日本英语教育的改革动向

The reform trend of English language education in Japan

日本的外语教育(包括英语教育)是不成功的．这一点日本人自己也承认。20世纪末期，随着信息产业的发展和信息社会的到来，历来不太看重外语教育的日本人终于明白，外语尤其是英语教育落后，将是要吃大亏的。于是官、产、学界取得共识，开始重视并探讨外语特别是英语教育的改革措施，提出了一些设想。本文兹就此作一简要介绍。

Foreign language education, including English language education, has not been very successful in Japan. The Japanese themselves do not deny this either. By the end of the 20th century, with the development of information industry and the arrival of information society, the Japanese, who had not put too much emphasis on foreign language education, finally realized that they would be at a great disadvantage if their foreign language education, the English language education in particular, was falling behind. Therefore, the Japanese government, the industry and the academic world have all come to a common understanding. They started to emphasize and to discuss the reform measures on foreign language education, especially on English language education. Some tentative ideas have been brought up. This article serves as a brief introduction to the current development.