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Ideologies of English in Japan: the perspective of policy and pedagogy

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Abstract

This paper examines the ideologies of language which underpin mainstream applied linguistic research and educational policy generation for English language teaching in Japan. Over the last 30 years a burgeoning literature has devoted itself to the task of researching and directing English language education in Japan, but has, by its own admission, had little success in effecting much change in what it perceives as a system incompatible with effective language learning. By surveying prominent academic studies on this topic and analysing these with reference to the policy reforms with which they interact, the paper makes explicit the linguistic and socio-political assumptions upon which this work is based and suggests that a critical awareness of these ideologies can assist in the production of sustainable language regulation.

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Abbreviations

CLT:

Communicative language teaching

ELT:

English language teaching

JALT:

Japan Association of Language Teachers

JET:

Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program

MEXT:

Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology

TESOL:

Teaching English as a second or foreign language

TEFL:

Teaching English as a foreign language

TOEFL:

Test of English as a foreign language

TOEIC:

Test of English as an international language

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  1. Centre for Language and Communication, Faculty of Education and Language Studies, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AL, UK

    Philip Seargeant

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Seargeant, P. Ideologies of English in Japan: the perspective of policy and pedagogy. Lang Policy 7, 121–142 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-007-9079-y

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