Paper short abstract:

The presentation will discuss the implementation of Kobanashi activities. Participants reported improvements in their confidence, and understanding of human behavior. The presentation emphasizes non-language improvement aspects and highlights the inclusive nature of Kobanashi for everyone.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation reflects on the practical implementation of using Kobanashi in Japanese language education, from autumn 2020 to the present day in 2023. Kobanashi is a short joke at the beginning or in the middle of a Rakugo (traditional Japanese comic storytelling) performance, where the performer sits on a cushion, using only a fan and a handtowel. It is a cultural experience that also promotes the improvement of Japanese language skills and learning motivation through laughter (Hatasa & Kubota, 2009; Sakai & Yamada, 2016; Mori, 2017).

Although Kobanashi activities tend to be temporary, the presenter's activities have continued for more than three years. In 2021, the presenter established an online "Kobanashi Club" as an extracurricular activity at the university, utilizing the advantages of online communication to interact with diverse learners and teachers abroad. In 2022, the presenter designed a 12-week elective course called "Japanese Storytelling and Humor", covering Kobanashi in the first half and manzai (another traditional Japanese comedy style) in the latter half. The evaluation was based on creative works and presentations outside of the classroom, rather than tests.

In both 2021 and 2022, the activities lasted for about three months, and the same Kobanashi became different works through practice. In post-activity interviews, participants reported not only practical practice of familiar expressions and learning new expressions, but also discovering the fun of observing human behavior and improving their confidence. This presentation emphasizes the importance of paying attention to such non-language improvement aspects.

Kobanashi provides a space for learning, and if participants feel comfortable, they can return to the basic principles of learning. If Kobanashi is said to be "universal" and "inclusive", teachers should participate in it and learn with their students, enjoying the process of learning. As a result, not only can barriers between teachers and students be overcome, but also barriers that arise between people with different learning or teaching backgrounds can be crossed. By participating in Kobanashi, teachers can return to the basics without even realizing it. The notable point of Kobanashi is that both learners and teachers can share experiences on an equal footing.

Paper short abstract:

We have been conducting a survey on the backgrounds and teaching practices of Japanese language teachers in Europe. Our focus is on the intercultural conflicts of teachers who have lived and taught for only a short time and how they overcome such conflicts and co-exist as intermediaries.

Paper long abstract:

For two years, the authors have been conducting a qualitative fact-finding survey on Japanese language teachers living in Europe with multi-language and multi-cultural backgrounds and their teaching practices, while listening to their voices through life-story interviews. The survey conducted in 2021 yielded information about the lives of teachers who act as bridges and social agents in their mediation activities. It was found that these teachers had been building a "cognitive mediation" structure for learning (scaffolding) and "relational mediation" to create learning spaces that encourage dialogue and awareness (affordance). In 2022, the research focused on the relationship between these mediation activities and each of the teachers' own multilingual and multicultural environment where the 'mediation' and 'translation without translation' concepts in the broad sense proposed by Pym (2014) were practiced and which had a significant impact on the 'mediation activities' of language teaching practice.

　Most of the collaborating teachers have lived in Europe for a long time and many of their statements demonstrate that they have transcended cultural issues to accept every challenge. However, it is important to remember that some of the teachers have only lived in Europe for a short time and whose teaching experience is yet to develop and may therefore be struggling with problems and conflicts. Ting-Tomey (2001) states that intercultural conflicts are, on the substantive issues, those between several parties from different cultural backgrounds, where the values, the expectations, processes and outcomes, are defined as incompatibility in perception or in practice. It also identifies self-cultural centrism (ethnocentrism), stereotypes and misunderstandings in communication as triggers of conflicts. In Japanese language education, previous studies include analyses based on Thomas and Kilmann's (1976) coping strategies from cross-cultural conflicts among international students.

　The aim of this current study is to listen to the voices of such teachers and focus on what difficulties they have encountered and how they have overcome them to coexist as 'people living mediation'. This paper will also attempt to analyse how 'mediation' and 'translation without translation' are involved in resolving cross-cultural conflicts.

Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the teacher’s role in a negotiated/process syllabus (Breen 1987) in a pre-advanced Japanese course at a UK university. Based on the teacher’s records and notes, the manners in which the learners increasingly became independent and empowered will be discussed.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates the possible benefits of a negotiated/process syllabus (Breen 1987) in a pre-advanced Japanese course at a UK university as a pilot study. With a focus on the teacher’s role, it qualitatively analyses a record and notes kept by the teacher of her attempts to implement the syllabus and compares it to the syllabus that would have been designed solely by the teacher. As the course unfolded joint decisions were made through negotiations by the learners and the teacher about the contents, structure, and delivery of the classes in response to the emergent needs of the participants (Graves 2008). More specifically the learners and the teacher negotiated and agreed on the topics/issues to be covered, materials to be used to investigate the issues, methods of presenting the outcomes of the investigations and so on in response to the jointly identified needs to achieve the objectives and intended learning outcomes of the course. These objectives and the intended learning outcomes were revisited a few times during the course so that further joint decisions could be made to achieve them, based on what had worked well so far, what needed to be done and how. As the course proceeded the teacher's role as a facilitator and a mediator became evident whilst the learners identified their own strengths and weaknesses, set manageable sub-goals, and increasingly became independent, empowered, and responsible for their own learning (Breen & Littlejohn 2000). It is argued that through negotiation and joint decision-making, opportunities to learn to appreciate different perspectives can be created which is an important transferrable skill needed for participation in the target language community. It is hoped that this study will trigger further research in and practice of active involvement of learners in syllabus design.

Breen, M. P. (1987). Contemporary Paradigms in Syllabus Design, Part I. Language Teaching, 20(2). 81–92.

Breen, M. P. & Littlejohn, A. (Eds.) (2000). Classroom decision making: Negotiation and process syllabuses in practice. Cambridge: CUP.

Graves, K. (2008). The language curriculum: A social contextual perspective. Language Teaching 41(2). 147–181.