With the trend towards internationalization, more and more emphasis has been placed on the development of communicative competence in foreign language education all over the world. The content of foreign language education has been enhanced accordingly, and various syllabuses have been developed to replace the traditional grammatical/structural syllabus. Situational, notional, functional and topical syllabuses have been alternative approaches to foreign language syllabus design. Recently, some syllabus designers have suggested that syllabus content might be specified in terms of learning tasks and activities. This suggestion is based on the grounds that communication is a process rather than a set of products. In this process-oriented approach, consideration of learning process is built into the syllabus. As a result, the traditional distinction between syllabus design and methodology becomes difficult to sustain. Also here in Japan, increased priority has been given to the development of communication skills and international understanding in foreign language education. According to the final report of the Curriculum Council submitted in preparation for adopting a five-day school week in 2002, under the new national curriculum elementary schools will provide hands-on activities to expose children to foreign languages and to help them become familiar with foreign life and culture in the newly established "Period of Integrated Study". Although introducing foreign language education to primary schools is still a controversial issue, practical research is being carried out at pilot schools in every prefecture. This article, based on the pilot studies at some elementary schools, discusses the current stage of curriculum construction in primary English education and points out the following three problems; (1) What is the basic building unit with which to construct a primary English curriculum? In many pilot schools, some activities or tasks have emerged as important concepts and components within curriculum designing. Elementary school teachers have introduced various activities or tasks, which have never been carried out in secondary English lessons. Although "activity/task-based syllabus design" has been under experimental conditions, it is of interest to see how children themselves learn English in terms of "activity" or "task". (2) What is the relationship among English learning, international understanding and integrated studies? In curriculum designing, some pilot schools put emphasis on international understanding, some don't, and others plan to combine English learning or international understanding and some other subject areas into an integrated study. Through these challenging trials, it must be clarified how English learning contributes to international understanding and integrated studies. (3) Is there continuity between the primary and secondary English curriculum? Although both primary and secondary English curricula are basically communication-oriented, there is a distinction of teaching and learning methodology between these two. The former adopts an integrated approach with an emphasis on fluency, and the latter an analytic approach with an emphasis on accuracy.

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