Monitoring and Assessing a Japanese FLES Program: Ambiance and Achievement

Abstract

This article reports on the third year of an ongoing research project to document and evaluate an innovative foreign language in elementary schools (FLES) program in Japanese for Grades K–5 (N=195). We report 2 strands of research. First, concerned with school and community ambiance, we attempted to describe systematically the attitudes and perceptions of various constituents of this curricular innovation. Second, we investigated the language achievement of children in Grades K–5 for oral proficiency, vocabulary development, and social uses of language. During a 3‐year period, the children, regardless of age, made considerable progress in foreign language proficiency and developed positive attitudes toward language learning. Innovative language programs in the elementary school can move beyond their often marginalized status to become regularized features of the overall school curriculum.