| Summary: | More than 90% of Japanese elementary schools now teach English conversation since it was introduced in 2002. The aim of teaching English conversation is to help students
become familiar with English and to facilitate their positive attitudes toward communication with people from different countries. The English conversation classes definitely require a number of teachers who can teach English to elementary school students, which has been the major problem. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the role of non-native English speaking teachers (NESTS) in elementary school English activities from the perspectives of communication, second-language acquisition, and teacher resources. A survey was conducted utilizing questionnaires and classroom observations. To survey the needs of language instructors that English learners have, questionnaires were distributed to English language learners from elementary schools to universities. Additionally, English classroom observations in elementary school were undertaken to investigate the effects of and difficulties in using NESTS in English activities. Based on the results, the paper discusses the merits of and difficulties in using NESTS in elementary school English activities.
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