In 2013, the Japanese Ministry of Education (known as MEXT) announced the "English Education Reform Plan corresponding to Globalization." MEXT is working to enhance English education throughout primary to secondary school, in order for the full-scale development of new English education.
Besides teachers are required to nurture "Three Pillars of competencies in the course of the study (MEXT, 2018). Now many primary school teachers face challenging issues. As most primary school teachers do not have high proficiency in foreign languages nor the qualification to teach English and they are too busy, it's hard for them to develop children's interest in English learning. CLIL may have an effect on learning foreign languages, and it is the reason why CLIL has been spreading in Japanese schools (Adachi, 2018).
The presenter describes how to contextualize CLIL lessons in Japanese primary schools and explains through international project-based CLIL as an example. Our research found that pupils had positive attitudes towards the project and interest in other countries, and they could develop intercultural relationships. The international project-based CLIL is effective for pupils and helps them cultivate international understanding (Adachi, Abe & Kitano, 2018). Intercultural understanding is an important aspect of the 4Cs (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010, p.158).
CLIL would have the potential to develop pupils' interest in learning, as well as intercultural understanding. Therefore, primary school teachers should introduce CLIL, and they could encourage pupils to develop social and global community involvement through CLIL.
REFERENCES
Adachi, R. (2018) The Spread of CLIL in Foreign Language Education in Japan"Chapter 4, pp.81-95.Historia, educación plurilingüe y ense-ñanza de las ciencias sociales en el contexto Hispano-Japonés. Emilio Jose Delgado, (Ed.) Huelva: Universidad de Huelva.
Adachi R., Abe S., & Kitano Y. (2018) Motivating Pupils and an Intercultural Exchange Project. Language and Culture No. 39, pp.83-97. Institute for Language Education, Aichi University.
MEXT(2018). English Education Reform Plan corresponding to Globalization. https://warp.da.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/11402417/www.mext.go.jp/en/news/topics/detail/1372656.htm
Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh, D. (2010) CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
