scholarly journals Critical Analysis of English Education Policies in Japan Focusing on Two Discourses: Developing Human Resources and Nurturing Japanese Identity

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Miyashita
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
English Education ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Tokyo Metropolitan ◽  
Sports Science ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Fierce Competition

A growing body of research reports negative results, such as widening economic disparity, due to English educationreform influenced by neoliberalism. Japan is no exception. Linguistic instrumentalism is intensifying in Tokyo,which is scheduled to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020. This article critically analyzes policydocuments issued by the largest business lobby in Japan (Keidanren), Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,Science and Technology (MEXT), the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), and the Tokyo Metropolitan Boardof Education (TMBOE) within Japan’s social and political context. All of the documentary data are official-publicand open-archival. The study reveals that two discourses, developing human resources and nurturing Japaneseidentity, are repeated throughout the policy documents. While MEXT, TMG, and TMBOE stipulate their intention toaccelerate Japan’s internationalization, their policy documents have potential to lead students in an opposingdirection with an emphasis on fierce competition and pluralist multiculturalism, which dichotomizes the self andothers by simplifying differences. In the discussion section I suggest implementing pedagogical practice based oncritical multiculturalism to multiply the effect of these top-down measures. Ultimately, EFL teachers could form abottom-up powerbase by critically analyzing the official policies and by implementing practice that fits to theparticular setting.

A Survey on Korean high school English teachers’ perception of English education policies.

2012 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-391
Author(s):  
박지선 ◽  
박재은 ◽  
백인환 ◽  
Kyungsuk Chang
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
English Education ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
High School English

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 Problems Redesigning University EFL Curricula: A Case Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Giancarla Unser-Schutz
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
English Education ◽  
Labor Laws ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Timely Manner ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
University Admissions ◽  
Curriculum Changes

As English education programs mature, it is common for them to need to adjust their curricula. Adapting in a timely manner can be an especially acute problem at universities, which are under pressure to respond to changes in education policies while also following regulations to maintain accreditation as degree-granting institutions. To observe how these issues affect redesigning curricula, this article undertakes a case study of one faculty currently in the midst of change. The faculty went through two major periods of changes, but as will be observed, the timing and success of these changes has been swayed by major practical and procedural issues, including restrictions on curriculum changes for accreditation purposes, changes in the labor laws, budgetary restrictions limiting hiring, and changes in university admissions examinations. The discussion considers how these issues were approached while offering observations about how best practices in curriculum design can be implemented effectively given institutional restrictions. 英語教育プログラムの成長に伴い、カリキュラム改正が必要になることが多い。日々変わる教育政策に対応しながら認可にかかわる規則を厳守することが求められる大学にはカリキュラム改正がことに困難である。いかなる問題が発生するのかを究明するため、本稿では英語教育のカリキュラム改正に取り組んでいる学部の事例研究を試みる。当該学部が２期に渡ってカリキュラム改正に取り組んできたが、改正の時期と効果が大学認可に関するカリキュラム改正の規制・雇用法律の変化・人事上の予算的制限・大学入試の変化を含む内的・外的な要因に左右された。最終的にどのように対処したのかを考察しつつ、カリキュラム改正の計画と実施をするための工夫法も提示する。

Teaching English as a foreign language to primary school students in East Asia

English Today ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-21
Author(s):  
Zhenhui Rao ◽  
Ping Yu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
English Education ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
School Students ◽  
Compulsory Subject

With the spread of economic globalization and the accelerating demand for English, governments in East Asian countries have been updating their English-in-education policies so as to enhance the quality of English education in the region (Hu & McKay, 2012). Of all these policies, the introduction of English as a compulsory subject at younger and younger ages is ‘possibly the world's biggest policy development in education’ (Johnstone, 2009: 33). It is widely believed that those who start learning English at an earlier age can utilize their ‘critical period’ to learn English more efficiently (Nunan, 2003; Y. Hu, 2007). However, the expansion of teaching English to young learners has not been unanimously supported and there is no conclusive evidence for the benefits of early exposure to a new language (Copland, Garton & Burns, 2014). Some researchers point out ‘the advantages of postponing formal teaching in specific contexts’ (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2001: 163).

Hospital Units Merging Reasons for Conflicts in the Human Resources

2016 ◽  
pp. 202-227
Author(s):  
Athanasia Stamatopoulou ◽  
Eleni Stamatopoulou ◽  
Denis Yannacopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Ministry Of Health ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Hospital Units ◽  
The Government ◽  
Of Greece

The necessity for the control of expenses of health and the reduction of cost, led the Ministry of Health and the government of Greece to the decision-making for fusions of hospitals units of health following the new tendency of health's policy that prevails also in other countries. The research purpose was to appoint the positive and negative results from the fusions of hospitals. Any changes in the health care system aim at the reduction of expenses, however, they constitute the most frequent causes of conflicts among employees. The Hospital is characterized as a natural space for the growth of conflicts. Despite the oppositions that are recorded as for the positive and negative results, it appears finally that through the fusions, resources have been saved, management systems have been improved but in the same time, conflicts in the labour place between the individuals and the teams recruiting hospitals have been aggravated.

University language policies and language choice among Ph.D. graduates in Estonia: The (unbalanced) interplay between English and Estonian

Multilingua ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Josep Soler-Carbonell
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
National Language ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Global Language ◽  
A Site

AbstractThe role of English as a global language and its consequences for the internationalization of higher education are matters that have increasingly drawn the attention of researchers from different fields of language and communication. In this paper, an overview of the situation in Estonia is presented. The Estonian context has not previously been analyzed along these lines. The author suggests looking at Ph.D. dissertations as a site of tension between the need to effectively incorporate English as an academic language and the need to maintain Estonian as the national language. The article views this question in the context of some relevant language policy documents and other macro indicators. It then focuses on the number of Ph.D. dissertations defended at four main public universities in the last few years and the languages they have been written in. It appears that, although the language policy documents seem to correctly capture this tension between English and Estonian, the language most commonly used when writing dissertations is overwhelmingly English, with only the humanities providing some counterbalance to that trend. The current situation is different from that of past decades, when English was absent from Estonia’s scientific production and Estonian was significantly employed in that context, alongside Russian. In the discussion section, some lines for further inquiry are presented, together with a proposal for integrating complexity theory in such analyses.

Special Issue on Crisis Management Following Tokyo Metropolitan Near Field Earthquake Disaster

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 369-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haruo Hayashi
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Management ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Earthquake Engineering ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Near Field ◽  
Tokyo Metropolitan ◽  
Tokyo Metropolitan Area ◽  
Disaster Victims ◽  
Sports Science ◽  
Special Project

1. Introduction It is expected that Tokyo Metropolitan area and her vicinity may be jolted by a devastating earthquake with a 70% chance for the next 30 years. If it happens, an unprecedented scale of damage and losses may follow. With the severity of possible consequences due to this earthquake, a special project, entitled as “Special Project for Metropolitan Earthquake DisasterMitigation in Tokyo Metropolitan Area” (2007-2011), is commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (MEXT), This special project consists of three subprojects; Seismology, Earthquake Engineering, and Crisis Management and Recovery. In this issue of JDR, we will introduce 10 papers produced as a series of the achievements from the subproject on Crisis Management and Recovery. This subproject considers Tokyo Metropolitan Earthquake as a national crisis occurred in the Tokyo metropolitan area. All the available knowledge of disaster researchers should be gathered from nationwide, including both emergency response and long-term recovery to minimize damage and losses. This project examines measures for improving the capacity for the people from disaster management organizations to react to crisis and help rebuilding life recovery of disaster victims. An information-sharing platform will be proposed to comprehensively manage individual disaster response and recovery measures. “Training and exercise systems” will be introduced to empower local capacity to mitigate and recover from disaster by integrating all of the project achievements among stakeholders. The final goal of this project is to make ourselves prepared for help the anticipated 25 million victims at most due to Tokyo Metropolitan earthquake.

scholarly journals Does Training and Development Impact the Employee Performance or another Ritual

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-48
Author(s):  
Ndidi Nwali ◽  
Moses Adekunle
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Employee Performance ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Training And Development ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Quantitative Research Methods ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Questionnaire Research ◽  
Fierce Competition

Today’s competitive business environment requires that for organizations to survive the fierce competition in the business environment, the organization must invest heavily on human resources training and development to stay up-to-date on the best industry business practices across the globe. One such way to improve and increase the available skill sets, knowledge, and capabilities of the employee to meet all the important needs of the organization customers is through training and development. Thus, this study evaluates the impacts of training and development on employee performance using quantitative research methods. To achieve the objectives of the study, the research a quantitative research design was employed, and a questionnaire research instrument was used in collecting relevant data from either owners or managers of 260 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Lagos Nigeria. The study concludes that both off-the-job and on-the-job training are effective towards improving employee performance and that training and development not only improves the skill set of the employees but also a source of motivation for the employees.

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