Globalization and English Language Education

Transcription

1 創造的な学習活動のためのクロス スクール ワーキング 39 Katsutoshi Yamazumi Globalization and English Language Education WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION? The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between globalization and English language education. As discussing this subject as a whole is beyond the scope of a brief paper, we are primarily concerned with globalization and English language education in Japan. There are various aspects to 'globalization,' including the economic, the political, and the cultural sides, although these factors are intricately linked. Consequently, it is difficult to define ' globalization.' Nevertheless, people constantly say that this is the age of the globalization. Why do they think so? There must be some reason for their convictions. The main reason is that nowadays, television and the Internet supply us with a huge amount of information. In a sense, these mediums function as observation windows or surveillance cameras through which we can always see what is happening and how people live throughout the world; we can do this independent of the distance between ourselves and the outside world. This shows that, to borrow Paul Virilio's (000, p.) phrase, 'the globalization of the gaze' occurs. Thus, we firmly believe that we live in the age of globalization.

2 40 Katsutoshi Yamazumi What we've noticed is that in spite of the fact that globalization indicates an ongoing process, it seems that globalization becomes a kind of feeling that everybody shares, that Japan has already been globalized. People speak as if the world has already been homogenized. In this way, in Japan at least, globalization is an ambiguous concept or ambiguous feeling. This feeling is also connected with the teaching of English as the common global language. In short, there is a sense that because this is the age of the globalization, you must learn to speak English. English competence is a powerful tool to survive the age of the globalization (Yamada, 00, p.). However, what kind of English do you have to learn in this age of globalization? INTERPRETING THE WORLD IN ENGLISH Now, let's take a deeper look at the concept of globalization. In Negotiations, a collection of conversations by French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze, there is an interesting phrase in a conversation Deleuze had with Michel Foucault in. (, p.) " You were the first to teach us something quite basic: the indignity of speaking for others." This utterance relates to the ethics of representation who can speak for other people? Although Deleuze has written a book about Foucault called Foucault, he explains in Negotiations that he tried "to trace a transversal, diagonal line running from" Foucault to Deleuze in Foucault (Deleuze,, p.). It is his way of examining Foucault's thoughts, without resorting to either representing or interpreting Foucault's thoughts. Deleuze (, p.) also says,

3 Globalization and English Language Education 41 Foucault's method was always opposed to any interpretative method. Never interpret; experience, experiment. There is a suggestion here that you should avoid interpretation so as not to speak for someone else. Such interpretation can be seen as taking possession of another, an action in which there is no thinking. However, by experiencing or experimenting with "a transversal, diagonal line running from" others to you, you will create new thinking. According to Deleuze (, p.0), "Thinking is always experiencing, experimenting, not interpreting." In other words, while interpretation is an activity concerned with linked objects in a domain, thinking is a movement without either a start or an end point. Thinking is like riding a wave. This may explain the reason why Foucault and Deleuze were against interpretation; interpretation cannot create an alternative idea. I am hardly qualified to discuss Foucault's method, but we can use this same line of thinking when discussing globalization. If globalization means a process of homogenization or the world becoming homogeneous, for example, with the spread of fast-food chains all over the world, we can say that in a sense, globalization is a process of interpreting the world in order to tame and use it. In this case, I use the word 'globalization' to especially refer to the economical and cultural integration of the world. As Lin and Luck (00, pp.-) point out, there is some possibility that capitalist globalization will give rise to "neocolonization" and "cultural and ideological homogenization and domination." Conversely, Lin and Luck (00, p.) say that communicative globalization can lead to "transnational solidarities, transcultural-transethnic hybridized identities." However, what is important here is what language is used to interpret the world. English has always been the dominant language in the field of computers, and the English language is a very useful and powerful tool for interpreting the world. It

4 42 Katsutoshi Yamazumi seems that English smoothes communication amongst people all over the world, and the ability to speak English improves people's understanding of the world. For this reason, many people want to speak English and to interpret everything in English, making it the 'international language'. GOOD WRITING FOR SUCCESS IN THE MODERN WORLD Gary Snyder, an American poet, says this about the English language: The standards of " Good Language Usage" until recently were based on the speech of people of power and position, whose language was that of the capital (London or Washington), and these standards were tied to the recognition of the social and economic advantages that accrue to their use. Another kind of standard involves a technical sort of writing that is dedicated to clarity and organization and is rightly perceived as an essential element in the tool kit of a person hoping for success in the modern world. This last sort of writing is intrinsically boring, but it has the usefulness of a tractor that will go straight and steady up one row and down another. (Snyder,, p.) In this quotation, Snyder discusses what is deemed to be good writing in English. For example, "scholarly essays and dissertations" (Snyder,, p.) are seen as good writing because of their clarity and logicality. They have definite standards that aim at a clear answer. Such writing is a result of using language well. The ability to write good English is becoming a necessary tool not only for Japanese students who want to climb the ladder of success but also for anybody wanting to succeed in the global world. Thus, a great many people desire to improve their English ability. It is no exaggeration to say that such English is the

5 Globalization and English Language Education 43 ultimate language of globalization, and this statement has both a capitalistic and communicative meaning. However, Snyder (, p.) says "But really good writing" is "more diverse, more interesting, more unpredictable, and engages with a much broader, deeper kind of intelligence." Snyder also suggests that there are examples of really good writing that depict the mixed and compound nature and lives of human beings. Although people say that nowadays literature is useless, we can find examples of "really good writing" in literature that describe the diverse and unpredictable world. In addition, literature facilitates empathy with others through identification with the characters in a book. Literature is certainly a medium for developing creative thinking (see Yamazumi, 00). It is intrinsically irrelevant to interpretation or to a 'correct answer' which good writing having "the usefulness of a tractor" heads for. I have more to say about literature as "really good writing." According to Susan Sontag (), works of art including literature "give rise not to conceptual knowledge (which is the distinctive feature of discursive or scientific knowledge e.g., philosophy, sociology, psychology, or history) but to something like an excitation, a phenomenon of commitment, judgment in a state of thralldom, or captivation" (p. ). Consequently, Sontag (, p. ) criticizes the philistinism or snobbery of interpretation, which always interferes with works of art one way or another because "Interpretation makes art manageable, comfortable." In other words, such interpretation often becomes the one 'correct answer' that everybody holds in common, in which there is no dialogue between the art and each individual audience member (Yamazumi, 00). Interpretation refuses to become dialogic. Thus, by interpreting literature, we fail to arrive at "something like an excitation." Particularly in the case of literature, we come across various happenings and people. As a result, literature excites our imagination and can lead to the

6 44 Katsutoshi Yamazumi creation of new ideas. While language in literature seems to expand our horizons, technical writing, which is considered to be the written language of globalization, seems to make us conform to a model. On the one hand, technical writing creates smooth communication with others because of its clarity; on the other hand, it is conventional and offers a boring interpretation of literature that lacks a sense of energy. Literary writing expresses that which deviates from a set model. It is concerned with unpredictable things such as emotions, and, to borrow Foucault's phrase, the "lives of infamous men" (Foucault, 000), which show us multiplicities of life. Foucault (000, p.) says, More than any other form of language, it [literature] remains the discourse of "infamy": it has the duty of saying what is most resistant to being said the worst, the most secret, the most insufferable, the shameless. WHAT KIND OF ENGLISH MUST YOU LEARN IN THIS AGE? Now, let's turn to English teaching. Essentially, students have studied English to pass entrance examinations, which are called 'juken' in Japan. In the past, it has been irrelevant to students whether they really learnt English or not. All students had to do was to pass the exam. In more recent English teaching methods, an emphasis has been placed on the importance of English as a tool or a weapon to survive in the age of globalization. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) has led curricular reforms advocating communicative competence in English (O'Donnell, 00, p.0). It is clear that the intention of these reforms reflects the advent of the age of globalization. In 00, the then Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology,

7 Globalization and English Language Education 45 Atsuko Toyama, announced a plan entitled "Regarding the Establishment of an Action Plan to Cultivate "Japanese with English Abilities"." She said, Recently, globalization in various fields of the economy and society has advanced rapidly. Transfers of information and capital across national borders as well as the movement of people and products have increased[...]. In such a situation, English has played a central role as the common international language in linking people who have different mother tongues. For children living in the st century, it is essential for them to acquire communication abilities in English as a common international language. ( go.jp/english/topics/000.htm) This statement does not concretely show what globalization means to each person. Perhaps people use the term 'globalization' as a key word to persuade others of the importance of speaking English, in spite of the fact that it is not always necessary for everyone to master English. However, as Yuichiro Yamada (00, p.0) states, Japanese people tend to have a set idea about the English language; they see the ability to speak English as a key to success in the age of globalization. Thus, in a sense, the quotation above will be very persuasive. As I said earlier, English is fast becoming the language of globalization, one that facilitates communication with people of different nationalities. In particular, English ability can be seen as a key to success, especially economic success. Although I don't have a definitive answer in regards to the relationship between globalization and English teaching, it seems that the English language, when used as a tool that excludes unpredictable things, is often stereotyped and boring. If however, globalization implies not homogenization but the diversification of viewpoints, we may say that literature shows us good

8 46 Katsutoshi Yamazumi examples of English from which we can learn about globalization. Finally, I'd like to quote from a note Jack Kerouac () wrote in his book, Mexico City Blues. His work is not dedicated to clarity. Rather, it directly indicates that literature permits deviation from any set model. NOTE I want to be considered a jazz poet blowing a long blues in an afternoon jam session on Sunday. I take choruses; my ideas vary and sometimes roll from chorus to chorus or from halfway through a chorus to halfway into next. (Kerouac, ) REFERENCES Deleuze, G. (). Negotiations: (Martin Joughin Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press. Foucault, M. (000). Lives of infamous men. In Power. New York: The New Press. Kerouac, J. (). Mexico city blues. New York: Grove Press. Lin, A. M. Y., & Luck, J. C. M. (00). Local creativity in the face of global domination: Insights of Bakhtin for teaching English for dialogic communication. In J. K. Hall, G. Vitanova, & L. Marchenkova (Eds.), Dialogue with Bakhtin on second and foreign language learning: New perspectives. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. O'Donnell, K. (00). Japanese secondary English teachers: Negotiation of educational roles in the face of curricular reform. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 18 (), 00-. Sontag, S. (). A Susan Sontag reader. New York: Vintage Books. Sontag, S. (00). Where the stress falls. New York: Picador. Snyder, G. (). A place in space: Ethics, aesthetics, and watersheds. New York: Counterpoint.

9 Globalization and English Language Education 47 Toyama, A. (00). Regarding the establishment of an action plan to cultivate "Japanese with English abilities." Virilio, P. (000). The information bomb. London: Verso. Yamada, Y. (00). Why does the teaching of English take the wrong course? Tokyo: Chikuma-shobo (in Japanese). Yamazumi, K. (00). The active role of misreading and deviation in the formation of character. In K. Yamazumi (Ed.), Building activity theory in practice: Toward the next generation. Center for Human Activity Theory, Kansai University. Technical Reports No..