poor skills - 英語を「書く」「話す」能力がヤバい

I think it is wrong that only the junior high school students who took the test are to blame for. The result cannot be blamed only for the junior high school students. Also, it has been crystal clear that Japanese students’ poor English speaking and writing skills. This harsh reality has not just started now but been lasting since the older days.

They have never been taught how to speak or write good English in their classes. Even their teachers cannot teach their students these two skills in the classes. All they teach in the classes are grammar, translating from English in the textbook into Japanese, which mainly accounts for the classes, and memorizing the words and phrases in the textbook. There is no time in the classes for students to learn skills of speaking and writing English properly.

I think it’s wrong for the students to call for what they have never done and test them. This will surely discourage the attitude of the students toward studying English.

English that has been taught in junior high schools or high schools in Japan is just as one of the subjects, not as a tool to communicate with people who use English. This is completely different from it should be. Since the past in Japan, English education has been placing a premium mainly on translation from English into Japanese. This cannot lead students to be able to speak or write English well at all no matter how long teachers spend time on teaching.

This style of teaching English still strongly roots even now. This notorious way stems from the curriculum guidelines set by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

The curriculum guidelines set by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is to blame for, not the students with poor English speaking and writing skills.

Thank you Robert for your comment. It's hard for me to write up a short response here, but you sound like you are involved in teaching English to Japanese students. I think it's very important for the educational authorities to listen more carefully to the voices of native teachers in English-language classrooms because they know where problems lie. I hope the old-guard Japanese teachers as well as the education ministry will give a serious thought to how best they can teach kids practical ways to communicate. I think their policies are gradually changing in recent years --- but not fast enough for young Japanese to catch up with their overseas counterparts.