The National Curriculum Standards for elementary school are defined by MEXT as:
Grade 3 and 4:
To develop pupils’ competencies that form the foundation of communication as follows through language activities such as listening and speaking in foreign languages while activating the Approaches in communication in foreign languages.
(1) To develop the pupils’ understanding of languages and cultures through various experiences by using foreign languages, notice the differences between Japanese language and foreign languages such as in sounds and become familiar with the sounds and basic expressions of foreign languages.
(2) To cultivate the base for the ability to communicate their own thoughts and feelings by listening and speaking about familiar and simple matters in foreign languages.
(3) To deepen the understanding of languages and the cultures in its background through foreign languages and cultivate the attitude of attempting to proactively communicate in foreign languages while giving consideration to someone they communicate with.
MEXT website, Foreign Language Activities
Grade 5 and 6:
To develop pupils’ competencies that form the base of communication as follows through language activities such as listening, reading, speaking and writing in foreign languages while activating the Approaches in communication in foreign languages.
(1) To notice the differences between Japanese language and foreign languages about the sounds and letters, vocabulary, expressions, sentence structures, functions of foreign languages, understand these knowledge, become familiar with reading and writing and acquire the basic skills that can be utilized in communication in listening, reading, speaking and writing.
(2) To cultivate the basic ability to be able to communicate their own thoughts and feelings by listening and speaking about familiar and simple matters in accordance with the purposes, scenes and situations where communication takes place, reading while guessing the meaning of the vocabulary and basic expressions of foreign languages for which they are sufficiently familiar with the sounds and writing with an awareness of word order.
(3) To deepen the understanding of the cultures in the background of foreign languages and cultivate the attitude of attempting to proactively communicate in foreign languages while giving consideration to others.
MEXT website, Foreign Languages