unique responses are plotted in a remote area from the origin, while items without a unique pattern of responses are plotted around the origin (Clausen, 1998). First, this section examines how one’s age, education level, and gender are related to the use of English (see Figure 3 for the present opportunities to use English in JGSS-2002/2003 and Figure 4 for the experiences to use English for the past 12 months in JGSS-2006/2010). In the two figures, the labels with large letters refer to the items on the uses of English, and the labels with small letters indicate the demographic variables. If we focus on the demographic variables, most of the female categories are plotted at the top of the figures while the male categories are at the bottom, suggesting that the y-axis of each figure is likely to reflect gender. On the other hand, the x-axis indicates one’s age and education level in that younger generations and higher education” (HEdu) are located in the left side of the figures (i.e. the second and the third quadrants). Hobby 0.2 F-20s F-HEdu 0.0 Friends y M-HEdu M-20s M-SEdu M-CEdu F-CEdu -0.2 M-30s M-40s M-50s Business -0.6 -0.4 M-60s F-SEdu FamilyF-40s F-50s F-60s F-30s No M-70s+ F-70s+ -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 Figure 3. Correspondence analysis of the present use of English, age, gender, and education level 271 0.6 0.4 0.2 F-20s F-HEdu Movie_etc Socialize Trip F-30s 0.0 M-20s M-HEdu M-30s F-60s F-CEdu M-60sNo M-70s+ F-70s+ M-SEdu M-CEdu M-50s Internet Business M-40s -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 y F-40s F-50s F-SEdu -0.5 0.0 0.5 Figure 4. Correspondence analysis of The experience of using English for the past 12 months, age, gender, and education level What should be noted here is that the gender effect appears among young and highly-educated males and females. With regard to the present use of English (Figure 3), “hobby, entertainment or overseas trips” and “socializing with foreign friends or acquaintances” are located in the upper left, around the women in their 20s and women who graduated from higher education institution. Likewise, for the experience to use English for the past 12 months (Figure 4), similar items such as “socializing with foreign friends or acquaintances,” “watching movies, listening to music or reading a book,” and “overseas trips,” are also close to the women in their 20s-40s and highly-educated women. These results suggest that relatively young and/or highly-educated women tend to use English for their hobbies and overseas trips, whereas such a characteristic is not evident in other types of women. Interestingly enough, men’s response patterns show a sharp contrast with those of women. Relatively young and/or highly-educated men are closely plotted in the “business” for JGSS-2002/2003, and “business” and “the Internet” for JGSS-2006/2010. As is the case of women, such a pattern is not evident among the relatively old and/or less-highly-educated. The gender gap in the results may be shocking to some people because it may provide them with the impression that female workers are largely excluded from the use of English in business. This impression, as a matter of fact, could be supported by the examination of the original tables in Appendix. In contrast to the fact that highly-educated women used English the most frequently except for business and the Internet, their male counterparts used English in business about twice as frequently as the highly-educated women. 272 However, although some may suspect that it just results from the highly-educated women’s strong interest in the use of English as a hobby, some previous studies (Kitamura, 2011; Kobayashi, 2007b) suggest that female workers are more or less excluded from the opportunities to use English in the workplace. According to Kitamura (2011) and Kobayashi (2007b), Japanese female workers are disadvantaged by structural inequalities of the Japanese labor market in terms of not only their employment and promotion, but also the chance to utilize their competence including English skills. Indeed, this was also supported by Terasawa’s (2011c) statistical analysis. His analysis of the 2000 version of Working Person Survey (Recruit Works Institute, 2001) has revealed exclusion of female workers from the job in which English skills are required. To be more specific, even if female workers had some proficiency in English, unless it was of a high level, they were unlikely to be assigned to a job in which they could utilize their English skills. This was not the case, however, with male workers. Although there has been some improvements, the Japanese labor market has traditionally taken a gender discrimination policy for their employment and promotion (Barrett, 2004). Many firms have assigned the fast track to promotion (which is called sogo-shoku, literally “comprehensive work”) to male university graduates, while they have not done so to the female graduates. Since employees in this position are more likely to be engaged in international jobs as front-line staff than the employees in the other positions, it is plausible that there is a gender gap in access to jobs which require the use of English. 5.2 Genderand social orjob status It must be noted that the relatively small percentage of the women’s use of English in business cannot be explained only by the difference in a worker/non-worker ratio. It is true that Japan has many more non-workers among women than men, so this might partly yield the gap of the use of English in business. However, the same conclusion was obtained even if analyzing workers and non-workers sample separately. Figure 5 and Figure 6 are the plots of the results of correspondence analysis based on the percentages by social or job status in Appendix. Here it should be noted that (1) “students” were omitted because their distinctively high percentages of the use of English are self-evident and thus it was not significant to compare them with the other groups, that (2) males “mainly engaged in housework” were also eliminated due to the small number of their cases (n = 22 in JGSS-2002/2003 and n = 11 in JGSS-2006/2010), and that (3) the x-axis in Figure 6 was inverted in order to be consistent with Figure 5. 273 0.4 F-BlueM-Blue M-Clrcl F-Retired M-Sales M-Prf/Mng No F-Sales M-Unemploy F-UnemployM-Retired F-HouseFamilyF-Clrcl F-Prf/Mng Friends Hobby -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 y 0.0 0.2 Business -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.2 0.4 Figure 5. Correspondence analysis of the present use of English, social/job status and gender Internet M-ClrclBusiness M-Prf/Mng M-Blue M-Sales M-Unemployed F-Sales -0.2 0.0 M-Retired No F-Blue F-House Trip Socialize F-Prf/Mng Movie_etc F-Retired -0.6 -0.4 F-Clrcl F-Unemployed 0.4 0.2 0 -0.2 -0.4 -0.6 Figure 6. Correspondence analysis of the experience of using English for the past 12 months, social/job status, and gender In both figures, male professional and managerial workers (Prf/Mng) and “Business” are juxtaposed to each other in the top right-hand of the figures, whereas female professional and 274 managerial workers have a considerable distance from “Business.” As the previous work has revealed, professional and managerial workers are generally more likely to feel the necessities to use English than other types of workers5. Nevertheless, the analysis showed that female professional/managerial workers were less likely to use English than the male counterparts6 , suggesting that the wide gender gap of the use of English in business cannot be explained only by the difference of the worker/non-worker ratio, but it is likely to reflect the gender discrimination of the labor market in Japanese society. 6. Discussion 6.1 How many people need to use English This study has statistically analyzed the use of English by Japanese people in order to examine the needs to use English. The findings of the present paper are as follows: 1. on the whole, those who answered that they used English in their everyday lives were a tiny minority of the Japanese people, irrespective of the types of the use. Furthermore, even if based on a much broader definition such as “[I] have read, listened, or spoken English ... for the past 12 months,” respondents with such an experience fell short of reaching the majority; 2. it was a general trend that younger people were more likely to use English than older people although we recognized some exceptions (e.g. business), but even younger generations included a considerable number of non-users of English; 3. a significant gender effect was also evident; especially, young and highly-educated women were likely to use English for socializing with foreign friends and acquaintances and as a hobby, whereas the male counterpart distinctively used English for an occupational purpose; and 4. the gender effect on the use of English also interacted with social/job status, that is, although the use of English in business was the most relevant to male professional/managerial workers, female professional/managerial workers were less likely to use English for this purpose than their male counterpart. What should be noted is that the estimations in this paper just reflect the situation of the period in which each JGSS survey was conducted (i.e., 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2010). In other words, the estimations do not include either people who have used English for some purposes before, but do not now (or for the past 12 months), or people who do not use English now (or for the past 12 months) but will use it in the future. Therefore, if Japanese people’s potential needs to use English in the course of a lifetime could be calculated, they must logically be higher than the estimations in this paper. In this sense, the finding of this paper that 1.0% of the respondents used English for occupational purposes 5 6 According to Terasawa (2011c), who presents the ranking of jobs by the employees’ perceived necessities to use English based on Working Person Survey (Recruit Works Institute, 2001), the professional jobs rank high in the list. Fisher’s exact test also demonstrated that female professional or managerial workers were less likely to use English in business than their male counterparts in a statistically significant level: For the present use of English in JGSS-2002/2003, p = 0.003, odds ratio (OR) = 2.001, and 95% confidence interval (CI) is 1.247 ~ 3.264; for the experience of using English for the past 12 month, p < 0.001, OR = 1.958, 95%CI is 1.333 = 2.895. 275 on a daily basis at the time of the surveys does not directly lead to the conclusion that people who have such needs is 1.0% of the entire Japanese population, because the present needs for a specific activity might not predict the past and future needs for it. For example, the present needs to take care of babies can be largely different from the potential needs in one’s life cycle. The needs to use English, however, do not seem to widely vary according to one’s life cycle, since such a trend could not be recognized in the relationship between the percentages of the use and one’s age (see Figure 1 and 2) 7. 6.2 The trilemma regarding needs and educational goals Based on the findings of this paper, this section discusses the implications for English education policies. It may be acceptable to many people to claim that, since the needs to use English in Japanese society are still limited to a tiny minority of people, policy makers and academic researchers should take this social situation into consideration. Strictly speaking, however, this conclusion cannot be directly deduced from the social realities about the needs to use English, but it is based on another assumption, that is, the assumption that the curriculum of schools should presuppose the social needs. Some may suppose that this statement is a self-evident axiom, so they might feel strange, but in the discussions on English education in the postwar Japan, a variety of people including academic researchers have sometimes made a counter-argument against the axiom. These discussions can be understood as a trilemma problem of the goals of English education, illustrated in Figure 7. (A) Consideration to social-statistical realities (B) Non-divergence from “English” (C) Universality of curriculum Figure 7: Trilemma of goals of English education The goals of English education in schools, especially English education in the postwar junior high school as a de facto compulsory subject, have been legitimatized by the following three principles:  consideration to social-statistical realities (i.e., English as a school subject should presuppose the social realities of Japan in which the needs to use English are relevant only to a tiny minority of Japanese),  non-divergence from “English” (i.e., English as a school subject should focus on the educational content which is essential to the subject, but it should not deal with the content which diverges 7 Only the use of English in business, however, seemed to be an exception. Figure 1 and 2 show that the use of English in business has a small peak in those in their 30s and 40s. 276 from the learning of English language), and  universality of curriculum (i.e., all students should receive equal quality and quantity of English education in schools). These three principles, however, are not be compatible at once, so the English education in schools is involved with a kind of a trilemma in that if two of the three principles are supposed to be true, the other principle comes to be false. The detail of the trilemma is summarized in Table 2. Table 2 classifies a variety of educational goals into four types based on which principle they emphasize (+) and which principle they ignore (-). The first position (I) definitely recognizes that the needs to use English are not prevalent in the whole society (A+), and emphasizes students’ development of English skills, which is believed to be an intrinsic value of the subject (B+). This logically means, however, that people in this position agree with the improvement of students’ English skills despite the fact that they do not believe that it is relevant to all students, therefore, it makes contradiction to the universality of curriculum (C-). People in this position generally assert that the intensive English education should be provided exclusively to a specific group of children (in this sense, their view of English education seems a kind of elitist one). What represents this position is, as discussed in Section 1, Shuichi Kato’s counter-argument against English as a de facto compulsory subject of junior high school (Kato, 1955; 1956), Wataru Hiraizumi’s proposition for the elitist English education in the Hiraizumi-Watanabe Debate (Hiraizumi & Watanabe, 1975), and Makoto Naruke’s sensational book, Ninety percent of Japanese people do not need English (Naruke, 2011). Table 2. Trilemma and typology of goals of English education A B NonConsiderdivergence ation to social from realities "English" I + + C Universality of curriculum Details Example - Intensive training to a Kato (1955; 1956); W. Hiraizumi (Hiraizumi & Watanabe, 1975); specific group of Naruke (2011); Watanbe (2000) students The Course of Study (1951); JTU's Four Goals; S. Watanabe (Hiraizumi & Watanabe, 1975) + - + Abstract goals relevant to everyone III (1) - + + Intensive training to all English as the Second Official students (and even all Language, Action Plan; Funabashi (2000) citizens) III (2) - + + English education as training of "basics" II 277 Yamada (2005) In contrast, the second position (II) emphasizes that English education in schools (especially, compulsory) should be relevant to all students (C+). At the same time, however, people in this position are aware of the limited necessities to use English in the society (A+), so they cannot focus only on developing students’ English skills (B-). Instead of the skill-building, they put importance on abstract and idealistic goals which are considered to be relevant to all the students such as the development of their culture (kyoyo or Bildung), intelligence, and other attitudinal values. For example, the Course of Study in English in the early postwar years (Ministry of Education, 1951) professed that the “cultural aims [were] the ultimate aims (Chapter 1, II-1-A, the third paragraph)” of school English education. Another example is Shoichi Watanabe’s argument for English learning as intellectual training (chiteki kunren) in the Hiraizumi-Watanabe Debate8 (Hiraizumi & Watanabe, 1975). In addition, since the 1960s, the Special Committee of Foreign Language of Japan Teachers’ Union (often called Nikkyoso) has proposed “Four Aims of Foreign Language Education,” and this proposition has also emphasized students’ development of not only English skills, but also their positive attitudes toward a variety of cultures and languages in the world including their first language, Japanese (see also Hayashino & Onishi, 1970). In this sense, if one focuses on the learning of essential aspects (which usually mean linguistic and functional ones) of English (B+) and attempts to legitimatize English education for all students (C+), it necessarily leads to disregarding statistical reality in which English is needed by a small minority (A-). This position is subcategorized into two types according to their stance toward the social-statistical realities. The former, i.e. the third position in Table 2 (III (1)), insists that many, even all, Japanese people have necessities to use English, and pays attention almost exclusively on the improvement of English skills of all students. Rather surprisingly, this position is sometimes held by not only some intellectuals such as Yoichi Funabashi, who proposed English as the second official language, but also even the government (e.g. Action Plan). In other words, however, they can make such a daring proposition, like general mobilization of the citizens to develop their English proficiency, precisely because they assume the almost untenable idea that the vast majority of Japanese need to use English instead of seriously taking the social realities into consideration. The latter position, i.e. the fourth position in Table 2 (III (2)), is aware of the present situation of the needs to use English, but puts priority of what is perceived as an inherent value of school education over the social needs. People in this position state that, for example, English education in schools does not have to completely depend on social needs because it has its intrinsic values and thus should be relatively autonomous of the principles of the society. This position is held by, for example, Yuichiro Yamada, a Japanese researcher of English education policies. Yamada (2005) states that school education should not be identified with vocational education, which meets the occupational needs, but school education should be regarded as the education in which students study “basics,” which is 8 Complicatedly enough, in spite of the fact that Shoichi Watanabe, in the debate in 1975, had advocated English education for all students from a point of view of their intellectual development, he converted his position a quarter of a century after the debate. In Watanabe’s (2000) book, he totally agreed with an elitist English education like Hiraizumi’s proposition in the debate. In this sense, it is valid to categorize his statement in the book into the first position (I) rather than the second (II). 278 independent from the social and occupational necessities. 6.3 Social needs as constraint on the aims of English education in Japan The inequitable trilemma of the English education, however, could be solved. If the needs to use English were to universally prevail in Japanese society, the trilemma would spontaneously disappear. In a society in which all students (or even most students) require the use of English in their everyday lives and/or in their future, no contradiction is created by a curriculum which attempts to develop all students’ English skills. That is usually the case with the society in which English language is used as the official or common language (e.g. English language education in the U.S. for immigrants). In this sense, the trilemma above is not a universal phenomenon evident in any society, but it is caused by social conditions inherent to Japanese society. Since the needs to use English will not become prevalent in the entire Japanese society at least in the near future, the English education in schools in Japan will deal with the trilemma for some time. As we have no choice but to presume that the trilemma is impossible to solve, the true question we should ask, then, is which of the three principles (A/B/C) constituting the trilemma are regarded as superior values to the other. This question is a prescriptive one in nature rather than a descriptive one like the question of this paper, and thus we need a philosophical and ethical examination of which principles are prioritized and which is not. 7. Conclusion This paper, employing a statistical analysis of the random-sample datasets in several social surveys, analyzed Japanese people’s use of English and examined how many people needed to use English in Japanese society. What I should emphasize again as a concluding remark is that the number of Japanese people who used English in a daily basis was still small. The degree of the needs this paper estimated is probably much smaller than the degree of the needs expected by many English teachers, academic researchers of foreign language education, and workers who are frequently engaged with international transactions. As Terasawa (2011c) discusses, such people tend to be surrounded by colleagues, friends, and acquaintances who are good at English, which results from their social network built in their workplace or school, and even from their cultural tastes (Bourdieu, 1984). In order to avoid misunderstanding caused by this image, we should face the proper realities of Japanese society, and create valid policies and goals of English language education. 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Tokyo: Business Friends & acquintances Family Hobby & Trips etc No chance to use 20s 30s 70s or older 50s 60s 40s Male Female M F M F M F M F M F 10.5% 6.1 12.3 6.8 14.5 4.7 11.1 3.9 3.9 2.6 2.2 0.2 4.7 2.8 1.9 0.4 1.4 1.0 5.4 2.7 4.4 3.2 3.7 3.2 0.7 1.1 2.0 2.7 2.1 1.3 0.8 1.7 0.6 2.2 1.4 0.4 8.0 6.4 8.6 6.0 3.9 1.2 16.4 7.3 9.8 8.0 7.5 4.0 79.7 79.3 79.7 84.1 77.9 87.7 82.0 89.1 86.2 89.8 92.3 93.8 n = 276 280 a 300 410 465 a Business Friends & acquintances Family Hobby & Trips etc No chance to use Compulsory Secondary Higher education education education Male Female M F M F 2.3% 1.2 7.3 2.5 15.2 8.4 0.2 0.3 2.2 1.5 5.3 6.8 0.9 1.2 0.9 1.5 1.8 2.1 2.5 0.7 4.6 4.9 11.9 17.0 92.1 94.4 86.1 91.0 73.6 77.0 n = 530 *B a ** U 339 *B 675 a Business Friends & acquintances Family Hobby & Trips etc No chance to use 532 464 501 742 a a 479 Clerical 343 ** U 363 486 722 2 Sales Professional /Managerial Students Male Female M F M F M F M F 6.0% 3.1 11.4 8.1 8.0 6.0 26.8 15.4 7.7 8.7 1.9 0.4 2.0 4.0 5.0 4.5 6.7 7.0 15.4 8.7 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.2 1.7 0.3 2.4 2.0 1.0 1.4 3.7 2.1 7.3 12.8 4.5 6.0 14.1 16.4 7.7 26.1 87.8 92.7 80.2 84.1 85.0 87.1 62.7 73.8 61.5 65.2 n = 779 *B 951 1259 ** U Blue collar 494 2 421 200 201 2 283 284 214 13 23 Mainly The The retired engaged in unemployed housework M F M F M F 0.0 0.5 5.7 0.0 1.6 0.0 0.0 2.3 1.1 3.1 1.3 0.0 0.0 1.4 5.7 0.0 0.8 1.6 9.1 5.4 6.9 3.1 6.3 3.3 90.9 90.4 82.8 90.6 91.0 91.8 22 1103 87 32 379 61 Experience of using English for the past 12 months Business So“ializing Movie, musi“ et“ The Internet Overseas trips None 20s Male Female 17.2% 10.9 9.6 12.6 45.5 52.5 16.8 34.0 11.0 15.5 30.6 32.4 n = 209 *B Business So“ializing Movie, musi“ et“ The Internet Overseas trips None a a a 410 a Blue collar Business So“ializing Movie, musi“ et“ The Internet Overseas trips None *B 344 430 40s M F 29.4 14.3 8.4 8.3 34.0 34.0 24.2 9.0 7.5 6.7 41.2 46.9 347 ** U Compulsory education Male Female 5.2% 1.0 1.9 2.0 5.7 4.4 0.5 0.2 1.9 2.2 86.1 91.7 n = 368 *B 238 30s M F 26.7 14.4 8.4 11.2 31.7 43.0 20.3 13.0 8.7 9.8 41.0 38.4 Secondary education M F 13.5 6.8 5.1 4.1 20.9 22.5 10.0 3.6 7.2 6.1 61.7 65.0 944 1233 ** U Clerical 435 a ** U 434 457 459 480 374 419 2 Higher education M F 26.5 14.1 10.2 13.2 33.9 43.0 23.5 14.0 12.6 15.8 38.2 35.7 844 802 2 Professional /Managerial Sales Male Female M F M F 13.2% 5.4 25.1 15.6 22.3 15.8 5.8 5.4 6.8 10.4 9.8 4.3 23.0 20.7 27.6 37.6 25.6 30.6 10.7 3.8 18.5 9.5 14.0 6.7 5.6 5.9 8.5 13.8 11.2 8.6 61.0 67.3 47.0 42.3 48.4 54.1 n = 712 392 351 442 215 209 a 50s 60s 70s or older M F M F M F 20.3 7.9 8.9 3.1 3.7 0.2 6.7 5.0 5.0 4.4 3.7 1.9 22.6 24.7 12.9 10.6 7.5 4.8 10.1 3.3 5.0 1.9 1.3 0.0 8.1 10.9 9.8 8.3 6.1 3.1 56.7 61.5 70.2 76.2 83.2 90.9 M 38.1 8.1 31.6 24.8 13.4 33.2 307 2 284 F 23.9 11.2 40.2 12.4 10.0 39.0 251 Students M 10.0 13.3 56.7 43.3 13.3 23.3 30 F 0.0 15.4 73.1 46.2 23.1 11.5 26 Mainly engaged in housework M F 0.0 1.3 0.0 5.2 27.3 19.1 9.1 4.0 0.0 6.8 72.7 70.5 11 916 The The retired unemployed M 8.5 11.9 40.7 32.2 8.5 47.5 59 F M F 12.9 3.8 4.7 6.5 4.3 9.3 38.7 10.2 18.6 9.7 3.3 0.0 16.1 8.9 9.3 48.4 78.6 65.1 31 392 43 Editor・Author・Translator (in order of appearance in the text) Name Yoshijima, Shigeru ( 島 茂) Ryan, Stephen Doyé, Peter Saßnick-Lotsch, Wendelgart Kamakura, Sumi (鎌倉 澄) Byram, Michael Hasegawa, Hiroki (長谷川 弘基) Perregaux, Christiane Ishikawa, Fumiya (石川 文也) Sano, Masayuiki (佐野 正之) Meißner, Franz-Joseph Studer, André Schimek, Franz Lee, Wonkey (李 岏基) Ochiai, Youko (落 陽子) Huang, Jianbin (黄 建滨) Kanamori, Tsuyoshi (金森 強) Chuang, Yuangshan (莊 永山) Schumacher, Birgit Nishide, Yoshiko (西出 佳詩子) Shiga,Yoshiko (志賀 淑子) Itoh, Ohgi Affiliation Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo Professor, Senshu University, Professor Emeritus, Technic University Braunschweig / Germany Moderator for English Instruction, Nortrhein-Westfalen / Germany Lecturer for German, Keio-Gijuku University Professor Emeritus, University of Durham /England Professor, Kobe Gakuin University Professor Emeritus, University of Geneva / Switzerland Professor, Rikkyo University Professor Emeritus, Yokohama National University Professor Emeritus, University of Gießen / Germany Headmaster of German-French School Munich / Germany Department Leader Stadtschulrat für Wien / Austria Professor, Seoul National University of Education / Korea Lecturer for English, Seitoku University Professor, Zhejiang University / China Professsor, Kanto Gakuin University Specialist Fields German Philology Language Acquisiton Second Language Acquisition English Education Professor Emeritus, Kum Shan University / Taiwan English Education Coordinator, Staatliche Europaschule Berlin / Germany Lecturer of German, Seitoku University French Education English Education German Literature Language Education English Literature Language Education Language and Culture Education English Education French Education English Education English Literature Lexicography Anglistics English Education English Education German Philology French Philosophy, Child Education English Education English Teacher, 285 (伊藤 扇) Shimizu, Kenji (清水 建詞) Ebato, Makoto (江波戸 愼) Brandão, Renato Yabunaka,Masayo (藪中 征代) Ohashi, Rie (大橋 理枝) Terasawa,Takunori (寺沢 拓敬) Keio-Gijuku Yochisha English Teacher, Keio-Gijuku Yochisha English Teacher, Keio-Gijuku Middleschool, English Teacher, Keio-Gijuku Middleschool Professor, Seitoku University Associate Professor, Open University of Japan Lecturer for English Chiba University of Commerce 286 for Children Applied Linguistic, English Education English Education, ICT & Education English Education, Portuguese Education Child Psychology Intercultural Communication Linguistic Sociology