Paper short abstract:

I would like to discuss what Japanese language education can do in order to build a peaceful world. I will report on the practice of "PEACE program" which promotes simultaneous understanding of content, ability to operate target languages, improvement of learning skills as the subject.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation, the educational practices of the "Peace program in Japanese" aiming for human growth are reported with an understanding of the contents, and to improve students' abilities to operate in the target language, and improve learning skills.

The "PEACE program" is a concept advocated by Nuibe (2009), from the standpoint of a Holistic Approach. Thus Japanese language education will be used not only for learning Japanese but also for creating a peaceful world through language. Nuibe advocates the need to explore Global Education in the Japanese Language.

The presenters have implemented this program into actual Japanese language education and are engaged in peace building efforts through education of the language (Okuno et al. 2015). In this presentation, in the undergraduate education in Japan conducted in the latter half of 2016, we focused classes on "P: departure from poverty". We especially analyze and report on how critical thinking advocated by Sato et al. (2015) has changed student's deliveries, observations by TA · teachers, introspections, and interviews with students etc.

The learners were students from Syria which is currently in a civil war, as well as students in Japan, Asia and Europe. The major trends in the course are (1) knowing the background, current situation and mechanism of poverty through books and audiovisual teaching materials, (2) explaining and discussing in one's own words, (3) investigating efforts by social entrepreneurs and having discussions with critical viewpoints, (4) thinking about what can be done as a collective, supported by collaborative learning. As a result of the analysis, we found that the importance placed on knowing current events, on critical thinking, and on thinking as a collective increased.

Offering such classes to Japanese learners who have various kinds of expertise to bring to society in the future, nurtures critical thinking and leads to the spreading of the seeds of peace. In the end I discuss what Japanese language education can do in order to build a more peaceful world.