On A) 2^nd, they said Japanese cannot speak English, b/c they don’t study English in elementary school.

1.      H/E please check their card. j/s Japanese get the worst score in TOEFL

                             n/s the reason they cannot speak English

2.      N/R was shown. Japanese cannot speak English well, not because they don’t study English in elementary school, but because they have no chance to use English in daily life.

日本の論点/2001/文藝春秋/p.600

Q) Now, Japanese junior high school students and high school students spare third part of time for study to learn English. However, according to public opinion research, only 1,3% of people acknowledges themselves they can command English. It is difficult especially for Japanese to acquire English, because Japanese is much different from English, and in Japan people can live in comfort with only Japanese―different from Singapore or India, where people have to adopt English as an official language. (omit) Even if junior high school and high school students study English in school twice as much as now, and children learn English for 5hours a week in elementary school, at most 13% of people can acquire English. (UQ

On A) 3^rd, they said English is important for economy.

1.      H/E, please ck their card. j/s reading and writing is necessary to exchange information.

                              n/s English helps to achieve economic growth

2.      N/Inh we cannot achieve economic growth without technological development.

日本の論点/2001/文藝春秋/p.598-599

Q) Actually, There are many countries with depressed economies even if they adopt English as an official language. Above all, British, whose people speak English the most fluently in the world, has been declining of the economy through 20^th century, and Japan, which is much poor at English, has promoted the biggest economic growth through 20^th century. We can say that English has little relation to economic development. Even if we grant the effectiveness of English, it is much more important to achieve technological innovation with the high educational standards than to learn English. (UQ

3.      N/Inh Thanks to translation software, we can communicate with foreigners in business without English.

日本の論点/2001/文藝春秋/p.599

Q) Anyway, in a few years we can exchange almost all information in mother language thanks to inexpensive and high- performance translation software. (UQ

On Plan 4^th, they said each school has one Assistant Language Teacher.

H/E N/Sol ALT cannot teach English effectively.

日本の論点/2001/文藝春秋/p.607

Q) Team-teaching means cooperative class that native speaker whom Ministry of Education invites as an assistant language teacher conduct with Japanese teacher for foreign language, mainly in junior high school and high school. Although it is estimated to motivate students to communicate with foreigners, at the same time, the effectiveness is threw into doubt to improve English ability itself. Carol Glug, who is a professor at Columbia University in the U.S., pointed out that even if Japan invites 10thousand assistant language teachers, they couldn’t solve the problem of English education, because native speaker just know how to speak their mother language, but don’t know how to teach it. UQ)

On C) 2^nd, they said A/P everyone can speak English.

1.      H/E please ck their card. j/s early education is effective

                          n/s all children can acquire English in Japan

2.      N/Sol Most of them cannot acquire English b/c they have no chance to use English in daily life. Please C/A 1^st card on A) 2^nd. This card indicates that in Japan people live comfortably without English, and they don’t use English in daily life. T/F they cannot acquire English.

3.      Please ck their card again. They said in class children should study English with songs and games.

4.      H/E T/A A/P more and more children cannot acquire English.

日本の論点2002/文藝春秋/p.725

Q) かたや秀明学園の川島幸希理事長は、遊びながら学ぶ英会話など｢学力｣の名に値しないと手厳しい。<英語を五年間習っていても、｢りんご｣も｢月曜日｣も書けない者が大勢いる。それでも、子供によっては｢英語ができる｣とうそぶく。そして気がついた時には、位置からコツコツはじめた人に追い抜かれているのだ>。（UQ

T/F they will face more serious depression. Thus it’s T/A

On C) 3^rd, They said Japanese economy will recover when everyone has English skill.

H/E N/Sol please C/A 2^nd card. This card indicates that even if they can speak English, they cannot recover depression without technological development.