Research Outline

　　We believe that academic education is a necessity in special education, and that special education schools and programs should be more inclusive. Since 2020, foreign language activities have been introduced in third- and fourth-grade classrooms, while fifth- and sixth-grade students have started learning foreign languages as an academic subject. Fifth- and sixth-grade students now learn five areas of English, including reading and writing, using government-authorized textbooks. We wondered whether this would increase the number of students who have difficulty learning foreign languages, and whether teachers faced problems in understanding how these students could be supported, which led us to study classroom situations to develop our educational support program. We conducted the Kakenhi Challenging Exploratory Research fund-supported study, “Curriculum Development in Elementary School Foreign Language Education for the Construction of Inclusive Education System,” in 2017‒2019 to address this need. The research surveys we conducted found that elementary schoolers often face challenges in writing and that even children who do not face difficulties in other subjects often have difficulty learning English. Furthermore, we learnt that teachers found conducting group/pair activities or preparing inclusive teaching materials challenging.

　Some of the surveys that we had planned were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, classroom demands cannot be put on hold. We plan to conduct research in order to recommend and provide materials to students who are having difficulties learning foreign languages, and to the teachers who want to help them. To achieve this goal, we are eager to hear the voices of both children and teachers. We are planning a survey on this website to collect data, but this cannot be accomplished without requesting your participation as teachers. We would appreciate your cooperation in our project toward a more inclusive foreign language education.

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