State-sponsored and cultural influences on English language teaching and learning in Japanese junior and senior high schools.

摘要

This thesis presents State-sponsored (i.e., Monbushō) cultural and ideological factors that influence high school education and English instruction in Japan. It analyzes the effects of these factors on attempts by the Ministry of Education to implement reforms in the English language curriculum. State-sponsored factors include an account of the centralized way in which the Ministry has been administrating the educational system. Cultural and ideological factors take into account Confucianism, Japanese cultural sense of selfhood as well as kokutai and nihonjinron ideologies, all reflected in methods of teaching English and treatment of returnee children. Questionnaires administered to Japanese English teachers and students showed the presence and impact of these State-sponsored, cultural and ideological factors in English classrooms. Difficulties in implementing reforms in English curricula are perceived to be the result of Monbushō control over the educational system and cultural and ideological factors that contribute to the student-teacher relationship and methods used in the language classroom.