Polite politics –  keigo (honorifics) and native speakerism in Japanese language teaching

Abstract

The study presents the results of a survey exploring attitudes towards Japanese honorifics ( keigo ) and its pedagogy among Japanese language teachers in the UK and Italy, as well as learners in the UK. The survey replicates a previous US-based study and confirms its findings. These reveal speaker status, i.e. the native/non-native distinction, to be a significant factor, affecting judgments around appropriateness, necessity in social life and in diasporic communities, etc., in European contexts as well. This suggests that the language ideologies at play have wide transnational appeal. The study additionally discusses how such ideologies may remain impervious to recent educational discourses advocating for diversity and inclusivity, but also documents some minority, alternative, views. The study supports a call for more incisive critiques of the discourses around speaker legitimacy in language education (and wider societal contexts), and a deeper and nuanced engagement with the complex politics of keigo  usage.