This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A new study by Miki Shibata, a professor at Hiroshima University's Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, reveals a paradox in Japan's English-medium higher education: Official English instruction coexists with local peer expectations that drive classroom interactions back into Japanese. By evaluating how international students manage multilingual and multicultural settings in Japanese English-taught programs (ETPs), Shibata demonstrates the impact of power dynamics, language ideologies and individual agency on student identity.
These findings, published in the International Journal of Multilingualism, offer practical insights to enhance international student support, build critical language awareness among domestic peers and advance equitable internationalization in higher education. This dynamic has emerged against the backdrop of a major push for higher education internationalization in Japan. Under the 300,000 International Students Plan, the government set a target of 300,000 foreign students by 2020.
To achieve this goal, the government launched major initiatives, including the Global 30 Project and the Top Global University Project. As a result, international student enrollment reached 312,214 by 2019 (93% from Asia) ahead of schedule. By 2022, over 40% of Japanese universities offered undergraduate English-medium instruction (EMI) courses, and 6% offered full-degree English-taught programs (ETPs).
Despite this rapid growth, research on English-medium instruction in Japan focuses primarily on domestic students, while studies on international students remain limited. Furthermore, most global research on international students originates from Anglophone countries, where English dominates both inside and outside the classroom. In contrast, ETPs in Japan place international students in a dual linguistic environment: English is used in class, but Japanese dominates daily life.
To analyze identity construction, Shibata combined positioning theory and dominant language ideologies in case studies of two international students. Positioning theory focuses on how students claim their own positions or negotiate positions created by others in daily interactions. Dominant language ideologies define which languages hold prestige or face marginalization.
This combined approach helps argue that positioning mediates students' language choices and class participation within the dual language context. The study focused on two female students from Malaysia with Malaysian-Chinese fathers and Japanese mothers. Both identify as half-Japanese and half-Malaysian Chinese, and both speak Japanese, English, Chinese and Malay.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
