Oyama, Mayo & Pearce, Daniel. (2026)
As almost all university students educated in Japan have only experienced English as a foreign language (EFL) prior to tertiary education, English is of great importance to the plurilingual competence of residents in Japan. Also, while EFL should contribute to fostering bilingualism, many learners complete secondary level EFL with little awareness of what it means to be bilingual.
Although foreign language education policy does not explicitly refer to bilingualism, a close reading of the goals in policy documents reveals an objective to foster individuals who can successfully use foreign languages in intercultural education – in other words, bilingualism is an implicit goal of EFL in Japan. However, EFL practice has traditionally not been geared towards raising awareness of bi- (or pluri-)lingualism.
This submission explores the practice of one of the authors over one semester at a public university in western Japan. The practice in question was a comprehensive course, open to second- to fourth-year undergraduate students, that dealt with basic themes and historical changes in theoretical perspectives in linguistic and sociolinguistics. Qualitative analysis of students’ reflections over the course, particularly of what surprised them, sheds light on what they had previously not learnt about bilingualism in EFL in primary and secondary education.
Over the 15-week course, post-lecture student reflections were collected online. Thematic analysis of the reflections, particularly trends surrounding themes labelled ‘discoveries’ and ‘surprises,’ demonstrate that many myths surrounding bilingualism, dispelled by the work of Francois Grosjean and other bilingual researchers since the 1980s, remain prevalent amongst learners. Myths overturned through the practice included, for instance, that code-switching/borrowing (or translingual practices) are not a sign of laziness or ‘incomplete’ language knowledge, but common practice in natural bi/plurilingual language use.
Through the courses’ introduction of received knowledge on linguistics, reexamined under a plurilingual lens, students were encouraged to raise questions on their own language use and linguistic identity, which were then explored through further study on linguistics and sociolinguistics. Through analysis of students’ reflections, inclusive of the themes mentioned above, it was observed that better understanding of their own plurilingual competence also deepened the students’ reflections as speakers and social actors.
From the above analysis, this chapter argues that a plurilingual perspective can both complement and enrich ELT in Japan.