Over half of a year ago, I chose to postpone my graduation and spend my final undergraduate semester in Japan. I will graduate with an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies. My original intentions were to graduate and travel to Japan and become a part of the system this thesis explores. When I first began researching the education system in Japan years ago, I had looked at blogs and videos of foreigners living in Japan who had moved and taken English teaching jobs (they are the easiest jobs for foreigners to obtain). Many of these writers mentioned how English education in Japan did not work; however, my main focus was Japan as a whole, the difficulties of being a gaijin (the term used for foreigner in Japan) living in a homogenous society.[1] I didn’t focus on the job but rather everything outside of the job, planning weekend trips if I lived in such-and-such town, or what food I just had to try when I arrived. I took ages before I focused on the status of English education in the country. It was a naive outlook I had taken, completely ignoring the teaching part of taking a teaching job abroad, but one that, according to the blogs and videos I had read and watched, many foreign teachers had taken.
For my senior thesis I decided to learn more about the Japanese education system I wanted to join so desperately. I wanted my students to learn as much as they could from me, and I thought this could only be possible if I studied the current education system in Japan. My knowledge on the education system came from Youtube video bloggers living in Japan, or from educators who had written academic papers on the subject. They all discussed the faults found in Japan’s English education and the government’s ineffective methods in trying to improve it. I did not want to merely rely on these outside sources as I did when I first began studying teaching in Japan, but rather, I wanted to see the reality for myself.
This thesis will include a mixture of sources, my experiences just one of them. Since I’m not an educator, and neither are many foreigners who decide to teach in Japan or other foreign countries, the sources I use are not solely from educators. I have done historical research as well to get a better understanding of the origins of the English education system in Japan. I also look at first-hand accounts of students who have been through the Japanese education system through informal interviews and journal entries that I collected during my stay in Japan, which can be found by exploring my Eportfolio.
Ultimately, my goal is to offer suggestions for implementing the Ministry’s reforms that fit within the current exam-focused system, thereby increasing English communication skills. I hope this thesis can be a guide for English teachers in Japan if they find themselves struggling to switch to a communicative classroom and struggling to teach their students based on the new education requirements. And finally, I hope that my research can help prepare new English teachers on what to expect before they join Japan’s English education system.
[1] At times considered derogatory, it can be used to describe those with ignorance of Japan and its culture.
