SenseiOnline presents 12th Benkyoukai (Study Forum)
Yoko Kano "Active Learning Beyound Classroom."

Is anyone having your students correspond with peers at foreign countries? Information Technology made it possible for us to get information and communicate with people anywhere in the world. I would like to share the experiences of my students who are learning Japanese language and culture at University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Also, if any of you have been doing a similar project, please let me know your experiences and recommendations.

Project Description

JPN292 (Japanese Culture Through Cinema/ Advanced English as Foreign Language) and JPN 201 (Intermediate Japanese I/ Elementary English as Foreign Language) are teamed up as English classes at Japanese universities and developed to have students interact with each other in English and/or Japanese. JPN292 is focused on learning Japanese culture, communicating in English while JPN201 is focused on learning Japanese language and culture, communicating in Japanese and English. In JPN 201, Japanese students interact with American students in English and American students respond and ask questions in Japanese. They also give feedback to each other's writings on the web site correspondence. Thus students are getting feedback on their foreign language usages from native speakers as well as from the instructors at each site. Here are some topics we discuss in each course.

We are fortunate to have a funding to utilize ISDN based videoconferencing five times per semester in October, November, and in December for face-to-face interaction. Asynchronous discussion Forum on the web was also used to continue discussion throughout the semester.

JPN292: Videoconferences (VCs) and Forum, Asynchronous Electronic Discussion:

Please refer to an annual publication from Mie University for more details of each VC.

JPN201: Videoconferences (VCs) and Forum, Asynchronous Electronic Discussion:

JPN 292 (Japanese Culture Through Cinema/ Advanced English as Foreign Language)

Here are some recommendations and tips learned through developing this course.

In order to have a course which require students to utilize some technology or computer skills:

• Have at least one computing session with students in a computer lab in order to teach them how to navigate the course on the web. It took a while (at least a month) for all the students to get used to navigating the course page.

In order to have a successful Internet asynchronous discussion Forum:
• Assign a percentage (at least 15 %) of the final grade to the Forum participation. Otherwise, only a few students will participate.
• Assign some course work on the Forum especially at the beginning of the course so that the students will be introduced to the course pages on the web earlier. At UNCW we started the Internet Forum among ourselves for discussion on reading materials from August, more than a month before the Japanese students joined us. Semester papers have to include Japanese students' comments on Forum to support their opinions.
• 
  The Forum is necessary to continue the conversation from the VCs and also for more intimate discussion. Also it helps learners of different styles. For example, a Japanese student stated in the final questionnaire, "I am not good at speaking in the VC because it was difficult to sum up my way of thinking immediately. But in the forum, I could have much time what I want to talk." A UNCW student commented, "We were able to learn a lot about them on the forum than we were able to during the VC's."
• Instructors' participation on the Forum is essential but should not be too visible to give more control to the students.
• The instructors need to structure the Forum for easier participation in order to increase the number of responses - especially from Japanese students but at the same time it needs to be an open discussion to elicit more personal comments. Also, American students seem to prefer more open discussion.
• The instructors need to follow up the Forum to give some guidance on the students' learning, using the Forum comments from various students.

In order to have a successful videoconference sessions:

• ,b>Face-to-face interaction by videoconferencing is essential - especially in this type of culture and language course to observe mannerism and to get to know each other in friendly terms. If correspondence is only in a written form such as Forum, it occasionally cause misunderstanding due to indifferent nature of written languages especially in communicating one's foreign languages.
• The instructors need to follow up with some insight to guide students to learn better from comments made during the VCs. A UNCW student wrote in the final questionnaire to the question if they want all the class sessions in VCs, "No, I think the meetings with Kano-sensee were very important because she gave us much needed background on why Japanese students act or think in the ways that they do. I didn't really notice some of the things until she pointed them out, but after she mentioned them I started to notice them also."
• It seems better not to have a long break between videoconferences in order to have a continuous flow of the discussions.
• Flexibility is very important. Prepare some emergency lesson plans for technical glitches.
• Some fun activities/ games at the each beginning of or earlier stage of VCs are necessary to ease the tension and to create a friendly atmosphere. But, keep them short (about 10 minutes at most).
• Try not to do too much in the VCs. Choose only a few topics for each session.
• The balance of a structure and an opportunity for free discussion needs to be adjusted according to the language and maturity level of the participants.

In order to have a successful course of this type:

• It is good to have participants of wide range of age group. At UNCW the participants' age ranged from 20s to 60s. At American universities all the courses are open to public. We hope to have different generations from Japanese side also in the future.
• Adjusting the course content to the semester's schedules at each participating school is more effective.
• Adjusting the course content or prerequisites of some content is necessary among the participating schools in order to let the students develop the same level of cultural awareness.
• Incorporate more visual (photos, videos, etc) as well as auditory (such as music) materials on the web or in the VCs to enhance the course with more interesting content.
• The topics for discussion need to be things the students can easily relate to. All the topics this year were rated equally good among students but the topic "Family" seems to be the most popular topic between both Japanese and American students this year.
• The Americans preferred VCs to the Forum more than the Japanese students did. The combination of VCs and Asynchronous discussion bulletin boards would give a nice balance to the students of different learning styles and in different cultures.
• Collaborative teaching with the instructors at distance sites is the key to a successful long distance course.
• Some advice especially for American students needs to be given at the beginning of the course and occasionally thereafter in order to gain feedback from their Japanese counterparts. Their sensitivity to each other needs developing in order to have a better understanding. For example, Japanese students' are dealing with a foreign language and a different communication style. The American students did not really understand the English level of the Japanese students until they actually began speaking with them. Also, the American students had the tendency to talk among themselves while the discussion was taking place. As results, the discussion was not conducted as a whole class. The instructors need to take a greater control of these situations.
• It might be interesting to have a presentation or a report on Forum or during the VC from both sides on up-to-date information about what is going on at both side of the globe to generate the discussion.

JPN 201 (Intermediate Japanese I/ Elementary English as Foreign Language)

Here are some recommendations and tips I have learned through developing this course.

• We need to take advantage of every single opportunity from a sharing class with native speakers of target languages who actually live in the target countries. The class content, especially classroom activities and assignments can become more practical tasks for the students than those of traditional language classes. For examples, referring to the topics of assignments in the course calendar and activities at the beginning of the VCs. UNCW students commented in the End of Semester Survey 2000 (Please see the Appendix 3); "I've really started thinking more in Japanese which makes it easier to speaking and write because of the essays we've had to write; I learned more about grammar and natural speaking; I thought that the forum assignments were very, very help; I picked up on some dialects and more popular grammar usages and some slang; since it was a trade-off of English and Japanese they were very good at giving extra tips and information on how to write."
• We can provide successful experiences and encouragements in communication with the people in the target languages so that the students increase their confidence. The American students worried at first about sending their essays to Japanese students, wondering if they would understand what they meant. But as the time goes by, this type of comments was not heard. A UNCW student wrote in the "End of Semester Survey 2000, "It improved my speaking ability and helped to make me a little more confident in my speaking ability to know that other Japanese students understood me; I felt that they were an excellent means of practicing what we were learning and getting to know the Japanese students better; the Japanese students were great at correcting my papers, plus teaching me new grammar that I never saw before. I thought it was great experience."
• Matching up the students to correspond definitely helps to get the correspondence started.
• Face-to-face interaction by videoconferencing is essential especially in this type of cultural and language course. It is useful not only to acquire the language but also to observe the cultural differences and similarities including mannerism and ways of communication. Also, they have an opportunity to experience a frustration as a practice as a student stated; "I got to practice my speaking on the spot and how to deal with pressure." Other UNCW students stated in the End of Year Survey, " It was interesting to see how the students interacted with one another and what their thoughts and opinions were on the topics we discussed; (I learned) how they act when they go out, how they celebrate holidays, and the different hobbies plus talents they can show and do; Japanese students are very shy and are afraid to ask questions at fist. After a couple of conferences they asked more questions."
• The combination of VCs and Asynchronous discussion bulletin board would give the best balance to the students in different cultures and learning styles. The effect can be summarized in the "End of Semester Survey 2000" I think that constant writing/re-writing and forum interaction helped a lot; Emailing back and forth and doing a presentation, really made a difference; I think the Japanese students open up more on the forum because they are not afraid of making a mistake."
• Some fun activities/ games/ presentations at the beginning of each class are necessary to ease the tension and to create friendly atmosphere. But keep it short (about 10 minutes at most).
• Assign some percentage (at least 15 %) of the final grade to Forum participation. Otherwise, the students except a few would not participate.
• However, without instructor's guidance and assistance in their writing correspondences on assigned topics, especially at the early stage of the interaction, they have difficulties in engaging in the conversation. Some structures by the instructor are necessary for learners of this proficiency level to initiate and continue their conversation in their foreign languages. In order to increase the students' participation on the Forum, the instructors can, for example, create assignments on the Forum from the beginning of the semester (such as interviews on the web) to encourage the conversation among them.
• Try not to plan too much. It may end up with overloading students. In this course, the American students had many new components for them to adjust to this course: learning how to type in Japanese; learning complex compound structure of Japanese for the first time; getting used to a non-traditional course structures and learning from the materials on the web; being able to use technology (their previous course were taught in the traditional classroom) required for the course, such as e-mail attachment, download to be able to type in Japanese, a track-change feather of the Word (used to exchange correspondence with the instructor for editing and feedback) and threaded discussion forum.
• Topics for discussion need to be adjusted to something the students can easily relate to and also the American students can handle in Japanese. Since Japanese students had much longer learning experiences in their foreign language, English, than their American counterparts in Japanese, topics of discussion needed to be adjusted to the contents which American students have learned and/or are learning.
• It is essential to hold computing sessions at the beginning of the semester and as necessary during the semester to give some suggestions and guidance to the students on how to learn from the web. If possible, creating and providing a self-study guide on a CD-ROM for basic computing skills and tips on learning on their own will greatly serve this purpose. The CD-ROM needs to be available for the students to check out or for purchase.
• Use of more visual (photos, videos, etc) materials as well as auditory (such as music) materials on the web or in the VCs can help and enrich the conversation and also enhance the course with more interesting and authentic contents/context.
• It seems better to finish the VCs and Forum sessions by the end of the UNCW fall semester so that the Japanese students will have the same group of students throughout the course.
• Flexibility is very important. Prepare some emergency lesson plans for technical glitches.
• Collaborative teaching with the instructors at distance sites is a key to the successful long distance courses.
• Although, students do need some time to practice and get adjusted to a non-traditional method of instruction, a UNCW student comment in the End of Year Survey below tells us that students can learn as much as or more from materials/instructions on the web. "Despite the less time in class and more time on line, I feel that this semester was a learning experience; I feel that this course was a lot of hard work but that it was a very good learning experience; overall, I think that the course was worthwhile. I really enjoyed it."

Related URLs

JPN292: Kano's course syllabus on the web
http://www.uncwil.edu/people/kanoy/JPN292/Syllabus.htm"

JPN201: Kano's course syllabus on the web
http://www.uncwil.edu/people/kanoy/JPN201/syllabus.htm

JPN292: Course calendar (Assignments for American students)
http://www.uncwil.edu/people/kanoy/JPN292/calendar.htm

JPN201: Course calendar (Assignments for American students)
http://www.uncwil.edu/people/kanoy/JPN201/Calendar201-Fl-00.htm

General course homepage as a sample syllabus for Japanese universities
http://www.uncwil.edu/dpsee/VirtualU/framesetkano2.htm

Page for Virtual University Project at UNCW
http://www.uncwil.edu/dpsee/VirtualU/

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