Paper short abstract:

In this study, the authors researched how learners introduce themselves and what they want to convey, as well as what kind of skills the speakers need to effectively communicate these points to the addressee. The self-introduction video data were collected from a Facebook project.

Paper long abstract:

Language education needs to respond to individual needs, but so far, many language lessons focus on providing learners particular sets of patterns. For example, there are sets of self-introduction patterns, for which learners essentially fill in the blanks to "create" their own self-introductions. However, this is far from a creative endeavor. When learners want to express their own personality, they are limited by those set patterns and cannot effectively convey their own individuality. As a result, almost everyone begins to sound like the same person.

The researchers put questions to the current language-learning environment and argue for a circumstantial (jokyo) syllabus, in contrast to the more common functional syllabus, or even situational syllabus (Kobayashi, 2005, 2016).

In this study, the authors researched how learners introduce themselves and what they want to convey, as well as what kind of skills the speakers need to effectively communicate these points to the addressee. The self-introduction video data were collected from a project in which JFL learners interacted with EFL learners through Facebook. The survey data included learners' evaluations of their own self-introductions. Interviews were conducted with students in counterpart schools to evaluate the learners' self-introductions. The authors analyzed the data and extrapolated the most useful skills for effective conveyance from most successful self-introductions. The results showed discrepancies between learners' self-evaluations and the opinions of the addressees. Non-verbal communication strategies were also shown to play an important role in successful conveyances.

In this paper, we will provide a brief overview of the project and report the salient results obtained through the analysis of the data. We will also share pedagogical implications of the results, and suggest alternative approaches to language pedagogy.