Language Policy in Japan: The Challenge of Change
Nanette Gottlieb
Language: English
Pages: 222
ISBN: 110700716X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Over the last thirty years, two social developments have occurred that have led to a need for change in language policy in Japan. One is the increase in the number of migrants needing opportunities to learn Japanese as a second language, the other is the influence of electronic technologies on the way Japanese is written. This book looks at the impact of these developments on linguistic behaviour and language management and policy, and at the role of language ideology in the way they have been addressed. Immigration-induced demographic changes confront long cherished notions of national monolingualism and technological advances in electronic text production have led to textual practices with ramifications for script use and for literacy in general. The book will be welcomed by researchers and professionals in language policy and management and by those working in Japanese Studies.
The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan
A Geek in Japan: Discovering the Land of Manga, Anime, Zen, and the Tea Ceremony
The Dragon King's Palace (Sano Ichiro, Book 8)
Super Potato Design: The Complete Works of Takashi Sugimoto: Japan's Leading Interior Designer
CIRs and eight are ALTs. 8 Much of Asia’s international migration takes place at the regional level, bringing newcomers from China and Korea into Japanese communities where substantial groups of oldcomers from those countries may already exist. 9 www.chinatefl.com/shandong/teach/jnfls.htm, accessed 10 November 2010. 10 http://mishop.jp/en/act/group.php?id=g0019&cat=4, accessed 11 November 2010. 11 www.kifa-web.jp/lang.html, accessed 3 December 2010. 12 www.dila.co.jp/, accessed 10 November 2010.
clear that there was no point to producing showy text if recipients found it difficult to read or laughed at it. With time and with improvements in input technology, users settled into using the technology to communicate effectively rather than to experiment, at least in matters of ordinary text.8 Kanji proficiency, however, has indeed declined, as both anecdotal evidence and surveys have shown (see, for instance, the Agency for Cultural Affairs surveys 108 Technology and language policy
Agency for Cultural Affairs survey, for example, included a question on reading habits over a month which found that 37.6 per cent of respondents had not read a book at all during that period, while just over half the respondents to a 2007 survey by the Yomiuri Shimbun had not read a book during the previous month (Yoshida 2008), with lack of time given as the major reason. Lack of time is not the only factor: rather, people are choosing to Online language play means declining standards? 113
the level of the readership (presumably rather than extending it). There are of course many other avenues for reading than books. The type of reading being thus promoted is often not the kind of reading actually being done by most young people, bringing us back to the charge of lowered literacy levels stemming from manga reading discussed at the beginning of this chapter. ‘School literacy as prescribed by the curriculum is represented by classroom textbooks and library books . . . On the other
actually reach, and also requested clarification of the extent to which the MEXT project had taken into account relationships with projects already being run by local governments, NPOs and universities. MEXT was asked to request an increased allocation for the project in its 2010 budget request, but this did not happen. In the view of the CCHCFR, the MEXT project was a model which local governments, NPOs and universities working in local areas could use as a reference but A national law on the