Business Language Training at Shanghai’s Tōa Dōbun Shoin (1900-1945)
Paul Sinclair
University of Regina, Canada
Megumi Kitahara
Panasonic IP Center, Osaka, Japan
Volume 12: 2017, pp. 245-266; ABSTRACT
Government and business leaders are placing increasing demands on traditional research-based universities to produce graduates capable of functioning in international professional environments. This paper explores the business Chinese language program offered at Shanghai’s Tōa Dōbun Shoin (1900-1945), demonstrating that government and business leaders in the past have had similar lofty ambitions for their educational institutes. This study explores the historical context in which the Tōa Dōbun Shoin developed and the tumultuous change that shaped the school. We go on to a more detailed discussion of the Shoin curriculum, focusing specifically on the business Chinese textbook series developed at the school entitled “Kago Suihen”. Our study draws on the “tripartite” business language pedagogical model (Doyle 2012) to demonstrate that the Shoin model was prescient despite the fact that it is now more than 100 years old. The Shoin curriculum is held up as the world’s first comprehensive business Chinese language program in an institute of higher education.
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