Multilingual Japan: An introduction

Maher, John C.; Yashiro, Kyoko

doi:10.1080/01434632.1995.9994590

Cited by 22 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The provision of detailed social information is particularly important when conducting sociolinguistic research in Japan, as it is currently unknown which social variables are significant within the population of the country. This has contributed to a lack of sociolinguistic framework within which to describe the complex language situation in Japan (Maher and Yashiro 1995). Moreover, there is currently a more general paradigm shift in research in Japan, resulting in a movement away from the formerly dominant ‘group model’, which views Japan as a culturally and socially homogeneous society, towards the provision of information on social variation amongst the population (Yoshino 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social factors and non‐native attitudes towards varieties of spoken English: a Japanese case study

McKenzie

2008

Int J App Linguistics

116

101

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This paper, through the employment of a verbal‐guise study and techniques incorporated from perceptual dialectology, investigated the attitudes of 558 Japanese university students towards six varieties of English speech. Although the results suggest a particularly favourable attitude towards standard and non‐standard varieties of UK and US English in terms of ‘status’, informants expressed greater ‘solidarity’ with a Japanese speaker of heavily‐accented English. Differences in the students’ gender, self‐perceived proficiency in English, exposure to English and evaluations of varieties of Japanese all had significant effects on the informants’ attitudes. The findings are discussed in relation to the pedagogical and language planning implications in English language teaching inside and outside Japan.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social factors and non‐native attitudes towards varieties of spoken English: a Japanese case study

McKenzie

2008

Int J App Linguistics

116

101

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“…Yoneyama (1999) explained that what is taught in Japanese high schools has been largely determined by what is required in Japanese university entrance examinations since competition-based education was adopted in Japan in the 1960s. In Japan, where the Japanese language is used almost exclusively in communication among citizens, there are very few opportunities for people to be exposed to other languages (Maher and Yashiro 1995). For this reason, university entrance examinations provide a strong motivation for Japanese learners of English to improve their English language proficiency.…”

Section: Japanese University Entrance Examinations and English Writinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genre analysis of writing tasks in Japanese university entrance examinations

Watanabe

2016

Lang Test Asia

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“…Regarding the belief in Japanese homogeneity, some researchers consider the mystique of Japanese homogeneity from distinctive angles. Having historically seen Japan as homogeneous, monolingual and mono-ethnic (Maher, 1995) [8], Japan is now faced with pressing questions about how to deal with the increase in migrants. Ogata (2015) a political scientist, for instance, [9] fears that Japanese people tend to reject those from other countries more than ever, especially when it comes to the immigration issues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pursuit of Simplified English to Support Foreign Residents in Multilingual Japan

Saito¹

2018

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Japan is a country with over two million officially registered foreigners (Ministry of Justice, 2017) [1], and this number will keep rising, and it could even rise to ten million in the future. The country of Japan has a blossoming multilingual society, where various languages are heard and spoken. Actually, the government settled on a stratagem to promote tabunka kyosei, "many cultures living together" aiming for a multicultural society in 2009. The mystique of Japanese homogeneity, however, is still identifiable. Kado (2016) [2] stresses that linguistic and social isolation that foreign residents experience should be attributable to Japanese "insularity". Furthermore, Kawahara (2007) [3] maintains that language support is essential in multicultural societies to make their lives more sound. This paper attempts to examine possibilities of simplified English to help foreign residents participate in society fully based on the findings of actual conditions of language-support services for them. Interviews with foreign residents living in a middle-sized city were conducted and the comprehensibility of public information in English provided by the local government was examined. The results indicate that most of the respondents show that although the recent automatic translation systems have made public services obtainable in different languages including English, they still experience disadvantages in communicating with Japanese people. The foremost linguistic and cultural barriers they often face include, (1) isolation from the mainstream community; (2) difficulty in understanding Japanese social systems, and (3) educational disadvantages for children such as difficulties in improving academic language skills, loss of their mother language and ethnic discrimination. In order to facilitate language support that meets the needs of foreign residents to help them participate actively in society, the results of the present study suggest that simplified English in support of foreign residents can be enhanced in multilingual Japan.

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Multilingual Japan: An introduction

Cited by 22 publications

References 2 publications

Social factors and non‐native attitudes towards varieties of spoken English: a Japanese case study

Social factors and non‐native attitudes towards varieties of spoken English: a Japanese case study

Genre analysis of writing tasks in Japanese university entrance examinations

The Pursuit of Simplified English to Support Foreign Residents in Multilingual Japan

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