Towards the development of linguistic ability: improvement and enhancement in the new Course of Study by MEXT, Japan

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has been working on improving reading comprehension ability and linguistic activities for children after releasing PISA 2003 survey results. For example, MEXT had announced “Improvement Program of Reading Comprehension” and “Teacher’s reference materials for Improvement of Reading Comprehension”, established “Linguistic Power Development Council Meeting”, revised the “Course of Study” Guidelines in 2008 and 2009. Based on being pointed out of the issues related to reading comprehension of children, MEXT emphasizes the improvement of linguistic abilities as the basis of learning in the new Course of Study Guidelines. To achieve this purpose, MEXT focuses on the following issues: 1) Improvement of language activities in each subject, 2) Improvement and enhancement of guidance on language activites and vocabulary in Japanese, 3) Establishment of information management courses.