This study aims to enhance foreign language learners' language competence by integrating formal and informal learning environments and considers how they can improve their grammatical and lexical skills through the gathering (comprehension) and sharing (writing) of information in the foreign language. Experiments with German learners at a Japanese university preparing to study in Germany were conducted. An application to archive newspaper articles was created, indexing current German coverage. A worksheet was provided, where learners were asked to select, read, and summarize articles via the application. Feedback was given to their summary. Participants were divided into two groups, learners that studied only in an informal setting, and those that were also instructed in a formal setting. Interviews were conducted with the participants in order to evaluate how the activities affected their language skills. Results showed that the practice affected their reading methods and heightened their motivation for further language learning in general. Students participating in activities in and outside the classroom showed improvements in their lexical knowledge, and better understanding of subtle nuances in written texts, which positively affected their writing skills and their speaking ability.
In this paper we present the first results of an ongoing research project focused on examining the European reception of Japanese video games, and we compare it with the reception in Japan. We hope to contribute towards a better understanding of how player perception and evaluation of a game is influenced by cultural background. Applying a grounded theory approach, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of articles from German video gamewebsites, user comments responding to articles, as well as Japanese and German user reviews from the respective Amazon online stores and Steam. Focusing on the reception of three Japanese RPGs, our findings show that considerable differences exist in how various elements of the games are perceived between cultures. We also briefly discuss certain lexical differences in the way players write about games, indicating fundamental differences in how Japanese and German players talk (and think) about games.
The realisation of smart cities has attracted much attention in recent years from private and governmental actors, as a means to make cities more efficient, climate friendly and socially inclusive through the use of modern technology. However, few studies examine how smart cities are framed and understood within the public sphere. The aim of this study is to compare how domestic smart city initiatives are reported in the news of their respective countries, and to clarify the differences and similarities in media content. In this paper, we present the initial findings of our planned long-term comparative news content analysis. As a first step, we analysed national newspaper articles published between 2011 and 2019 in Japan and Slovenia. Our corpus consists of 41 Japanese and 20 Slovenian articles, written in relation to domestic smart city initiatives. In total, we identified 14 themes, five of which were common in both countries, while the remaining nine appeared exclusively in the news of one country. Our conclusions indicate that the news in both countries differ in what application domains of Smart Cities are discussed (e.g. natural resources and energy, transportation and mobility). We establish a procedure for further cross-cultural analyses, necessary to understand how smart cities are framed in the public sphere. Thereby, we contribute to further discussion on the nature and definition of smart cities and how they are communicated.
This paper presents the prototype of a foreign language learning space, based on the construction of an integrated formal/informal learning environment. Before the background of the continued innovation of information technology that places conventional learning styles and educational methods into new contexts based on new value-standards, environment models of foreign language learning constantly face the necessity to change. A structured environment for foreign language learning can be created only when the learning environment in the real space, which is constructed in many forms outside the classroom, constantly connects with the formal learning environment inside the classroom. This study assumes two axes of a learning environment-formal/informal and real/cyber space-and attempts to integrate them to create a circulating four-dimensional model. Integrating formal and informal environments connects real space, which depends on the physical location and situation, with cyber space, which does not. In this study, sentences written in a foreign language by language learners will be autocollected and analyzed in cyber space, which plays a great role in students' daily lives. Thus, a 4D foreign language learning environment, which automatically delivers practical knowledge to the learner by a comprehensive analysis of formal and informal learning between real and cyber space, will be constructed.
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