Abstract 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.

中文翻译：

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日本高等教育口译培训：促进语言工具主义的创新方法？

摘要 英语交际能力对实现个人和企业竞争力的相关性影响了日本的语言政策，引发了大学将口译培训作为一种创新的语言增强教学方法的竞争性使用。通过以一所大学为案例，在日本推广口译培训作为一种语言工具，本文在对语言工具主义的批判框架内调查了学生和教师在该计划中的经历。它认为，在实施政策教育策略和使用考虑到学生需求的现实口译课程之间存在教学冲突。它表明，为增强交际能力而进行的口译培训已嵌入到语言工具主义的新自由主义修辞中，为学生提供具有竞争力的专业优势。然而，矛盾的是，它并没有兑现语言习得的承诺。研究表明，教师的教学方法、学生的愿望和课程设计在教学上并不有效，因为学生的技能和所提议的活动之间存在不匹配。