Paper short abstract:

Through interviewing five participants, this paper aims to provide a contextual qualitative study and analysis of the multilingual and multicultural backgrounds of online workshop participants and their relationship with the associations to find out what such activities mean to them.

Paper long abstract:

The aim of the project implemented by the presenters since 2016 was to further the horizontal connections between Japanese language teachers' associations in Europe and to seek out the direction and possibilities of their activities. Through this project quantitative surveys were targeted on members of the associations as well as online workshop participants were conducted and analysed. With such activities in mind, this paper aims to provide a contextual qualitative study and analysis of the multilingual and multicultural backgrounds of the online workshop participants and their relationship with the associations to find out what such activities mean to them. 　

In terms of the methodology, online workshop participants were interviewed about their life stories and from this group we chose five participants residing in Europe who attended the "Language Education for Cultivating Literacy" online workshop held as part of our project in 2019 and who indicated that they participated in the workshop due to their "interest in the topic".　

This project examines the significance of our "online workshops for Japanese language teachers in Europe" from the perceptions of the participants by finding out the languages and cultural backgrounds of the interviewees (online workshop participants) within their life-story identity, as well as by listening to their individual voices as members of various Japanese language teachers associations and/or as participants of online workshops.　

In addition to the analysis presented, the project also aims to better understand workshop participants as well as the stance and attitude of those designing online workshops in Europe.