Japanese University Students’ Attitudes towards Globalisation, Intercultural Contexts and English

Morita, Liang

doi:10.5430/wjel.v3n4p31

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…First, it needs to retain its competitiveness at the global scale but is a relatively small and insular country with diminished immigration and emigration patterns. Compounding this, younger generations possess "inward looking" outlooks on life, lacking internal or external forces to push them into the global economy (Morita, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Japanese Higher Education

Yamada

2021

JCIHE

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In today’s information-driven society, the Japanese government envisions the next societal revolution as “Society 5.0,” where advanced technologies and service platforms integrate with and empower individuals in a human-based society. While Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has traditionally focused on technical skills and knowledge in isolation, this paper will look at the potential role and benefits of incorporating liberal arts education into these technical studies. This concept of integrating the liberal arts into STEM education is known as STEAM. The purpose of the study is to create a foundation for clarifying the role of interdisciplinary education in overcoming the vertical division of academic disciplines and restoring the “integrated nature” of scholarship. This study seeks to show how the humanities, social sciences, and arts can be used to enhance STEM education, and, furthermore, how this STEAM approach to education is key to enabling Japan’s vision for Society 5.0.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Japanese Higher Education

Yamada

2021

JCIHE

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“…This is partly because the responses were intriguing and difficult to make sense of, and partly because of the enormity of its implications on the effectiveness of an internationalised curriculum. The other results of Surveys 1 and 2 are presented in Morita, 2013a andMorita, 2013b. A total of 217 students were surveyed in the three surveys. In Survey 1, n=54, consisting of 18 engineering students, 20 literature students and 16 science students.…”

Section: The Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Japanese Undergraduates Think They Will be in an International Environment?

Morita¹

2013

IJHE

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Based on a data of 217 responses to questionnaires and conducted at a top Japanese national university, this paper examines the objective of preparing students to function in an international and intercultural context in the internationalisation of universities. Many educators have proceeded to internationalise the curriculum based on this objective but few have stopped to ask students if they really think they will be in an international environment. This question is particularly pertinent in Japan given its sakoku ('closed country') history and the recent description by the government of young people as being inward-looking. The author found that although some young people are influenced by sakoku thinking, many are outward-looking and positive about globalisation. There is however a tendency to perceive globalisation as an abstract concept and not engage with it. Students in engineering and science are more likely to perceive themselves working in an international environment compared to literature and law students.

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“…Japanese scholarship (Aubrey, 2009;Morita, 2013;McConachy, 2013;McConachy & Liddicoat, 2016;McConachy, 2018) has explored the roles of pragmatics in intercultural learning. Aubrey (2009) and McConachy (2013) investigated the effect of students' engagement with pragmatics-based ideas and texts on their intercultural awareness.…”

Section: Research On Intercultural Teaching Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intercultural Language Teaching in Vietnamese Tertiary EFL Classes: A Participatory Action Research Study

Tran¹

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<p>In 2008, Vietnam introduced a new English language policy based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), and subsequently in 2014 adopted a Vietnamese version of this, referred to as CEFR-V. In adopting the CEFR-V, English language education in Vietnam has taken on a conception of English language proficiency in which intercultural competence (IC) is thoroughly integrated. Nevertheless, despite the emphasis of IC in national language policy, little research has dealt with how teachers can adopt interculturally informed pedagogy in their daily classroom practice, and specifically professional development and learning can be harnessed to increase teachers’ capacity to adopt an intercultural stance in their teaching. This study aimed to redress this gap by investigating the process of adopting Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching (iCLT) practice in an English as a foreign language (EFL) course at a Vietnamese university. The research deployed an interpretive, qualitative, case study approach and Participatory Action Research (PAR) to explore the nature of the teaching of culture by three tertiary EFL teachers at a Vietnamese university, and by the students in their classes. The data were collected from classroom observations, teacher interviews, and pre-workshop-one and post-workshop-two focus groups with students. The research included two phases. The first phase of the study investigated the orientation to the teaching of culture in teaching materials and lessons taught by the teachers, and in their stated beliefs. Analysis of the three case study teachers showed that each of the teachers demonstrated both strengths and limitations regarding the teaching of culture in his/her stated perceptions and classroom practices. Cross-case analysis showed that the teaching of culture was intermittent and unplanned, and that the teachers held a static view of culture with little awareness of intercultural language teaching. Drawing on these findings, the second phase of the research sought to develop a more principled engagement with culture by involving the case study teachers in two workshop cycles in which the teachers were introduced to principles and practical examples of intercultural language teaching and then implemented the redesigned intercultural-oriented lessons in the classroom teaching. The results drawn from classroom observation and interview data showed a positive impact of the workshops on the teachers’ teaching practices, perceptions, and understanding of intercultural language teaching. The study contributes to the growing body of scholarship on intercultural language teaching by showing how Vietnamese EFL tertiary teachers shifted from a cultural to an intercultural orientation through participating in an action research project. Accordingly, this study confirms the value of in-situ professional development for teachers. The study also shows how teachers, working from a set of intercultural teaching principles, can adopt an intercultural stance in their teaching even while working with existing teaching materials that contain little in the way of intercultural teaching affordances.</p>

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Japanese University Students’ Attitudes towards Globalisation, Intercultural Contexts and English

Cited by 7 publications

References 26 publications

Japanese Higher Education

Japanese Higher Education

Do Japanese Undergraduates Think They Will be in an International Environment?

Intercultural Language Teaching in Vietnamese Tertiary EFL Classes: A Participatory Action Research Study

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