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Language Testing 2008 25 (1) 63–83
The 150-year history of English
language assessment in
Japanese education1
Miyuki Sasaki
Nagoya Gakuin University, Japan
In the present study I describe the 150-year history of school-based English
language assessment in Japan. The history is divided into four major periods
according to the purposes of English language education set by the government in the different periods: (1) 1860 to 1945, when English was first introduced and taught in schools mainly for elite classes; (2) 1945 to 1970, when
English became part of the compulsory education for the first time; (3) 1970
to 1990 when English began to be regarded as the most effective means to
communicate with foreign people in the rapidly shrinking world; and (4)
1990 to the present, when several innovative policies have been introduced
into classroom measurement systems. I describe how assessment practices
for English education at schools in each of these periods were and still are
affected by various factors, including political, economic, and demographic
changes in society, as well as academic paradigm shifts in the fields of education and applied linguistics.
I Introduction
On 21 January 2006, a total of 492 596 students (about 40% of the
high school graduates of that year) took the English test given by the
National Center for University Entrance Examination in Japan. The test
was necessary for admission to about 60% (440) of all Japanese universities for the following academic year (starting in April 2006). That
year’s English test was memorable in that the Center added a 50-point
listening comprehension section to the original 200-point penciland-paper section for the first time in its 26-year history. Up to this time,
the examinees’ listening ability was measured only indirectly through
Address for correspondence: Miyuki Sasaki, 1–25, Atsuta-nishimachi, Astuta, Nagoya, Aichi,
456–8612 Japan; email: [email protected]
1This
paper was presented at the 2006 International Conference on English Instruction and
Assessment, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, on 23 April 2006.
© 2008 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore)
DOI:10.1177/0265532207083745
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The 150-year history of English language assessment
written items of accent-location and pronunciation. This was only one
of the many innovative measures that the Japanese government has
recently taken regarding entrance examinations. Other steps include
repeated public appeals that universities use not only a single test
score, but also other multiple measures (e.g. interviews), which should
be given on multiple occasions to ease the excessive competition (the
Central Council for Education, 1997; 1999). What has caused the
Japanese government to arrive at its present attitude toward schoolbased English assessment? To understand the current situation, it is
helpful to examine the historical context.
In the present study, I thus describe the 150-year history of schoolbased English language assessment in Japan. By ‘assessment’, I use
Lynch’s (2001) definition of ‘the systematic gathering of information
for the purposes of making decisions or judgments about individuals’
(p. 358). Among different types of assessment, I mainly focus on the
English tests used for school admission (i.e. entrance examinations),
because of their importance in Japan (Imura, 2003; Kawasumi,
1999). In terms of method, I basically follow Isaac and Michael’s
(1981) framework for historical research. The purpose of the present
study was thus to ‘reconstruct the past objectively and accurately,
often in relation to the tenability of a hypothesis’ (p. 42). As working
hypotheses, I employed the following:
1) The history of English language assessment at schools in Japan
can be categorized according to the intended goals and the degree
of popularization of school-based English education.
2) English language assessment at schools in Japan has been influenced in different ways by socio-political, economic, academic,
and historical/cultural factors in different periods.
Japanese people began learning English as the result of the British
HMS Phaeton’s appearance in Nagasaki Bay in 1808. Although Japan
was closed to foreign countries except for China and the Netherlands,2
this ship forced its way into the Bay by threatening to set fire to the
city of Nagasaki (Imura, 2003). Exposed to such a foreign power, the
Tokugawa Shogunate government in 1809 ordered their Dutch Tsuuji
(Japanese officials who used Dutch for diplomatic and trading exchanges) to learn English to prepare for further threats. However, formal English language teaching/learning at schools did not begin until
2In
1854, the Tokugawa Shogunate began diplomatic relations with other countries such as the
USA, the UK, and Russia.
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Miyuki Sasaki 65
1860, when English joined the previously taught Dutch at BanshoShirabesho, the first public foreign language school, which had been
founded by the Tokugawa Shogunate three years earlier (Kawasumi,
1978). The present study’s description begins with the English education at Bansho-Shirabesho, and I divided the following 150 years into
four periods according to the intended goals and the degree of popularization of school-based English education in Japan.
II Period 1 (1860 to 1945): English education for the elite
From 1860, when the Bansho-Shirabesho started to teach English for
the first time in Japan, until 1945, when Japan lost the Second World
War, English was taught mainly to children from the middle to upper
classes. Bansho-Shirabesho was only for a limited number of highcaste Samurai warriors of the Tokugawa Shogunate. And even after
1868, when the new Era of Meiji began as a result of the last Shogun
Yoshinobu’s returning the reins of government to Emperor Mutsuhito,
it continued to serve as the major public foreign language school.
Because the Meiji government was intent on modernizing the country
by absorbing knowledge introduced by European countries and the
USA, French and German languages were also employed as means of
such modernization in the beginning. However, the government soon
(in 1873) decided to make the language of instruction at the national
university (originally the Bansho-Shirabesho mentioned above) English
only, adopting the policy of ‘English-as-the-standard (Eigo-Hon’i-Sei)’.
Thus, for the first 22 years (1860–82), English was not the target of
learning, but the means of acquiring new skills and knowledge.
In 1872, the Meiji government promulgated the Education System
Order, the first educational law, and planned to build eight universities,
256 middle schools, and 53 760 elementary schools in the future.
Although this plan was not quickly realized,3 in 1886, the government
enacted another law requiring that every Japanese child receive at
least four years of compulsory education at elementary school. The
duration of compulsory education was extended to six years in 1907,
and elementary school attendance reached 98% in 1911. English, however, was not a required subject for most Japanese elementary school
pupils (see Imura, 2003 for exceptions). In most cases, students
3For
example, the second public university, Kyoto Imperial University, was not founded until 1897.
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started to study English after they entered middle schools around
the age of 10 to 12 years old. Going to the five-year-long middle
schools was not compulsory, and only about 20% of elementary school
graduates went on to receive higher education before 1945.
In those middle schools and the (only) university, as mentioned
earlier, English was used as a means of instruction between 1860 and
1882. After that 22-year period, however, English quickly became a
foreign language that was only taught as a subject at school. This was
because many people thought that education through a second language was the same as the humiliation of a ‘colonized state’ (Imura,
2003: 85; translated by the author). Such a reaction went as far as the
banning of the instruction in all foreign languages at the national university in 1882 (Kawasumi, 1999). This change in status for English
consequently determined the nature of its instruction at school during
this period and since. Because it was difficult to travel abroad during
this period, very few English teachers had the chance to practice their
English for communicative purposes (Suzuki and Wakabayashi,
1999).4 They therefore taught English mainly by explaining grammatical structures in Japanese, and translating the given English texts into
Japanese (Matsumura, 1997). This ‘grammar-translation’ method had
successfully been used for teaching Chinese as a written form ever
since the eighth century (Ohshima, 2006). People believed that such
a method was useful for ‘cultivating’ the learners’ minds by forcing
them to analyze the differences between Chinese and their mother
tongue (Watanabe, 1995). Cultivating students’ minds thus became
one of the major purposes of teaching English in Japan, although the
Department of Education5 officially set the purpose of foreign language instruction as being to ‘understand and use’ the language, as
early as 1901 (the Middle School Order).
The fact that English was taught to cultivate students’ minds also
determined the content and form of the upper-secondary school entrance examinations, which usually consisted of items requiring translations of syntactically/semantically complicated sentences from
English to Japanese, and vice versa (Imura, 2003; Tanaka, 1998). The
texts used for such items were often taken from British and/or
American literary works with moral lessons (e.g. Self-help by Samuel
Smiles, 1859; see Ikeda, 1967; Imura, 2003 for more details). English
4There
were some English-speaking teachers in Japan in Period I, but the number was relatively
small (e.g. a total of 58 English-speaking teachers taught at public middle schools between 1902
and 1912; see Matsumura, 1997).
5The Ministry of Education was called the Department of Education at that time.
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studied for this particular purpose was (and still is) called ‘Juken-Eigo
(entrance examination English)’. Because the competition for admission to upper-secondary schools was quite severe, studying JukenEigo in effect became the major purpose of middle-school English
classes (Imura, 2003). Such an English education in Period 1 was
sometimes severely criticized for its lack of practicality (e.g. Fujimura,
1927), but it continued even during the Second World War conducted
against the two English-speaking countries of the UK and the USA
(Kawasumi, 1999).
III Period 2 (1945 to 1970): English education for everyone
On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, and was occupied by the
General Head Quarters (GHQ) of the Allied Powers until 1952, one
year after Japan had concluded a peace treaty with the USA and
allied nations. Under GHQ’s guidance, Japan democratized a number
of social institutions including education. Following the American
model, the whole school system was changed into a single-track
system of six years at elementary school, three years each at junior
and senior high schools, and two or four years at a college or
university. The new school system took effect in April 1947, and the
first nine years of education became compulsory. English was an
elective subject in junior high schools, but towards the end of the
1950s, it virtually became a required subject after it was included as
an entrance examination subject for senior high schools.
The most notable difference between this period and the previous
one was that in Period 2 almost everyone had a chance to learn
English as a foreign language (EFL). That is, this period represents
the beginning of the mass popularization of EFL education in Japan.
Ironically, however, this very change had the result of producing
many English teachers with poor qualifications. Because of extending the length of compulsory education from six to nine years, for a
long period of time, postwar Japan suffered from a serious shortage
of both school buildings and teachers (Yamazumi, 1987). To supplement this shortage, teachers of other subjects such as physical education or music, were forced to teach English (Fujii, 1971).
Various measures were taken to solve the problems faced by the
new junior high school English teachers. First, in 1947 and 1951, the
Suggested Courses of Study in English for Lower and Upper Secondary Schools were issued by the Ministry of Education, to be used as
reference books for those new teachers. For this purpose, the 1951
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version was made much longer (759 pages in three volumes)6 than the
subsequent versions, containing not only the objectives of teaching
English (emphasizing both practical purposes and cultivation of mind),
but also a list of teaching materials, and even an explanation of English
pronunciation and intonation (Imura, 2003). Another measure taken by
the Ministry of Education to improve the quality of junior high school
English teachers was their support for the establishment of the English
Language Exploratory Committee (ELEC) in 1956.7 ELEC propagated
C.C. Fries’ (1945) Oral Approach. Another branch of the audio-lingual
method, Palmer’s (1921) Oral Method, had already been introduced
into Japan in Period 1 (1922).8 Both Palmer’s Oral Method and Fries’
Oral Approach can be characterized by their sole emphasis on repeated
spoken drills especially in the beginning of the learning process.
Believing in their effectiveness, the Ministry strongly advocated these
two methods. Nevertheless, they did (or could) not become very popular because there were not many teachers proficient enough in speaking
English to effectively carry out the methods (Suzuki and Wakabayashi,
1999), and the use of these methods gradually declined by the 1970s
(Henrichsen, 1989).
When we look at the EFL tests made during this period, we can see
similarities with those made during Period 1, mainly because the test
writers (i.e. the English teachers) carried over their prewar teaching
beliefs and methods into their postwar classrooms (Fukui, 1975). This
was especially true with senior high school teachers and university/college professors. For example, Hoshiyama (1978) reported that senior
high school teachers in those days taught ‘English in the way they
were taught in their school days, namely, the old, grammar-translation
method’ (p. 108). The ‘old, grammar-translation method’ was also inherited by university professors, and the English entrance examinations they made naturally focused on reading comprehension of texts
from the classics, such as those by Bertrand Russell, or literary work
such as those by George Orwell (Imura, 2003). The only differences
between Periods 1 and 2 were that postwar examinations used much
longer (300 to 500 words) texts, and contained not only the traditional
6The
1947 version was only 28-page long.
was reorganized into English Language Education Council, Inc. in 1963.
8Palmer also introduced to Japan objective test-item formats, which had not been known to the field
of education in Japan until then (see Palmer, 1927; cited in Tanaka, 1998). However, such innovative formats were rarely used for English tests, especially in entrance examinations until the end of
Period 1 (Tanaka, 1998).
7ELEC
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translation items, but also reading-comprehension and/or grammatical
items, as well as items asking about the stress-location/pronunciation
of written words (Fukui, 1953; Koike, 1971). These additional items
might have been a reflection of the post-war government’s emphasis
on the practical purposes for English education described above.
In contrast, English entrance examinations for senior high schools
became more multiple-skill oriented after English became virtually a
compulsory subject at junior high schools around the end of the
1950s (Koike, 1971). This was because all applicants took one common examination if they applied for public senior high schools in the
same prefecture. The writers of such examinations were under the
guidance of their prefectural governments, and they tended to faithfully follow the curriculum content suggested by the Courses of Study
at the given time, which emphasized the practical use of all the four
skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The examinations
typically contained various types of items such as grammatical and
comprehension items for a 150 to 300-word text, stress-location/
pronunciation of written word items, and writing items.
IV Period 3 (1970 to 1990): English education for practical
purposes in the era of rapid globalization
Period 3 marks the beginning of a qualitative change in English education in Japan. In Periods 1 and 2, English tended to be regarded as
a unilateral means of importing foreign culture and knowledge,
whereas from Period 3 on, English came to be regarded as a means
of communicating with other people in the world. This way of looking at the English language was influenced by Japan’s economic
growth, as well as the internationalization of English itself, both of
which have influenced the EFL teaching/assessment practices in
Japan since Period 3.
First, Japan’s economic growth brought about three social changes
that had significant impacts on EFL classrooms in Japan: (1) a rapid
increase in the number of those who proceeded to non-compulsory
higher education; (2) an increase in the number of those who traveled/
lived abroad; and (3) an increase in the number of English-speaking
teachers. Japan’s economy was revived in the 1950s, and in 1968 it
achieved the second largest Gross National Product among capitalist
nations. As a result of this economic growth, the mean family income
grew rapidly, and more and more parents began to send their children
to post-compulsory level schools. In 1948, the percentage of junior
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high school graduates who entered senior high schools was about 40%,
but only 26 years later in 1974, it exceeded 90%. Similarly, in 1975,
the number of students who were enrolled in either four-year universities or two-year colleges exceeded two million, about one third of the
college-age population.
Such a popularization of higher education had two major effects
on classrooms in Japan. First, it resulted in many students who were
not able to digest what they studied at high school. The Ministry of
Education tried to solve this problem by simplifying the content of the
junior/senior high school syllabi. Consequently, in the Course of
Study promulgated in 1977, the number of hours of English classes
provided at public junior high schools decreased from four to three.
Another serious problem caused by the rapid popularization of higher
education was severe entrance examination competition. Although
the government tried to respond to the parents’ desire for higher education for their children by building more public high schools and by
permitting the establishment of more public and private universities,
getting into the non-compulsory senior high school and university/
college of one’s choice remained highly competitive in Period 3. In
order to lower the great risk of one-time-only tests for getting into
senior high schools, many prefectures in Period 3 started to recommend that public senior high schools give their applicants multiple
opportunities to take tests, and consider the three-year junior high
school grades and the conduct of the students in the selection process
(Imahashi et al., 1990). Fueling this extreme entrance examination
competition was the Japanese belief that admission to a high-ranking
senior high school/university guarantees a high-ranking position in
the society.
University entrance examination competition was so severe that
every year some applicants even committed suicide ‘mainly because
of the pressure and the anxiety of the examinations’ (Matsuyama,
1978: 35–36). This extreme anxiety was partly caused by the fact that,
for selection purposes, entrance examinations of many prestigious universities contained items that were much too difficult for the applicants. The Ministry of Education’s efforts to deal with such problems
were met by the government’s policy of trying to centrally control
Japan’s education in Period 3. Motivating this policy were circumstances such as the fact that after the Korean War (1950 to 1953), Japan
had been integrated into the Western anticommunist camp in the ColdWar structure between the East and the West (Yamazumi, 1987).
In 1970, the Japanese government thus tried to both control education
and solve the problem of ‘too-difficult’ university entrance examinations
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Miyuki Sasaki 71
by proposing the development of a common examination shared by
all public universities. Their previous attempts in 1948 and 1963 were
not successful because ‘almost all the universities intentionally neglected or openly opposed them’ (Matsuyama, 1978: 42), feeling that
their autonomy would be threatened. This time the government succeeded partly because the Ministry of Education wisely let the university professors themselves take the initiative in developing the
common test. Subsequently, in 1971, the Association of National
Universities agreed to develop this ‘Common Test’. The next year, the
National Center for University Entrance Examination (conventionally
called DNC) was established to take the role of developing the test.
The first Common Test was given in 1979 to 320 000 applicants for
all national and municipal universities.
These applicants had to take all examinations in the five subjects:
Japanese, social studies, mathematics, science, and a foreign language
(English, German, or French). In order to solve the problem of “too difficult” items, the Common Test was made to measure the core knowledge that high school students were supposed to have acquired by the
time of their senior high school graduation. All items were multiplechoice and the results were processed by computer. The procedure after
the applicants took the test was somewhat complicated in that after the
DNC published the correct answers, the applicants self-scored their
answers, and applied to the universities that were likely to admit them
(they could only apply to one university). After they applied to the
individual universities, they again had to take the entrance examinations of those universities, but this time in fewer subjects. The answers
for these second examinations were often not in multiple-choice form,
but required constructed responses. In contrast to these public university applicants, private university applicants (more than 75% of all
applicants) did not take this Common Test, and so the test solved only
part of the entrance examination problem.9
The new Common Test was intended to serve multiple purposes,
such as alleviating the severe university entrance examination competition and providing a standardized measure to assess the university
applicants’ ability. The test did achieve these goals to some extent, but
it also brought about an unexpected consequence: the proliferation of
commercial cram schools (Yobiko). Because the applicants had to decide
which university to apply to, based on the self-scored results of the test,
9After
1990, when its name became the Center Examination, private universities started to adopt
the examination, and in 2006 a total of 440 universities, about 60% of all universities in Japan, used
the examination.
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they needed to know the mean score of all the applicants, as well as
those of the applicants to the universities of their choice. That is, an
applicant’s acceptance by a particular university depended on the relative scores of the applicants of that particular year. The cram schools
that had mock test results given at their nation-wide network of schools
for the previous year were the only ones that could provide an approximation of such expected mean scores for the applicants most likely to
take the Common Test. The applicants’ desire to know which universities were likely to accept them on the basis of the expected mean scores
was strong for the reason that such information made them better prepare for the second entrance examinations that varied from university
to university. Because the accuracy of the expected mean score information provided by the cram schools tended to be quite high, high school students as well as their teachers started to rely heavily on such information,
which led to a large growth in the cram school industry during Period 3.
In addition to these rather negative consequences of Japan’s economic growth, there were also positive effects in the English classrooms during Period 3. One such effect was a massive increase in
overseas travel. For instance, in 1964, only 127 749 Japanese traveled
abroad, whereas in 1972, as many as 1 392 045 did. During these
trips, Japanese for the first time heard English actually used for communicative purposes (Suzuki and Wakabayashi, 1999). This phenomenon occurred at the same time as the internationalization of English.
As McKay (2002) has pointed out, English gained the status of ‘the
international language par excellence’ (p. 5; italics in the original)
after the Second World War, and its popularity became even greater
after the 1980s, due to the accelerated globalization of business, culture, and information. It was thus natural that people in Japan started
to doubt the efficacy of the traditional grammar-translation teaching
method that had continued to be dominant in English classrooms
during Period 3, and to long for something more practical.
Responding to such public sentiment, the Ministry of Education
implemented several measures in Period 3. First, it introduced a new
subject titled ‘English conversation’ in the Course of Study for senior
high schools promulgated in 1970. In the next Course of Study promulgated in 1977 for junior high schools, and in the one promulgated in
1978 for senior high schools, the contents to be taught in the English
classroom became further simplified and more practical.10 In terms of
10However,
the entrance examinations for private senior high schools have been long criticized by
their difficult content that is beyond the scope of the curriculum content suggested by the Course of
Study for Junior High Schools (see The English Teachers’ Magazine, 1984 April issue, for example).
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Miyuki Sasaki 73
assessment, too, many more senior high school entrance examinations
started to include listening comprehension items in the 1970s.11 Finally,
towards the end of the 1970s, Wilkins’ (1976) ‘notional syllabus’ and
‘communicative language teaching’ based on that syllabus were introduced to EFL education in Japan, and notion/situation-based texts
began to be used for both teaching and assessment materials in the
1980s.
The last effect of Japan’s rapid economic growth on English education in Period 3 was the government’s hiring of large numbers of
English-speaking teachers. This was mainly conducted through the JET
(Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program, which started in 1987 originally to spend part of Japan’s trade surplus (Imura, 2003). In the first
year of the JET Program in 1987, the government hired 848 Englishspeaking teachers from countries such as Australia and the USA. As of
2002, there are a total of about 8400 such teachers, including 2794 hired
directly by local municipal governments (Kan, 2002). These teachers
are stationed either at junior/senior high schools, and visit English
classes regularly. Although there have been problems (e.g. Kan, 2002),
the introduction of English-speaking teachers to the classrooms has
increased high school students’ motivation to learn (especially spoken)
English for ‘practical’ purposes.
Finally, toward the end of Period 3, education-related problems
such as juvenile delinquency, bullying, and dropping-out became
serious. The Ministry of Education tried to solve these problems with
educational reforms exemplified in the new Courses of Study promulgated for junior and senior high schools at the end of Period 3 in
1989, which led to Period 4.
V Period 4 (1990 to the present): Introduction of
innovative policies
Japanese education in Period 4 can be best characterized by the
introduction of the government’s new educational policies followed
by public criticism of the results of these policies. Although this
period is shorter than the others, it has without doubt been a period
of ‘storm and stress’. During Period 4, two sets (the 1989 and 1998
versions) of Courses of Study promulgated by the Ministry of Education
(the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports Science and Technology,
11For
example, in 1978, 26 out of 46 prefectures made tests with listening items, and in 2006 all
prefecture tests had listening items.
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from 6 January 2001; henceforth the MEXT, its official abbreviation)
were put into effect, but they shared similar principles, often summarized with the three key phrases, ‘redefinition of academic ability’, ‘introduction of criterion-referenced assessment system’, and
‘further advancement of liberal, flexible and comfortable school life
(Yutori)’ across all subjects.
First, the academic abilities to be achieved during elementary
and secondary education were redefined as ‘motivation/attitude for
learning and the ability to solve problems as an autonomous individual responding to societal changes’ (Kariya, 2002: 56; translated by
the author). This ability has also been summarized as a ‘zest for living’ (the Ministry of Education, 1999). Such redefinition was a reaction to the past emphasis on the cramming of facts, especially for
entrance examinations, and has been interpreted by educational
researchers (e.g. Mizukoshi, 1993) as a ‘paradigm shift’ from the traditional view of treating academic ability in term of its substance (e.g.
knowledge and skills) to one treating it in terms of its function
(Abiko, 1996). Accordingly, the purposes of English education indicated in the Courses of Study for 1993 and 1994 included ‘fostering
a positive attitude toward communication through foreign languages’,
in addition to the original purposes of cultivating understanding of
language and culture, and language skills themselves.
Furthermore, the new Courses of Study required teachers to evaluate all abilities and knowledge, including ‘attitude’, according to a
criterion-referenced measurement system. The criterion-referenced
system was newly advocated to make sure that all students had
learned the ‘basics and fundamentals with sense of achievement’ (the
MEXT, 2002). At the actual teaching level, the School Guidance
Record revised for the 1989 version of the Course of Study required
junior (but not senior) high school English teachers to give an A
(Satisfactory), B (Fairly satisfactory), or C (Needs effort) according
to the following four criteria (translated by the author):
1) Interest, motivation, and attitude toward communication:
Interested in communication, and willing to communicate.
2) Expression: Speak and write one’s opinions using beginning
English.
3) Comprehension: Understand the speakers’ and the writers’
intention by listening and reading beginning English.
4) Knowledge and understanding about language and culture:
Understand the language, thought and culture behind usage
through learning beginning English.
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Miyuki Sasaki 75
In the subsequent version of the Course of Study that is still in effect
now, in addition to giving an A, B, or C according to the description
of the four criteria similar to that above, teachers are required to use
a criterion-referenced system for their students’ overall English proficiency, from 1 (needs much effort) to 5 (fully satisfactory).
When the 1989 Course of Study first required the teachers to use
the criterion-referenced measurement system, the teachers were accustomed to norm-referenced measurement systems, but not to the
criterion-referenced system. Consequently, this ‘Copernican change’
(Matsuzawa, 2002: 40) resulted in great confusion. Even in the year
2002, more than 10 years after this system was first introduced, there
were complaints, such as ‘The evaluation criteria are not transparent’
and ‘The scores given are not useful for senior high entrance examinations’ (Matsuura, 2002: 10; translated by the author). As Negishi
(2005) pointed out, many problems still need to be dealt with (e.g.
establishment of shared understanding of all criteria descriptions,
and establishment of shared criteria across schools) before this system
can be successfully employed in all high schools in Japan.
The third key phrase characterizing the MEXT’s new educational
policies in Period 4 was ‘the further advancement of liberal, flexible,
and comfortable school life (Yutori)’. The policy was most notably
reflected in the 1998 versions of the Courses of Study (effective in
2002 for junior high school and in 2003 for senior high school),
where the complete five-day school week and a 30% cut in syllabus
content took effect. In addition, the Ministry of Education in 1993
banned the use of commercial tests at junior high schools. This
simultaneously meant banning the high school teachers’ official use
of the standardized scores called Hensachi (T-scores), which is calculated by the test companies based on the test score information
gathered from populations large enough to provide accurate rankings
of students across schools in the given school districts. This banning
action was intended to alleviate the ‘excessive competition in entrance
examinations’ (Ministry of Education, 1989).
These political measures, however, have not achieved the MEXT’s
goal of Yutori as it was originally intended. For example, banning the
use of commercial tests and Hensachi only made junior high school
students depend all the more on private cram schools. The Ministry
did not realize that the information provided by the cram schools had
by then become a kind of a ‘necessary evil’. Based on the nation wide
branch-school networks, the cram schools have been the only institutions in Japan that can provide reliable information, such as the one
about predicted cut-off scores regarding senior high school entrance
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examinations. Consequently, this ‘banning-commercial-tests’ policy
has resulted in a further increase in the number of students who go to
private cram schools, and an increase in the number of the cram schools
themselves.
The MEXT’s decision to reduce the curriculum content by 30%
has also generated adverse effects. Researchers such as Kariya (1995,
2002) and Okabe et al. (1999), have pointed out that the changes in
Japanese education since the introduction of the Yutori concept have
resulted in a serious deterioration in children’s academic ability (see
also MEXT, 2002). Furthermore, researchers (e.g. Kariya, 2002)
have reported that there was also a decrease in children’s study-time
after the Yutori policy took effect. Even more seriously, Kariya
(1995; 2002) discovered that such a decrease in children’s studytime reflected the socio-economic status of their parents, and that the
study-time of children in lower economic levels tended to drop most
steeply. He warned that the MEXT’s Yutori policy has increased the
gap between the rich and the poor, which is likely to create future
social unrest in Japan.
Reacting to these negative aspects and public criticism, the MEXT
decided to review their educational policy in 2000, and it has subsequently announced a series of new reform plans. For example, the
Educational Reform Plan for the 21st Century was announced in
2001, the Human Resources Strategy Vision in 2001, and the Japan!
Rise Again! Plan in 2004. Even though inheriting the fundamentals
from the previous policies, these new reform plans clearly show a
reorientation toward meritocracy. They accordingly emphasize values
such as ‘rivalry among students’ (Japan! Rise Again! Plan), which
the Japanese Ministry of Education at one time seemed to have tried
to eliminate from the classrooms.
In addition to these socially instigated reforms, the continuing
progress of globalization has also influenced the governmental policies on EFL education and assessment in Period 4. One of the most
recent policies is the MEXT’s announcement of A Strategic Plan to
Cultivate ‘Japanese with English Abilities’ in 2002. As the rationale
for the Plan, the MEXT maintains that ‘it is essential that our children acquire communication skills in English, which has become a
common international language, in order for living in the 21st century’.
After the plan was announced in 2002, the MEXT has put several
specific policies for this plan into effect. These include the introduction of a listening subtest to the Center Examination mentioned in
the beginning of this paper, nominating 100 ‘Super English Language
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Miyuki Sasaki 77
High Schools’ over three years, and requiring TOEFL (Test of
English as a Foreign Language) scores of 550, or TOEIC (Test of
English for International Communication) scores of 730 as the minimum English proficiency level for all English teachers.
Related to these policies was the further emphasis on practical
(especially spoken) communicative abilities in EFL classrooms in
the two Courses of Study promulgated in Period 4. Thus, in the 1989
version, the new subjects entitled ‘Oral Communication A, B, and C’
were introduced, and in the 1998 version that are still in effect, the
phrase ‘practical communication ability’ was added to the general
purpose of English education for high school students. The notionalfunctional aspects of language use such as traveling and debating are
also highlighted in these Courses of Studies. Such changes in the
content to be taught at high schools have also affected the content of
English language assessment. For example, accepting the governmental recommendation (e.g. the Ministry of Education, 1999),
some senior high schools and universities have started to replace part
of their entrance examinations with commercially based tests (e.g.
TOEIC, The Society for Testing English Proficiency tests) measuring ‘practical’ English abilities. As for the university entrance examinations, Negishi (1997) reported changes, such as an increase in
conversation (instead of literary) texts for test materials and free
compositions (instead of Japanese–English translation), as possible
effects of the 1998 Course of Study.
Finally, the rapid decrease in the number of school-age children in
Japan has also influenced English language assessment in Period 4.
After children of the post-war baby boomers were born in the 1960s
and 1970s, the birthrate has continued to fall (e.g. 1.29 in 2003).
Meanwhile, the number of universities/colleges has continued to grow
(e.g. 460 universities in 1984 to 622 in 1999). Consequently, the competition for entering higher education has become much less severe in
this period, and 60–70% of senior high graduates now proceed to postsecondary education. Furthermore, since the National Council on
Educational Reform recommended ‘diversification of selection procedures for upper secondary school applicants’ in 1984, almost all
universities/colleges have started to employ procedures other than highstakes tests. Among these procedures are interviews, short essays,
teacher recommendation, or admission office examinations that include
these or other measures. Many universities have also decreased the
number of subjects required for entrance examinations. These steps
have greatly eased the difficulty of preparing for upper secondary
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entrance examinations, but have also lowered the applicants’ motivation
to study in general. For example, Kariya (2002) reported that senior
high school students hoping to enter universities without taking
examinations tended to study much less than those who plan to take the
regular high-stakes examinations.
VI Summary and implications
Figure 1 summarizes the 150-year history of EFL assessment in Japan
described above. In Period 1, global socio-political pressures forced
Japan to open its doors to the world, and Japanese students started to
study English at school for the first time. However, it took only about
20 years before nationalism prevented Japanese from studying
English as a means of communication. After English became a school
subject, teachers adopted grammar-translation methods, which had
long been successfully used for Chinese education. In Period 2, the
most influential global socio-political factor was Japan’s defeat in the
Second World War, which consequently led to EFL education essentially becoming compulsory. This resulted in many unqualified EFL
teachers who were forced to depend on the old grammar-translation
methods that they had inherited from the prewar period. In Period 3,
Japanese people began to demand more practical EFL education due
to their economic prosperity and the internationalization of English.
Meanwhile, the popularization of higher education generated problems
such as excessive competition and school drop-outs. Responding
to such problems, the government in Period 4 has tried several innovative reforms. In this period, the internationalization of English has
further accelerated, which made EFL education and assessment in
Japan even more communication-oriented. In summary, the four periods listed in Figure 1 were distinct from each other in terms of the
intended goals and the degree of popularization of school-based EFL
education in Japan. Moreover, the school-based EFL assessment
practices in these periods have been influenced in different ways by
socio-political, economic, academic, and historical/cultural factors.
These findings support my two initial working hypotheses.
In Figure 1, all factors, both strong and weak, depending on the
period, have arrows directed toward ‘EFL assessment’. However, as
many researchers (e.g. Lynch, 2001; McNamara, 2001b) have recently
argued, some arrows can also point in the opposite directions.
Furthermore, some arrows in Figure 1 may have bi-directional pointers
with the other factors. One example from the present study illustrates
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Figure 1 Factors affecting the EFL teaching and assessment in Japan across the
four periods
this bi-directionality. In Period 3, the Japanese government’s decision
to give the Common Test had a significant impact on EFL teaching and
assessment, but at the same time, without it being the government’s
intention, it also greatly benefited private cram schools (organizations
belonging to the Economic Factor) that monopolized information about
the applicants’ predicted results on the Common Test. Furthermore,
because all cram schools charge fees for providing such information,
this may have created domestic social/political problems by unfairly
providing such information only to those who can afford it.
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Such complex relationships between EFL assessment and other
influential factors as they have occurred over time have rarely been
studied in the field of language testing (the ‘washback studies’ are
exceptions; see Cheng and Watanabe, 2004). However, as we have
seen above, the effects of governmental policies on English education/assessment have particularly become stronger in recent years as
the popularization and centralization of education intensified. It thus
now seems useful, for instance, to study how one assessment-related
policy is introduced and executed, and how it eventually produces
success or failure. Among many possible research methods (e.g.
ethnography) for such studies, the innovation theory framework suggested by Wall (1996) seems promising (see also Markee, 1993). We
could take as an example the problem of why the introduction of a
criterion-referenced measurement system into Japanese high school
EFL classrooms in 1993 created such confusion in the beginning
stages. As a framework, we could use Fullan’s (1991) innovation theory by considering ‘the three R’s of relevance, readiness, and resources’ (p. 63; see also Wall, 1996).12 Subsequently, we may find
that many teachers did not think the new measurement system would
be ‘relevant’ to them because their students still had to take normreferenced entrance examinations to get into senior high schools.
Moreover, the system was not fully ‘ready’ when it started because
there did not exist detailed descriptions for each criterion (i.e. ‘resources’) shared across different schools. The results of such historical studies are likely to provide information that traditional
‘mainstream’ (McNamara, 2001a: 330) language testing research
may have overlooked.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Tatsunori Takenaka, Masamichi Tanaka, Bill
Herlofsky, and Paul K. Matsuda for their valuable comments and
suggestions. Needless to say, I am solely responsible for the positions taken and any errors that may remain.
12
The latest edition of the same book, Fullan (2001), does not have the ‘three Rs’ framework, but
I still find it useful for explaining cases like the one described here.
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