TOKYO -- Japanese middle schoolers taking a nationwide English proficiency test answered only 12.4% of questions correctly on average in the speaking section, data released Monday shows, suggesting that students are struggling to express themselves in the language.
This marked the second time, and the first in four years, that English speaking skills were covered along with Japanese and math on the National Assessment of Academic Ability given annually to students in the third year of middle school. The exam was administered to about 1.9 million students across 28,000 public and private schools nationwide.
