2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The Implementation of Primary School English Language Activities after April 2011: Differences amongst the Municipalities

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23730805
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Sociology of education
Research Institution	Rikkyo University
Principal Investigator	OHMORI Ai 立教大学, ランゲージセンター, 教育講師 (20440258)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	小学校英語 / 自治体 / 格差 / 言語政策 / 計量分析
Research Abstract	This study investigated the implementation of primary school English language activities after April 2011, when the activities became mandatory for grades 5 and 6. The study particularly examined economic and social factors to explain differences in the implementation among municipalities. While the policy had some effect in making English activities accessible to more students, there still remain significant discrepancies on the quality of this provision. In an analysis focusing on teacher training, only a little more than half of the boards of education conducted any training. In fact, attitudes and opinion of the local municipalities towards the activities were detected as statistically significant factors in determining whether teacher training was provided. Moreover, from a comparative analysis of the policy before and after April 2011, it can be inferred that finance is an increasingly important consideration for municipalities to meet the cost of this English policy initiative.