scholarly journals English language education reform in pre-2020 Olympic Japan: educator perspectives on pedagogical change

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (271) ◽  
pp. 107-131
Author(s):  
Michiko Weinmann ◽  
Ryo Kanaizumi ◽  
Ruth Arber
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Pedagogical Change ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Educator Perspectives

Abstract This paper reports on the perspectives of English language teachers and teacher educators on the most recent English language education policy and curriculum reform in Japan, implemented in preparation for hosting the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Previous research has comprehensively analysed how language ideologies based on national imaginaries, native-speakerism and deficit views of Japanese teachers’ pedagogy and practice continue to frame debates about English language education in Japan. Through select thematic episodes derived from the interview data with English language practitioners located in Japan, this paper brings into focus the views of English language educators who articulated insightful counter-positions to taken-for-granted understandings of effective English language use and teaching. The authors argue that in order to effect a paradigm shift in global English language education, in Japan and internationally, it is important to incorporate a critical examination of teacher perspectives that challenge and augment prevalent tropes about English language teaching and learning. The paper concludes with implications for addressing the policy-practice and theory-practice divides in English language education. It argues that a continued engagement with educator perspectives is an important space for bringing about a transformation of language ideologies and pedagogical change at the grass-roots level of the English language classroom.

English Education Reform in Asian Countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenyang Sun ◽  
Xue Lan Rong
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Education ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
The Status ◽  
Globalized World

Language education is becoming an increasingly important topic in education in Asian countries, especially as schools in Asian countries have become more multilingual and multicultural as a result of rapid urbanization and globalization. A comparative analysis of the issues in language education reform in Asian countries—using China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore as examples—shows that, historically and currently, English language education policies are shaped by various underpinning ideologies such as linguicism, nationalism, and neoliberalism. English can serve as a vehicle for upward socioeconomic mobility, or an instrument of linguistic imperialism, or both, in Asia contexts. These ideologies, through language education policies and reforms, impact the status as well as the pedagogy and promotion of the English language. There is a trend and a need with regard to addressing critical consciousness in English education in order to counter the forces of linguicism and neoliberalism in an increasingly multilingual, multicultural, and globalized world.

scholarly journals The enactment of the Malaysian common European framework of reference (CEFR): National master trainer’s reflection

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Hakim Ali Abdul Aziz ◽  
Radzuwan Ab Rasid ◽  
Wan Zhafirah Wan Zainudin
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Training Model ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
International Standards ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Master Trainer ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Second Tier

As Malaysia sets out to realise their plan of the English Language Education Reform, the adaptation and implementation of Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) is an obvious choice; however, creating a high-calibre teaching workforce to carry it out poses a significant challenge. This critical reflection article elucidates the implementation of CEFR in Malaysian Pre-, Primary and Secondary schools from the perspective of a National Master Trainer (NMT) who attended multiple courses by Cambridge English Super Trainers (CEST) before going on to train English language teachers using the Cascade Training Model. Based on the trainer’s experience, this article discusses the progress of the training, starting from CEST as the first tier, NMT as the second tier, and District Trainer (DT) as the third tier, until it reaches the teachers who will apply their knowledge and skills in the classroom. We conclude that despite the long and careful planning in terms of teacher training for the CEFR implementation, there are various aspects that need improvements, to better guarantee success in producing an English language programme along with international standards, as the plan dictates.

scholarly journals CEFR as Language Policy: Opportunities and Challenges for Local Agency in a Global Era

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-70
Author(s):  
Kristof Savski ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Reference Levels ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Local Agency ◽  
Global Era ◽  
The Common

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has become one of the most widely cited documents in language education across the globe, its influence now felt far beyond the confines of Europe, the context for which it was originally produced. In Malaysia, CEFR was given particular prominence in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 and English Language Education Reform in Malaysia: The Roadmap 2015-2025, both of which positioned the framework as the primary yardstick by which curricula were to be developed and against which achievements (or lack thereof) were to be evaluated. This paper examines CEFR from the perspective of language policy, focussing particularly on the implications this document has for local agency in the Malaysian context. The paper begins by examining the constructs of language and language education underlying CEFR, pointing in particular to how these reflect the socio-political context for which the framework was developed. The next section examines how policy texts in the Malaysian context, in particular the 2015 Roadmap, have interpreted CEFR, highlighting in particular the way that these texts (as other policies across the globe) have tended to treat the CEFR reference levels as a global standard, with little scope for local agency. The final section considers alternative, localized models for using CEFR as language policy in Malaysia, in particular how the framework may be used in support of an inclusive agenda in which diversity and multilingualism are embraced.

Practicing or Preaching? Teacher Educators and Student Teachers Appropriating New Literacies

2010 ◽  
pp. 147-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Lo ◽  
Matthew Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
New Literacies ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Bachelor Of Education

This chapter examines the implementation of a new 12-hour course on ‘New Literacies’ during the final year of a Bachelor of Education in English language education in Hong Kong. Specifically, it examines the authors’ attempts to create a community of practice around New Literacies teaching and learning. As part of this endeavour, the authors sought to embody – and to encourage their student teachers to appropriate as part of their evolving teaching selves – the ‘insider mindset’ (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006) of new literacies practices, as the authors planned and implemented the course. They hoped that experientially connecting theory and practice of New Literacies would provide affordances for teacher educators, and for student teachers, to capitalise on the powerful potential of digital technologies in order to rethink how curriculum might be implemented in ways that are more multimodal, participative, and collaborative. As the authors discuss below, their attempt encountered unanticipated challenges, reflecting the power of existing institutional structures and unarticulated assumptions. The final part of the chapter examines lessons from the authors experience that may have resonance in other contexts and explores how they might approach the challenges they encountered differently in the future.

scholarly journals Qualitative properties of mathematical model of English language education

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Atena Ghasemabadi ◽  
Nahid Soltanian
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Global Stability ◽  
Equilibrium Point ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Qualitative Properties ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Compound Matrices ◽  
Reproduction Numbers ◽  
Coexistence Equilibrium

AbstractThis paper presents a mathematical model that examines the impacts of traditional and modern educational programs. We calculate two reproduction numbers. By using the Chavez and Song theorem, we show that backward bifurcation occurs. In addition, we investigate the existence and local and global stability of boundary equilibria and coexistence equilibrium point and the global stability of the coexistence equilibrium point using compound matrices.

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