"English allergy": English language perception within Japanese society

Introduction In recent studies educators and researchers of English as a second language have discussed issues of ideology that English language teaching creates worldwide. They argue that the dominance of English, promoting by teaching it, has constructed and maintained structural and cultural inequalities (Tollefson 1991; Phillipson 1992; Pennycook 1994; Kachru 1997). Moreover, scholars and business leaders have also often emphasized the cultural uniqueness of Japan, in contrast with Westernization. Indeed, although foreign language reforms and education policy signal a positive intention to move towards more effective communicate methods, English education has always been pursued for national ecomonic goals rather than any individual linguistic needs: it is not a surprise that Japanese students, despite all, can not successfully be proficient in English and that their attitude towards it is characterized from a mixture of attraction, anxiety and fear. Actually, arguments made by ESL/EFL educators, often focus on the linguistic and cultural inequalities between developed and developing countries, overlooking the impact of teaching English language and culture in affluent non-English speaking countries such as Japan. Therefore, the purposes of this dissertation are the following: to introduce the issues of ideology in teaching and learning English raised recently by critics in Japan, to discuss recent discourses of nihonjinron (uniqueness of the Japanese) and kokusaika (internationalization) as broader ideological contexts that would provide an understanding of ideologies of English in Japan, trying to understand if nowadays can we still talk about "English allergy" (Tsuda: 1990) in Japan, analyzing the perceptions of Japanese students about English, and in particular about American English, and finally to suggest that critical pedagogy would raise critical awareness of ideologies of English in Japan.