Producing the Eikaiwa English language lesson: A dialectical approach to the contradictions of commodity production

Abstract

AbstractIn building upon sociolinguistic work which highlights the continuities and contradictions of capitalism, this article proposes an understanding of Taylorised and flexible forms of production as a dialectical and contradictory unity, which can push and pull those within production in contradictory directions. As a means to illustrate what a dialectical approach to contradiction might offer sociolinguistics, the article discusses empirical work from corporate eikaiwa English language teaching, a form of commercial language teaching within Japan, where both Taylorised and flexible forms of producing the English language lesson exist in considerable tension. The article proposes a dialectical approach as a means of shedding light not only on how such contradictory regimes of production interrelate and play out in language work such as language teaching but also on how forms of subjectivity are produced among language workers, such as teachers, who are tasked with managing contradictory demands made of them in the workplace.