TheIdea of English in Japan : : Ideology and the Evolution of a Global Language / / Philip Seargeant.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter MultiLingual Matters Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Seargeant, Philip,
• Place / Publishing House: Bristol ;, Blue Ridge Summit : : Multilingual Matters, , [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Series: Critical Language and Literacy Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (192 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; List of Figures --; Acknowledgements --; Preface --; 1. Introduction --; 2. The Concept of English as a Global Language --; 3. Language Ideology and Global English --; 4. English in Japan: The Current Shape of the Debate --; 5. Globalization: ‘Enriching Japanese Culture Through Contact with Other Cultures’ --; 6. Authenticity: ‘More English than England Itself’ --; 7. Aspiration: ‘Enhancing Lifestyles and Living Out Dreams’ --; 8. The Unknown Language --; 9. Rival Ideologies in Applied Linguistics --; Notes --; References --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781847692030; 9783111024738; 9783110663136; 9783110606713
• DOI: 10.21832/9781847692030
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Philip Seargeant.

This book examines the ways in which English is conceptualised as a global language in Japan, and considers how the resultant language ideologies – drawn in part from universal discourses; in part from context-specific trends in social history – inform the relationships that people in Japan have towards the language. The book analyses the specific nature of the language’s symbolic meaning in Japan, and how this meaning is expressed and negotiated in society. It also discusses how the ideologies of English that exist in Japan might have implications for the more general concept of ‘English as a global language’. To this end it considers the question of what constitutes a ‘global’ language, and how, if at all, a balance can be struck between the universal and the historically-contingent when it comes to formulating a theory of English within the world.