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Imagined Communities of English Use in JET Programme Teaching
Materials
Charles Allen Brown
Purdue University, United States

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Abstract
Visualizing oneself joining imagined communities of target language (TL) use represents a
potent motivation for language study. Given that rationales for the Japan Exchange andTeaching (JET) Programme include fostering internationalization, a student-centeredclassroom, and communicative skills, teaching to promote learners envisioning themselves
gaining access to different imagined social groups via the TL is further warranted in thisprogram. Yet no research has examined the actual role of imagined TL communities in JET
teaching. This project responded by investigating how JET participants foster imaginedcommunities of English use among learners. Materials produced by JET teachers from acrossJapan were collected with a content analysis being undertaken to determine how they portrayedconnections between the language and social group participation. Results of this analysis of5079 teaching materials indicated that most (2783) involved language practice divorced fromsocial connections. The remainder ran the gamut from lessons in which social group
information was tangential and not connected to particular language to a smaller number inwhich connections between language and potential future social group participation werestrong. These results suggest that the possibility of leveraging connections between language
and social group participation to promote imagined communities of TL use among learners is
possible within the JET paradigm and that this avenue for learner motivation could be further
exploited. Given the importance of these findings for motivation coupled with the adoption of
initiatives similar to JET across Asia, these results have implications both within and outsideof the JET Programme.
Keywords: English language teaching (ELT), JET Programme, hidden curriculum, identity,
imagined community, motivation

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Picturing oneself participating in imagined communities via target language (TL) use can be astrong motivation for exerting the effort needed in language study. The research presented here
investigated the role of this important phenomenon in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET)
Programme. Despite parallels between JET Programme goals and the benefits in fostering
connections between TL study and future social group participation among learners, noresearch has investigated the role of imagined communities of TL use within this program. The
research discussed here addresses this gap. In this study JET teaching materials were collectedfrom official JET websites and were subjected to a content analysis to ascertain how they
promoted imagined communities of language use. This approach is valuable since thesematerials have actually been used in the classroom by JET participants and because they havebeen subsequently posted as examples of best practices for others to follow. This study is also
important because initiatives similar to JET are now popular across Asia. In presenting thisstudy, this paper introduces the notion of the imagined community, discusses its importance inlanguage education, presents the background of the JET Programme, details the researchquestions and methodology used, and presents the results. The paper concludes by considering
the implications of these results within the JET Programme and beyond.
Literature Review
Imagined Communities
An Imagined community is defined as a social group with which one identifies but having an
extensive population of members most of whom one will never actually meet (Winer, 2020).
Future selfhood represents an important aspect of imagined communities. The potential for
imagined community participation at some later time provides an impetus for individuals to
pursue various fields of endeavor that take time to master. For example, in engineering,
imagined communities can represent an attraction for female engineers and engineering
aspirants who seek to be included by a heavily masculine imagined community (Foor &Walden, 2009). In a study of immigrants to Britain, a future self-aligned with imaginedcommunities of the working professional figured as a motivation (Li & Simpson, 2013). In
research about graduate students of psychology, perceptions of a future self in an imaginedcommunity of practitioners served as motivation for overcoming various challenges associatedwith doctoral study (Park & Schallert, 2020). The potency of the imagined professional
community is perhaps most aptly demonstrated by the history of science in which aninternational imagined community, a “republic of letters,” transcending national borders
formed the cornerstone of the scientific ideal of the late Enlightenment (Mayhew, 2005). Suchperceptions of the imagined community continue to hold sway in science (Johnson, 2007).
Language learners invariably envision an imagined community of TL users, making theconcept important in language education. Choi (2018) notes that imagination “makes learners
determine what kinds of practices are worth struggling for and urges them to put forth efforts
to achieve their desired or anticipated visions of community life in the future” (p. 808).
Perceptions of gaining membership in such imagined communities via the target language as adimension of future selfhood can provide important motivation for language learners (Norton& Pavlenko, 2019). There are numerous examples of the links between imagined communities
and language learning. One study found that integration into an imagined community of
Mandarin speakers represented an important factor prompting study of the language forheritage language learners (Leeman, 2015). Work with multilingual speakers of African
languages indicated that a classroom embracing translanguaging capitalized upon learners’
future hopes of participation in an imagined multilingual community (Makalela, 2015).

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Involvement in imagined virtual communities online represents an especially salient attraction
for many language learners since online communities are more accessible to the EFL learnerthan foreign countries and because such communities are exciting (Reinhardt, 2019). For
example, one project documented how English learners in Hong Kong used the target language
to participate in an imagined community of Wikipedia authors with increased motivation andacquisition of relevant language skills (King, 2015). Among a group of university-level
Japanese learners, English study articulated with their goal of attaining entry into an imaginedcommunity of engineers (Yashima, 2013). In a study of Korean immigrants to the United States,
the role of English in facilitating entry into an imagined cosmopolitan social space represented
a strong motivation for learning the language (Song, 2010). The role of imagined communities
is so powerful in language learning that it is now considered by some scholars to represent one
critical dimension of second language acquisition theory (The Douglas Fir Group, 2016). It isclear that language learner identification with an imagined community of target language users
can represent a powerful force impacting learner investment in language study.
Taking communities in which learners may desire participation into account is thus one potent
way that the language teacher can capitalize upon this phenomenon. This was demonstrated in
one approach in which teachers asked learners about their future hoped-for academic writing
community membership with instruction then being tailored for the language use associatedwith the communities in question; increased motivation and language proficiency resulted(Andrew & Romova, 2012). One study with Japanese university learners demonstrated thevalue to learning and motivation in having them visualize themselves as future English users
participating in communities such as scientists or policy makers while setting specific goals fortheir language use (Munezane, 2015). When English classes fail to provide instruction
grounded in the language and cultural practices of communities into which learners desire
entry, not only can motivation suffer but learners can experience tremendous stress if they doultimately find themselves immersed in such communities, but are unprepared (Lee, 2014).
Problematic imagined community teaching can result in barriers as well. An imaginedcommunity of English centered on the idealized native speaker can stand in the way of learners
adopting a stance more in line with reality in which most speakers are language learners, animagined community into which they can more easily fit (Wang, 2015). Importantly, theteaching of particular genres of language use such as giving formal speeches or authoring
academic essays, while common, should also link these language forms to the specificaudiences with which they are most commonly seen in order to take advantage of the languageimagined community link (Andrew & Romova, 2012). Such an approach supports
communicative language education given the importance of the sociolinguistic dimension of
overall communicative competence (Savignon, 2017).
Besides intentional teaching, it is also important to consider the potential role of the hidden
curriculum in fostering imagined communities among learners. The hidden curriculum
involves all that is taught in formal schooling, whether intended or not (Azimpour &Khalilzade, 2015). Research has illustrated the connections between the hidden curriculum andimagined communities in language education. For example, one study of ELT texts used in
Taiwan found that US culture was not only emphasized at the expense of other cultures, butthat texts presented an idealized and sanitized version of this culture (Chao, 2011). Anotherstudy found that ELT texts used in Iranian high schools depicted males as more active andworthwhile than females (Gharbavi & Mousavi, 2012). Research has also documented a hidden
curriculum of such gender biases in Japanese ELT texts (Lee, 2014).

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The JET Programme and its Goals
This study considered the role of teaching materials from the Japanese Exchange and Teaching(JET) Programme in promoting connections between English language use and imaginedcommunity participation among learners. Begun in 1987, JET currently involves 5277
language teachers from 50 countries (JET Programme, 2022). These are short-term positions:
JET participants are hired on one-year contracts with the possibility of extension typically up
to a maximum of three years (JET Program USA, 2019). Participants teach elementary throughhigh school learners along with some adults across Japan. One goal of JET is to promote
improved language acquisition via communicative methods (Nakao, Oga-Baldwin, & Fryer,2019). Another objective is to make the traditional teacher-centered classroom in Japan more
student centered. An official government publication for JET participants states that theyshould “[k]eep the class student-centered at all times” (CLAIR, 2013, p. 18). Fostering
language “authenticity” is another central JET Programme goal. The program recruits native
speakers on this grounds, especially to promote authentic pronunciation and grammar. A JET
publication states “[y]our accent and pronunciation are authentic, and will improve students’ability to understand native speakers when they are speaking” (Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology, 2013, p. 53). The other important goals of JET are
internationalization and the promotion of an intercultural stance among learners (JET
Programme, 2020; Sponseller, 2016). JET has proven influential with similar programs being
adopted across Asia. These include the English Programme in Korea (EPIK), the English
Program Sichuan (EPS) in China, the Native English-speaking Teacher (NET) scheme in Hong
Kong, and the Foreign English Teachers (FET) program in Taiwan (Turnbill, 2018).
Although the JET Programme does not explicitly invoke the notion of imagined communitiesof language use in its design, its objectives align with and could be furthered by theirpromotion. Equipping learners to interact in different social situations is, as noted, critical forcommunicative competence which is an explicit JET goal. Likewise, understanding learners’
own hoped for future imagined community participation fits impeccably with the JET objectiveof promoting student-centeredness. Undertaken from the 1950s, Paulo Freire’s (2018) approachfor the empowerment of learners – a cornerstone of student-centered philosophies - rests upon
fashioning a pedagogy responsive to their goals rather than those of teacher or institution. Suchgoals indicate the value in JET of understanding learners’ own hoped for social groupmembership via TL use as an imagined community and responding with instruction tailored tofostering the corresponding language competencies. The internationalization andinterculturalism mission of JET also has implications for promoting imagined communities oftarget language use. JET explicitly instructs teachers to include a cultural dimension in theirclassroom materials. The program especially speaks of the role of the participant as a “culturalambassador” for the learners (Turnbill, 2018). Yet little is known about how rank and file JET
participants construe these instructions in their teaching.
It might seem preferable to prepare these learners for interaction with real here and now groups
rather than for future TL-contingent imagined community participation. Yet, until any suchpreparation is complete, the groups with which one is preparing to interact remain imaginedwith hoped for future participation bearing an important motivational load (Choi, 2018). Mostof the learners with whom JET participants work are far from possessing the language
competency for actual TL interaction since they are in their first few years of language study.
Indeed, a fundamental rationale for JET is to provide willing and level-appropriate interlocutors
in the form of the assistant language teacher (ALT), especially given the move in Japan toinitiate English study in the elementary years and to focus more heavily on oral communication

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practice during this initial phase of language study (Nakao et al., 2019). Until they gain
sufficient language competency, the hoped for future self as imagined community participant
thus represents a critical sustaining force for language learners such as those served by JET.
Despite the power of imagined communities in language learning, the ostensible alignment of
JET Programme goals with promoting TL-based imagined community visualization, and thepotential for JET materials to include information about a wide variety of imaginedcommunities as part of the teaching of culture, the literature is silent on the role of JET in
fostering imagined communities of target language use among learners. Such research isimportant in promoting best practices. It can do so by documenting how JET materials may
couple participation in imagined communities with English language competency. It can pointout any important shortcomings along these lines as well. It can also support a more mature
theorization of the relationship between language teaching materials and imaginedcommunities of target language use. In light of the foregoing discussion, this study focusesupon the following research questions.
Overall Question: What is the role of JET Programme materials in promoting connections
between English language use and imagined community membership?
1. What assessments of learners’ hoped for imagined community membership areprovided in JET teaching materials to guide language instruction?
2. How do JET materials provide instruction in specific language skills tailored tointeraction with particular social groups?
3. What are the implications of portrayals of culture - whether incidental or explicit - inthese materials for promoting imagined communities of English use among learners?
MethodData was sourced from official JET Programme online venues for sharing best practices in theform of teaching plans and accompanying materials. This project collected 5079 materials
accessible during 2021-2022 from the various such prefectural venues across Japan. There wasno sampling scheme used; instead, all available materials were collected. This strengthened theresults by allowing the project to determine the prevalence of phenomena within this important
corpus. For example, the attention to language skills associated with particular social groups(Question 2) could thus be characterized in terms of its frequency within all shared JET
Programme materials across Japan. Harvesting all available materials also lent itself to an
inductive analysis, one in which results emerge from the data. Such an approach provides
strong results because important findings are less likely to be missed (Veers & Gillam, 2020).
For example, had the research taken a more deductive perspective by collecting only materials
explicitly claiming to be about culture, incidental depictions of culture such as images ofcurrency from specific countries included in shopping role plays would have been missed. This
inductive approach is especially warranted in shedding light on the hidden curriculum given its
unstated nature. Analyzing a large corpus such as this one also increases the possibility of
harvesting noteworthy exceptions to general trends. Considering materials used across Japan
also provides insight into their impact upon an entire generation of learners across the country.
The materials themselves included lesson plans, handouts, PowerPoints, video and audio files,
flashcards, and similar resources intended for JET Programme teaching at the elementarythrough high school levels with some lessons for adults as well. These materials also represent
an apt resource for this study since they had actually been used in the classroom. This differs

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from official texts which may be transformed or ignored at the actual classroom level.
Additionally, the creators posted these materials as exemplars for other JET teachers.
Disseminating such materials is important given the relatively short tenure of the typical JET
coupled with the fact that most have no training as teachers (Morita, 2017). Thus, other JET
participants use these materials, further enhancing their impact. Also, there has been an increasein non-JET ALTs in Japan in recent years. Like their JET counterparts, they also typically lacktraining as teachers and need teaching materials like these tailored to learners of English (HayeMatsui, 2018).
A content analysis of these materials was conducted based upon the research questions. This
took place from late 2021 and was completed in 2022. For Question 1, examples of guidancein assessing learners’ interest in social group participation via English to tailor instruction
appropriately were sought. Such assessments could take various forms. For example, educators
have used interviews with learners to understand TL-using groups with which they identify(Norton, 2015). Since the ALT may not be fluent in Japanese, the corpus was also examinedfor evidence that hoped for community participation had been elicited in the L1, especially by
the Japanese teachers of English with whom ALTs always work. Specifically, a search for any
reference to the use of such assessment results in the instructions accompanying the materials
represented part of the analysis.
For Question 2, analysis strove to identify instances of language instruction tailored for specificsocial groups, for particular social situations, or representing specific genres of language use.
Successful fostering of an imagined community-language link in this case would involve bothpractice in the language form in question coupled with a means to promote learners’ associationof that form with a particular socially situated usage.
For Question 3, materials were examined for portrayals of culture. These not only included
cultural items typical in language education materials such as depictions of the arts, foods, andcelebrations but also aspects of “little c” culture such as everyday cultural items and behaviors(Kovács, 2017). The research especially drew upon the notion of “banal culture” or the cultureof the commonplace such as which nation’s currency units might be used in discussing prices(Morsli & Riche, 2019). The analysis was also sensitive to all scales of culture from supranational culture to sub-cultural groups within countries. Analysis considered images used inthese materials in addition to text because of their ability to convey important social
information (Aillo, 2006) and to have a more powerful emotional impact than text
(Ademilokun & Olateju, 2015).
Results and Discussion
Use of Assessments of Learners’ Hoped For Social Group Participation
Research Question 1 pertained to the use of assessments designed to understand learners’ hoped
for future social group participation in order to tailor language instruction accordingly. The
analysis of the 5079 materials revealed no such assessments being used by the teachers. Indeed,
few assessments of any form created to better understand learners such as assessments ofvocabulary knowledge, grammatical skill, and listening/pronunciation ability were included.
The plans also did not make reference to any such assessments conducted by other parties suchas the Japanese teachers of English. This suggests that assessment-guided instruction does not
represent an important feature of JET.

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Instruction in Language Skills Connected with Participation in Particular Social Groups
Research Question 2 concerned the teaching of language skills connected with participation inparticular social groups, situations, or genres. Analysis of the materials corpus indicated thatthe most prevalent type of materials was those promoting language skills but having no suchconnections. Such activities comprised 55% of this corpus (2783 of the 5079 materials).
Examples included vocabulary bingo games in which the teacher read words aloud, an activity
in which learners drew pictures to convey the meanings of prepositions such as under and on,an activity in which learners unscrambled sentences, phonics activities in which the learners
decoded letters of the alphabet, and a classroom grammar game in which learners filled blanks
with the correct word forms such as hard vs. hardly.
The remaining 2296 materials did include various types of social group information. Table 1
enumerates these results. In 803 of these 2296 materials (35%), instruction in language genresthat could be associated with particular social groups or specific social situations was provided,
but groups or situations in which they could be used were not made explicit (Table 1, #1). For
example, in one lesson learners were taught how to write a “cause and effect essay.” Thesematerials included a lesson plan for other teachers to follow, presentation slides for classroomuse, a handout for learners, and a rubric for evaluation. The lesson provided many details,
including vocabulary and structure of this discourse form. It instructed learners to begin sucha piece of writing with general statements followed by a thesis statement for the introduction,
two subsequent paragraphs starting with the words first and second, and a conclusion paragraphbeginning with the phrase in conclusion. They were instructed how to use words including asa result, not only, therefore, and furthermore. While the lesson thus taught learners themechanics of this form of writing, it provided them with no sense of the social situations inwhich such a writing genre would be appropriate.

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Table 1The Four Types of Materials with Imagined Community Implications Found in the Corpus
Type ofMaterial/Percentage
within materials
having social group
information
1. Instruction in
Language Genres withno Social Group
Connections
Provided/35%
2. Imagining TL-BasedGroup Participation
with no Language
Taught/1%

ExampleLanguage
AssociatedWhy Example
Skills Taught Social Group Fits Type

Writing a Cause
and Effect Essay

Academic
Used in
Essay Writing Academia

Imagined
Interaction with
“Foreigners” in
Japan

None

Essay form
taught with notarget socialgroup“Foreigners”

Target socialgroup provided
with nospecificlanguage form
3. Language Taught with Writing a Business Business Letter BusinessConnection
Explicit Social Group Letter
Language
Peoplemade between
Connections/17%
language form
and target
social group
4. Cultural Information Passing Mention of None
French People Cultural
Only Provided with no France and Eiffel
and/or Tourists information
Language
Tower
Impliedabout France
Connection/47%
provided, butwith no link tolanguage use
Another lesson taught the basics of debate. Given a prompt such as Which Food is Healthier,Western or Eastern? It instructed learners to brainstorm a set of pros and cons for the topic. It
provided an organizational framework into which learners could place the resulting material
prior to presenting it. In this case, the lesson instructed them to convince their classmates of aposition. It did not tell them how these skills might be used with people outside of theclassroom. Other examples included how to give directions around a town, but no indicationof when a person in Japan would use these English skills: Was the idea to speak with visitors
to Japan, to be ready for travel abroad, or something else? Likewise, there were numerous
lessons pertaining to shopping with learners practicing playing the roles of customers andclerks. Again, though, no explicit connection was made between the language and sociallysituated use.
A final type of language genre with potential imagined community implications was thatpertaining to science. Some of these lessons were associated with the so-called “Super Science”
schools in Japan. In these schools, STEM classes form a focus with technical and scientifictopics being used to make connections across the curriculum, including the English class. These
activities included making research reports as well as conducting science experiments andreporting the results in English, either in written or oral form. Yet, in the English lessons about
science there was no attention to providing learners with connections to future social group73

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participation. Instead, as with the materials discussed above, the focus was simply upon
language form, especially vocabulary and the format of reports. Such lessons thus involved the“hows” of language, but not the “whens” and “whys.” Given the potency of the imaginedcommunity of language learning, providing some information about possible future avenues to
use the language in question, or, perhaps better yet, asking learners to brainstorm them in a
discussion could have potent motivational implications. Perhaps some learners might haveneighbors or family members who use English in such capacities, and they could share thesestories. Such moves would take little time away from addressing other instructional goals andwould help to cement the student-centered mission of JET while promoting the link between
imagined communities and the TL.
In contrast to these lessons providing language instruction without supplying possible avenuesof future social use, a few materials involved the opposite situation: Such materials asked thelearner to imagine communicating with members of particular social groups using English, butwith no specific language norms being provided beyond the idea of employing the TL itself(Table 1, #2). These materials comprised only 24 of the 2296 materials with social group
information (1%). Most of these materials were activities asking learners to imagine talking to“foreigners” within Japan. Some of these asked learners to explain elements of Japaneseculture. For example, one material required learners to present the use of the traditional
furoshiki wrapping cloth. Another such lesson asked the learners to present “strange Japanese
foods” to foreigners in Japan. Such scenarios constructed the imagined foreigner in Japan as ashort-term visitor knowing little about Japan, not speaking Japanese, and proficient in English.
This could be a bit unrealistic: For example, one of these lessons assumed that the foreign
visitor to Japan did not know about sushi. In fact, one teacher recommended in their plan thatthe teacher should feign confusion about Japan in order to create such situations in theclassroom. In another example of such materials, the teacher discussed an effort to have English
club students within Japan communicate with each other using English.
Within the overall corpus, 390 of the 2296 materials (17%) bearing social group information
did provide instruction in language connected to participation in explicit social situations(Table 1, #3). A good example was a collection of materials for a class in business English.
Included in the materials was a PowerPoint presentation for the teacher’s use. This presentationstressed that learners would be encountering English for the real world. In this lesson, learners
role played workers in Sony Japan, Microsoft in England, or Apple in the US (Figure 1). The
activities included making presentations to a specific audience and writing business letters topeople from these companies. The lesson supplied appropriate language for these social
situations. In this way, the lesson empowered learners with connections between specificlanguage/language genres (such as the business letter) and possible future social group
participation in which to deploy it. Such an approach would bolster the imagined communityof target language use among learners.

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Figure 1
Promoting an Imagined Community of Business English Use

Other examples of strong language/social group connections included one set of materials
centering upon writing letters to pen pals abroad. The lesson provided learners with a letter
template and instructed them to present topics possibly of interest to their audience such asdetails about their school lives. Another example taught language important for a home stay in
an English-speaking context. One lesson provided language used for “speed dating” in whichlearners created a profile page with entries for their personal information. Several examples
provided instruction in language associated with specific social groups within the larger
English-speaking world. These included one lesson about New Zealand English with lexical
items including bloke, knackered, and lollies. Another lesson presented differences between
American and British English lexicon with examples such as apartment vs. flat and elevatorvs. lift. A final example pertaining to language variety was a lesson on Hawaiian English. In
this case, the lesson made connections between the Japanese language and Hawaiian creole bypresenting uses of Japanese words like tako (octopus) and hana (nose) in Hawaii in a strong
example of instructional scaffolding. Yet, varieties of English from outside of the traditional
English-speaking countries – such as that spoken in the Philippines – were not presented in anyof these materials. It was also notable that few (about 2%) of the 2296 materials linking specificlanguage and social groups/situations were from elementary school materials.
Some materials in this category – though they did link language and putative social group
participation – invoked situations unlikely for learners’ future participation. One involved asituation in which learners role played making presentations to the UN as ambassadors tovarious countries. Another presented the scenario of writing English messages in high school
yearbooks, something not part of the Japanese high school experience. In another case, learners
used language to write a plan for people to escape a zombie attack. A final example presented
a scenario in which the learners role played deceased individuals tasked with convincing Godof their merit for entering heaven. Vocabulary in this case included deeds and misdeeds andvarious examples that could fall under each such as killing, stealing, lying, rescuing a person,

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and engaging in illegal content downloading. While such lessons failed to promote the target
language as a resource for participation with members of accessible imagined communities,
they may have added interest and levity to the classes. Language skills acquired via these
activities could also transfer to broader situations. Yet, again, simply asking the learners tobrainstorm real-world situations in which these skills could also be used would have been
beneficial; Conducted in the L1, such a discussion could forge connections between language
studied and imagined social group participation. Conducted in the TL, it could also promote
communication and additional learning of lexis.
Cultural Information and the World of English
Question 3 concerned the role of portrayals of culture in promoting imagined communities oflanguage use. This study provides evidence that this phenomenon is widespread. Materials with
cultural components – but not included in the previous analyses – comprised 1079 of the 2296
materials (Table 1, #4), making them the most common type of materials with social group
information (47%). This cultural information was often “background” or “tangential” withlessons not asking learners to make any connection between this information and their language
production. In some cases, learners talked about certain places and cultural groups, but did notpractice using language to imagine interacting with people from these places. Examples
included a lesson in which the teacher gave cards with the names of countries to learners. They
then asked/answered two questions posed by a partner based upon the specific country card
held. The lesson provided the following model:
Learner A: What country would you like to visit?
Learner B: I would like to visit France.
Learner A: Why do you want to visit France?
Learner B: I want to see the Eiffel Tower.
Images played an especially prominent role in this category of materials. For example, a
handout about the months of the year included an image of the flag of Ireland and children in
Halloween costumes for the month of October and a flag of the US with a family having
Thanksgiving dinner for the month of November. In this case, learners were simply asked themonth of their birthdays with these images taking on no explicit function beyond thedecorative. This was the case for many of the images included. While it is possible that suchmaterials could foster imagined communities of language use in a general sense, the lack ofstrong connections between specific language and engagement with individuals from particulargroups indicates that many opportunities to promote such connections were missed.
More problematic is the fact that these cultural materials were biased. Beyond a strong focus
on Japanese culture, most of the cultural materials pertained to the traditional English-speaking
countries, especially the UK and US. In a lesson in which learners discussed movie genres, all
the examples were from UK or US movies such as James Bond films or Titanic with the only
exception being one Japanese movie. In this way, the cultural information presented in thesematerials failed to represent the breadth of English speakers.
These findings are significant for several reasons. Overall, they demonstrate a lack of attention
to fostering connections between language study and imagined communities of language use
in the JET Programme. Scholarship in language education indicates that doing so would
increase learner motivation, ownership of the language, and preparation for real-world
language use. Shortcomings with each of these are endemic to Japanese ELT (e.g., Knodell,76

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2017). The failure to provide any assessments regarding groups with whom learners would liketo use the language is especially glaring since tapping into the TL/imagined community
connection is a cogent motivational scheme.
This study is also significant in providing evidence that JET currently is missing important
opportunities to meet its own goals. Making greater efforts to forge connections between
language and social group participation would advance the JET objectives of promoting
communicate language teaching, bringing culture into the classroom, and making classes more
student centered. The decoupling of language and social situations manifest in these results isimportant to note: Over half of the materials collected provided no information about social
use of the language at all. Scholars have widely attributed such shortcomings in social language
use practice to the high-stakes exam system used in Japan (Mitchell, 2017). Thus, these results
may offer one more critique of this system applicable both within and beyond Japan. This study
is also significant in providing evidence that in consistently aligning English-speaking
imagined communities with the native speaker, the imagined communities promoted in thesematerials do not best reflect those with whom the typical Japanese learner is most likely tointeract using English. This is at odds with current thought in teaching English as aninternational language (EIL). Finally, these results are significant in pointing up the potential
for issues such as those detailed here to arise in programs similar to JET across Asia. They
certainly suggest that adding NS teachers to the classroom does not represent a panacea for
Asian ELT.
Recommendations
This study suggests some important recommendations for ELT practice. Notable among thesefindings was the lack of attention to learner input in determining possible social situations andgroups upon which to focus in classes. In light of the ostensible commitment to a studentcentered classroom in JET, such actions would represent one additional avenue for meeting thisobjective by tailoring instruction to the groups with whom learners would eventually like to
use the language. This is also true beyond JET in any initiative with such a commitment to thelearner-centered approach.
Another area for improvement pertains to the language skills evidenced in these materials.
Even though applied linguists recognize sociolinguistic competence as a core component ofcommunicative competence, these materials reflected little attention to connecting languagewith participation in specific social groups and events. The role of imagined communities oflanguage use was especially weak in elementary school lessons. This would seem toparticularly represent a missed opportunity to tap into the imagination, lower inhibition, andpropensity for language play to explore relationships between language and social group
participation characteristic of the youngest cohort of learners (Hà, 2022). It is not difficult toimagine activities capitalizing upon these tendencies such as role plays in which learners takeon identities of people from particular locales and use English lexis or pronunciation common
to those groups. This analysis also demonstrates the tendency to teach language form divorced
from its social functions. Many lessons taught learners the “hows” of language such as how tomake an argument but failed to present the “whens” and “whys” of actual socially situated use:
The lack of attention to when, why, and with whom one would use such language represented
a glaring oversight in such lessons.
Another lost opportunity was a lack of lessons about language use in virtual communities.
Despite the fact that the materials collected were all posted within the last few years, no lessons

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made connections between language and such online uses as social media, email, anddiscussion groups. This is especially baffling since such communities would seem to represent
the most likely venue for TL use among these learners. EFL programs such as those in Japanare taught in locales in which English is not a language of wider communication, making theinclusion of attention to language use for imagined virtual communities especially worthwhile
as a ready avenue for learner TL use.
Programs like JET should more carefully prepare learners for interaction with likelyinterlocutors. For the person from Asia, the most likely interlocutors are not native speakers ofEnglish. Besides providing better training and materials for teachers, one way to address theissue is to broaden the recruitment of JET participants to encompass more countries. Because
JET instructs participants that their role includes that of “cultural ambassador,” they often
taught about the country where they held citizenship: Many materials in this corpus included
instructions to “talk about your country” as a means for the teacher to present culture.
Recruitment beyond the traditional English-speaking countries would thus naturally go far toaddress this shortcoming in JET and similar “foreign teacher” programs. Greater representationof sub-cultures within countries is also important. The Hawaiian English material in this corpus
represents one example. More such efforts are needed and would benefit learners by exposing
them to interesting groups while also disabusing them of the counterproductive notion that
language (and culture) are – or should be - uniform within national boundaries.
This study yields implications for assessment as well. High-stakes English tests in Japan tend
to focus on explicit grammatical knowledge or formulaic writing and speaking tasks with little
attention to adapting language use to a variety of social situations (e.g., Brown, 2017). The
present study provides evidence that this is still the case. The tendency must be rectified,
especially given the ostensible and longstanding commitment of Japanese ELT to“communicative” teaching.
Conclusion
Given the importance of imagined communities of language use in motivating language study,a corpus of 5079 JET Programme teaching materials was collected and subjected to a content
analysis for this study. Results indicated that most of the materials collected included no socialgroup information promoting imagined communities associated with the TL. Instead, activities
such as vocabulary and grammar drills as well as games with language divorced from social
situatedness represented the majority. Among the remaining materials, although some forms ofsocial group information were included, few provided a clear link between specific language
instruction and access to particular social situations. Such materials represented only a bit lessthan 8% of the entire corpus. About 1000 of the materials contained tangential cultural
information such as images of international places but with no specific connections tolanguage. Most of these cultural materials featured depictions of the traditional Englishspeaking countries. Notably, materials promoting connections between specific forms oflanguage and potential social group participation were especially rare in elementary school
materials.
Missed opportunities formed a theme in these results. Connections between language being
studied and possible social groups in which this language could be used which would set thestage for learners to imagine themselves as group participants using the TL were few. Althoughlessons lacking social group connections may have other value, the impact of such lessons
could be enhanced by promoting a (stronger) connection between the lessons and imagined78

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communities of future participation. Given the zero-sum nature of classroom time and finite
reservoirs of learner effort, maximizing the value of any lesson in such a way is critical.
The results of this study suggest an untapped potential of JET and similar programs in whichteachers from abroad are recruited to promote communicative language use among learners.
Fostering the possibility of participation in imagined communities of target language use aspart of learners’ future, hoped for selves represents a natural outgrowth of the JET paradigm.
This study shows that JET teachers are heavily involved not simply in instruction, but increating lesson plans and associated materials. This study also shows that JET lessons typicallyinvolve opportunities for the learner to use the target language actively. These two aspects of
JET open the door for the incorporation of language practice coupled with imagined socialgroup participation such as by leveraging role plays designed to raise learners’ consciousness
about matching language to people. In doing so, the teacher would not only motivate the learnerby promoting a future hoped for social self but would incorporate a sociolinguistic dimension
into instruction thus ensuring that learners’ language competencies extend beyond strictly
asocial language form. Naturally, these possibilities are not limited to work within JET, but
apply to any situations in which teachers of any language wish to heighten learner motivation,
increase instructional relevance, add variety and excitement to the classroom, and promote thesociolinguistic dimension of language acquisition.
There were several important limitations to this study. This study sought to empiricallydetermine a de facto curriculum in JET pertaining to promotion of imagined communities ofEnglish use through portrayals of connections between English and various social groups. This
study did not focus on how these materials impacted learners. In other words, the focus was onwhat was taught, but not on what was learned. Likewise, this study did not explicitly address
the role of teacher beliefs in the creation of these materials. These two areas represent apt
choices for future research. Finally, this study focused solely on Japan. Considering the role oflanguage teaching outside of Japan in promoting connections between the TL and imaginedcommunities is also warranted.
Promoting imagined communities of target language use can represent a potent motivational
force in the language classroom. In light of present-day mobility and the ubiquity of theInternet, the likelihood that language learners will have opportunities to interact withindividuals using the language of study is greater than ever. It is thus even more incumbent
upon teachers than hitherto to tap into the hoped for self as participant in imagined communities
of TL use as wellspring of learner motivation and preparation for real world language use. A
failure to do so represents opportunity squandered.

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Corresponding Author: Charles Allen Brown
Email: bairenyuan@yahoo.com

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