Event
HomeHow To Enhance Intercultural Competence In Japanese Primary School English Classes
Sunday, July 8th, 2018, 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Speaker: Natsue Nakayama (Bunkyo University)
In a rapidly globalizing world, one of the important roles of foreign language education is to enhance students' ability to "to communicate effectively in cross-cultural situations and to relate appropriately in a variety of cultural contexts" (Intercultural competence [IC]: Bennett and Bennett, 2004). This holds true for the primary school English classes in Japan, which are currently under reform. For example, this can be seen in the recently released Japanese course of study for primary school English (Ministry of Education, 2017), wherein IC can be observed in its aims. However, there are some issues to be addressed when conducting IC-oriented English lessons. One is the limited descriptions in such documents of how to implement the concept. Another is the need to pay attention to students' cognitive developmental stages. To develop an IC lesson that takes into consideration the above-mentioned issues, the present study first aims to understand how IC is managed in current teaching situations in Japanese elementary schools through textbook analysis. Then, based on the findings, some suggestions are made to enhance intercultural competence in the Japanese context.
Organization: Gunma Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Gunma JALT)
Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 1,000 yen
Venue: Maebashi Kyoai Gakuen University
Location: Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, Japan
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