Teacher education for Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) : The scope for the integration of data-driven learning

Abstract

In 2013, Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT) announced a reform of English education in order for future generations to be prepared for the increasingly globalized world (MEXT, 2013). Consequently, it is required for universities that offer the official teacher training courses to review the course contents in order to correspond to the changes suggested in the plan. Teacher training courses for primary English education is no exception, as the reform contains changes in English education at primary level from 2020 (MEXT, 2013; 2017a; 2017b). Since it has been reported that teacher factor plays an important role in learning outcome of young learners (YLs) (e.g. Aukrust 2007; Graham, Courtney, Marinis, and Tonkyn, 2017), it is obvious that the teacher education at university level should help prospective teachers to be prepared to teach English at primary schools. This paper discusses the possibility of incorporating data-driven learning into the teacher training courses in order to deepen the prospective YL teachers’understanding and awareness of English language usages which are required in their future teaching context.