1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910815711503321

Autore

Seargeant Philip

Titolo

The idea of English in Japan : ideology and the evolution of a global language / / Philip Seargeant

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bristol ; ; Buffalo, : Multilingual Matters, 2009

ISBN

9786612465932

1-84769-203-6

1-282-46593-7

1-84769-691-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xv, 188 p. ) : ill

Collana

Critical language and literacy studies ; ; 3

Disciplina

428.007/052

Soggetti

English language - Study and teaching - Japanese speakers

English philology - Study and teaching - Japan

Second language acquisition

English language - Japan

English language - Globalization

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Concept of English as a Global Language -- 3. Language Ideology and Global English -- 4. English in Japan: The Current Shape of the Debate -- 5. Globalization: ‘Enriching Japanese Culture Through Contact with Other Cultures’ -- 6. Authenticity: ‘More English than England Itself’ -- 7. Aspiration: ‘Enhancing Lifestyles and Living Out Dreams’ -- 8. The Unknown Language -- 9. Rival Ideologies in Applied Linguistics -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

This book examines the ways in which English is conceptualised as a global language in Japan, and considers how the resultant language ideologies – drawn in part from universal discourses; in part from context-specific trends in social history – inform the relationships that people in Japan have towards the language. The book analyses the specific nature of the language’s symbolic meaning in Japan, and how this meaning is expressed and negotiated in society. It also discusses



how the ideologies of English that exist in Japan might have implications for the more general concept of ‘English as a global language’. To this end it considers the question of what constitutes a ‘global’ language, and how, if at all, a balance can be struck between the universal and the historically-contingent when it comes to formulating a theory of English within the world.