☆English education at elementary schools☆

I read the book "Why is English education needed at elementary schools?"(The real title is "Shougakkou de Naze Eigo? - Gakkou Eigo Kyouiku o Kangaeru") by Torikai Kumiko and Otsu Yukio.I am interested in the English education at a elementary school, so I enjoyed reading the book. I think this book has many important messages for us.

The two authors are opposing introducing the English education into elementaly schools.
Why are they opposing? They said there are some important points that explain the reason.

1.Early start is best ??

It is often said that it is good for us to start to study English as fast as we can. That is to say, children can master foreign languages more easier than adults. So to start the English education at elementaly schools is effective way.

But the author said this thinking cannot be applied to the English education at elementaly schools. Because the author said, if a child stayed a country that the target language are spoken as a mother tongue, the child could master the language easier than adult. But at elementary schools in Japan, children are surrounded by Japanese( language) , and when they are not in English class, they cannot hear English.

So the thinking that children can learn English if they study English few hours a week at elementaly schools is merely a illusion.

2.What is real Communicative competence??

It is also said that the purpose of English education at elementaly schools is to foster "commnicative competence".

The author said communicative competence include 4 competence.
　1. grammatical competence
　2. sociolinguistic competence
3. discourse competence
4. strategic competence

And the author said that it is possible for children to get these communicative competence if they start to study English from in junior high schools.

3.What should we do at elementaly schools??

The author said the most important thing is to lay the foundations of intercultural communication. So the Japanese education are most important.That includes the following.
1. To improve the sensibility to languages.
2. To speak what they think in Japanese.
3. To have a logical thinking.
4. To have a will to tell what they think. etc.

The author said anyway the most important thing at elementaly school is not the English education but the Japanese(mother tongue) education.
I agree with the idea. To do English activity is good, but to change English activity into English as a subject is ineffective, I think.