Reforming English Teaching in Japanese Universities: Creating a Language Community

8/13/2019 Reforming English Teaching in Japanese Universities: Creating a Language Community

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Reform ing E nglish Teaching in J a pa nese U niversities:

Creat ing a L a ngua ge Community

Art hur Alla n B a iley

[The modern social sciences] increasingly see themselves as

marked out for the purpose of scientific ordering and control of

society. They have to do with scientific and methodical plan-

ning, direct ion, organisat ion, developmentin short wi th an

infinity of functions that, so to speak, determine from the out-

side the w hole of th e life of each individua l an d each group.

(H a ns-G eorg G a da mer, Trut h a nd Meth od ,1976, p. 39-40)

When he found himself talking about events in his l i fe that hap-

pened t w enty-five or t hirt y y ear s ea rlier, P hilip La rkin (1990) w rote:

It m a kes me breat hless.

It s like fa lling an d recovering

In h uge gesturin g loops

Through an empty sky. (p. 184)

These days, I share this sense of falling through time, and I find the

sensation at the same time frightening (dont let it stop too soon) andexhila ra ting (w ha t next!), but in my a ca demic li fe i t ha s perha ps made

me less patient with the excessively narrow focus we normally associ-

ate with journal articles, especial ly articles about language teaching,

wi th the i r ha i rspl i t t ing arguments , contr ived surveys and ted ious

over-ci tat ion. I or iginal ly set out here to wri te just such an ar t icle

describing a nd cri t iquing the situa tion of En glish la ngua ge tea ching in

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J a pa nese universities today , but I find myself wr iting more self -reflec-

tively-- in huge gesturing loops. Perhaps the time is ripe for me to

s u m u p m y o b s e r v a t i o n o f t h e e v o l u t i o n o f E n g l i s h t e a c h i n g i n

J a pan ese univers i t ies . Al though I ha ve seen much improvement in

orga nizat ion a nd methodology since I bega n t eaching in J a pan more

tha n t w enty-five yea rs a go, I suspect t ha t some cha nges now ha ppen-

ing ma y in th e long run prove detr imenta l to la ngua ge lear ning. These

tendencies include a too ready acceptance of imported methodologies,peda gogies a nd curricula tha t often lea d to frustra tion a nd resentm ent

in the cla ssroom. Let me ma ke clear from the beginning th a t I distin-

guish E nglish-langua ge teaching in J a panese universities from tha t of

other insti tutions of teaching, such as private languages schools or

high schools. Language schools teach language, but universities must

offer students a broader and more fulfilling learning experience that

can contr ibute to developing understanding wi thin themselves and

furthering freedom in their society. Therefore, in this essay, I want to

paint w ith a broa der brush, in a w a y tha t helps us view the big pic-

tur e (a nd mix a few meta phors as wel l). Firs t , I w i ll ta lk a l i t t le

a bout t he historical development of higher educat ion in J a pan , an d

th en about t he role J a pan ese universities play in the w ider society .

Finally, I will discuss some worrying recent tendencies of reform. This

mixture of hist ory, cont empora ry fa ct a nd persona l experience (some-

times referred to as cultural hermeneutics) is academically a little

unorth odox, but useful: educat ors ca n ga in a lterna tive perspectives on

w ha t is ha ppening in J a panese universities, an d find new horizons of

possibilities for t heir clas srooms.

Any sum ma ry of his tor ica l d i fferences betw een t he J a panese an d

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North American university traditions in this essay must necessari ly

be superficial, but my purpose here is simply to correct the common

unspoken a ssumption t ha t J a panese and North America n universities

a re roughly equivalent. They ar e not. Although J a pan h a s ha d univer-

sities at least twelve hundred years (Borgan 1984), since Heian times,

a nd t he history of universities in the West str etches even furt her ba ck

in time, it is only since the end of the Edo Period that the traditions

ha ve come to overla p in a ny serious w a y. The tra dition in th e Westhas roots in Greek rat ional ism, rhetoric , and Socrat ic quest ioning,

with a later infusion of Mediaeval Christian theology and metaphysi-

ca l questing for tr uth. The tra dition in J a pan comes out of a system

of Chinese imperial bureaucracy that stressed memorizing a canon of

mostly C onfucian texts t ha t empha size social ha rmony a nd deference

to authority (Andersen 1998, Amano 1990). In the Edo period, some

J a panese scholars bega n t o ta ke an interest in a cquiring Western sci-

entific know ledge, and eventua lly t he B a kufu set up a n insti tut ion t o

t r a n s l a t e a n d s t u d y f o r e i g n t e x t s , f i r s t m a i n l y D u t c h a n d l a t e r

English, and this institution developed after the Meiji restoration into

Tokyo Imperial University, which set the model for other developing

universities, public a nd priva te. This tr a dition pla ced a hea vy focus on

foreign la ngua ge lea rning, especial ly E nglish.

English instructors may see in this admittedly simplistic sketch of

th e J a pan ese univers i ty tr a di t ion t he roots of some of th e common

th emes of complaint a bout la ngua ge cla ssrooms in J a pa nese universi-

ties toda y: th e la ck of logica l debat e a nd quest ioning (S ocra tes), a n

inability to give opinions (rhetoric), the impediment of group thinking,

a n d t h e f ocu s o n m e m or i z a t i o n (ke j u) a n d g r a m m a t i ca l r u l es

Reforming English Teaching in J a panese Universities: Creat ing a La ngua ge Community

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(Confucia n order). It is not m y purpose here to judge J a pan s universi-

ty tradition, but only to point out that the problems we struggle with

in the classroom today often have long and deep cultural roots, and

may not lend themselves to easy remedy, as a recent article by Mike

G uest (2004) confirm s. Moreover, if we seek remedies for th e J a pa nese

systems perceived fai lures, perhaps i t would be best to seek them

from w i th in J a panese cu l ture r a t her tha n t r y t o impose impor ted

methodologies tha t ma y never quite fit . Tha t does not mea n tha t w ecannot a im at change in the system, or take advantage of Western

thought, but first w e should understan d t he problems of J a panese uni-

versi t ies wi thin their his tor ical and cul tural contexts , and not just

a ssume th a t st udents w ho refuse to look us in th e eye or find it impos-

sible to give a stra ight a nsw er in English a re intentiona lly perverse

a nd uncoopera tive (J a pan s S chools, The E conomist 1990).

J a panese an d North America n concepts of educa tion a re in funda -

menta l wa ys different. Although a university in Osa ka ma y look much

like a university in N ew York (a campus, classr ooms, ma rks, lectu res,

libraries etc.), it is based on different underlying assumptions about

the mean ing of educa tion. I first rea lized this ma ny yea rs a go, w hen a

foreign colleague put up a number of travel posters in his university

classroom. All the foreign Engl ish teachers were pleased wi th this

effort to motivate learning and brighten the classroom environment.

How ever, h is J a pa nese collea gues objected t he posters w ere not consis-

tent wi th the a tmosphere o f ser iousness appropr ia te to univers i ty

study, a nd a fter much heat ed debat e the posters ca me dow n. Although

I w a s i n d i g n a n t a t t h e t i m e , I h a v e s i n c e c o m e t o b e l i e v e t h a t

J a pan ese ha ve va l id suspicions a bout n egat ive in f luences fore ign

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methodologies and pedagogies may have on their university culture

(Matsuzawa 2004, Yoshihara 2004, Kimura 1988). Thus, we must

remind ourselves continually that education is a cultural construct, a

paradigm that differs from culture to culturea mother in Tokyo and

a mother in Toronto may both say they want a good education for

their children, but they are not necessari ly thinking about the same

kind of processes and results (except that hopefully it will end in a

good job).In J a pan, a t least since the Meiji era , we can find tw o different con-

cepts of educat ion a t w ork simulta neously. J a pa ns first Minister of

Educat ion in the Meij i era , Mori Arinori , d is t inguished the two as

kyoiku(learning) and gakumon (scholarship) (Hall 1973). For Mori,

kyoikuwas a discipline involving the memorization of rules and facts,

and the mastering of processes and skills; it was suitable for all pro-

ductive citizens of the state and could be achieved through schooling.

Gakumon, how ever, intended more sophistica ted th ought ; it wa s a cre-

a tive a ctivity tha t required freedom an d even nonconformity. It w a s

seen, therefore, as a rather dangerous process that should be limited

to a chosen elite a nd confined with in a university ca mpus. E ven in the

tota l ita rian sta ge of J a pans modern development, J a panese universi-

ty students and professors were given unusual freedom of speech and

ac t ion and the l e i sure to deve lop eccen t r i c i t i e s (Mi tche l 1983) .

Protests, idleness, loose-living, spouting dangerous theories, rudeness,

unclea n living a nd other socially un a ccepta ble pra ctices were tolera ted

in the un ivers i t y s tuden t , pe rhaps even expec ted o f h im . ( h im

because a t the t ime the vas t major i ty o f univers i ty s tudents were

male). Of course, Western and liberal concepts of education have been


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ta king root in J a pan since th e Meiji Revolution as w ell . Fukuza w a

Yukichi, for example, praised Kyoto schools (then independent of the

central government) for their development of a sense of self-reliance

(1985 p. 77), a nd h e event ua lly set up h is ow n un iversity , Keio, to offer

a more l ibera l a l terna t ive to the na t ional univers i t ies (Nakayama

1985); K eio, in t urn , ha s become a model, especia lly for other elit e pri-

vate universities. Nevertheless, when a prewar educational reformer,

Nitobe Ina zo (th e fellow on th e five th ousan d yen n ote), t ried to get hisstud ents t o clean u p, wa ke up a nd pound t heir books more in the ma n-

ner of the America n s t udents he ha d seen ba ck a t J ohns H opkins

University in the US, he was eventually forced to give in to student

resista nce (Oshiro 1985). H is stu dents ha d the w eight of th e educa -

t iona l h i s tory o f J a pan on t he ir s ide, one tha t s t ressed a d i fferent

meaning of scholastic freedom, and they insisted upon their tradi-

tional relaxed privileges.

Of course, after the Second World War, much began to change in

J a pan, a nd educa tion w a s only one area in wh ich t he America n occu-

piers made effor ts to achieve reforms, which accounts for why the

J a p a n e s e e d u c a t i o n a l s y s t e m (6 -3 -3 -4 ) l o ok s s o m u c h l i k e t h e

American one (Tsuchimochi 1993). The American monopoly on

J a panese cul ture wa s so complete in the f i rs t deca de after t he wa r

th a t some schola rs from oth er Western count ries, such a s Rona ld Dore

of Britain, felt bitterly excluded (Dore 1974). Nevertheless, despite the

re-crea tion of J a pan s educa tiona l inst itut ions in th e America n ima ge

a fter the wa r, looks were deceiving, a nd in several w a ys the J a panese

m a n a g e d t o p r es er v e t h e i r cu l t u r a l i n t e g r it y . I n p a r t i cu l a r , t h e

J a panese use of rigorous entr a nce examina tions, first a t high school

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a nd t hen a t un iversity, distinguished the J a panese from the America n

system. In junior an d senior high schools , J a pan ese s tudent s s t i ll

s tud ied ha rd to memorize a va s t qua nt i ty o f fac ts : th i s wa s the i r

learning stage, marked by great effort (one common saying a couple

of decades ago was tha t only the s tudent who s lept less than four

hours a night would pass the al l-important examinations). Once the

lucky few made it into university, however, the pressure was off: they

could do more or less wha t t hey liked w ithout fea r of failure unt il timecame t o get a job. Within t he cont ext of J a pa nese cultur e, this ma de

sense: such st udents ha d a lrea dy proven their work ethic; they a lrea dy

ha d th e necessa ry store of know ledge; w ha t rema ined w a s for t hem to

ruminate upon what they had learnedto take time to explore their

world both socially and culturally, make friends, join clubs, find hob-

bies, discover politics and art, and discuss issues long into the night

w ith comra des, even if it m ean t m issing a m orning lecture or t w o. This

need for developing social skil ls accounts for some peculiari t ies of

J a pan ese universit ies, such a s th e import a nce of clubs a nd circles

(bukatsudou) in t he educa tiona l experience of st udents, a n importa nce

foreign instructors are likely to underestimate (Cave 2004). Although

we may scoff at this easy-going system, it has served to support lib-

erty in J a pan a nd coincided w i th J a pans remar kable post-w a r eco-

nomic lea p forw a rd. H owever, wit h t he burst ing of the economic bub-

ble, new weight has been given to the more successful American

educational models, and we now see reforms intended to introduce

more rigor, organization, scientific method and standardization to

J a panese un ivers i t y educa t i on , a nd t h i s pur i t a n i ca l t endency i s

especially noticea ble in new la ngua ge curricula.


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These days , a lo t more s tudents s tudy a t univers i ty than in the

immediate post-war period, and they are no longer overwhelmingly

ma le. U niversity ha s become big business, a nd since th e burst ing of

th e bubble economy, J a pa nese-sty le business man a gement ha s lost

prestige, and so new ways to manage universities have been sought.

Moreover, a declining student-aged population means universities,

especially private universities, must compete hard to attract students.

It is a buyers market, and when i t comes to studying English, thebuyers want something different: first, because they found their high

school Engl ish classes ineffectual and boring, and second, because

ma ny ha ve some experience abroa d (Willis a nd Onoda 1989) a nd h a ve

seen methodologies tha t a ppea r more a tt ra ctive. In response, some uni-

versities t ry t o pa tt ern t heir reforms on America n classr oom m odels.

Unfortunately, not all American ESL classroom practices are effec-

t i ve in t he J a panese EFL l angua ge lea rn ing env ironment , i f on ly

beca use the lynch pin in th e J a panese system, the entra nce exa mina -

tion, remains in tact and guarantees the exclusiveness of schools and

the rewards of the eli tes who graduate from the best universit ies.

These examinations have distorted the educational system in several

w a ys. For exa mple, it is often compla ined th a t th e focus on entra nce

exa ms ha s left ma ny of the most serious J a pan ese student s socia l ly

inept: they have studied so hard and for such long hours under the

watchful eyes of their kyoiku mamas that they have become cut off

from socia l intercourse a nd ha ve lost th eir a bility t o commu nica te w ell

with other people even in their own language. (Anderson 1993, Bailey

1991) Try ing to force such stu dent s to comm unica t e in En glish dis-

cussion groups ca n be count er productive a nd even lead to resentm ent

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or anger. Moreover, making them study for further tests, like TOEFL

(Test of Engl ish as a Foreign Language) and i ts occasional clones ,

including TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication),

w ill not serve to improve a stud ents a bility a t speaking E nglish wh ere

test s w ere a t t he root of the ina bility t o commun ica te in the first pla ce.

U nfortun a tely, TOEF L a nd TOEIC a re increasingly promoted in t he

J a panese univers i ty community (see TOEIC classes now essentia l

2005), pa rt ly because J a pa nese university a dministr a tors, themselvesbred on exams, find even foreign examinations attractive. First, tests

are consistent with their concept of serious education. Second, com-

mercial tests , with their scientific image and fashionable foreign-

ness, can be sold to students. Third, tests reduce the messy and

mysterious process of language learning to a measurable product,

one that can be summed up in a single number. Rewards can be dis-

tributed appropriately: TOEFL 580 will get you this scholarship, 450

w ill get you into tha t college, and 350w ell, try a ga in next time.

Teachers more familiar with the use of TOEFL in North America

may see in i t an eli t ist and even racist barrier against the many for-

e ign s tudents c l amor ing to enter American univers i t ies , a barr ier

E u r o pe a n s , w i t h l a n g u a g e s a n d cu l t u r e s m or e cl os e ly r e l a t e d t o

English, can get past more easily than Asians. Another problem with

TOEF L is tha t i t does not suit t he ma in needs of J a panese students.

In order to significantly increase a TOEFL score takes highly motivat-

ed s tudents a lot of instruct ional t ime, preferably in an immersion

e n v ir on m e n t . I n J a p a n , a l t h ou g h s t u d e n t s a r e r e q u i r ed t o t a k e

English, it is not necessarily important for job placement (which usu-

ally depends more on the prestige of the university entered than the


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grades achieved). Moreover, most students get only a few scattered

hours a week of English instruction. Therefore, continuing the focus

on t est-ta king th a t st udents h a ve endur ed in high school by subjecting

th em to TOE FL is ha rdly a reform likely t o improve E nglish instru c-

t ion and learning. In fact , this TOEFL suk oa shi nk ou, score wor-

ship, (Yoshihara 2004) will likely discourage many students in their

effort s to lear n E nglish.

Much of the popularity of imported teaching tests, texts and method-olog ies in J a pa n i s due th e pres t ige of s imply being American .

America n cultu re cont inues to perva de J a pan ese educa tiona l cultur e:

J a panese s t a t i ona ry suppl ie s a re decora ted wi th images of J a mes

Dea n, Audrey H epburn a nd Mickey Mouse; school textbooks ha ve sto-

ries about Lincolns boyhood; many American-published textbooks are

used in univers i ty Engl i sh c lasses . Of course , we fore ign Engl i sh

t e a ch e r s i n J a p a n (e sp eci a l l y , B r i t i s h , Au s t r a l ia n , Am e r ica n ,

Canadians and other Engl ish nat ive speakers) tend to be a rather

liberal-thinking lot, if not downright left-leaning, and so it is hard for

us to appreciate our role as the vanguard of Western cultural imperi-

a l i s m i n J a p a n . B u t P e n n y c oo k (1 99 8 1 99 4) a n d o t h e r s c h o la r s

(Tanaka 1993, Susser 1998) remind us that it is so, and if anything,

the influence of US cultural imperialism is strengthening. In the past,

most foreign Engl ish teachers were recrui ted from abroad or from

a mong visitors wh o had come to enjoy a J a panese cultura l a dventur e,

but with developing globalization and especially since the develop-

ment of th e J E T P rogra m w hich import s thousa nds of young, inexpen-

sive (a nd l i t t le qua lified) En glish t eachers t o J a pan every year, there

ha s been a huge increa se in t he supply of potent ial t eachers. The J E T

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program certainly has many problems of i ts own, but i t impacts uni-

versity language teaching in tw o wa ys : fi rst , ma ny J a panese s tudents

ha ve some fun lea rning E nglish w ith J ETs in t heir high school da ys

(a learning environment largely devoid of fun), and, second, many of

the foreign teaching assistants enjoy their experience (and salaries),

too, a nd so decide to sta y on in J a pan or t o return a fter first improving

th eir t eaching q ua lificat ions ba ck home (Court 1998). As a result, un i-

versities ca n choose tea chers from a much la rger pool of na tive spea k-ers.

Universities can benefit from this larger supply of foreign teachers

in tw o w a ys . One is th a t th ey can insis t on more highly qua l if ied

instructors, and choose from among the many those with the best cre-

dentials and the most suitable experience. This sometimes happens.

The other wa y is to ta ke a dvanta ge of the supply to get more for the

money . This ra t iona l iza t ion of the univers i ty business lea ds to a

lessening of quali ty , but is sti l l attractive because i t saves money

a nd beca use i t sa tisfies student deman d for na tive spea ker teachers.

E specia lly privat e universities, competing for a declining stu dent pop-

ula t ion , are eager to accommodate s tudent expecta t ions by h i r ing

more foreign instructors. Not w a nting t o bite the ha nd t ha t feeds me, I

w ould s t i l l like to point out one thing: J a pa nese E ngl ish-lan gua ge

instructors suffer a bad ra p. The reasons are pa rtly historica l . In t he

years after the war, the demand for English teachers was huge, but

the supply wa s minuscule. As a r esult , ma ny t eachers could har dly

spea k English. The wa r an d prew a r socia l conditions were ha rdly con-

ducive to tra ining fluent speakers of English. Only tw enty yea rs a go, it

w a s s t i l l ser iously deba ted w hether a ny J a panese could ever rea l ly


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ma ster a ny foreign la ngua ge (Miller 1986, 1982). H ow ever, t ha t gener-

ation of teachers deserve more respect for their efforts because of the

g r e a t d e a l t h e y a c h i e v e d d e s p i t e a l l t h a t w a s a g a i n s t t h e m .

Unfortunately, the stereotype of the high-school English teacher who

knows the grammar but can hardly squeak out a simple greeting in

English persists. One side effect of this prejudice is a strong bias for

h i r ing na t ive speaker ins t ructors , no mat ter what the i r re la t ive

quali fications or teaching abil i ty. In recent years, though, the socials itua t ion ha s grea t ly cha nged, and there are coming onto the J a panese

e d u ca t i on a l m a r k e t m a n y J a p a n e s e E n g l is h t e a c h e r s w h o s p ea k

Engl ish wi th near-nat ive f luency. Ironical ly , whi le univers i t ies are

still ea gerly hiring foreign instructors, th is new genera tion of E nglish-

spea king J a panese teachers ha s come a va ila bletea chers w ho could

provide excellent role models for university language learners.

As we have seen, todays university administrators have to create

English curricula that take into account four important factors: first ,

the increa sing number of foreign E nglish t eachers in J a pan; second,

the increasing number of students at all levels who have some experi-

ence studying abroad; third, the economic pressure to rationalize

univers i ty management and the resul t ing hunger for marketab le

products; and finally, the overwhelming prestige of the American uni-

versity model, a long w ith it s meth odologies a nd t exts. Again, it is iron-

ic that this wholesale introduction of American methodologies comes

at a time when those same methods are being seriously questioned in

Nort h America a s excessively r a t iona listic. For exa mple, Ted Aoki, one

of Canadas most respected educational theorists, questions rationalis-

tic meth odologies of la ngua ge tea ching. He sa ys th a t t hey

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are being severely criticized for their overly instrumental orientation,

ignoring, as some are arguing, the meaning of second languages atth e root level. Even th e popular imm ersion progra m is being ques-

t ioned for its m onolingu ist ic/monocult ur a l orient a t ion. Some a re

advancing bi l ingua l second l anguage programs tha t a re or iented

toward a dia lect ic between the mother tongue and the second lan-

gua ge. I foresee a pa ra digm sh ift of some cons equen ce. (1988, p. 414)

In other words, just as many progressive North American educators

a re reject ing ra t ional is t ic meth odologies , J a pan ese univers it ies a re

reforming their language programs based on the outdated methods

of a st rongly inst rum enta l orienta tion. According to J ohn Ra lston

Saul , in Nor th America The univers i t ies have become to a grea t

ex ten t the handmaidens o f the corpora te sys tem (1995 , p . 67) .

Another strong attack on the rationalization of the American system

comes from Herrnstein and Murray, who when describing the ever-

increa sing elitism of America s universities w a rn t ha t

when people l ive in encapsulated worlds, i t becomes di f f icul t for

them, even with the best of intentions, to grasp the realities of worlds

wit h w hich t hey ha ve li tt le experience but over which they a lso ha ve

great inf luence, both publ ic and private . Many of those promising

undergraduates are never going to l ive in a community where they

will be disabused of their misperceptions, for after education comes

another sorting mechanism, occupations, and many of the holes that

are st i l l le f t in the cogni t ive part i t ions begin to get sealed. (1994

p. 50)

H errnst ein a nd Murr a y, Sa ul, Aoki, and oth ers such a s La sch (1995)


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and White (1993, 1987) all describe a similar tendency in American

higher education towards corporatist , rationalist and eli t ist values--

that is , towards something very much l ike the commonly accepted

stereoty pe of J a pan ese universities so often criticized in th e past , for

example by Miller, Cutts(1997), Thomas (1993) and Nagai (1971). As a

result, the North American system of higher education may not offer

th e most suit a ble model for a reform of the J a pan ese syst em, not even

of i ts la ngua ge classrooms. In fact , excessive ra tiona liza tion a nd st a n-dardization of university language classrooms may result in depriving

students of the personal and intercultural understanding that a uni-

versity environment should encoura ge.

One effect of this excessive ra tiona lizat ion in t he J a pan ese universi-

ty i s a kind of MacDonald iza t ion of the curr icula tha t in i t s mos t

extreme versions is a lmost mil i tar is t ic . One such approach is to

design an extremely tight curriculum based on detailed module les-

son plan s a nd st a nda rdized tests (Sekiguchi 1993). In t his system, a ny

instructor can teach any class because there is no need for any conti-

nuity between lessons, and also no need for instructors to know any-

thing about the abilities, interests or attitudes of students, or to offer

a n y t h i n g f r o m t h e i r e x p e r i e n c e o r k n o w l e d g e t o t h e s t u d e n t s .

Teaching becomes a completely impersonal, mechanical process. Using

this highly specific curriculum, a small elite of full-time professors can

control the classroom content and procedures of a large contingent of

foreign part-time instructors. The efficiency of this extreme rational-

ization is undeniable, but the pedagogical benefits are doubtful. Such

an inflexible curriculum tends to come between the students and the

instructors like a barrier: students are oppressed by the burden and

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sterility of the materials, and instructors lose their sense of responsi-

bil i ty for what happens in their classrooms. Students and instructors

become impersonalized cogs in the curricular machine, and they have

lit t le opportun ity to engage and communica te in wa ys th a t m ight lea d

to intercultural understanding or any real language interaction that

could lead to mutual respect on a personal level. This is a pedagogy

th a t ha s i ts roots not so much in the libera lism of J ohn D ewey a nd

Yukichi Fukuza w a a s in th e production lines of Ford a nd Toyota .The tw in demons of this Ma cDona ldiza tion a re sta nda rdizat ion a nd

mecha nizat ion. I h a ve already discussed t he sta nda rdized lesson plan,

and the standardized measuring of commercial tests like TOEFL. The

fa scina t ion wi th m a chines also ha s a long his tory in th e ES L/EF L

classroom. I remember the pride my university took in its state of the

art language lab when I was an undergraduate in Canada over thir ty

years a go (ta ke tha t , P hil ip La rkin!). I a lso remember my boredom a s I

sa t repeat ing t rans format ion dr i l l s in Spanish . My Spanish never

went anywhere , and maybe i t i s only my excuse for my fa i lure to

blame La ngua ge La bs, but t hey certa inly did not help me. After a bout

twenty years, much of the enthusiasm for language labs waned, but

universi t ies kept buying them because they were always useful for

promoting programsthey looked good in brochures and impressed

prospective stu dents w ho ha d not yet ha d to endure them. Then in th e

1980s, the labs got a new lea se on life w ith t he ad vent of video. Now

we did not have to sit and just listen to drills and comprehension pas-

sages . Now we could watch car toons, movies and news broadcasts .

This was always fun, at least more fun than dril ls , but there is l i t t le

evidence th a t it did mu ch for st udent lan gua ge lea rning (Ellis 1994). It


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was grea t for ins t ructors though: lesson planning was s impl i f ied ,

empty t ime was easi ly f i l led and rest less s tudents could be enter-

tained. After a few years , however , many teachers came to see the

over-use of video a s a w a y certa in collea gues could a void rea l tea ching.

This is an unfortunate prejudice, however, because when used thought-

fully and with a clear purpose, video can be useful. Nevertheless, video

is often misused. One exa mple, is the use of new s broadca st, such a s

those f rom BBC, CNN, or ABC wi th in termedia te- leve l s tudent inJ apa n: I ha ve s tudied J a panese for thir ty years a nd think mysel f qui te

competent, a nd yet I sti l l ha ve trouble understa nding the NHK News.

News is a very specialized idiom, extremely condensed, full of political

and cultural allusions, and rife with jargon. If intermediate-level stu-

den t s a re go ing to wa tch v ideos , l e t them wa tch d ramas or game

shows that appeal to a more popular taste, and have simpler vocabu-

lary, exa ggera ted expressions of sa dness or sorrow an d a n adva nta -

geous redunda ncy. Anyw a y, gett ing back to our chronology, just w hen

video was los ing some of i ts shine as a teaching technology, a long

came th e comput er, an d now t he universities ar e rushing to comput er-

ize their language labs. Like videos and cassettes before them, com-

puters can be useful for language learners, but they are not the cure-

all some instructors hope for. Also, if not used properly, they too can

be a cop out for frustrated teachers who do not want to deal directly

wi th s tudents .

C lea r l y , t echno logy has a p l ace in l anguage l ea rn ing . Over the

years , as I have taught Engl ish and s tudied other languages , I have

continued to use taped materials. I found them especially useful when

I w a s studying on my own a nd not in a university progra m. Tha t is an

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questionbut only to recognize that there are ways to use technology

to profitable advantage. Surely, instructors proficient in the technolo-

gy can offer other, better suggestions that can balance the sometimes

conf l i c t ing in teres ts o f bureaucra t ic ra t ional i zers , the l anguage

technocra ts a nd us cultura l interactivists .

The term cul tural hermeneutics describes a language teaching

methodology that pr ior i t izes cul tural awareness . Cul tural interac-

tivists a re those tea chers w ho see langua ge lea rning in t he universityas a process of increasing sel f-understanding through engagement

with other cultures and their peoples. One common misconception is

that university language learning is fundamentally a l inguistic exer-

cise. In fact , learning t o truly communica te in a foreign la ngua ge has

little to do with the study of how sentences work. It has much more to

do with culture. Students can understand the meaning of each sen-

tence in an Engl ish newspaper ar t icle and s t i l l not understand the

a rt icle beca use they miss th e cultu ra l context: the idioms, ironies, sa r-

casms, allusions, puns, historical prejudices and social assumptions.

Language schools may dispense wi th these subtlet ies , but they are

just the kinds of things university students need to learn in order to

become leaders in their fields and to find a fuller self-understanding.

When it comes to the social sciences, w hich in J a pan is genera lly the

locus of langua ge learning, I a gree w ith Richa rd Rorty w ho writes tha t

cultural anthropology (in the large sense which includes intellectual

history) is all we really need (1979, p. 381). Kittler (2004, p. 251), too,

reitera tes tha t th e humanities would best be known a s cultura l stud-

ies, but h e also insists t ha t even in th e sciences th e cultur a l cont exts

of proofs, experiments, and hypotheses are in no way trivial and do

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require elucidation (p. 251). Language classes in universities should

be designed above all as environments for an engagement with other

cul tures through language. The best way to achieve this goal is to

begin by crea ting la ngua ge commun ities.

A language community is an environment where using a foreign

langua ge is na tura l a nd appropriate. Let me i llustra te the problem.

Most tea chers in J a pan ha ve a sked a st udent a simple question a nd

got a reply sounding something like this: I yamu goin g to banku and oto stoa. Now, if a sked to repea t t he same sent ence w ith more a ppro-

priat e E nglish pronuncia tion, most student s ca n usua lly do so. Then

w hy do students use th is J a pan ese-E nglish? I believe it stems from

the fundamental insecurity natural to learning a foreign language. I

remember doing a similar thing in my F rench cla sses ma ny yea rs a go

(mer tsi bow coupe mon sewer). Somehow in my youth , ha ving French

come out of my English mouth surprised me, and speaking a foreign

la ngua ge did not seem quit e honest, a nd so I Anglicized t he pronun cia -

tion. We ha ve to crea te environment s in w hich it d oes not seem unn a t-

ura l for J a panese students to speak in English, an d this mea ns gett ing

a lot of other people to speak E nglish to serve a s role models, a nd t his

includes university staff, administrators, professors, as well as guests

a nd special lecturers. During my ma ny years of tea ching at J a panese

u n i v e r s it i e s , I h a v e of t e n h a d t h e e xp er i en c e of u s i n g m y a w f u l

J a pan ese w i th col lea gues or members o f th e s ta f f (somet imes for

years), only to discover by chance that a l l a long they could speak

excellent English. If I had never before heard these kakure(hidden)

En glish-spea kers spea k E nglish, chances a re tha t neither did my stu-

dents. In other words, students do not have the benefit of seeing and


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hearing t he ma ny on-ca mpus models of J a panese who spea k E nglish

w ell . Ba ck home in Ca na da , wh en you w a lk into some banks in cultur-

ally diverse neighborhoods, the clerks have l i t t le badges with flags

ind ica t ing w ha t fore ign l a ngua ges t hey spea k . Some such sys t em

a mong s t a f f a t J a pan ese un ivers i t i es ( I speak E ng l i sh/Yo ha b lo

Espanol) would at the very least be a valuable symbolic gesture indi-

cating the commitment of the university to the greater use of the for-

e ign l anguages they teach . I t would a l so be a cour tesy to fore ignguests, a nd, moreover, bring to the a tt ention of students the ma ny la n-

guage role models on campus.

Another idea for developing the language community is to invite

more ordina ry En glish-spea king J a pan ese on to our campuses. For

example, in most neighborhoods there are many housewives and com-

pany employees who speak foreign languages well but seldom have

chances to practice or display their abilities. They are, in a sense, a

w a sted la ngua ge resource. We should formu lat e stra tegies to get t hese

people onto our campuses or into our classrooms so they can share

their experiences abroad or in learning foreign languages. Of course,

there are many other ways to strengthen the language communities

on campus, promoting language clubs, movie festivals, special guest

lectures, campus newspapers and other English publications, meet-

ings wi th fo re ign g roups , t a lks wi th our own a lumni o r s tuden t s

returning from studying abroad, debates and so on. Some of these

things a re already ha ppening on campus, but ha phaza rdly an d seldom

with a sense of community building. It requires budgets and organiz-

ers to build such communities.

Actually, community language learning has a comparatively long

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history a s a tea ching methodology. It s main tenan t is ra ther simple:

make the classroom a fr iendly place where s tudents can relax and

speak Engl i sh and make mis takes wi thout fear or embarrassment .

Simple though this may sound, i t is often hard to put into practice;

problems are as diverse as scheduling and teacher training. Schedules

should al low students and faculty to take advantage of intercultural

event s a s th ey a rise. Moreover, in ma ny universities, stud ents ar e

sorted a new for ea ch class, a nd t heir instructors a re usua lly a l l differ-ent; plus, many instructors are part-timers only briefly on campus.

Ideally, a class of students should meet together often enough, and

with the same teacher(s) to be able to get to know each other and

develop t rust .

But conducive scheduling will be futile if teachers do not have the

social and cultural skills necessary to building a language community.

These days, most universities prefer to hire teachers with a TESL or

TEFL degree, but these degrees often neglect cul tural t raining. A

teacher with a good humanities degree may in fact have as much or

more to offer J a panese students. In this island countr y noted for i ts

homogeneity (a doubtful concept, I admitsee Bailey 2002, 1997),

s tudents need teachers who are more than language technicians ,

they need teachers w ho ca n a ct a s cu l tura l br idges and soci a l

organizers. Therefore, teachers need training in the workings of cul-

tu res, a nd t hey must be ma de conscious of their responsibilities as lan -

gua ge community builders. Creat ing a langua ge community requires a

purposeful s t ra tegy a imed a t es tab l i sh ing a c l assroom a tmosphere

w here students lea rn from a nd support each other.

Teachers should, of course, provide students with lots of opportuni-


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ties to get t o know ea ch oth er a nd t o w ork on projects t ogether. This is

not quit e th e sa me as just doing group w ork. Much of th e group

work I see going on in classrooms is unfocussed and ill-organized, and

often it becomes a n opportunit y for th e tea cher t o disenga ge from st u-

dents . To develop a l a ngua ge commu ni t y , the teacher should be

actively involved with the class at al l t imes, and group work should

a im a t re in forcing a sense o f t rus t and mutual respect among s tu-

den t s , an d betw een s tuden t s a nd th e t ea cher . Thi s is espec ia l lyimporta nt w hen the teacher is a n a tive spea ker.

Having a nat ive speaker instructor rush through a busy program

based on a sophisticated textbooks and cassettes or computer software

is most often a missed opportunity for intercultural understanding.

The greatest value of the native speaker is his or her cultural differ-

ence. Difference is what many students are really curious about and

w a nt to explore. Of course, the stu dent-cent ered cla ssroom is all th e

fa shion t hese day s, especia lly in t he new ly-import ed North America n-

based methodologies. B ut in J a pan, w here direct conta ct w ith foreign

cultu re is st ill limited, w e should a llow more time for t eacher-cent ered

a ctivities, a s t his ma y provide th e best opport unit ies to explore cultu r-

al differences through English. Naturally, to achieve better cross-cul-

tura l trust a nd understa nding, i t would be helpful to have class sizes

sui table for s tudents to s i t looking at each other and to be able to

remember each others names. In the end, the goal of the language

community classroom is to create a relaxed and friendly environment

where students can use English to develop self-understanding though

cultura l a w a reness a nd intera ction.

Crea ting a n effective la ngua ge teaching methodology is a ma tt er of

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finding balance. The demands of administrators, the hopes of parents,

the objectives of educators and the aspirations of students must all be

considered. There was a t ime (many years back, Phi l) when I , too,

thought this could be achieved s imply by greater organizat ion and

rat ional izat ion of the curr iculum: placement tes ts , leveled classes ,

s tandardized exams, foreign textbooks, nat ive speaker instructors ,

English-only policies, skills focused curricula. In recent years, many

universities ha ve implemented much of t he a bove, a nd some improve-ments have clearly been achieved. Nevertheless, I still hear teachers

a nd students grumble a bout ea ch other, and ma ny classrooms a re sti ll

ra ther rigid a nd l i feless. I t ma y be time to hold back on t he ra tiona li-

zation process, and to reconsider the developing social context within

which we teach. Students come to university looking for something

new , ea ger to lea rn. We must find wa ys to sat isfy their desire to broa d-

en their cultural horizons. After over a quarter century of teaching in

J a pan, I f ind tha t busy curr icula , burdensome textbooks, and more

tests only dampen curiosity. Sharing thoughts and experiences with

stu dents, on the oth er ha nd, brings cla sses a live. B ut only so much

can be a chieved w ithin t he strict limits of a ny one cla ssroom. Wha t w e

need to do now is to create language communities that function both

wi th in the c lassroom and throughout the campus , where teachers ,

sta ff , guests a nd st udents can part icipa te in exploring cultura l differ-

ences, a nd w ork together in E nglish in w a ys th a t a l low us to improve

our self-understanding through the better understanding of other peo-

ples a nd cultures.


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Reforming English Teaching in Japanese Universities: Creating a Language Community