Promoting international exchanges on campus - One success case

This week I had an "exchange class" between my Academic Reading/ Writing class of 22 Japanese university students' and 23 international students studying Japanese at our university.

It went really, really, well, so I wanted to share what we did and how the students reacted.

For the past four years, I've done joint sessions like this once a term with another professor in charge of teaching Japanese to international students. My Japanese students have commented for years that the exchange class is the most valuable and stimulating 70 minutes in their language study experience, and today's reaction was just as strong.

I hope to propose that this type of exchange become a regular part of the university curriculum. The benefit is not only that the students on both sides can stimulate each other in terms of language and culture learning, but also establish connections that will extend beyond the joint session and enrich their university life.

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2012 Autumn Exchange Class Summary

Who: 19 students from ELA section 4F met up with 23 students from JLP level 4 in H-352. Both groups had a few absent students. Ms. Suzuki and Ms. Hosaka from the JLP and Mark Christianson from the ELA facilitated the session. The JLP students mostly came to ICU in September as OYRs (one year regular students) and have been living in Japan for 7 weeks now. JLP Level 4 is low-intermediate, and most studied Japanese in their home institutions for a year and a half to two years.

When: 2012/10/22, Monday 2nd period. Planning started at the beginning of the term to compare schedules for the two classes and find good timing. JLP classes are basically only held in the morning, so 2nd period is the most common time for exchanges.

What: The first 35 minutes were in Japanese. The last 35 minutes in English. An even exchange. In the Japanese part 日本語の部, all students did self-introductions in Japanese and then JLP students led discussions about things they found were interesting or strange in Japan and interviewed the ELA students about them. In the English part, ELA introduced their 2nd ARW essay research questions and outlines and led discussions to ask the JLP students' opinions on the issues.

Survey Responses: At the last 5 minutes of the session, the students filled out an anonymous questionnaire regarding their reactions, especially focusing on what they gained and whether they felt such exchanges should be done during class time or not.

Q1: I enjoyed this exchange class:  Strongly Agree = 17 out of 19 for ELA, 21 out of 22 for JLP. Two ELA students and one JLP student chose "Agree".  The two ELA students commented that they felt frustration because they wanted to communicate more effectively but did not have enough English skill yet.

Basically, all who attended enjoyed it. The energy in the room was overwhelming.

Q2: This type of exchange is a valuable use of class time for my communication practice: Strongly Agree = 18 out of 19 for ELA, 22 out of 22 for JLP. Agree = 1 ELA student, frustrated with his/her ability.

Basically, all felt it was a valuable experience. Most explained their main reason as because they were able to practice communicating with native speakers and able to learn about the others' culture from peers. They were also able to see how the other side is making efforts to learn their language (or a third language, in some cases) and were able to make new friends. For some ELA students this was the first time to ever talk with a non-Japanese student on campus.
Q3: In your opinion, how often should ICU have exchanges like this during class time per year? Write a number of times per year you feel would be best.

JLP students' average = want to do it 17 times per year.  (Many wrote weekly or biweekly exchanges are best)
ELA students' average = want to do it 9.2 times per year. (Many wrote 2~3 times per term are best)

Q4: Free response: How was this exchange? What was the main benefit or gain for you?
       (Pasted from the Excel form. Original responses were hand written.)

From JLP Students
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1. It was really fun. This "exchange" should be our speaking class. I'm glad I got to practice Japanese more and try to communicate more. Very useful.    Experience. Practice.
2. I really like it and think it is good to have classes like this twice a week or three times a week.    This kind of class is more useful than the usual class because we can learn speaking and listening more.
3. 楽しかったです。    日本語を良く使いました。
4. I found this to be more useful than our projects, so I think having more of this and less projects would be beneficial. Fun and useful.    Speaking and listening practice.
5. I loved this! すごく楽しかった！ I found this very helpful for my Japanese. I learned SO much. It was nice to use my Japanese in a real setting. Once a week or once every two weeks would be great. It was helpful to converse in Japanese, then in English. I made lots of friends.    Now that I've met Japanese friends, we are planning on meeting up again and practicing languages.
6. I think it would be helpful to have this every other week. I think it was really enjoyable. It is fun to meet with other students your age who are just as eager to practice speaking.    Because both groups of students know what it is like to study another language, its more comfortable to practice.
7. It was a good way to meet people practice real Japanese/English. It was interactive and challenging.    I feel like I was challenged to speak more than I normally would in class, so it was more useful. Also, I had to form sentences about things I would normally want to talk about.
8. It was awesome. Very, very useful and interesting. It should be done at least once a month.    Speaking with people in a different environment than the usual class.
9. I really enjoyed! It was very fun. I can have this kind of class every week in one semester.     The exchange of ideas between Japanese and JLP students.
10. It was a very fun and valuable experience.     I was able to exchange ideas from Japanese students and tell them about my opinions about their projects.
11. I wish we had more time. It was extremely informative and fun as well.    I have a better understanding of Japanese culture and learned about issues that are important to ICU's Japanese students.
12. It was amazing. It should be done once a week at least.    Language practice
13. It was really fun! I got to know more Japanese students and more about Japanese culture.    人間関係！I finally got to talk to Japanese students, one of my goals of studying abroad.
14. It was beneficial to my education, and very helpful. Can we do it again please?    Practicing speaking about topics we've done in class with real Japanese people.
15. It was very fun getting to talk about various topics. I would appreciate doing this kind of exchange once a month.     Sometimes when speaking to my own classmates, I'm not inclined to utilize Japanese because English is easier to use. Speaking to Japanese students feels more purposeful.
16. I reall enjoyed it. I made some great new friends. I learned a lot of new language and improved my speaking ability. Fun and useful practice for everyone.    Improved speaking ability and new friends.
17. Very interesting. I want to talk to more Japanese students. We should have more exchanges. The more the better!    To utilize what we learn in class and apply it to real life situations / conversations.
18. It was a valuable experience. I've got lots of new idea from Japanese students, which I have never heard before. It is a really good practice for me in both Japanese and English.    Getting fresh ideas, speaking Japanese. Talking to Japanese people is the most effective way to enhance my speaking skill, as long as I assert.
19. It was fun talking to my Japanese peers. I enjoyed it very much.    Practical usage of Japanese and the comparison of cultures.
20. Today was fun. It was helpful for me to be in actual conversations and not only doing role play situations. Meet once a week!    Experience with talking and listeing. Also learning how others think.
21. It was very good.     I practiced how to paraphrase in Japanese. Even when we couldn't understand each other, everyone tried their best and explained it until we understood each other.
22. It was good vocabulary, conversation, and plain language practice.    Good practice for casual conversation.

From ELA Students
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1. I'm excited. We should exchange every day!  
2. I enjoyed this class. I never go abroad, so I never speak English with native speaker except ELA teacher, but it was so interesting!    Even if I mistake the grammar and words, we can communicate actively!
3. I had a great time! This is a great opportunity. I could make good friends and enjoyed. I can learn a lot of things.    "Don't be shy" is very important
4. とても楽しかったし、良い刺激になった。It was so fun and inspiring because we can experience "real" English/Japanese communication.    英語に自信がなくても伝えようとすれば伝わる。
5. グループの人々と楽しく話せた。頑張って日本語を話しているので僕も頑張ろうと思った。Very enjoyable. It is good for me to know another country's culture.    私たちがJLPの学生に分かり易く話すようにJLPの生徒も分かりやすい英語を使ってくれた。様々あn国から来ているので、いろんな考え方に触れられて勉強になった。
6. 本当に楽しかったし、英語を話しているなと感じた。    自分と異なる価値観を持っているので本当に良い！！今まで自分が気づかなかった視点から話してもらって本当に楽しかった。毎日この授業が良いです。
7. Very interesting for me. I could exchange opinions in the class.     I should get more strong opinion because my ideas are ambiguity.
8. I enjoyed the class! I want to take it again, every term. I could talk about my essay, so maybe I promoted my topic. ELA students are all Japanese so sometimes we talk Japanese. But in this class we have to speak Japanese all the time.     JLP students learn Japanese only two or three years but they speak Japanese fluently!
9. It was very valuable. I enjoyed it because I never had a chance to speak with JLP students before.    It was difficult to listen to English. To speak in English with JLP students was very difficult for me but I thought this is the best way to improve speaking skill.
10. I really enjoyed this class.    実際に話すのが一番英語が身に付くと思う！それはとても楽しいこと！
11. 同じくICUで学んでいる外国の学生さんと初めて話した。I can speak English with enjoy. It is nice plan.    自分の国のことや自分の意見をはっきり伝えたいと思った。
12. "いろんな視点でディスカッションができて有意義だった
13. Once or twice a term would be best."    "自分のスキルのレベルが分かった。英語も日本語 も同じだということ。I enjoyed, but I was frustrated very much. My topic was very difficult. I wanted to speak better! I felt I had to improve my English skills more. It was interesting that　each people has each opinion. I could think about my topic more deeply."
14. とてもためになったし、お互いに英語をしゃべりづらいStream4には必要だと思います。    もっとJLPの人達と仲良くなりたいです。
15. "いろんな人と話ができてすごく楽しかったです！We should exchange two times per semester.
16. "    みんなの興味とかが共通していることが多かった。アニメとか健康。
17. I couldn't speak English. I want to communicate in English! If we do it every term, or every writing essay, we will get more information about topic.    If language education in English is good, we can speak more good maybe. We should more speaking practice.
18. Very interesting. Once per term is good.    I talked about my essay. I could hear many opinions. JLP students' question was very interesting!
19. It is good opportunity! It is very fun and useful for me!!    It is very interesting that Japanese culture about hentai should be more hidden.

以上、簡単な国際交流授業の報告でした。 -Mark