The Idea of English in Japan

Ideology and the Evolution of a Global Language

Philip Seargeant

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781847696915
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Sociolinguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

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.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Language as a Concept

The postulate of this book is that language exists not only as a medium of expression but also as a concept; that we talk not only via language but also about language; and that, in fact, our use of language is always influenced by the ideas we form of language. Such ideas are therefore of interest from a linguistic point of view (in that metalinguistic reflection is an aspect of all language practice), but they also exist as an index of beliefs about the place and significance that language has within the lived human experience. That is to say, ideas about language always reflect the ideas we have about ourselves as social beings. They are, in a sense, a metaphor for our manner of participation in social process. And thus, in the early 21st century, the idea of English as a global language is an idea also of a globalized world and the idea of the challenges this ushers in for contemporary society.

Taking this contention as its point of departure, the book provides a theoretical examination of English within a globalized context, considering specifically the manner in which the language is conceptualized, and how the resultant language ideologies – drawn in part from universal discourses; in part from context-specific trends in social history – inform the relationship that people take toward the language.

The design of the book is broadly twofold. Its nucleus consists of an investigation of the way in which English is conceptualized in contemporary Japanese society. Analysis is made of the nature of such conceptualization as it occurs in two forms: talk about the language (that is, discourses of the language and discourses that cite the language); and the positioning and presentation of the language within the sociocultural environment. Given that Japan is not an expressly multilingual society, or at least, does not self-attest to being such (Maher & Yashiro, 1995), the focus is not solely on the way that English usage is manifest in everyday verbal utterance (a sociolinguistics of ‘Japanese English’), but on the way in which it is displayed as part of a far wider field of semiotic practice (what might conventionally be understood as ‘nonlinguistic’ usage), and how a discourse of the language is constructed by the voices and actions of the society. The study thus considers two issues: the specific nature of the language's symbolic meaning in Japan; and how this meaning is expressed and negotiated in society. Thus, a detailed mapping of the ideological frameworks around and involving English within Japan is carried out.

The other branch of the book is a discussion of how the specific symbolic meanings on show here might have implications for the concept of ‘English as a global language’, and how the concerns that motivate research into and regulation of the English language within the world today can incorporate these theoretical implications into their wider project. To this end, the book 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 language use within the world. This question, it is suggested, is of fundamental importance if applied linguistics is to contribute to sustainable, productive and ethically aware regulation of the language, and it thus provides the skeletal structure for the book as a whole.

The twofold focus of the book is a product of the general theoretical approach that I am pursuing. The contention is that research into and theory generation for English as a global language must combine general linguistic precepts with an ethnographic appraisal of the way in which the language is conceptualized within a given community. The hypothesis is that meanings associated with the language (meanings produced by the act of conceptualization) are culturally constructed within the society in which the language is operational, and are thus specific to that particular society rather than to the language itself. By describing and analyzing the diverse language practices associated with English in one particular (national) context, therefore, the book is able to interrogate current applied linguistic theories about English's status as a global language, and consider their relevance to the actuality of the lived linguistic experience. Working inductively from data provided by the situated case study, it is hoped that the book can, thus, offer an alternative survey of the existence of a ‘global language’.

The Context of Japan

Any number of societies in which English is accorded a specific significance due to its global status will offer intriguing case studies for this type of investigation, and dedicated investigations of diverse contexts of use will always augment our understanding of the linguistic. That being said, the context of Japan and of Japanese society is a particularly compelling case for such a study, and there are a number of reasons for this. Chief among these is the intense fascination that is shown toward English in the country (McVeigh, 2002; Strevens, 1992); a fascination which is exhibited both in acts of cultural display (in advertising and popular culture, for example) and in forms of social practice (the recreational pursuit of English language education, for instance). Yet despite the strong visual and conceptual presence that English has within Japanese society, the language currently has no official status, nor, in relative terms, do the majority of citizens require any particular fluency in it for their everyday lives (Yano, 2008). Indeed, one of the most frequently voiced opinions about English in Japan is that the high profile of, and immense interest in, the language is not matched by an equally high level of communicative proficiency among the population. This situation has attracted a great deal of attention from the TESOL community (e.g. Gorsuch, 2001; Koike, 1978; LoCastro, 1996), and has been an influential factor in policy reform over the last two decades (MEXT, 2002; Monbusho, 1989). Yet, as Kubota (1998, 1999) has noted, little analysis has taken place of the wider cultural role that English plays as a structuring concept within Japanese society.

It is for these reasons that Japan offers an appealing case study for the global language paradigm, as conceptualizations of the language within the country are not concentrated solely around instrumental ambitions for a code for international communication, but instead are dispersed in diverse ways across the social landscape, presenting various conundrums for traditional applied linguistics theory. Here again, therefore, the book's focus is guided by twin ambitions: the first, a substantive study of English linguistic practice within the Japanese context itself; the second, the contrastive insights that such a study can offer for canonical conceptions of a global language. For just as anthropologists traditionally turn their gaze to communities that are not constrained to be standardized in the way that most postindustrial societies are, and in so doing are able to learn something of the diversity of human practice, so the linguist has much to learn from environs in which language practices appear uncharacteristic and where the very ontology of the object of study seems unfamiliar. Japan, I would suggest, provides just such a context.

Structure and Approach

The book is loosely divided into three parts to accommodate this dialectic between universal and historically contingent approaches to the concept of global English. The core of the book provides an interrogation of the beliefs that constitute the symbolic meaning attributed to English within Japan. Research into this question proceeds by means of an analysis of discourses about English and its status as a global force as they are articulated within Japanese society. It thus takes the form of detailed studies of critical cases of English language-linked social practice in the country. Within this context, the discourse of the language is deemed to be not merely textual articulation of ideas about the language, but also the deployment and arrangement of more general semiotic resources. These include material artifacts such as pictorial advertisements, the architecture and ornament of schools and tourist attractions and social practices such as the employment policies of educational institutions. All of these convey a specific attitude toward the language and thus contribute to its symbolic meaning, and as such are important sites for analysis. The research focuses primarily upon the two fields within society in which language-linked practice is most evident: namely, the field of education (at the level of both policy and practice) and the field of the media and popular culture.

The purpose throughout is to consider the meanings invested in the language, both in linguistic terms (the assumptions made about the nature of language as an essential aspect of human behavior), as well as in wider social terms (the relationships the language establishes with issues such as cultural identity), and the role it plays as a determining cultural force within society. The details of this context-specific case study can then be placed alongside conceptualizations of the language that are articulated in applied linguistics research and theory. To this end, the extended case study at the centre of the book is framed by a discussion of more general theoretical issues related to English as a global language.

The division and structure of this approach is as follows. Chapter 2 firstly rehearses the major issues summoned up by the promotion of the concept of English as a global language. It begins with a review of the current state of the debate over global English, before moving to two scenarios from contemporary Japan which present issues which mainstream approaches in applied linguistics appear ill-equipped to address. In response to the problematic highlighted in these two examples, Chapter 3 then introduces a ‘language ideologies’ framework as a means of anatomizing the multiplex nature of English's existence in the world today. It then proceeds to a consideration of how such an approach – which has been developed from work in linguistic anthropology – can be productively applied to the world Englishes paradigm.

Chapter 4 makes the shift from the generic to the specific, and introduces the site of the case study for the book by examining the ideologies of language which underpin mainstream applied linguistics research and foreign language education policy in Japan. The contention here is that a great amount of research and policy recommendation is structured around a relatively narrow spine of presuppositions about the role of a global language, and that because of this a certain determinism exists within debate about the language which disregards the actuality of demotic practice. Chapters 5–8 thus expand the field of view to provide a detailed empirical study of the wider Japanese situation beyond this ‘official’ discourse. Structured around three major ‘motifs’ in the ideology, these chapters examine the ways in which English is allied in popular cultural practice with certain salient concepts in the contemporary social landscape. Chapter 5 examines the role played by English in the relationship that Japan conducts with the rest of the world – that is to say, in the way that Japanese society deals with the challenges (both perceived and real) of ‘globalization’; Chapter 6 examines the way in which the concept of ‘authenticity’ operates as a key motif in the construction of the symbolic meaning of English and how the language plays a crucial role in evolving discourses of cultural identity; and Chapter 7 explores the relationship between ‘aspiration’ and the learning of English as a global language, identifying particularly a ‘desire for English’ as a key trope in the ideology of the language. Chapter 8 concludes this empirical study by considering the relationship between mainstream ideas of English language use within Japan – those focusing upon its use as a communicative code for the relay of ideational meaning – and the many other ways in which it is dispersed across the wider cultural landscape. In doing this, it examines how the barrier that is erected between sanctioned and unsanctioned English becomes a key site for ideological struggle over the language.

Following the situated case study, Chapter 9 returns to the issues articulated at the beginning of the book, and to the debates in contemporary applied linguistics over the global English question. The intention in this final chapter is to incorporate significant structural factors from the language ideologies that constitute the symbolic meaning of English in Japan into these contemporary debates about the function of a global language. Thus, it is hoped that two things can be achieved. Firstly, insights can be provided into how both language theory and linguistic ethnography can be drawn upon to produce a context-sensitive approach to the regulation of English within the context of globalization; and secondly, the study can expand our understanding of how the concept and practical reality of English as a global language operates in the world today.

Chapter 2
The Concept of English as a Global Language

Flaws in the Foundational Argument

There is a simple argument that runs as follows: Premise One – the English language is spread widely across the globe, with at present an estimated 1.5–2 billion speakers. Premise Two – a single language which will allow the peoples of the world to communicate freely with each other is a desirable thing. Conclusion – therefore English, already so widely spread, is the ideal candidate to fill such a role.

A version of this argument – either explicitly unpacked as above, or nested as an assumption within proposals about English as an international language – is to be found reiterated in a variety of settings and contexts. Here, for example, it provides the introductory rationale in an announcement made by the British prime minister, Gordon Brown (Prime Minister's Office, 2008), about a government-backed TESOL initiative:

The English language, like football and other sports, began here [in the UK] and has spread to every corner of the globe. Today more than a billion people speak English. It is becoming the world's language … the pathway of global communication and global access to knowledge. And it has become the vehicle for hundreds of millions of people of all countries to connect with each other, in countless ways. Indeed, English is much more than a language: it is a bridge across borders and cultures, a source of unity in a rapidly changing world.

Similarly, a policy recommendation from Japan's Ministry of Education (MEXT, 2003) states that:

Globalisation extends to various activities of individuals as well as to the business world. Each individual has increasing opportunities to come in contact with the global market and services, and participate in international activities …. In such a situation, English has played a central role as the common international language in linking people who have different mother tongues. For children living in the 21st century, it is essential for them to acquire communication abilities in English as a common international language.

Providing that one accepts the two premises upon which this oft-voiced argument is built (and the second one especially is the cause of some controversy), the conclusion appears to be sound. The logic involved is secure enough and seems to present a persuasive line of reasoning. There are, however, two possible flaws in this reasoning, and paradoxically they are both due to the way that language itself is being used in the framing of this argument. These two flaws are both related to how we are to define the key concepts upon which the argument rests – that is, how the words ‘English’ and ‘language’ are being used. In understanding the problems of (and possible solutions to) the issue of English as a global language, we need to begin with a detailed understanding of what is meant by both ‘English’ and ‘language’, for otherwise our elaborate plans may turn out to be built upon decidedly porous foundations.

English and the Concept of a Universal Language

English qualifies for description as a world language because it is so widely spread across the globe (Crystal, 1997). In the many different contexts in which it exists, however, it has markedly different incarnations. Indeed, it would be difficult to identify with any certainty the essential properties which unite these disparate varieties, other than maybe the appellation ‘English’ itself. And even then there are pidgins and creoles which do not share this name (Tok Pisin, for example, or Krio), as well as certain historical and regional varieties (the Inglis of 13th century Scotland is one, as are recent coinages such as Singlish in modern day Singapore). In addition, grammar varies from one variety to another so that identical forms can have divergent meanings, while the lexicon too presents ample opportunity for misunderstanding, allowing for scores of books dedicated to the recording of awkward discrepancies (Mencken's The American Language (1947) is a classic example). As such, perhaps Wittgenstein's concept of ‘family resemblances’ (1953) would be the best way to group the many different codes that are often included under the term English: there are amongst them several points of overlap, be they in grammar, lexicon or history, but the diversity is the result of constant change in all directions.¹ Because of this huge diversity it is extremely difficult – not to say hazardous – to generalize too assertively about English in the world today, and thus a true understanding of the form, function and status of the language in any one context must need begin with an examination of that particular context.

At the same time, however, this global spread of English has revitalized the concept of a universal language: one tongue to unite the disparate peoples of the world. Often today, if one talks of the teaching of English, it is with this concept hovering somewhere in the background, and explicit promotion of the language, especially in parts of the world where its influence is historically slight, draws directly upon this idea as one of the most positive factors in the language's favor. The perception is that to have English is to ...