>>5230207They study vocab lists and grammar like crazy but never practice using it, partly because most of the teachers wouldn't know how to grade writing exercises anyway.
I remember being a middle school ALT in several years ago and the English teacher asked me to check the writing portion for big test. It was extremely cut-and-dry: if they made 4 complete sentences from a series of set phrases, they got credit. Otherwise, nothing. There was one student who studied abroad and his English was near fluent. He decided to be fancy and make a COMPOUND SENTENCE using a comma, but that meant he only had 3 complete sentences, one short of the quota. I asked the teacher what to do, and he said to mark it wrong.
Unless they've changed anything in the past 10 years (lol), this is what English in Japanese schools is like.
