Abstract:
Most Japanese people consider themselves to be monolingual and poor speakers of foreign languages. In Japan, like in many other places around the world, English has been synonymous with foreign languages for the past few decades. How we view language has created the world of this dominant national language, dominant ideologies, and dominant speakers. This hierarchical view has also created haves and have nots, and contributed to categorisations of language varieties and speakers such as American English, British English, native speakers and non-native speakers. On the contrary, Translanguaging is an emerging theory that challenges many taken-for-granted assumptions about language. It puts all languages and speakers on a non-hierarchical plane because it problematises the multi/plural approaches and denies named languages and named speakers. However, most studies in the field of translanguaging have only focused on so-called multilingual settings. Drawing on translanguaging theory, this qualitative case study aims to reconceptualise language and speakers in the Japanese context where people learn English as a foreign language. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six Japanese high school teachers of English. They were asked questions about their awareness of language, speakers, and context, and how their awareness influenced their perceived practices in the classroom. Data were analysed using Canagarajah’s (2013) translingual dispositions: language awareness, social values, and communicative/learning strategies. The findings of this study intend to offer a translanguaging perspective to the Japanese context and explore what implications it may have for English language teaching. It is hoped that the study will invite 'monolingual' contexts and speakers to the discussions of translanguaging.