overwhelmed teachers
2020年から小学校5、6年生で英語が正式教科となり、外国語活動は3年生から始めることとなりますが、それに伴い教員も英語の力をつけるため、トレーニングが必要となってきます。
English heads for elementary school in 2020 but hurdles abound
Are there hurdles to making the new system work?
Yes. There is a lack of skilled English teachers, observers say.
Under the current system, most municipalities hire native English speakers or highly competent Japanese to support their elementary school staff, with some of the assistants playing leading roles. But when English becomes a formal subject in 2020, it is apparently the main teacher who will be running the classes.
According to an education ministry survey in fiscal 2015, only 4.9 percent of elementary school teachers were licensed to teach English. Many didn’t even learn how to teach the subject because it wasn’t necessary to acquire their teaching licenses.
The government started providing special training in fiscal 2014 to develop about 1,000 expert English teachers by fiscal 2018 who can train fellow teachers.
But observers say that number is far from sufficient, considering that about 144,000 English teachers are expected to be needed by 2020.
Haruo Erikawa, a professor of English at Wakayama University, said if the government is serious about beefing up elementary school English, it should use its budget to conduct thorough teacher training and secure a sufficient number.
He also expressed concern that more training will only make things tougher for Japan’s already overwhelmed teachers.
“In English education, the hardest part is teaching children who don’t have much knowledge of the language,” he said. “Without sufficient training, we can’t expect teachers to offer high-quality English education.”
今回取り上げる表現は “overwhelmed teachers” です。overwhelmというと「〜を圧倒する」という意味がパッと浮かびますが、今回はどのような意味で用いられているのでしょうか。『ライトハウス英和辞典』（第5版 研究社）で調べてみますと「1（しばしば受身で）（精神的に）（…）を圧倒する、参らせる、がっくりさせる 2（数、勢力で）（…）を圧倒する 3（文語）（洪水などが）（…）を水浸しにする、沈める（flood）」とありました。今回は「（精神的に）参らせる」の意味で用いられていると考えられます。“overwhelmed teachers” は小学校の教員免許を取得する際に英語は必要とされてこなかったにもかかわらず、英語を教えることとなり、そのことで既に手一杯である教員を表しているのではないかと思われました。（aqua）
