Kayoko Hashimoto - Böcker

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 bifurcation. This volume documents such complexities and aims to fill the void currently observable within mainstream academic literature in the teaching of both English, and Japanese, foreign language education. By identifying how the construct of Japanese native-speaker mirrors that of the ‘native-speaker’ of English, the volume presents a revealing insight into language teaching in Japan. Further, taking a problem-solving approach, this volume explores possible grounds on which language teachers could be employed if native-speakerism is rejected according to experts in the fields of intercultural communicative competence, English as a Lingua Franca and World Englishes, all of which aim to replace the ‘native-speaker’ model with something new.

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 impact of policy changes on individual teachers and explores how PD can help teachers to implement such changes effectively at the micro-level. PD of language teachers or language teacher education is relatively new as a field of inquiry in Applied Linguistics. By including case studies of Japan and Vietnam in the one volume, this book embarks on the challenging task of demonstrating that PD is an essential element of the successful implementation of language policies in Asia, where World Englishes have been shaped by distinct local contexts.

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 bifurcation. This volume documents such complexities and aims to fill the void currently observable within mainstream academic literature in the teaching of both English, and Japanese, foreign language education. By identifying how the construct of Japanese native-speaker mirrors that of the ‘native-speaker’ of English, the volume presents a revealing insight into language teaching in Japan. Further, taking a problem-solving approach, this volume explores possible grounds on which language teachers could be employed if native-speakerism is rejected according to experts in the fields of intercultural communicative competence, English as a Lingua Franca and World Englishes, all of which aim to replace the ‘native-speaker’ model with something new.

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 impact of policy changes on individual teachers and explores how PD can help teachers to implement such changes effectively at the micro-level. PD of language teachers or language teacher education is relatively new as a field of inquiry in Applied Linguistics. By including case studies of Japan and Vietnam in the one volume, this book embarks on the challenging task of demonstrating that PD is an essential element of the successful implementation of language policies in Asia, where World Englishes have been shaped by distinct local contexts.

This edited book calls for a rethink of the current Asian language learning paradigm that frames Asian languages as strategic and economic tools, rather than an inherent part of Australian society.

This cutting edge collection considers how the Japanese language functions as a key element of Japanese soft power in Asia.

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.

This cutting edge collection considers how the Japanese language functions as a key element of Japanese soft power in Asia.