An Analysis of Japan's English as Medium of Instruction Initiatives within Higher Education: The Gap between Meso-Level Policy and Micro-Level Practice

Autor/inn/en	Aizawa, Ikuya; Rose, Heath
Titel	An Analysis of Japan's English as Medium of Instruction Initiatives within Higher Education: The Gap between Meso-Level Policy and Micro-Level Practice
Quelle	In: Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education Research, 77 (2019) 6, S.1125-1142 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Aizawa, Ikuya) ORCID (Rose, Heath)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0018-1560
DOI	10.1007/s10734-018-0323-5
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; English (Second Language); Language of Instruction; Higher Education; Educational Policy; Universities; Language Planning; Educational Practices; Theory Practice Relationship; College Students; College Faculty; Japan + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Teaching language; Unterrichtssprache; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; University; Universität; Sprachwechsel; Bildungspraxis; Theorie-Praxis-Beziehung; Collegestudent; Fakultät
Abstract	In 2014, Japan's Ministry of Education (MEXT) announced the Top Global University Project (TGUP), a large-investment initiative to internationalise higher education that implicitly signalled increased emphasis on English-medium instruction (EMI) at Japanese universities. Despite substantial funding behind the initiative, little research has evaluated the implications for language planning, including contextualised implementation challenges. This study aims to investigate how the policy is being enacted into practice at a university in Japan at two different policy levels: the meso (institutional) and micro (classroom) level. The study contrasts one university's TGUP meso-level policy documentation with data from semi-structured interviews with students and teachers to illuminate micro-level challenges. Data were coded according to emergent themes via qualitative text analysis, following similar processes to research into TGUP policy. The findings suggest that the meso-level policy goals of the university do not trickle down to micro-level practice as envisioned, revealing underlying challenges arising from policy diffusion. In comparing our results with data from other TGUP university studies, we conclude that micro-level linguistic challenges for teachers and students has relevance for other universities where English-taught programmes are being expanded via national and university-level policies. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01