Asahi Newspaper

July 14th
An English lesson of the second grade class.
While every student answered "I'm fine," one particular boy said "I'm OK."
Mr.Mark, age 38, whispered in low voice instructing him to say "fine," as
`fine' was the word he planned to teach in his English lesson, as well as
`great' and `good.'
Next lesson. When Mr.Mark was teaching `I'm sleepy,' the same boy murmured
from the back row, "Isn't the question form `Are you sleepy'?" After the
lesson, the boy ran up to Mr.Mark and asked, "What time do you wake up" and
"Where are you going?" His pronunciation was excellent. "Wow!" Impressed,
Mr.Mark lamented by saying "If Akabane had an upper level class, he could go
there!" Sometimes the boy was not given a chance to answer although he
raised his hand every time, however he said, "Anyway, English lessons are fun,
and I can be proud of my ability." This boy is not an example of being born
or brought up abroad and came to Japan, or even having someone in his
family who speaks English, but rather he started taking English lessons since
kindergarten once a week from a foreign teacher who taught singing and
playing games. As he enjoyed it very much, he started to attend a cram school to
take English lessons for children ages 5-6 years old. The teacher of that
school was Ja
panese. The boy studied from English flash cards, listened to English CD's
over and over, and checked his pronunciation with his mother. "We let him
continue taking classes, as he seems to have confidence."
More than half of the first grade students at Akabane elementary school
attend private English lessons. Nowadays, more and more kindergartens have
started to offer English lessons in order to survive the kindergarten
business. Cram schools staff say that the number of their students is increasing.
Akabane elementary school has 73 pupils in the second grade, and 22 of them
take English lessons in a cram school. What should the English teacher
teach the children who have already learned the basic English knowledge. It is
a concern of the teachers.