It's not all about English! The problem of language foregrounding in English-medium programmes in Japan

ABSTRACT

The number of universities offering English-medium instruction (EMI) is growing in Japan. Yet, academic programmes taught in English have not reached their full potential. One powerful barrier to the improvement of these programmes is a misperception that English language proficiency is the defining factor for success. After outlining the growth of EMI in Japan, this article considers the central challenge of faculty engagement as a key factor governing the development and sustainability of internationalisation activities. Problems involving the conceptual conflation of EMI and English learning and debates regarding English proficiency for EMI programme success are discussed. Interview data from faculty members involved in three Japanese university programmes demonstrates a foregrounding of the role of the English language and English proficiency is overly attributed as a barrier to programme excellence. Specifically, these misperceptions impede faculty engagement and prevent the implementation of quality faculty development efforts. This article proposes that less emphasis on language and greater attention to pedagogical and intercultural skills development could benefit EMI in Japan.

KEYWORDS:

• English-medium instruction
• internationalisation
• higher education
• Japan
• programme implementation
• language beliefs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Annette Bradford http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9025-8440

Notes

1 All 13 of the G30 universities received grades ranging from ‘S’ to ‘B’. Where ‘S’ indicates that MEXT judges the institution's EMI efforts to be outstanding, and expects it to achieve the project goals; ‘A’ indicates that the institution can achieve the project goals by continuing its past/current efforts; and ‘B’ indicates that in order to attain project objectives, advice must be taken, and additional improvements and efforts are required to be reported. The sole institution which received a grade of ‘S’ was not available to take part in this research study.

2 Japanese returnee students are those of Japanese citizenship who have spent a large part of their lives living and attending school overseas.

3 See for example the professional development course schedules provided by The Education University of Hong Kong (2017) and Regent’s University London (2018).