Is English Capital for the Japanese?

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520610
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: KATAYAMA Akiko 東京大学, 教養学部, 講師 (10622805)
• Research Collaborator: TERASAWA Takunori 日本学術振興会, 特別研究員PD
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 日本人 / 英語使用 / 資本 / 混合メソッド / 国際語としての英語 / 言説

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study reports on a mixed-method study which investigates whether English proficiency is capital for the Japanese. Bourdieu's concept of capital has highlighted the learners' own assessment of the investability to second language learning. In the discourse of globalization, English is nominated as the international language of economic opportunities, and education policies particularly in Kachru’s expanding-circle nations re-enforce the discourse. However, the statistic and narrative data in the present study indicate that in Japan, English proficiency becomes capital only for a small minority and in conditions which involve complex accumulation and trades of other forms of capital such as educational background. The study empirically demonstrates how the neoliberal discourse of English as capital is disconnected from local practices.

Free Research Field

社会言語学