Paper short abstract:

This presentation is a report on the practice of heritage Japanese language education at a Japanese language supplementary school in Europe. It reports on the practice of capacity building for an intercultural democratic citizenship.

Paper long abstract:

The European Council (2018) suggests the direction for foreign language education in terms of "Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence".

It explains that language education through plurilingual and pluricultural education aims to embrace the diversity and differences of the learner as a social agent, enhance the learner's ability to understand the different aspects of others and foster a respect for them through individual dialogue.

As a guideline for realizing language education from the viewpoint of multilingualism and multiculturalism, CDC (Competences for Democratic Culture 2016) suggests language education objectives in four linguistic ability categories: "Value, Attitude, Skills, Knowledge and critical understanding". More specifically, it presents 20 target levels for language learning.

Using those generic descriptions of language acquisition levels, this language education method transmits the knowledge needed to participate in civil society, elevating it above just language learning. Furthermore, these descriptions promote abilities such as dialogue, problem solving, communication, interaction. It is also likely to promote awareness of community values, codes of conduct, and moral issues.

This presentation is a report on the practice of heritage Japanese language education at a Japanese language supplementary school in Europe. It reports on the practice of capacity building for an intercultural democratic citizenship.

The presenter is from a heritage Japanese Language class of 9-11-year-old Japanese and French international children. Her teaching methods are based on multilingual and multicultural language education.

Her teaching is underpinned by the theory of "activity-based education", advocated by Jun

Watabe (Watabe 2015, etc…), and that of "Personalization-Contextualization", as discussed by

Yoshikazu Kawaguchi (Kawaguchi 2016).

We are exploring learning that connects the inside and the outside of the classroom (learning

language that enables learners to communicate with society).

The example of practical study reported here was designed for a classroom discussion and for creating and executing a questionnaire. Lastly, including feedback from key persons in the school (the children's parents), this report considers possible improvement points and mentions issues and potential developments.