Navigating English Policy and Practice in Japan’s Primary Schools, livre ebook

First book to examine the introduction of English language education into Japan’s public elementary schools

This book investigates recent changes in language education policy and the implementation of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Japan’s public elementary schools. Through interviews with policymakers, school principals and elementary school teachers, it examines the challenges in creating, transmitting and applying this new language policy. It reveals not only the contents of language policy documents, but the political and socioeconomic rationale for introducing EFL into Japan’s national curriculum. This book will aid understanding of various macro-level discourses, such as progressive and conservative views of schooling in Japan and how globalization has affected attitudes toward English education. It will be of interest to researchers in language policy and planning, second language acquisition, second language teacher education and Japanese studies.

Acknowledgments

Note on Name Conventions

Introduction: Ethnographic Insights into Elementary English Language Policy in Japan

Chapter 1. Language Classrooms: Competing Ideologies on Language, Culture and Identity

Chapter 2. The Politics of Policy Formulation: Acceptance and Resistance

Chapter 3. The Players: MEXT, the Board of Education and Schools 

Chapter 4. Policy or How the Ministry of Education Controls Language Learning

Chapter 5. The Role of Textbooks

Chapter 6. Teachers Bringing English Language Policies to Life

Chapter 7. English Lessons Reimagined: Making Policy More Meaningful for Young Learners

Conclusion

Appendices

References

Index