Internationalization and the growing demand for English in Japanese higher education

Abstract

The globalisation of English has seen an increase in English education and education through English. Universities around the globe, including those in non-anglophone contexts, such as Japan, are part of this trend. Despite having a non-native English speaking staff and student body, many students are now required to undertake their full degrees and postgraduate studies in English. This has implications for the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in the academic domain. The study reported here is part of a bigger project funded by The British Council aiming to explore staff and student perceptions of English Medium Instruction (EMI) in higher education to reveal important insights into the use of English as an academic lingua franca and the impact of the growth of EMI on teacher identity and teaching practice (Galloway, Kriukow and Numajiri, 2017). This paper reports on interviews with four PhD students at a university in Japan. The data shows that the fast-changing sociolinguistic landscape of ‘international’ universities, and the very move towards EMI, has numerous implications for pedagogy and for the identity of these students. Although some reservations were expressed, opinion is not totally against EMI. enriching and enhancing cognitive skills and emotional development; helping students score higher on standardized tests, and enhancing career opportunities (Chapple