Ideological orientations towards different forms of bilingualism: An analysis of press release documents about language policies in Japan

This study examines contemporary Japanese ideological orientations towards different languages and different forms of language education, using a social semiotic discourse analysis approach. Press releases associated with two language-related educational policies, the Action Plan for Japanese with English Ability and the Japanese as a Second Language Curriculum, were analyzed. This thesis first describes the way in which each of these two policies creates various images of languages and bilingualism, as well as various categories and images of the learners. Then, the study points out that a language ideology is shared across these two policies: Japanese language as the only tool for intellectual activities at school and English as the main tool for communication with the international world. It is argued that this language policy discourse reflects the position and strategy of Japan as a nation-state in the transitional era of globalization.