Foreign language and intercultural development in the Japanese context – a case study

ABSTRACT

Recently, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has produced several internationalisation policies to develop their notion of guroubaru-jinzai (global human resources). However, a lack of clear direction regarding theories and approaches about how to achieve these initiatives has created a gap in the research. Therefore, this paper seeks to fill that gap by introducing an interdisciplinary approach towards creating a foreign language and intercultural development framework. A case study results suggest that the framework can be useful to encourage students’ attitudes and perceptions of foreign language and intercultural development towards developing global human resources.

日本大学における外国語と異文化間能力の発達に関する一考察

近年、日本文部科学省は、グローバル人材の育成を目的として、国際化に関するいくつかの提案を行なっている。しかし、これらの提案を達成するための理論やアプローチに関する方針は明確ではなく、研究にギャップがある。そこで本論文では、外国語と異文化間能力の発達に関する枠組みを作るため、学際的アプローチを導入する。本研究の結果から、グローバル人材の育成に向けて、学習者の外国語と異文化間能力の発達に対する姿勢と理解を養うにあたり、この枠組みが効果的であることが示唆された。

KEYWORDS:

• Foreign language
• intercultural development
• students’ perceptions
• transformative learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Robinson Fritz has over 15 years teaching all ages in Japan and he is presently teaching at Nagasaki University. Also, he is currently pursuing a doctoral degree related to intercultural education. His academic interests include intercultural education, linguaculture resistance, motivation and learner psychology.

Roxana Sandu (PhD, Tohoku University, Japan) is currently an assistant professor of English at the University of Tsukuba. Her main publications are in the field of pragmatics and discourse analysis, but recently her research interests also include intercultural development in an EFL setting, as well as teaching twenty-first-century skills, such as critical thinking, intercultural communication and collaboration.