CLIL and Language Education in Japan

Abstract

This chapter overviews the language education situation in Japan in relation to the introduction and implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in Japanese contexts. The chapter first describes the transitions of language education policies during the modernisation of Japan since the Meiji restoration. It then goes on to describe the present-day English education reforms since the 2000s, which define English as the only compulsory foreign language subject in schools and encourage English medium lectures at university to be compatible with the globalised society and economy. This is an approach which has been criticised due to a lack of the notion of multilingualism. Thus, in contrast to the European context, CLIL in Japan has been introduced neither in a top-down manner nor as an approach for multilingual education. Japanese CLIL first emerged in university English classes, gradually spreading to primary and secondary English classrooms in various forms. Through these practices, CLIL has the potential to bring two paradigm shifts in language education in Japan: (1) reconceptualising the learning aims of language education from acquiring language abilities to developing generic competences using language as a learning tool, and (2) altering learners’ learning experience and their perceptions of language learning through languaging and translanguaging in CLIL practices, both of which are, however, still emerging in the Japanese context.