There has been much discussion about the status of English and English language teaching in Japan in recent decades. Yet even in the midst of this discussion and repeated government initiatives, by all accounts, average English ability within Japan has not improved. Philip Seargeant, a lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the Open University’s Centre for Language and Communication, has extensively investigated the study of world Englishes, partially through his time working in Japanese higher education. In the nine chapters of The Idea of English in Japan, Seargeant explores how English, as “language which is not interpreted as language” (Seargeant, 2009, p. 134), is used throughout contemporary Japanese society. Although Seargeant’s book is not strictly related to language teaching, Seargeant’s thesis and findings are potentially important for helping language teachers in Japan, and possibly elsewhere, understand their teaching context. The basis of Seargeant’s theoretical approach is “language ideologies, ” that languages always already exist within an ideological system (Silverstein, 1979 in Seargeant, 2009, p. 27), which Seargeant asserts is a perspective missing from much discussion of World Englishes or English as a Lingua Franca. Seargeant investigates the discourses on English within Japan by examining official pronouncements, academic discussions and curriculum designs, along with promotional texts and organizational practices of public and private educational organizations, such as universities and language schools, and the use of English within artistic and popular culture. In doing so, Seargeant attempts to straddle and balance the divide he notes in studies on World Englishes between focusing on languages and the social practices they inhabit, but in doing so, bringing the balance back towards ‘language ’ proper.
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