2022 Volume 45 Issue 2 Pages 51-60
This study aims to investigate the perceptions of elementary school foreign language specialized teachers about their current conditions at schools.
Online focus group interviews were conducted with six elementary school foreign language specialized teachers in six prefectures in Japan. The results revealed that they considered dealing with the differences in the conditions of each class and understanding children to be challenging. On the other hand, children’s growth and encouragement from colleagues were correlated with their satisfaction. They also expressed their need for collaboration with other teachers and better teacher training.
In addition, foreign language specialized teachers in charge of multiple classes need to collaborate with more teachers than before. It became clear that they sought collaboration with other teachers and elementary school foreign language specialized teachers for better foreign language education.
