Untrained Foreign English Educators in Japan: A Discourse on Government Education Initiative and Perceptions from Japanese Teacher's on Efficacy in the Classroom

Social scientists, teacher leaders, and academics, both Japanese and non-Japanese, have attempted to examine the phenomenon of unlicensed foreigners in the Japanese classroom environment. In an attempt to open a discourse on the intentions and subsequent failures of the JET programme, and to identify specific perceptions of Japanese teachers in relation to JET, a historical analysis of the JET programme coupled with a Likert Scale survey was utilized. In this ordinal scale survey, the opinions of both experienced Japanese teachers and inexperienced Japanese teachers on the challenges of working in conjunction with untrained foreign instructors during their career, were used to gauge teacher's attitudes and opinions. Results would suggest that teacher's with longer time in the field of education have stronger opinions towards untrained foreign educators in the classroom, while less experienced teachers are more apt to working with untrained foreign educators without expressing dissatisfaction.