Theoretical Implications of Contemporary Brain Science for Japanese EFL Learning

Recent advances in brain science show that adult native Japanese speakers utilize a different balance of language processing routes in the brain as compared to native English speakers. Biologically this represents the remarkable flexibility of the human brain to adapt universal human cognitive processes to fit the specific needs of linguistic and cultural environments. For language teaching, however, and because of nearly three decades of globalization and English language programming in the Japanese education system, this represents a key theoretical and practical issue that cannot be overlooked. Using a range of contemporary interdisciplinary research findings, this theoretical article opens a discussion of these cognitive routes, the mechanisms by which they might occur, and ideas regarding how they might be accommodated in planning future English as a foreign language ( EFL ) programs for Japanese speakers.