Karem Mariel Barron Hernandez's Page

ESSAY
The impact of Globalization on language teaching in Japan

In this essay I am going to explain how English language has been each time by the pass of the years more spoken by a big number of Japanese people; and how this language has become very important in Japan.

Japan has become a place where there is a lot of Japanese and non-Japanese people. The number of non-Japanese people has increased during the last years.

In Japan there are plenty of American and fast-food restaurants. Den Fujita, President and Chief Executive of McDonald's Japan told: '' If we eat McDonald's hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years , we will become taller, our skin wil become white, and our hair blond.''

I think this is absurd because we can find this kind of Japanese people for the next thousand years.

Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity in Japan: According to the reading and the Ministry of Justice, Japan is not ethnically and linguistically homogeneous nation.
The number of non-Japanese residents has increased a 58.1 percent.

The Discourse of Kokusaika, tries to understand the social, cultural and educational opportunities in the international communities. Also Kokusaika has a preoccupation fir the Western nations particularly in USA and its educational values.

Kokusaika and Education reform
The discourse of Kokusaika made educational reforms was the acquisition of English language in Japanese people.
Also says that teaching English affects the development of logical thinking in Japanese.
This foreign language has become officially required in junior and senior high schools.

Foreign Language Education in Japanese Schools:
It says that Kokusaika emphasized that the foreign language is English.

Foreign Language is English
Kokusaika says that ''English'' is the synonymous of the ''foreign language''.
It also says that the attention to teach this language has increased and intensified more than other language in Japan.
However ''foreign language'' is usually interpreted as ''English''.
The schools in Japan that offer languages other than English has increased significatory.
English is the international language and the acquisition of English is useful for the international communication.

The Model for ''English'' Should be Standard North American or British varieties.

Similar to the converging tendency towards English in foreign language education, the model of English to emulate tends to be only the Inner Circle Varieties of Anglo-English, particularly North American and British, rather than diverse varieties of World Englishes.

Also other critics criticized the notion that native English teachers ought to be white Americans or British. Here despite global linguistic diversity and the rhetoric of Kokusaik, the linguistic model tends to be narrowly restricted to certain geographic and racial varieties.

According to the reading, English is the international language that bridges multiple cultures, learning English enables undertanding the world and cultural diversity.
Therefore the international understanding through learning English is to develop attitudes and cross-cultural communication skills rather than knowledge about world cultures.

National Identity ought to be fostered through learning; Japaneses constructed through teaching ''international understanding'' is related to the premise that national identity should fostered though learning English.

In sum,Kokusaika discourse that combines Anglicization and nationalism reflected in foreign language education in Japan. Anglicization is demonstrate the emphasis on teaching English over other languages and the preference of middle-class North American and British varieties of English and culture over other varieties and cultures, while nationalism is promoted as seen in the adherence monolithic Japanese identity in international understanding.

CONCLUSION:

In conclusion, the most spoken language in the world is ''English'', better known as ''the foreign language''.
Japan has increased its learning for this language because there are a lot of non-Japanese people in some Japan's cities.