Many English language learners struggle to develop confidence in speaking, particularly when classroom learning focuses more on grammar and reading than communication. Teachers also face challenges in supporting students through transitions between different stages of education, often with limited training in communicative teaching approaches.
In this article we put the spotlight on a curriculum reform project in Mount Koya, Japan, which offers one example of how these challenges can be addressed through a coordinated approach that links curriculum design, assessment and teacher development. By creating a nine-year curriculum from elementary to junior high school, the project demonstrates how locally designed solutions can help students build the confidence and practical language skills they need to communicate with the wider world.
Located high in the mountains of Wakayama Prefecture, Mount Koya is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an important centre of Japanese Buddhism.
Over the last five years, the British Council has been working on a curriculum reform project with schools in the unique, mountain-top setting of Koya town. This World Heritage site is popular with international visitors, and the town hopes to equip its young people with the language skills to communicate with them.
Typically, students in Japan have struggled to develop strong oral English skills through their lessons at school. The transition from elementary to junior high school has also been a challenge in many areas. The project in Mount Koya aims to overcome these issues through introducing a tailor-made nine-year curriculum with assessment and teacher training across the nine years of elementary and junior high school education.
Collaborating with the town Board of Education, the project aim is for students to be able to independently interact with foreign visitors in English at CEFR A2 level by the time they graduate junior high school at fifteen years old. This is above the current Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) target of 50% of students reaching CEFR A1 by the end of junior high school. Cambridge English exams have been introduced to measure student outcomes in elementary school grade 6 and junior high school grades 1, 2 and 3 using the Young Learners suite (Pre A1 Starters and A1 Movers) and the A2 Key for Schools exams. Students have had many opportunities to develop their oral English skills through lessons at schools. The curriculum includes units at each year level where students explain aspects of their town and culture while developing oral communication skills in every lesson.
In addition to this, outreach projects with high-profile overseas visitors to Mount Koya have given students valuable opportunities to improve their speaking skills. These include visits from the CEO of the British Council, Scott McDonald, the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Japan, Julia Longbottom and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.
Following MEXT (2014) policy, English lessons begin in Japanese public elementary schools in grade 3, when students are eight years old. However, many schools across the country, including in Koya, start with some lessons in grade 1, when students are six. Since 2021, all homeroom teachers in Mount Koya elementary schools have received training and coaching to teach their homeroom classes in English from grade 1 upwards. Teachers across the school are now empowered to plan, teach and assess their students’ English learning progress.
In addition to improving oral language skills, the curriculum in Mount Koya has built students’ literacy skills through a structured synthetic phonics curriculum. This phonics curriculum is integrated into the new English language curriculum and was designed with the assistance of an outside consultant. It takes into the account the needs of L1 Japanese English learners of English as a foreign language. Students report being able to read English words and phrases independently, both inside and outside the school environment.
'Even if you don’t understand all the words, you can read quite a bit if you use phonics and read the words one by one.' (JHS grade 1 student).
Regular assessments are embedded in the curriculum to track students’ progress. Teachers use the results to inform their actions by adding additional review or increasing lesson pace.
Students report growth in their confidence and motivation to use English:
'It’s fun to find out new things while speaking English in pairs.' (JHS grade 2 student)
And report being able to use their English skills outside the classroom:
'When foreign customers come to my family shop, it’s fun to speak with them in English.' (Elementary grade 5 student)
The Koya project has been an important case-study for us in how to bring about meaningful, sustainable improvements to English education in rural schools. Challenges have included how to adapt training to teachers with different levels of prior experience and embedded beliefs about language learning and how to adapt early literacy curricula to meet the needs of Japanese students studying English as a foreign language.
Working closely with school leaders and classroom teachers, the project has managed to respond to these challenges and achieve buy-in and commitment from key stakeholders.
