Interpreter training in Japanese higher education: An innovative method for the promotion of linguistic instrumentalism?

The relevance of English communicative competence for achieving individual and corporate competitiveness influenced language policies in Japan, triggering universities’ competitive use of interpreter training as an innovative language enhancement teaching method. Through a case study of a university promoting interpreter training in Japan as a language tool, this article investigates the experiences of students and instructors on the programme, framed within a critique of linguistic instrumentalism. It argues that there is a pedagogical conflict between implementing policy education strategies and using realistic interpreting curricula that consider students’ needs. It shows that interpreter training for enhanced communicative competence is embedded into a neoliberal rhetoric of linguistic instrumentalism, promising competitive professional advantages to students. However, it paradoxically does not keep promises of language acquisition. The study reveals that instructors’ teaching methods, students’ aspirations, and the curriculum design are not pedagogically effective, as there is a mismatch between students’ skills and activities proposed.