Japan to Promote ICT Use at Schools to Hone English Skills

August 29, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese education ministry plans to promote the use of information and communications technology in order to improve the English language skills of schoolchildren, informed sources said Wednesday.

By adopting English teaching materials apps at elementary, junior and senior high school classrooms, the ministry aims to enhance the four language skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing, in line with the goals set out in its upcoming new school curriculum guidelines, the sources said.

As part of its budget request for fiscal 2019 from next April, the ministry intends to seek 250 million yen to cover related expenditures.

The apps will be adopted at selected schools, totaling 10 in each of Japan's 47 prefectures, for three years from fiscal 2019.

Students will utilize tablet computers and electronic blackboards for activities designed to enhance the effects of learning, such as listing to pronunciations of native speakers via apps developed by private companies.

Businesses consigned by the ministry will draw up lists of features of each app so that local governments can easily choose one for use at schools.

On its Web site, the ministry plans to show examples of apps use at classrooms as references to other schools and disclose measured effects of such activities.

The ministry also hopes to provide online training to English language teachers, with the aim of reinforcing the communicative skills of junior and senior high school students.

Over five years, the training will cover some 15,000 junior high school teachers and around 11,000 senior high school teachers, with a teaching career of less than 20 years.

In its fiscal 2019 budget request, the ministry plans to include 464 million yen to fund the training program. Jiji Press