ICC, Nihonjinron and Native-Speakerism

Abstract

In the previous chapter, I discussed key aspects of the Japanese EFL system and provided an account of the Japanese JHS English classroom as a context for ethnographic research. In this chapter, I concentrate on the three core analytical elements in this book: (1) ICC as a potentially important aspect of English education in Japanese JHS, with (2) nihonjinron and (3) native-speakerism as potential constraining forces in the development of (1). Before conceptualizing the ideological discourses of native-speakerism and nihonjinron, however, it is necessary to begin by proposing an ICC model which can potentially be integrated within existing EFL educational practices in Japanese JHS. If the goal in this book is to ascertain whether the two ideologies under investigative scrutiny are indeed constraining forces, we need to first establish what it is that they are supposed to constrain.