The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology recently released a draft revision of curriculum guidelines for high school, stating that English classes will be taught primarily in English, The Japan Times has reported.

Under the draft guidelines, English teaching will focus more on speaking and listening, aiming at moving away from grammar and translation oriented teaching methods. The number of English words to be taught in high school will be increased to 1,800 from the current 1,300, bringing the total vocabulary learned in high school and junior high school to 3,000 words. The words will provide students with a vocabulary needed to communicate with people abroad and the level of the vocabulary will match that taught in China and South Korea, ministry officials said.

The draft guidelines stipulate that English classes should be used as a place for real English communication, indicating for the first time a policy of teaching high school English classes in English. The ministry explained that “teachers should first display an attitude of actively using English themselves,” in order to boost English conversation ability. Complicated explanations such as those about grammar may still be provided in Japanese.

However, concerns have been raised over large disparities in both teachers’ English ability and students’ level of understanding.

“This could embarrass particularly older teachers who know grammar well but are not very good at conversation,” one teacher said. “To tell the truth, I’m not confident enough to do everything in English. Will we be allowed to undergo training?” another asked. Educators are also worried that students who feel they aren’t good at English may turn away from the subject.

The ministry will accept opinions from the public on the changes before finalizing the new guidelines for announcement by next March. The new guidelines are expected to take effect for students entering high school in the academic year starting in April 2013.