Paper short abstract:

This study asked 26 Chinese JSL learners to listen to both authentic and non-authentic texts and compared the differences in their performance. The results showed that authentic texts are not necessarily more difficult, but sometimes help to understand the text.

Paper long abstract:

Using authentic texts in language classrooms is important to provide learners with real-world experiences by listening to the target language. The reality, however, shows that most of the listening materials used non-authentic texts which were recorded based on written scripts. In comparison, authentic texts tend to have more fillers, false starts, and back channels than non-authentic texts. This presentation is going to discuss the differences between authentic and non-authentic texts, and to show the results of the following experimental study.

In the study, 26 Chinese JSL learners whose proficiency level is equivalent to JLPT N2 or above are asked to listen to both types of texts. Later, researchers compared their performance by using the two types of data: (1) comprehension tests and (2) retrospective interviews on the listening process.

The analysis of the first data showed that authentic texts are not necessarily more difficult to comprehend than the non-authentic texts. The fact that authentic texts had more fillers, false starts, and back channels would not always hinder the learners' understanding of the text, but sometimes help the learners to understand the text. What's more, the second type of data showed that those who listened to the authentic texts are likely to use more listening strategies. However, it was also found that the use of listening strategies does not always help the learners to understand the text better. By comparing the listening process of learners with higher or lower score of the comprehension tests, it could be concluded that effective listeners do not rely too much on background knowledge, but will make good use of the information implied within the texts.

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Paper short abstract:

This survey, conducted among first-year university students majoring in Japanese language in Moscow, was about psychological anxiety that arises when learning and using Japanese.

Paper long abstract:

This survey, conducted among first-year university students majoring in Japanese language in Moscow, was about psychological anxiety that arises when learning and using Japanese. In the survey, questions from the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz, et al., 1986) and the Japanese Language Anxiety Scale (JLAS) (Motoda, 2000) were used.

In the FLCAS, learners seemed to strongly agree with the following statements: "I get upset when I don't understand what the teacher is correcting.", "I worry about the consequences of failing my foreign language class.", and "I feel overwhelmed by the number of rules you have to learn to speak a foreign language."

The JLAS results showed that learners tend to feel more anxious when they use Japanese language outside the classroom than inside the classroom. In the classroom, they tend to "worry about making mistakes in Japanese" and "get frustrated when they don't know the answer to a question that the teacher asks". On the other hand, they disagree with statements such as: "I am afraid that the other students will think my Japanese isn't good." and "I am afraid that the other students will laugh at me when I speak Japanese." Outside the classroom, they strongly agreed that they get nervous when they don't understand what a Japanese person says and don't know how to react, and there was also a tendency to feel strong anxiety in other situations. In contrast, the learners worried less about the presence of other learners with higher Japanese proficiency or that Japanese people would laugh at their Japanese.

The results of this survey are valuable in trying to improve the educational environment in consideration of the characteristics of anxiety perceived by Japanese language learners in Moscow's higher education institutions. In particular, it is expected that learning in pairs or in a group can allow learners to perform with less anxiety in the classroom. In addition, the results suggested that teachers should consider specifying corrections, feedback on language misuse, and other methods for presenting exams and study content.

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Paper short abstract:

The study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of recasts, a type of oral corrective feedback, provided to the speech errors of "Keigo" of 15 Polish university students. The result indicate that recast is more amenable to lexical structures than morphosyntactical structures.

Paper long abstract:

Keigo, or Japanese Honorific Expressions would be one of the most difficult grammar issues even for learners with upper intermediate level. Taking the standpoint that the appropriate use of Keigo will contribute to expressing respect to others and to valuing cultural diversity, the present study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of recasts, a type of oral corrective feedback that consists of teachers' implicit reformulation of students' speech errors of Keigo.

The data came from 1-hour one-to-one tutorial sessions between the researcher and the participants conducted in March 2019. The participants were 15 Polish university students majoring in Japanese studies. They engaged in a tour-guiding role play which was designed to elicit various Keigo, and they received recasts on their erroneous use or avoidance of the structure. The task is composed of 6scenes of interaction with customers and a tour guide. If a participant produces the correct form in the latter part of the task that he/she has one received recast, or "primed production" is observed, it is marked as a proof of the effectiveness.

Their performances were video-recorded. They were then asked to watch the video clip and make comments on their recast episodes (i.e., stimulated recall). Their recall comments are coded depending on their level of understanding the nature of the errors.

The result was different depending on the type of Keigo. The primed productions of honorific lexical verbs such as 'irassharu', 'meshiagaru', and syntactic humble expressions such as 'saseteitadaku', were observed in all the 15 participants. The recall comment of the episodes of the primed productions indicated the correct understanding of the nature of the errors.

However, the recall comments regarding morphosyntactical honorifics such as 'kawareru' or 'okaini naru 'meaning to buy, they felt just difficult to reproduce. Also, the recall comments indicate the difficulty of using Keigo with the purpose of prohibition or request.

In targeting Keigo, too, the result indicates the same tendency that recast is more amenable to lexical structures than morphosyntactical structures. Also, it indicated the difficulty lies in the consistency of using Keigo in a long discourse.

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Paper short abstract:

This study examines the role of collaborative learning and extensive reading in developing students' metacognitive ability and autonomy. Undergraduate overseas students in Japan were required to prepare a report on their own reading challenges.

Paper long abstract:

This study examines the role of collaborative learning and extensive reading in developing students' metacognitive ability and autonomy. In this study, the term 'intercultural competence' is used to refer to students' metacognitive ability for Japanese language and culture in a broad sense. Byram (2008) indicated that foreign language education should be reconstructed not only to focus on the function of language competence and how to use it but also on the intercultural competence to equip students with the necessary skills required to interact with other cultural citizens in this global society.

To develop their metacognitive ability, undergraduate overseas students in Japan were required to prepare a report on their own reading challenges, link it with their experiences and tackle the challenges through extensive reading and collaborative learning. This study involved 27 students from East Asia who had enrolled for the Japanese communication course and were in their fourth semester (15 weeks). Every class had a 60-minutes lecture and a 30-minute collaborative learning session. The students read two introductory textbooks for Japanese linguistics and culture. Moreover, every week, students read a book and filled a reading sheet outside school hours, and in class, they discussed the book together with their reading sheets. After the discussion, they wrote a short book review, and at the end of the semester, they wrote a report on the theme of their book.

The teacher assessed the reports in which the students had expressed their own opinions and other opinions and categorised the reports into three levels, namely, high, middle and low evaluation levels. Out of the 27 reports, 16 were marked as high-level reports (about 60%), 6 were marked as middle-level reports (about 20%) and 5 were marked as low-level reports (about 20%). In contrast to these results, the results of the other six course subjects without peer reading can be stated in the following manner: 17% were marked as high-level reports, 31% were marked as middle-level reports and 51% were marked as low-level reports. These results are a clear indication that reading a book with peers promotes students' metacognitive ability.

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Paper short abstract:

This study reports on a Japanese-language class practice on the theme of 'coexistence' for intermediate and upper-intermediate Japanese students. The accumulation of such practical examples will enable future Japanese-language classes to foster people having the ability to coexist with others.

Paper long abstract:

This study reports on a Japanese-language class practice on the theme of 'coexistence' for intermediate and upper-intermediate Japanese students. The practice aimed to enable students to: 1) consider the problems of coexisting with different people, how to solve these problems, and what one can do by oneself; 2) be able to think in Japanese; and 3) be able to communicate their ideas in an easy-to-understand manner. In this practice, students read cartoons and articles on coexistence written in Japanese and engaged in discussions. Further, they visited a learning support class for children of different ethnicities living in Japan to consider the problems of coexistence from a vulnerable perspective, what support and methods are needed to solve vulnerable people, and what one can do for oneself, as settled foreigners in Japan are vulnerable parties when it comes to coexistence. In addition, students worked in groups to select a problem and give a presentation, after which they conducted interviews to obtain other students' opinions. Data from 15 students who agreed to collaborate on the research were analysed to clarify the students' perspectives. Essays, comment sheets, and presentation materials were analysed to determine whether they included descriptions of understanding others in different positions, pointing out problems, noting how to solve problems, and describing what one can do by oneself. In the beginning of the semester, only six out of 15 students indicated problems or solutions pertaining to coexistence, while by the end of the semester, students referred to such topics in addition to demonstrating an understanding of different people. However, few students were able to develop any specific solutions. Hence, one countermeasure is to continue increasing students' awareness regarding the importance of considering different solutions and possible actions and providing problem-solving opportunities. Further, to clarify the aims of Japanese-language classes and methods used to realise these aims, it will be necessary to clarify the method of practice and students' responses and examine relevant issues. The accumulation of such practical examples will enable future Japanese-language classes to foster people having the ability to coexist with others.

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Paper short abstract:

This is a report on a Japanese language education practice aimed at cultivating global citizenship by means of watching the movie Kamome Shokudô (2006). We prepared and utilized original teaching materials to proceed smoothly with whole-class and group discussions.

Paper long abstract:

This is a report on a Japanese language education practice aimed at cultivating a sense of global citizenship with Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competences-PLCC (Council of Europe 2018) and Competences for Democratic Culture-CDC (Council of Europe 2016) by means of watching the movie Kamome Shokudô (2006), an ensemble drama set in a Japanese restaurant in Finland. There are a number of video works on the subject of intercultural awareness and intercultural communication, but Japanese language education practices such as this one that make use of them are rare. Students from a variety of backgrounds gather in Japanese language classes, which by themselves are an international community. In such a Japanese language class, we tried to cultivate the students' consciousness as citizens living in the international community, and their sense of respect for others.

In the class, we first watched the movie split into three parts, and after each part we reviewed the content together using our original teaching materials. The teaching materials provided include a character correlation diagram, notes on vocabulary and expressions, questions about the contents, a column for writing summaries, and a column for writing comments. By preparing and utilizing this original teaching material, we could make the students review the story after each viewing, summarize their impressions, and based on that, we were able to proceed smoothly with whole-class and group discussions. We also created review materials based on the contents of the students' writing clarifying the items to be reviewed for each student and used this as a guideline for their continued learning. Through this work, students could cultivate the ability to write with consideration for the reader, as well as the ability to speak with consideration for the listener, while explaining their views to others.

The essays written by the students and the discussions they conducted about the work provided a variety of perspectives. As an example, it was argued that the act of helping someone who is in trouble regardless of their nationality leads to building good human relationships. The students were forming their own identity as global citizens through the use of Japanese.

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Paper short abstract:

This study examines how non-Japanese employees work as "social actors" in enterprises in Japan. The results indicated that the enterprises consider the non-Japanese employees as beneficial resources for overseas business development despite communication problems between employees.

Paper long abstract:

The Japanese government has presented guidelines to increase the employment rate of international students as highly-skilled professionals that promotes acceptance of more globally oriented human resources in Japan (Prime Minister's Office 2016). Revealing the reality of multilingualization and multiculturalization in the enterprises in Japan is required in order to establish an attractive symbiotic society in the worldwide competition for highly-skilled human resources.

Previous researches have shown the factors for non-Japanese employees' adjustment needed within an enterprise, however, the effect on the organization and the employees' mind of accepting them into dominant group have yet to be fully investigated.

This study examines how non-Japanese employees work as "social actors" (Byram 2008) in enterprises in Japan and how they develop their own career by utilizing the environment. Data was collected from a questionnaire surveys that were answered by a total of 412 enterprises in Japan and 115 non-Japanese employees working in Japanese enterprises.

The results of the study indicated that the enterprises consider the non-Japanese employees as beneficial resources which contribute to their overseas business development. The Japanese employees also recognize international employees' foreign vitality for activating multilingualization and multiculturalization within the workplace.

However, both Japanese employees and non-Japanese employees regard it as a vital issue that the difference in language and culture creates communication problems between them. Many companies do not yet have measures in order to solve the problems, so they tend to rely on ingenuity of individual site staff.

On the other hand, non-Japanese employees consider the communication between the other employees while establishing relationship as well as various training and courses promote their own career development.

As a result, this study suggests that intercultural communicative competence should be adopted in more meaningful way in current business Japanese education by identifying the communication problems and benefits.

References：

Prime Minister's Office (2016) Nihon saiko senryaku 2016 : Dai 4ji sangyokakumei ni mukete.　 https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/keizaisaisei/pdf/2016_zentaihombun.pdf

Byram, M. S. (2008). From foreign language education to education for intercultural citizenship. Multilingual Matters Ltd.

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Paper short abstract:

In this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted on the beliefs regarding the use of intermediaries in Japanese classes for a total of 99 students at the 3 levels of absolute beginners, lower beginners, and upper beginners.

Paper long abstract:

In multinational Japanese classes, the direct method is generally used. However, in higher education institutions, such as affiliated schools, an increase in English-based undergraduate programs has led to an increase in learners seeking the use of English as an intermediate language, resulting in a gap between teachers and learners' beliefs. It is important for teachers to understand learners' beliefs regarding effective teaching. Belief surveys of elementary Japanese learners have been conducted, but few studies have broken down the elementary level.

　　　In this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted on the beliefs regarding the use of intermediaries in Japanese classes for a total of 99 students at the 3 levels of absolute beginners, lower beginners, and upper beginners. There were five questions: (1) evaluation of the direct method, (2) evaluation of the teaching method of the use of intermediate language , (3) English skills required for Japanese teachers, (4) recognition of the current state of the use of intermediate language, and (5) the need for intermediate language in the class.

　　　This survey found that most Chinese and Korean Japanese learners, regardless of level, assessed the use of intermediate language and were negative about the direct method. Regarding the current situation of the use of intermediate language, its use was highly evaluated by the absolute beginners. Among lower beginners, respondents answered "good" for both using and not using the intermediate language. Additionally, in parts where the learners needed the intermediate language, grammar explanation was the most common at all levels.

　　　This survey suggests that while learners prefer explaining grammar in English, they have a certain significance in the direct method.

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Paper short abstract:

This study focused on three Japanese learners in Belgium (they speak plural languages, they have studied Japanese for 5 years and their conversation level of Japanese is C1) and conducted a semi-structured interview to clarify the details of their beliefs. The results were analyzed using M-GTA.

Paper long abstract:

As the number of Japanese learners increases, their linguistic and cultural backgrounds have also diversified. In particular, many European learners of Japanese are plurilingual speakers, but previous studies have not addressed their beliefs on learning Japanese.

This study focused on three Japanese learners in Belgium (they have studied Japanese for 5 years, C1 level) and conducted a semi-structured interview to clarify the details of their beliefs. The results were analyzed using M-GTA.

Plurilingual speakers have acquired plural languages before they started learning Japanese because they grew up or currently live in a plurilingual environment. They have the confidence and pride in using these plural languages, and at the same time, they also have confidence in language acquisition including Japanese. In addition, it is common for all subjects that they tolerate confusion and errors between the languages they use, and they are also aware and tolerate that their language skills are biased. These facts suggest that the view of language based on plurilingualism which the CEFR holds up is being cultivated in plurilinguals. This is significantly different from the beliefs of learners in the multilingual nations such as the Philippines and Malaysia (Katagiri 2005, Nagasawa 1988), and it is unique to European learners of Japanese. Japanese language has a large linguistic distance from their mother tongue and language they use in everyday life, and European learners of Japanese have less contact with native speakers of Japanese. Nevertheless, their short-term reach to the C1 level is presumed to be related to the unique beliefs of plurilinguals.

Furthermore, plurilinguals require Japanese language teachers to have high professionalism and experience as teachers. At the same time, they find positive unique meanings in practicing with non-native speakers of their target language. These are different fr om the beliefs of learners in other countries or regions.

It is said that the learners' beliefs are related to the acquisition of their target language. Therefore, teachers should consider the plurilinguals' beliefs when deciding on teaching methods and teaching materials.

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