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Effecting Change in English Language Teaching

Exposing Collaborators and Culprits in Japan

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  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Glenn Toh

    1. Language and Communication Centre, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

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  • Presents the case for looking critically at ingrown and ingrained practices in English Language Teaching (ELT)
  • Uncovers the obscured practices, undisclosed agendas and financially and ideologically motivated (inter)actions of various actors in ELT situations
  • Includes a case study of the establishment of an English as a Lingua Franca programme at a Japanese university

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
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  2. Introduction: Peons, Sopirs and Translanguagers

    • Glenn Toh
    Pages 1-19

  3. Openness, Closedness and Institutional Change

    • Glenn Toh
    Pages 21-49

  4. Oppression, Obscuration and Ideology

    • Glenn Toh
    Pages 51-71

  5. Japan and the (Cultural) Politics of (In)authenticity

    • Glenn Toh
    Pages 73-106

  6. English Teaching: Instantiations of Positivistic Forms of Convergence and Oppressiveness

    • Glenn Toh
    Pages 107-139

  7. Interrogating Language as Social and Ideological Construct

    • Glenn Toh
    Pages 141-176

  8. A Narrative of Intransigence and Disingenuousness

    • Glenn Toh
    Pages 177-208

  9. Conclusion: Managerializing the Status Quo as Security Blanket

    • Glenn Toh
    Pages 209-229

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 231-236
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Keywords

About this book

This book is about the challenges that come with initiatives to develop a more humanized, intersectional and negotiable landscape for English Language Teaching (ELT). It sets out to problematize ingrown and ingrained practices in English teaching, weaving together obscured practices, undisclosed agendas and ideologically motivated (inter)actions to expose the unspoken agendas at work. Drawing on his own experience of being part of an English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) programme at an urban Japanese university, the author presents a case for rethinking language education in Japan. This book will be of interest to applied linguists, language teachers and teacher trainers, cultural anthropologists, and anyone interested in the cultural politics of education, especially language education.

Reviews

“This thought-provoking book is likely to have a significant impact on language teaching professionals and their practice in Japanese contexts … . the book offers refreshing insights into the hope and possibility for transformative change and makes highly convincing cases against protectors and defenders of the status quo … .” (Natsuno Funada, International Studies in Sociology of Education, October 27, 2021)

“This book artfully unpacks how English language education in Japan both shapes and reflects the sociohistorical perpetuation of essentialized and idealized Japaneseness and Otherness (imagined as idealized nativeness in English) within Japanese society, resulting in the ignoring and/or active suppression of: a) Japan’s history as a place of diversity and hybridity, as well as b) the complexity of negotiated identity and interaction occurring in and beyond Japan. Despite the formidable challenges named, the author endeavors to pave a dialogic path towards transformative change within Japan and (language) education therein, as well as in settings around the globe.” (Associate Professor Nathanael Rudolph, Mukogawa Women's University, Japan)

“This fresh and incisive book provides readers with a fantastically articulated look at the principles, practices and powers that maintain the status quo of foreign language education within Japanese Higher Education. As a critical reader with 20 years’ teaching experience in Japan, this book still proved to be an entertaining and thoroughly poignant eye-opener as to what lies beneath.” (Professor Damian J. Rivers, Future University Hakodate, Japan)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Language and Communication Centre, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Glenn Toh

About the author

Glenn Toh is Senior Lecturer at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has published widely in the areas of language, ideology, power and language education and maintains a keen interest in developments in the area.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Effecting Change in English Language Teaching

  • Book Subtitle: Exposing Collaborators and Culprits in Japan

  • Authors: Glenn Toh

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15261-1

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-15260-4Published: 14 May 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-15261-1Published: 02 May 2019

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XV, 236

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Language Education, Language Teaching, Multilingualism, English

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