I took part in a lecture meeting about English education. It was held by a professor of elementary education of English at this university.

She criticized the government for starting to teach English as a subject at elementary schools too late and claimed that English teachers should deal with English classes not as playing games but as valuing learning as well as other subjects, because children come to school to learn.

And then, she pointed out the differences of phonetic system between English and Japanese. For example, English speakers recognize a sound as a phoneme while Japanese speakers recognize it as a mora. Considering that fact, she stressed the importance of phonological awareness at elementary education.

I think there are many problems about elementary education of English. For instance, the government is planning to have two English classes per a week at elementary schools, but elementary school students have already taken other classes and studied hard, so I am worried whether there is enough time to take English classes in their current curriculum.

In addition to English, the government is going to start teaching programming, career education, and so on at elementary school. Indeed, they are important for children to be members of society in the future, but the government must not children and teachers’ opinion. I am going to good use of this lecture meeting to be an English teacher.