English should be taught in elementary school?

I read Editorial/ English education.In this article, the author reported the change of English programs in Japan. A Council on foreign language suggested that English education be enhanced in elementary schools because English become more important all over the world. Actually, most elementary schools in Japan already introduce English lessons as part of comprehensive study lessons. Most parents support that their children study English in their early age. However, some people say that it is more important for children to study Japanese intensely in elementary schools because it gives a firm foundation to them when they start studying English in junior high school. The author stated his opinion that elementary schools should be given choices to decide on how they teach English.

The author insists that the elementary schools should have choices in whether they teach English or not. However, I totally disagree with the introduction of Engish lessons in elementary schools for the following reasons. First, I think teaching English in elementary schools is useless. From my exprience, I have a strong question to English education in Japan. We have studied English for 6 years in junior high and high school, but we don't have oppotunity to speak English in class room. Teachers just concentrated on teaching structure and translation to Japanese, and did not give chance to communicate in English. For this reasons, most Japanese can't speak English after 6 years. In addition, some of them have fear of English, because they have bitter memories to study difficult structure for 6years. If new Engish program start now, teachers will do same mistake. Second, we don't have so many necessities to use English in Japan. In Japan, we don't have any difficulty in daily life if we can speak Japanese. Of course, accompanying globalization, some Japanese need to use English, but the number is limited. Especially, children don't need to speak English. If they feel it important to learn English after becoming older, they study English voluntarly. Actually, many Japanese go to study abroad to learn English, and there are a lot of private English schools in Japan. For this reasoon, I think that not all Japanese have necessity to speak English. If government has budget to enhance English program in elementary school, they should use it to solve more serious problem, such as environmental probrem or umemployment. Therefore, I disagree with the introduction of English education in elementary school.

Yuhei