Original title: Japan’s English-medium instruction initiatives and the globalization of higher education
Japan launched a funded project to make some universities more international. It selected 37 universities: some aim to compete in the world’s top 100 rankings, while others aim to lead internationalizationEfforts to make universities more connected to people, teaching, or institutions across national borders. in Japan. The researchers examined public documents from all 37 universities to see how the project approaches language and internationalization. They found a move away from older policies and more flexible, distinctive forms of English education.
Imagine a school trying to prepare students to study or work with people from other countries. It could require every class to follow the same language rule, but that may not suit every subject or student. In this paper, the school’s different ways of teaching English stand for the varied approaches found across Japan’s 37 participating universities.
The policy affects universities, students, and teachers in Japan by changing how English is used and taught in higher education. The paper finds a shift away from older policy trends, but it does not measure what that shift means for students’ outcomes.
The abstract reports an analysis of publicly available documents, not measured outcomes for students or universities. It says the policy’s potential impact on language planning has received little research, so the findings do not establish how much the initiative changes language use or educational results.
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Japan’s English-medium instruction initiatives and the globalization of higher education — Heath Rose, Jim McKinley — Higher Education — doi:10.1007/s10734-017-0125-1
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.