English as a Multicultural Language in Asia and Its Pedagogical Implications: A Case Study of Japan’s ELT

Abstract

This paper discusses English as a multicultural language in Asia and what we can do to deal with this reality in English language teaching (ELT). Certainly, the essential thing about the current state of the English language is: there is no one English; there are many Englishes. At the same time, ELT across the world emphasizes English as an international language. In view of this situation, this paper explores some pedagogical issues involved in understanding and teaching English as a multicultural language for international communication. In implementing this frame of reference in ELT, three challenging issues are noticed. (1) How we can understand and teach English, not as an American language or a British language, but as a multicultural language for international communication, (2) How we can train our students to be able to talk about themselves, their community and their ways of life in English, and (3) How we can encourage our students to become interested in the cultures of speakers of different varieties of English around the world. I will address these issues by taking a close look at Japan’s ELT as a case study.

Keywords

English language teaching (ELT) / Japan

References

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