Event

Internationalized University Education And Global English

Saturday, June 20th, 2015, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Speaker: Chris Haswell

This presentation covers recent efforts by MEXT to internationalize Japanese education through the use of English. The current language education policies in Japan mandate over 10 years of English language education. Within this context, the number of international students in Japan is at its highest level ever and projected to continue rising, as universities and other institutions of higher education view foreign enrollment and investment as the answer to falling domestic intake. The policies of MEXT are by no means unique, and these actions are in fact somewhat behind those of their Asian neighbours, but they clearly indicate MEXT's intention to follow worldwide trends in education and sociolinguistic behaviour. Set against this backdrop of rapid internationalization of language education and enrollment policies is the globalization of the language being used to facilitate these goals -- English has developed far beyond a language controlled by a handful of countries into a global lingua franca, affected by its contexts of use. Models used to describe the language have become outmoded, and an understanding of how the language is used and changed by its users is becoming increasingly important for all stake-holders in the language.

This presentation situates the internationalization of Japanese language education in the global context of English language use development. It is intended to provide both a grounded academic background to the current state of this process and a forum for the exchange of practical ideas to assist students, teachers, and others in the industry with the knowledge they need to make the most of their opportunities in this fast-developing sociolinguistic field.

Chris Haswell has been living and researching in Japan for the last 15 years, and has personally experienced many of the changes and challenges caused by the shifting of government education policies in this time. He has presented research in Japan, Korea, The Philippines and Cambodia, and published work on the internationalization of language education in Asia and the modeling of English use globally. He is currently working at Kyushu University in Fukuoka.

Organization: Oita Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Oita JALT)

Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 500 yen

Venue: Holt Hall Oita, Room 410, Oita City (map)

Location: Oita City, Oita Prefecture, Japan

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