1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910253351603321

Autore

Toh Glenn

Titolo

English as Medium of Instruction in Japanese Higher Education [[electronic resource] ] : Presumption, Mirage or Bluff? / / by Glenn Toh

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2016

ISBN

3-319-39705-2

Edizione

[1st ed. 2016.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XI, 213 p.)

Disciplina

420

Soggetti

English language

Applied linguistics

Japanese language

Language and education

Literacy

English

Applied Linguistics

Japanese

Language Education

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Chapter 1: Workplace narrative -- Chapter 2: Social and political challenges -- Chapter 3: Power and Ideology -- Chapter 4: Academic Knowledge and Meaning Making -- Chapter 5: Positioning EMI in Japan in the context of critical applied linguistics -- Chapter 6: Narrow and Particularised Understandings of English -- Chapter 7: EMI and EAP at crisis point -- Chapter 8: Reasons for the failure of EMI and EAP.

Sommario/riassunto

This book addresses the question of why Japanese universities would be offering courses taught in English instead of their longstanding use of Japanese as the language of instruction and academic inquiry. Through an ideological deconstruction of the cultural-politics of such a move, it becomes apparent that what is advertised on university websites may not stand to close scrutiny or be as substantial as might



be assumed. The author provides an analysis of power laden political and ideological challenges as they apply to the current surge of English-medium courses at Japanese universities and unveils the underlying presence of conceptual and systemic contradictions that appear to accompany this relatively novel and perplexing phenomenon. Written from the perspective of an insider in Japanese higher education, the book offers incisive perceptions as well as startling revelations of a system that is obliged to adapt to challenges that come with the low birth rate and the rapidly encroaching forces of globalization.