Introduction

It is often said that many Japanese people are not good at English. In order to cultivate

“Japanese with English ability”, Japanese government has been launched some projects. for

example, it decided to teach English to children of third grade in primary school to improve

their future English skills (). In the classroom teachers use only English ( 要出典). Many

Japanese parents start foreign language education for their children when they are little

trying to make them have a good command of English.

As Hashimoto (2009) points out, in the government’s policy on English education there is

some contradictions. The government puts emphasis on English as an essential skill for

Japanese people but it is often dismissed by the education sector designing the school

curriculum, which sets achievement goals by year level rather than proficiency level,

preventing effective learning with “realistic assessment of the actual needs of individual

learners” (p.37) because of the fear of the potential influence of English on Japanese culture

and society. (p.37).

THESIS: The most effective way of English education in elementary school as the second

language is not to start earlier and try to make children bilingual, but to develop their mother

tongue ability enough and link them to English.

First Language can help

For most pupils in Japanese elementary school, English is the second language (L2). Children

can learn the second language better when the second language is related to their first

language (L1) when taught in the classroom.

Horst, White, and Bell (2010) suggests that teachers link the first language to the second

language for more effective learning. The study investigated how language instruction can

be designed to help learners build on first language knowledge in acquiring a new language

(p.331). The study found that cross-linguistic awareness activities is a viable pedagogy with

demonstrable advantages for learners (p.348).

So, when teachers relate the first and second language, elementary school students learn

both language effectively.

Another study by Halasa and Al-Manaseer (2012, p.81) also suggests that rather than

imitating native speakers of the second language, using first language in second language

class will improve or facilitate the second language teaching process. Halasa and Al-Manaseer

(2012) conclude that “L1 is always present in the L2 learner's mind and it would be artificial

or inefficient to avoid its use.” (p.81)

The Age of Acquisition

Developing the first language ability itself has also good effects on the effective second

language learning; the earler acquisition of a word of the mother tongue helps the faster

processing of the counterpart word of the second language. Dirix and Duyck (2017)

investigated the age of acquisition (AoA) effect, which means that language processing speed

is affected by the age when a user of the language has learned the word (p.103). The study

found that the earlier the first language translation of the second language word was learned,

the faster the second-language word was read (p.114). This means that the age of acquisition

of the first language have some impact on how fast a learner can proceed the second

language (p.114).

Therefore, developing the ability to command a mother tongue of little children can be the

effective way of learning a second language.

The Case of South Korea

South Korean government promotes “Teaching English in English” policy.

Conclusion
References

Dirix. N., Duyck. W. (2017). The first- and second-language age of acquisition effect in first-

and second-language book reading. Journal of Memory and Language. Vol.97, pp.103-120

Horst. M., White. J., Bell. P. (2010). First and second language knowledge in the language

classroom. International Journal of Bilingualism. Vol. 14 Issue 3, pp.331-349.

Halasa. N. H., Al-Manaseer. M. (2012). THE USE OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE IN SECOND

LANGUAGE LEARNING RECONSIDERED. College Student Journal. Vol. 46 Issue 1, pp.71-81.

Hashimoto. K. (2009). Cultivating “Japanese Who Can Use English”: Problems and

Contradictions in Government Policy. Asian Studies Review Vol. 33, pp. 21–42.

Lee. K. (2014). The Politics of Teaching English in South Korean Schools: Language Ideologies

and Language Policy.