Speakers
Description
Despite increasing numbers of international students, spontaneous interaction with Japanese students rarely occurs without educational intervention. This presentation reports on an extracurricular exchange workshop designed to enhance learner autonomy and students’ motivation for intercultural communication. Survey and interview data show that short, socially situated conversations promoted autonomous relationship building, reduced anxiety, and increased motivation for interaction and language learning, highlighting the importance of creating social spaces for meaningful engagement in universities.
Abstract
Despite increasing numbers of international students, opportunities for international students and Japanese students to interact on an equal footing within universities do not readily emerge spontaneously, and the need for educational intervention has been noted (Kagami, 1999; Izumimoto & Iwasaka, 2016; Mizumatsu, 2017). Because learner autonomy is enacted in social contexts (Huang & Benson, 2013), fostering the skills and attitudes required for autonomous communication across linguistic and cultural boundaries requires the provision of environments in which learners can construct social relationships. This presentation introduces an extracurricular exchange workshop collaboratively implemented by Japanese and English teachers and reports on analyses of questionnaire and interview data examining how conversational experiences in a social setting enhance learners’ autonomy and their motivation for intercultural communication. Each workshop has been attended by several dozen international and Japanese students with varying levels of Japanese and English proficiency. By allowing participants to choose the language(s) and topics of conversation, and by facilitating interaction through the encouragement of the use of multimodal resources and mutual support, the workshop aims to foster autonomous relationship building through group conversations among students meeting for the first time. The findings indicate that even 40 minutes of interaction during the lunch break generated diverse learner insights and forms of self-realization distinct from those found in classrooms or lounge spaces. Participants also reported reduced anxiety and increased motivation for interaction and language learning. Presenters suggest that educational intervention to support interaction and learning in social spaces is crucial for the internationalization of universities.
Short summary
Despite increasing numbers of international students, spontaneous interaction with Japanese students rarely occurs without educational intervention. This presentation reports on an extracurricular exchange workshop designed to enhance learner autonomy and students’ motivation for intercultural communication. Survey and interview data show that short, socially situated conversations promoted autonomous relationship building, reduced anxiety, and increased motivation for interaction and language learning, highlighting the importance of creating social spaces for meaningful engagement in universities.
References
Huang, J. P., & Benson, P. (2013). Autonomy, agency and identity in foreign and second language education. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 36(1), 7–28.
Izumimoto, C., & Iwasaka, Y. (2016). Collaborative language/culture education between international and home students engaging in globalization. Bulletin of Teacher Education Center for the Future Generation of Nara University of Education, 2, 47–57.
Kagami, T. (1999). Educational intervention to facilitate intercultural contact between Japanese students and foreign students in a campus community. Japanese Journal of Community Psychology, 2(2), 131–142.
Mizumatsu, M. (2017). Impact of project-based “Intercultural co-learning class” on student's self-efficacy: A study on a class designed by using Kolb's experiential learning model. Bulletin of the Institute for Excellence in Higher Education Tohoku University, 3, 115–129.
Keywords
learner autonomy
motivation
intercultural interactions in higher education
teachers’ collaboration
Special scheduling requests
Saturday afternoon after the coffee break (2nd half)
-One of our presenters will join online from Thailand and we need time to communicate once three others arrive on site on the day.
| Scheduling preference | Special request (enter below) |
|---|---|
| Title | Creating Social Spaces for Autonomous Intercultural Communication |