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This cutting edge collection considers how the Japanese language functions as a key element of Japanese soft power in Asia. Within Japanese culture itself, the promotion of language has been an area of ambivalence. This interdisciplinary book looks across the fields of language policy, language teaching, socio-linguistics, cultural studies and history to identify the links between Japan’s language policies and broader social, economic and political processes. It examines the challenges that undermine Japan’s potential soft power by identifying a gap between the “official Japan” portrayed by the Japanese government and the “cultural Japan” that foreigners perceive. It also reveals...
This book probes for a post-native-speakerist future. It explores the nature of (English and Japanese) native-speakerism in the Japanese context, and possible grounds on which language teachers could be employed if native-speakerism is rejected (i.e., what are the language teachers of the future expected to do, and be, in practice?). It reveals the problems presented by the native-speaker model in foreign language education by exploring individual teacher-researcher narratives related to workplace experience and language-based inclusion/exclusion, as well as Japanese native-speakerism in the teaching of Japanese as a foreign language. It then seeks solutions to the problems by examining the concept of post-native-speakerism in relation to multilingual perspectives and globalisation generally, with a specific focus on education.
Despite unsubstantiated claims of best practice, the division of language-teaching professionals on the basis of their categorization as ‘native-speakers’ or ‘non-native speakers’ continues to cascade throughout the academic literature. It has become normative, under the rhetorical guise of acting to correct prejudice and/or discrimination, to see native-speakerism as having a single beneficiary – the ‘native-speaker’ – and a single victim – the ‘non-native’ speaker. However, this unidirectional perspective fails to deal with the more veiled systems through which those labeled as native-speakers and non-native speakers are both cast as casualties of this questionable bi...
Why has English language proficiency in Japan remained so low in comparison to other Asian countries? Has Vietnam attempted to improve English language teaching because ASEAN has adopted English as its working language? Why do English language teachers struggle with curriculum changes imposed by governments in order to make them competitive in the international community? Do professional development (PD) programs actually meet the needs of teachers? This book addresses issues surrounding these questions by examining how the Japanese and Vietnamese governments have approached and defined the PD of English language teachers and how such PD programs have been delivered. It further analyses the ...
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View of the pleasure garden with tropical colored illustrations. This is exactly a lost-paradise colored with various color makes you feel blithe.
This volume investigates the policy and practice of medium of instruction at different levels of education in Asian polities including Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Maldives, Nepal, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. The chapters provide an informed understanding of the context, process, actors, goals and outcomes of medium of instruction policies from a language policy and planning perspective. The volume has an emphasis on the exploration of medium of instruction in action which brings into focus the perspectives of micro policy enactors including teachers, students, and parents in the local context, generating crucial empirical insights. This critical analysis of the...
“a powerful, well informed argument for the importance of pluralism… This book will tell young researchers what they need to know about doing educational research; it will encourage experienced researchers to see their own practice in context. It is a profound book that everyone should read." – Professor Jane Gaskell, Dean, OISE, University of Toronto “This brilliant guide to judging educational research examines the most basic questions about research practice that most people think are settled, and reveals them as problematic… Humorous, sharp, and thoughtful, this readable inquisition explores from differing perspectives ‘what does good education research look like’ in multip...
This new edition of takes a fresh look at enduring questions at the heart of fundamental debates about the role of schools in society, the links between education and employment, and conflicts between linguistic minorities and "mainstream" populations.