Review of Asian and Pacific Studies No.37 139 What English Language Means to the Japanese: English Language Education and Language Policies * Fumi Morizumi Abstract Everyone has something to say about English, or English language education, in Japan, but why is it such a big issue any way? The paper tries to answer the question by looking at recent discussions on English language education and examining possible problems with the guidelines provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Recent introduction of English language education into the primary education, as well as enterprises announcing their English-as-their-official-language policy, has invited many laypersons, as well as educators, to claim why English does (or does not) matter. Discussions around those new policies seem to revolve around ambivalent discourses: English-as-an-asset discourse and English-as-a-threat discourse. Such ambivalence is nothing new. In fact, it has always been found in the history of English language education since the Meiji era and in Japan s language policy. Therefore, revisiting the history will help understand where Japan currently stands. The speed of recent globalization in business spheres only helped fuel the discussions on what kind of English language education should be provided in schools. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Education has not come up with a successful guideline. The major problem, as many researchers point out, is the lack of general principles of what students are expected to attain. In other words, there is no concrete explanation on what kinds of English language proficiencies the students are expected to acquire, and for what purposes. Without any concrete language policy to speak of, there is little wonder why people are left with feelings of disappointment and frustration. Trolling relevant literature also led the researcher to other possible aspects such as the history of English language examinations in Japan, the issue of ethnolinguistic identities, and the status of English as an international lingua franca, also suggesting that collecting and listening to the learners voice is necessary to take the research to the next step. * Associate Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Seikei University
140 TOEIC 10 2011 4 2012 2010 2 2007: 2011 3 11 ** 2011 2010 2 2011 4 2011 3 11
141 2011 4 SLA 2006: 3 2003 12 300 ibid. 2006 2003 2005 3 13 2006 102 2005 2006 2006: 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 ibid. 2006 2009 2009 5 600
142 2001!? 2010 2012 3 TOEIC700 2010 6 24 2010 6 30 2012 2 ibid. 2011 lingua franca World Englishes 2011 2010 3 3 2011: 2-9 3 Phillipson 1992 Linguistic Imperialism 1975 Lummis native speaker 2003: 64-66 2003; 2005 2010 ALT ALT JET ALT ALT 23 2005: 177
143 lingua franca 2001; 2010 1980 Strevens 1980/1992; Kachru 1985, 1988; McArthur 1987; Görlach 1988, cited in Jenkins 2009 1971 PDF 2013 97 2009 2009 2006, 2009 2009 2009: 131 2009: 132-133 1975 12.4% 1985 10% 1992 7.9% 1996 8.3% 1998 2007 6.4% 2009, 2009 OECD 2008 9 9 OECD GDP 3.4% 2009 2009: 134
144 2005 2002 2001 SLA 2005: 152-157 2002 2003 1 15 3 3 2 2
145 TOEIC990 2003 2002 ibid. 2009 TOEFL TOEIC ibid.: 19 2009 2010 7 2010 7 23 9 2011 1 1 2009 Englishnization 2012 Englishnization
146 2011 ISS 2011 10 ISS 10 3 2 7 MBA 2003 43.1% 4 9 2009: 18 2009 2009 2008 2009, 2011
147 2010 TOEIC 1970 Guiora 1983; Gardner 1985; Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope 1991 2011 ibid.: 168 ibid.: 170-173 ibid.: 173-182 Phillipson 1992 1857 Bahasa Malaysia Jenkins 2009 ethnic identity Jenkins 2009: 59 21 2008 2001; 2011; 2011
148 Pavlenko 2006 language selves a single self ibid.: 6 1039 731 308 Pavlenko 26% 30% 33% 88% elite bilinguals ibid.: 7 self ibid.: 7-8 different selves many emotional responses ibid.: 9 YES; OOOOOOOOOh yes! absolutely, definitely ibid.: 10 65% different selves package one-language - one-personality discourse ibid.: 12 Pavlenko Pavlenko Pavlenko 2006 one-language - one-personality 1 10 4 bilingual and bicultural identities Kanno 2003 1 19 2012 5 17
149 Sapir-Whorf hypothesis EFL English as a foreign language Kachru 1992: 356 EFL Dörnyei self Dörnyei 2009 2007 2008 2011 lingua franca Jenkins 2007; Jenkins 2009; Seidlhofer 2011 Kachru 1992 EFL 2 2 Kachru 1992 ENL English as a native language ESL English as a second language EFL English as a foreign language 3 EFL EFL Jenkins 2009: 20-21 EFL ESL
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