我也想知道:日本的英語(yǔ)教育出了什么問(wèn)題?我們來(lái)談?wù)?/h1>

所屬教程:英語(yǔ)漫讀

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2015年03月01日

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掃描二維碼方便學(xué)習(xí)和分享

TOKYO — When you speak to foreign Englisheducators in Japan, one thing becomes crystal clear:English education in Japanisn't working. It's justawful. While English classes are mandatory inJapanese schools, the percentage of students whoemerge with actual English abilities are surprisinglylow. Students in China, Korea and Japan are in anarms race tosee who can produce students with thebest English, and Japan seems to be trailing farbehind in third place.

東京——當(dāng)你同日本的外國(guó)英語(yǔ)教育者對(duì)話時(shí)，有一件事情變得非常明晰：英語(yǔ)教育在日本行不通。實(shí)在可以用糟糕來(lái)形容。雖然日本學(xué)校中實(shí)行強(qiáng)制性的英語(yǔ)課堂，可是擁有英語(yǔ)能力的學(xué)生少得可憐。中日韓三國(guó)的學(xué)生互相競(jìng)爭(zhēng)看誰(shuí)擁有最好的英語(yǔ)能力，而結(jié)果似乎是日本落在了第三名

 

 

With the Olympic Games coming up in 2020,the Japanese government has proposed changes toincrease the level of English ability in their students. Changes like starting introductory Englishclassesin 3rd grade elementary school and making the subject compulsory from the 5th grade.Are these changes really going to help? We've gathered opinions fromboth foreign teachers andJapanese citizens about issues with the system and what might improve it.

隨著2020年奧運(yùn)會(huì)即將到來(lái)，日本政府提議做出改變從而提升學(xué)生們的英語(yǔ)水平。比如在小學(xué)三年級(jí)就讓學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)一些入門(mén)的英語(yǔ)知識(shí)，以及在5年級(jí)時(shí)讓英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)成為必修課。這些舉措真的有效嗎?就這方面的問(wèn)題，我們搜集了外國(guó)教師和日本民眾的看法，看看如何提高日本的英語(yǔ)教育。

Every foreigner who spends any amount oftime in Japan will understand the fundamentalneed to change the way students study English. But a recent thread on the Japan subreddit,which seems to havebeen started by an English educator, tried to assemble as many opinionsaspossible about the matter in one place. Many of the complaints fell into three maincategories:

在日本呆過(guò)一段時(shí)間的外國(guó)人都會(huì)意識(shí)到有必要對(duì)日本學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)的方法進(jìn)行根本性的改變。最近網(wǎng)上有一名英語(yǔ)教育者發(fā)表了一個(gè)帖子，就這個(gè)問(wèn)題激起了人們的討論，很多抱怨可歸到以下三種：

1. Teaching to the tests

應(yīng)試教育

For those unfamiliar with the Japanese school system, most high schools and universities havea test that prospective students must take and pass. Especially in the case of high schools,there is amandated set of content that appears. And so, Japanese Teachers of English(JTEs)focus on the grammar and vocabulary that will be on the test. A broader understanding and thepractical uses of English are largely ignored because they have to cover the specific materialand don't have time for anything else.

在日本，大多數(shù)的中學(xué)和大學(xué)都有入學(xué)考試，想要就讀的學(xué)生必須參加考試并通過(guò)才行。特別是中學(xué)，有一系列強(qiáng)制性的測(cè)試需要學(xué)生參與。所以為了應(yīng)付這樣的考試，日本的英語(yǔ)教師就把焦點(diǎn)放在了語(yǔ)法和詞匯上了。對(duì)英語(yǔ)更廣范圍的了解和實(shí)際應(yīng)用往往被忽視了。

So, if Japanese students have to learn specific material for the tests, why should they learnanything else? There isno point in actually learning the language if all that is required is beingable to pick the correct answer on a multiple choice test. Many Japanese netizens agree, "Whychange anything unless the style of testing is changed?"

所以，為了通過(guò)考試學(xué)生們不得不學(xué)習(xí)某些指定的英語(yǔ)素材，那他們還有必要學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)其他方面的知識(shí)嗎?如果學(xué)生們需要做的就僅僅是在多項(xiàng)選擇題中挑選出正確答案，那么還有必要學(xué)習(xí)這門(mén)語(yǔ)言嗎?許多日本網(wǎng)民也覺(jué)得，當(dāng)務(wù)之急就是要改變這樣的考試制度。

2. The quality of the textbooks is quitelow

教科書(shū)的質(zhì)量相當(dāng)?shù)牡拖?/p>

Many foreign language teachers criticized the textbooks used in the classrooms, complainingabout all manner of things including content and grammatical errors. Even more specifically,many peoplefound the choice of grammar included to be suspect, saying it wasn'tgrammarused very often in native English. The JTEs have to teach these archaic forms throughtopics such as recycling plastic, people and animals dying in WWII andboring Japanese history,causing students to be apathetic. (Topics like theseare required in government approvedtextbooks.)

很多外語(yǔ)教師都批評(píng)課堂中使用的教科書(shū)，包括其中存在的內(nèi)容和語(yǔ)法方面的錯(cuò)誤。而且人們認(rèn)為教科書(shū)中的語(yǔ)法內(nèi)容是可疑的，因?yàn)檫@些語(yǔ)法都不常用在地道的英語(yǔ)中。日本英語(yǔ)教師在教授這些陳舊的語(yǔ)法時(shí)，所使用的話題包括再生塑料，二戰(zhàn)中人類和動(dòng)物的死亡，以及無(wú)聊的日本歷史，導(dǎo)致學(xué)生們對(duì)英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)缺乏興趣。(在政府批準(zhǔn)的教科書(shū)中，這些話題是必備的。)

3. A focus on translating into Japanese and JTEs speaking in only Japanese. Where is theEnglish?Perhaps one of the biggest complaints wasthe amount, or lack of English used in theclassrooms.

集中于將英文翻譯成日文，而且日本英語(yǔ)教師只說(shuō)日語(yǔ)。那英語(yǔ)哪去了?或許人們最抱怨的事情之一就是課堂中英語(yǔ)的使用程度不高或者根本沒(méi)使用英語(yǔ)。

The JTEs often teach all the grammar in Japanese, and check that the students can follow thetextbook by translating the English into Japanese. Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) areregulated to human tape recorders, and then set free to roam the class and "help"thestudents. Of all the hours of English education, how many of those hours were spentactually listening to and speaking English? (Repeating English is not the same as speaking it.)

日本英語(yǔ)教師通常用日文來(lái)講授英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)法，而且通過(guò)要求學(xué)生將英文翻譯成日本的形式來(lái)考查學(xué)生的英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)進(jìn)度。一些助理語(yǔ)言教師相當(dāng)于人類錄音機(jī)，然后踱步于課堂間并“幫助”學(xué)生。在英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)的整個(gè)期間，有多少時(shí)間是真正花在聽(tīng)和說(shuō)英語(yǔ)上了?(重復(fù)英語(yǔ)和說(shuō)英語(yǔ)可是兩碼事啊。)

Japanese people agree that the current teaching style often limits students to what littleEnglish they hear from the teachers and what words are put in front of them. Successfulteaching should include as many senses as possible to surround students in English. OneJapanese netizen suggests that TV dramas should be utilized to hear real English, while seeingthe facial expressions and mouth movements all togetherin one package. How can a studentnot be excited to learn phrases like "OK, I'm on my way", "What's the problem?" or "Freeze!You'reunder arrest!"

日本民眾認(rèn)為目前的教學(xué)方式使得學(xué)生們接觸到的英語(yǔ)知識(shí)極少。成功的教學(xué)應(yīng)該從多個(gè)方面讓學(xué)生們?nèi)谌朐谟⒄Z(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)環(huán)境中。其中一名日本網(wǎng)民建議說(shuō)可以利用電視劇來(lái)讓學(xué)生們聽(tīng)到真正的英語(yǔ)，而且還能同時(shí)看到劇中人物的臉部表情和嘴部動(dòng)作。比如，“OK, I'm on my way”(好的，我已經(jīng)在路上了), “What's theproblem?”(啥情況)或者 “Freeze!You're under arrest!”(別動(dòng)!你被逮捕了)，看到這樣酷酷的英語(yǔ)表達(dá)時(shí)，學(xué)生們?cè)趺磿?huì)沒(méi)有學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)的熱情?

Which brings us to the main problem with the current system: Japanese students don'tunderstand the benefits of learningEnglish. This is certainly not limited to Japanese learners,but how many time do you hear a student say, "I'm Japanese, so I will never use English inthefuture." Studying English as a language is one of the least interesting thingsabout it. But,what about all the different things that you can experience whenyou understand English? TVshows, movies, books, games, and it's not even limited to entertainment, scientific journals,international business and the majority of the Internet is conducted in English.

聊到這里，就涉及到了目前英語(yǔ)教育系統(tǒng)中存在的一個(gè)主要問(wèn)題：日本學(xué)生不懂得學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)的好處。當(dāng)然，這并非日本英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者獨(dú)有的問(wèn)題，但是你有多少次聽(tīng)到一名日本學(xué)生說(shuō)“我是日本人，所以我以后是不會(huì)使用英語(yǔ)的，”把英語(yǔ)當(dāng)成一門(mén)語(yǔ)言來(lái)學(xué)習(xí)是英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)中最無(wú)趣的一面之一。但是，在學(xué)會(huì)英語(yǔ)后，你知道你能體驗(yàn)到多少不同的東西嗎?英語(yǔ)電視節(jié)目，電影，書(shū)籍，游戲，還還包括英語(yǔ)科學(xué)雜志，國(guó)際商業(yè)，而且大多數(shù)的網(wǎng)絡(luò)內(nèi)容都是以英語(yǔ)呈現(xiàn)出來(lái)的。

When the exposure of English is limited to the classroom and the unfortunate textbooks, amajority of the students will disengage from it and end up not learning anything. Whenstudents are forced to study and learn about certain grammar points and vocabulary, with noknow ledge about how you can apply it to all the amazing things in English, of course,thestudents are going to do poorly. Expose them to the idea that, yes, this is a subject youhave to study, but look at what you can do with it outside the classroom.You can excitestudents with that and promote self-study, which is a much better approach than learning"This is a pen" for the sake of a test.

所以如果只在課堂和書(shū)本上學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)的話，最終大多數(shù)學(xué)生將不會(huì)對(duì)英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)產(chǎn)生興趣，從而什么都學(xué)不到。如果僅是被強(qiáng)迫去學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)法和詞匯而不懂得如何將這些知識(shí)應(yīng)用在日常的英語(yǔ)使用中的話，那么學(xué)生們的表現(xiàn)肯定不好。所以應(yīng)該給學(xué)生們的灌輸?shù)囊环N思想是：是的，這是你必須學(xué)習(xí)的一門(mén)課程，但是學(xué)成后，你可以在課外很好的利用這些知識(shí)，拓展自己的視野。你可以利用這種方式來(lái)激勵(lì)學(xué)生，從而提升他們的英語(yǔ)自學(xué)能力。