The fervent yearning of the public to speak English, the growing demand from business for personnel skilled in the language, the hard-sell approaches advanced by English conversation schools and vendors of teaching materials-all this and more are adding to the confusion over English education in this country.

With such factors dominating the scene, a massive push toward teaching English in elementary school has emerged.

At the center of this whirlwind is the thinking-actually more akin to a creed-that ``sooner is better'' when it comes to starting foreign-language lessons.

There are definitely cases to support the idea. When company employees are stationed in the United States, for example, younger children pick up English with greater speed and competency than anyone else in the family.

We must remember, however, that this is because these youngsters are immersed in English, day in and day out. It shouldn't be hard to understand that the doctrine that children will become fluent in English by studying the language at school for a few hours a week is little more than wishful thinking.

There are very few follow-up studies geared to measure the effects of early-start English education. Accordingly, there is no clear evidence to support the case for initiating English from elementary school.

It would be the height of recklessness to launch English language programs at public grade schools nationwide in the absence of such supporting arguments.

There are also those who insist that, at the very least, getting started earlier is better for language pronunciation. However, without proper understanding of the grammar involved, it will not be possible to mentally formulate and express one's own thinking.

And the issues hardly stop there. Let's say that the decision was made to teach English at the elementary school level. What are the chances of being able to throw together effective teaching programs at the drop of a hat?

Judging from the results of a pioneering case in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward, it appears that homeroom teachers would play the focal role in the plan.

It must be pointed out, however, that very few elementary school faculty members hold English teaching certificates.

Then again, 90 percent of all elementary schools in Japan currently provide instruction designed to give students some form of contact with English.

In this regard, our institute has received about 200 e-mails from elementary school teachers nationwide. They include frequent complaints about how their inability to speak English creates difficulties in communicating and coordinating with the non-Japanese teachers hired to teach the classes.

The educators also express other concerns, especially that instruction by faculty members weak in English will turn off many students to the subject from the start.

Although such teachers may rely on audio materials for teaching English pronunciation, it is difficult to believe that these faculty members can develop a suitable command of the language without specialized training.

For that matter, there is also no shortage of junior and senior high school and university instructors who experience problems with their own English language skills. Indeed, there is a pressing need to improve the quality of faculty training programs, promote re-education for existing teachers and take other strategic steps.

Piling the re-education of grade school teachers, extra training for newly hired faculty members and other work onto these existing demands will only compound the difficulties.

In the first place, with public elementary schools having moved to a five-day school week, the curriculum itself has become congested. Concerns have been expressed about declining scholarship, with the finger pointed at the 30-percent slash in learning content within the education ministry's official guidelines for school teaching. Any attempt to squeeze in English teaching would result in shaving off more of the already dwindling time available for other subjects.

In my view, it is not the introduction of elementary school English that needs to be studied now. Rather, it is the overall state of English education being offered through the university years.

The bedrock foundation of reading comprehension is being shaken at its very roots. Despite this grim truth, the stress has been placed on the goal of mastering practical English communication skills through games, everyday conversation and other means. Rather than superficial English skills, I feel there is a need for more fundamental language education.

In a related vein, we need to stop turning out adults who feel threatened and worthless just because they can't understand a question posed to them in English on the street. Toward that end, learning must foster the awareness that linguistic function is a quality allotted equally to all human beings, and that no pecking order of relative superiority exists between the individual languages themselves.

As a specific case in point, it could be pointed out to students that the Japanese phrase ``a policeman chasing after a thief on a bicycle'' does not make it clear who is riding the bicycle-the thief or the policeman. Both interpretations are possible.

Next, we can explain how this concept is expressed in German, Swahili or other languages, while comparing the different sentence structures. With that having been explained, English could at last be brought into the picture.

Using such class content as a primer for demonstrating just how profound language really is can serve to generate interest in English as well, and inspire greater learning efforts. By its very nature, elementary school English will exert a key impact on all subsequent learning of that language-at the middle school, high school and university levels alike. It is for this very reason that this issue must be discussed in calm and logical fashion.

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Yukio Otsu is a professor at the Keio University's Institute of Cultural and Linguistics Studies, where he specializes in the cognitive science of language. He is also a director at the English Linguistic Society of Japan.(IHT/Asahi: November 15,2004)