Paper short abstract:

This is a report on Case-based approach adopted in Japanese language classes and Japanese Business communication classes in Europe. Our report will examine the difficulties that the teachers encountered during the class and provide suggestions to improve the practice.

Paper long abstract:

This is a report on teaching methods that Japanese language teachers have adopted to their language classes at six universities in France, The Netherlands, Germany and The UK after taking part in a 3 day Alsace Training held in July, 2016. The theme of the training was "Case-based approach" used to teach business communication. Based on their reflective logs recorded by the teachers, such as difficulties that they encountered during class, our report will examine the issues and provide suggestions to improve the practice. Following the Case-based approach introduced during their training, the teachers have adopted it into their classes from September 2016. The students were either undergraduate (UG) students or postgraduate (PG) students, but the backgrounds of the students were diverse, such as nationality, experience of studying abroad and internships with Japanese firms. This resulted in inconsistencies of cultural knowledge and of Japanese society amongst the students, therefore teachers set different aims to suit their own individual students. However, they had the same common direction in their teaching, which was to help the students to improve their Japanese language skills by encouraging them to discuss corporate and business culture, individual perception of work and personal values as part of Japanese language education. The Japanese language level of the students was intermediate-advanced and above, except for one class. The students were required to prepare for the seminar, however some additional support was given depending on the level and needs of the students. The main class activity was discussion on the case mainly chosen from a collection of cases written by the participants of the training. The reflective logs recorded by the teachers have revealed the following issues. 1) Imbalance in student contributions to the class discussion 2) Lack of diversity in the students' interpretation of the case due to their similar cultural backgrounds 3 ) Difficulties in assessing students purely on the basis of Japanese language, eliminating factors such as experiences of study abroad / internships. Therefore, we will discuss ways to overcome these difficulties and make suggestions how we incorporate these ideas into our teaching in future.