Speaker
Abstract section 1: Relevance
Since the 1990s, government policy has been aimed at boosting the global standing of Japan’s universities as well as nurturing more gurobaru jinzai (global human resources). However, the nationalism of Japan’s ruling elites caused the dominant response to the challenges of globalization to be one of defending Japanese national identity rather than embracing cosmopolitanism. In this environment, reformers struggling to improve the English language curriculum face resistance from people and institutions that are wary of students becoming too proficient in the language of the other.
Abstract section 3: Content/method
A wide body of academic literature was consulted in the following fields: Japanese government policy-making (McMurray 2018); language policy and language ideology (Heinrich 2012); applied linguistics; institutional theory (Breadon 2012); the anthropology and sociology of Japan (Poole 2010); and action research conducted by language teachers in Japanese schools and universities. From this literature the reasons for the failure of foreign language policy in Japan to achieve the government's internationalization aims were explored.
Abstract section 4: Outcomes/results
It was found that an insufficient number of Japanese students were achieving the standard of English proficiency required to study university subjects in the medium of English. This was due to a failure to fully appreciate the difficult of the language (from the point of view of monolingual Japanese young people), an insistence on mixed-ability teaching in schools, the washback effect of entrance exams, as well as teacher beliefs and attitudes. Because of the lack of students with advanced English, EMI programs in Japanese universities have struggled to fully realize their potential as spaces for genuine internationalization.
Abstract section 5: References
Breaden, Jeremy, 2012, “Internationalisation and Paternalist Micro-management in a Japanese University” in Japanese Studies Vol 32, No 1 May 2012.
Heinrich, Patrick, 2012, The Making of Monolingual Japan: Language Ideology and Japanese Modernity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
McMurray, D., 2018, “MEXT’s New Course of Study Guidelines on Active Learning” in The Language Teacher 42 (3).
Poole, Greg, 2010, The Japanese Professor: An Ethnography of a University Faculty
Sense Publishers, Rotterdam.
Abstract section 2: Contribution/research questions
At the level of government policy, the aims of internationalization policy and foreign language policy are supposed to be mutually reinforcing. How can it be explained, therefore, that in practice language policy actually undermines the aims of internationalization policy in the case of contemporary Japan?
| Title | National Language Policy and Japan’s Internationalization |
|---|---|
| Teaching Context | College and university education |