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In this qualitative study, we analyzed the processes of a collaborative online international learning (COIL) collaboration between two higher education institutions in Japan and the United States from the perspective of the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework. The research question this study aimed to address was: What is the utility of the TPACK framework, as a lens of analysis, for this online cultural exchange? To address this question, we conducted semi-structured interviews with student participants and examined their written works. From the student participants' learning experiences, we identified evidence of cultural exchange as well as evidence of missed opportunities for cultural exchange arising from the limited knowledge of technology, pedagogy, content, and culture. COIL and TPACK both share a common goal of increasing students' access to multiple knowledge systems using educational technology. As a result, COIL conceptually aligns well with the TPACK framework. This collaboration showed an ongoing need for the centering of cultural knowledge and cultural exchange in both COIL and TPACK. We, accordingly, outline potential for a TPACCK, a modified TPACK framework to center cultural knowledge in both with the hope of taking steps towards a more culturally sustaining framework of international collaboration.

This paper explored students' experiences in an international virtual student mobility (VSM) program at a Japanese national university implemented in collaboration with partner universities in the Asia Pacific region and Europe. Through students' narratives, the study discerned how students perceive "mobility" and the concept of "international students" after participating in a virtual student mobility program. Findings revealed a tension between students' understanding of "mobility," official narratives, and students' actual experiences. While VSM programs facilitate communication and knowledge exchange across borders and develop cross-cultural communications, prevailing binary definitions in student mobility, such as "inbound" vs. "outbound," "domestic" vs. "international," or "study abroad" vs. "internationalization at home," limit VSM potential to be fully realized. This misalignment of the traditional understanding of student mobility that emphasizes place and borders challenges the official narrative of student mobility and urges educators to re-align and re-frame how we understand "international students."

The International Virtual Exchange Project (IVEProject) has been connecting students across multiple countries through asynchronous forums on a large scale since 2015. However, considering the variety of virtual exchange methods and the advantages they bring to the field of foreign language learning, there is an increased need to explore the pedagogical possibilities of combining asynchronous and synchronous modalities, particularly across multiple institutions and countries. This short article reports on a pedagogical innovation which involved adding synchronous sessions conducted over Zoom to the asynchronous IVEProject forums. The authors arranged eight weekly Zoom meetings in which students from China, India, Japan, Jordan, Palestine, Türkiye and Syria participated in May-July, 2021. After the final session, a survey was administered to participating students and their teachers to explore their experiences. The results show that the majority of students appreciated and benefitted from the opportunity to communicate synchronously with peers from other countries. The paper also reflects on the benefits and challenges of combining synchronous sessions alongside the asynchronous IVEProject forums, aiming to derive lessons learned from this project in the hope that this will aid future EFL instructors in creating engaging virtual exchange projects which involve participants from multiple cultures and countries.

Objectives: Two sets of intercultural learning resources incorporating Global Englishes learning content were developed for self-access use in the higher education context. The resources were investigated in terms of student learning experiences across two contexts in Japan: an English language major program and a nonlanguage major program. The aim was to develop an understanding of student learning experiences to inform practical implications for self-access learning in these areas. Method: The educational resources were investigated in a qualitative content analysis of reflective writing and supporting survey data from 30 students across the two university programs to understand how (and if) they supported student learning as well as how the resources and form of learning were perceived by the students. Results: Resources in both universities led to similar learning outcomes, showing that self-access resources can support intercultural and Global Englishes learning. A longer time requirement was necessitated by one set of resources, which was criticised by students. Students also indicated a preference for collaborative learning aspects. Conclusions: This pedagogically focused article contributes to the discussion around digital resources for intercultural and Global Englishes learning. Short-form resources integrating these areas may be more effective for self-access learning than resources requiring multiweek commitments in both language and nonlanguage major programs. Aspects of collaborative learning in self-access engagement appealed to students. Implication for Theory and/or Practice: Carefully designed short resources based on the conceptual framework and on recommendations outlined in this article may lead to effective self-access student learning, particularly in resources involving collaborative work.

Virtual exchange (VE) has gained prominence as a means to improve students' intercultural competence and foreign language abilities through forums and other supplemental activities. This study examines a supplemental activity referred to as the student-generated survey (SGS) implemented in the IVEProject, a large-scale VE with, at the time of this research, over 3000 contributing EFL students per exchange. Stemming from a sociocultural perspective with an aim to promote student agency, curiosity and discussion, the SGS allows students to participate in a survey composed of questions generated by themselves and/or their peers. Aiming to investigate how the SGS affects IVEProject participants' intercultural competence, this cross-sectional study focuses on data collected from 768 participants from 10 countries during the May-July 2021 exchange. Quantitative analysis of nine six-point Likert scale items showed that students who took the SGS and discussed its results had statistically significant increases in multiple items related to components of Deardorff's Pyramid Model of IC compared with students who did not. Furthermore, these gains were more noticeable among students who additionally took part in the question-generation process of the SGS. Thematic analysis of an open-ended question found 96% of student comments to be positive, falling under the themes 'intercultural development' and 'enjoyment and contentment.' The findings from quantitative and qualitative data shed light on the positive effect of the SGS on IC development, offering a beneficial reference point for international VE contexts.

Over the past 15 years, the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009) has been a dominant framework in the field of second language (L2) motivation. Yet, since the model's introduction, there has been a theoretical discordance between the two components associated with future self-images (the ideal L2 self and the ought-to L2 self) and the third component related to the actual process of learning (the L2 learning experience). To remedy this shortcoming, this study draws on Bakhtin's (1981, 1986) theory of dialog. Bakhtin claims that any use of language is a dialog between self and others and that language is learned through the assimilation of speech genres used by others for similar purposes in typical situations of social communication. The analysis of interview data obtained from three Japanese-as-a-second-language learners shows how situation-specific and future-oriented motivations are related to each other. The learners' engagement in dialog with imagined Japanese speakers is developed through their engagement in dialog with actual Japanese speakers, and regardless of whether the dialog is actual or imagined, the participants orient themselves to speech genres of the language that correspond to particular social contexts.

Intercultural competence (IC) development has been highlighted in academia as an essential educational outcome for all constituents. Over the last few decades, extensive research has been conducted regarding both the components of IC and how it is developed. Yet research is scant on the experiences of international graduate students regarding their intercultural competence development, even though they make up more than half of the international students pursuing degrees at U.S. higher education institutions. Using constructivist qualitative research methods, this study sought to understand and describe the intercultural competence development of international graduate students. Utilizing the personal stories of 14 international graduate students from five faith-based institutions, the findings provide theoretical insights into Deardorff's model of intercultural competence development as well as the role of faculty inclusivity in cultivating the intercultural competence of international graduate students. This research has practical implications for administrators and faculty at faith-based institutions whose missional values concern the formation of leaders who will impact people and processes throughout the world.

This paper reports an attempt to enhance Japanese learners' Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) through an undergraduate English class in 2022. The students read essays on an American writer's experience living in Japan, exchanged thoughts, and gave individual presentations. They also learned and practiced discussion skills in the first half of the semester. In the second half, they read and discussed several chapters of a book on propaganda and gave group presentations. Its effectiveness was examined by conducting a questionnaire survey after the first and last lessons based on the Council of Europe's (2018b) Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC). The 21 participants responded to pre- and post-surveys, wrote reflections on their learning, and gave consent to the use of their responses for research. Their answers to the multiple-choice questions were analyzed using SPSS, and their comments were analyzed using KH-Coder. Significant improvement was found in some descriptors in the competence areas of "attitudes," "skills," and "knowledge and critical understanding." The participants' comments revealed that the activities of sharing opinions in groups, practicing discussion skills, including how to disagree politely, lessons on culture and propaganda, and group work for group presentations contributed to the improvement.

Upon encountering unfamiliar words or observing local practices in study abroad contexts, second language learners may discuss aspects of the target language and culture with their peers -- 'non-native' friends from the same cultural background or 'natives' of the target culture. Such mediations are instrumental in elaborating understandings, but are naturally conditioned by the participants' intercultural stances, including their appreciation of cultural similarities/differences. This study examines the interpretive work carried out by two learners of Japanese and their respective friends in reading a Japanese "manga" (short comics) depicting the allegedly 'typical' Japanese behaviour around "honne," i.e. restraint in expressing one's feelings or opinions. We observe rather different negotiation styles and different ideologies at play in their argumentations and discuss them in relation to the dynamics generated by the assumption of epistemic authority claimed by (and granted to) the native-speaker friend, vs. the more collaborative negotiation in the case of the non-native friend. The lack of a dominant authoritative source appears to generate more nuanced interpretive possibilities, enabling challenges to established and stereotypical discourses about cultural characteristics. This analysis illustrates dynamics which potentially question widely held (and equally ideological) beliefs about unqualified advantages of periods of study abroad for cultural learning.

The lack of exchange between international students and host nationals in Japan has long been a pressing issue, yet very little progress has been made to rectify this situation. In this study, we examined this issue by focusing on how international students in Japan perceive cultural contact with their host and home culture members during their sojourn. The study applied a qualitative approach based on grounded theory, collecting data through semi-structured interviews with 41 international students from China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. According to the social identity and anxiety/uncertainty management approach, we interpreted the findings on how international students manage uncertainty in the Japanese environment by identifying with the host and their own home cultures for their psychological well-being, which we distinguished as intercultural or intracultural contact orientation. International students demonstrated an intracultural rather than intercultural contact orientation due to the host nationals reacting to them as "foreigners."

This paper details methods teachers can utilize in a Virtual Exchange (VE) project to maximize development of intercultural communication and linguistic competence. The International Virtual Exchange Project (IVEProject) was born out of a desire to connect students in monocultural classrooms to multiple cultures. The project was started in Japan, a highly monocultural environment, where opportunities to use English as a foreign language (EFL) are highly limited. The project now spans across multiple countries and offers a real setting for students to connect across continents using EFL. It is free for teachers to join with their students and teachers all around the world may participate twice a year by contacting the authors. Research on previous exchanges showed participation in the IVEProject enhances students' knowledge of their own culture and other cultures, increases interactional confidence, and improves intercultural sensitivity -- essential for the development of intercultural competence (Hagley, 2020). Research also suggests teacher involvement is essential to the success of VE (Kelsen and Flowers, 2017). The IVEProject encourages teacher as well as student participation and in this paper three areas teachers may focus upon to aid students in the project are discussed: preparation activities, integration of tasks into class activities and reflection activities. It is hoped that these suggested activities will provide a framework which teachers interested in VE, and in particular the IVEProject, may use to maximize the benefits of engaging EFL students in VE.

With the goal of contributing to ongoing efforts to decolonize ELT, this article addresses the potential of microanalytic research into classroom interaction in disrupting hegemonic forces of coloniality. Microanalytic research provides a step-by-step, minute examination of interactional discourse, and it has the capacity to reveal gaps between official policies/participants' beliefs and actual communication practices. To set the scene, we begin the article with a sketch of our experience in Japan and a review of previous studies reporting on teachers' struggles and responses in confronting coloniality in the ELT classroom. We then turn to microanalytic research to show how this strand of work may complement ongoing efforts towards decolonizing ELT by foregrounding participants' resourcefulness and agency in rewriting existing norms and structures. In closing, we consider future directions for decolonizing ELT classroom interaction research and pedagogy, emphasizing the affordances of microanalytic insights for pedagogical reflection and practice.

In this study, we examined the use of compliments, self-praise, and self-denigration, as exchanged among nonnative English users. This was part of participation in an online cross-cultural exchange project (Ibunka 2019), which involved learners from six countries (Algeria, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and the Netherlands). The aim of the study was two-fold: first, to contribute to the burgeoning research on the three speech acts in online settings; second, to unravel how the project participants -- as nonnative users -- managed to build and sustain rapport/comity via these social acts, despite their assumed linguistic deficiency. The study's data were extracted from a corpus of 2055 posts and comments ([approximately equal to] 368654 words) and analysed in terms of: distribution (1105, 301, and 361 tokens were identified, respectively), topics (core vs. peripheral), sequential organisation (vertical vs. horizontal), and rapport/comity building potential. The findings were extensively discussed in light of the existing literature, especially relative to social networking sites. Some of these findings are of a particular interest to English language teachers, namely: using linguistic proficiency and incompetence as topics for the three speech acts and the latter deployment as metacomments and message openers/closers as well as for the management of relational work.

This quasi-experimental study reports on the outcomes of a video-synchronous learning program in which an element of project-based foreign language learning was integrated. The project chosen was to cooperatively create a homepage. American students learning Japanese in the United States and Japanese students learning English in Japan made pairs and communicated in both their native and target languages via Skype to complete the project. The goals of this educational program were to increase intrinsic motivation in learners and improve their target language oral abilities, and identify challenges and problems with implementation. The program was conducted during the spring semester in 2017 and evaluated both quantitatively (via pre- and posttests) and qualitatively (via surveys and reflection papers). The results show that both groups of students had improved their mean length of utterance in their target language, a strong indicator of increased speaking ability. Furthermore, qualitative analysis showed their motivation levels increased as compared to previous similar programs. Although the majority of the students were interested in creating a homepage, there were some technical problems with the homepage creation software.

Short-term study abroad (SA) programmes are often promoted as an effective way of developing English language skills and accessing opportunities for intercultural learning. Whilst pre-departure intercultural training is thought to play an important role in enhancing the potential for meaningful learning, overemphasis on essentialist framings of cultural difference may be counterproductive given the multicultural and multilingual composition of many societies. This paper reports on an action research project triggered by the perceived underdevelopment of SA training and essentialist educational practices observed in a university ELT setting in Japan. The research involved the systematic design, implementation, and evaluation of a non-essentialist SA training e-learning programme informed by research on intercultural awareness, intercultural citizenship, and English as a lingua franca. Findings from a qualitative evaluation of learning on the programme among 22 students revealed some emergent non-essentialist understandings of culture, new awareness of variability in English language use, and a perception that the course was useful for SA training. The paper contributes to understanding of the importance of moving away from essentialist learning in SA training by integrating content which recognises the learning potential of SA experiences in multicultural and multilingual settings.

Researchers and intercultural educators have put forward various theoretical principles and pedagogical ideas related to the design and implementation of intercultural communication (IC) courses. Recently, researchers have called for curriculum development to include students' voices about their intercultural communication education (ICE). This paper reports on a study which examined 42 students' perceptions of an intercultural communication course taught over one semester at a university in Japan, focusing in particular on motivations for students' intercultural learning and their strategies for maintaining or further developing their IC competence upon completing their studies. Students were also asked to consider the significance of ICE in terms of their life experiences. Survey results revealed that participants enrolled in the IC course to reflect on their study abroad experiences, develop tangible skills for their vocations, and effectively manage IC interactions. They also claimed that learning about perceptions and IC transitions contributed to their understanding of their own experiences and broader intercultural issues. The study contributes to understanding of what students who choose to enrol in an IC course potentially seek from such a course in this context and how they interpret its significance in terms of their own goals and anticipated life trajectories. It also offers some implications for the design of future IC courses.

This paper describes a mixed-methods investigation into whether an asynchronous, virtual collaboration with Japanese peers helped pre-service social studies teachers in the U.S. demonstrate civic competence as it relates to international and global education. After the collaboration, most students described themselves as better-prepared world citizens; however, analysis of pre- and post-intervention surveys revealed only one statistically significant U-test result concerning participants' pedagogical thinking. This investigation suggests education programs can better prepare novice teachers to think and act globally by providing international telecollaborative experiences and explicitly emphasizing classroom instruction (practice) informed by civic competence as it relates to international and global education (theory).

The Top Global University Project, launched in 2014 and scheduled to run until 2023, is the most recent of a succession of internationalisation projects proposed by the Japanese government in an effort to foster global jinzai, i.e. global human resources (GHR), and revitalise the higher education system. Yet, the concept of GHR remains vague and disconnected from similar concepts falling under the global competence umbrella. This article aims to address the idea of GHR in Japanese higher education through the analysis of a range of policy and promotional documents issued by the government and by Top Global universities. In addition, it will frame GHR both within and beyond Deardorff's Pyramid Model of Intercultural Competence (2006) in order to situate Japanese perceptions of GHR in the context of internationalisation. Results indicate some consensus as regards key attitudes, knowledge, and skills to be fostered in higher education students, thus enabling Japanese educational stakeholders to move towards outlining a more concrete notion of GHR. However, there remains a lack of focus as well as an emphasis on quantitative outputs that must be addressed in order for internationalisation strategies to be able to successfully foster GHR.

The pursuit of global competence (GC) is heavily promoted as part of university education in Japan, where the government exhorts universities to equip graduates with skills that will enable them to function as global citizens. Foreign language (FL) educators are often expected to cultivate these globally competent individuals. However, there is little consensus on what GC actually is, and limited evidence that existing models of GC are actually applicable in the Japanese context. This study used a qualitative survey targeting professionals, researchers, university teachers and students to determine the attributes that are seen to comprise GC, and the challenges faced in achieving GC in the Japanese context. Findings highlighted the primacy of FL communication skills, as well as openness, extraversion, emotional stability, and a willingness to engage. To overcome challenges to the achievement of these attributes, we suggest that FL educators need to tap into learners' individual identities and aspirations, rather than pursuing generic and decontextualized approaches to the development of GC.

This study investigates how international exchange students from North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia exercised agency and power and created their autonomy through experiential learning to cooperate with local schools and organisations in Japan. Empirical research on international students' intercultural experiences in Western countries has grown; however, research on their intercultural experiences in Japan is lacking in English publications. This research qualitatively examined how international students from various cultural backgrounds attempted to cooperate with locals in Japan's emic world. Results revealed that intercultural frame-switching did not occur automatically, and international students could not cope with the intercultural competence required in Japanese society. Facing intercultural challenges, students exhibited a separation orientation to preserve their cultural identities, valuing their agency and autonomy, and found ways to exercise power independently. Educational interventions can expand students' potential for developing intercultural relationships with locals from the host society.

Study abroad (SA) has recently become an increasingly popular option for language learners who wish to engage in an immersive educational experience while living in a different culture, but not all SA programmes are created equal. Length of time can vary significantly, from a days or weeks up to a year or more spent in the target culture, and this can affect not only linguistic development but also non-linguistic factors such as intercultural communication, confidence using the second/foreign language (L2), and a sense of L2 self. The purpose of this study was to examine how two groups of Japanese learners of English going abroad for different lengths of time (one month (n = 79) and one year (n = 70) respectively) were affected across a range of non-linguistic variables. Pre- and post-SA survey data were collected, and results indicate that both groups achieved significant benefits in increased L2 speaking confidence and a strengthening of sense of an ideal L2 self, while also undergoing a weakening of ought-to L2 self. However, the degree of change was not uniform across groups. Moreover, the short-term SA participants demonstrated a decrease in ethnocentricity whereas the long-term participants did not.

Informed about the significance of incorporating intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in EFL classrooms, the reported research on promoting ICC through telecollaboration from the teachers' side has gained limited attention. The present study addresses this gap by exploring teachers' perceptions of telecollaboration and illustrating how telecollaboration promotes EFL teachers' ICC. The telecollaboration project we report here brought together teachers from Indonesia and other countries in the outer and expanding circle for EFL. Based on an intercultural teacher training framework proposed by Lallana and Salamaca (2020), this project involved three Indonesian EFL teachers at state-owned and private schools, along with tandem teacher partners from Belarus, Japan, and Myanmar. As a qualitative interpretative study focusing on the Indonesian participants, a dataset was collected from observations, post-session reflections, and video-recorded interviews. The findings suggest that the participating teachers formed positive views about telecollaboration, wherein they shared transforming beliefs and attitudes towards interculturality in EFL teaching and learning. Further, they embraced the principles of ICC in their current teaching and intended to continue it in their future praxis. Some practical implications of infusing ICC in EFL teaching and learning are presented.

Higher education institutions are constantly being challenged to equip graduates with relevant knowledge and skills for entering an increasingly diverse and globalized economy and workforce. The authors summarize internationalization efforts in higher education as an alternative to the traditional study abroad experience, and they describe how one academic unit adopted the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) framework to facilitate students' cross-cultural learning.

While listeners tend to downgrade speakers' accent and comprehensibility when they perceive them to be from a different language community--a process known as reverse linguistic stereotyping (RLS)--research has generally relied solely on quantitative data such as Likert scale ratings. The current study sought to extend the analysis further by investigating the reasons which informed raters' decisions. A sample of 210 Japanese university students (six groups of n = 35) were asked to listen to recorded speeches by native Japanese speakers. In a matched-guise design, the groups were either shown photos of a Japanese, Caucasian, or Southeast Asian male, and asked to provide ratings of accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility. They were then asked to report what factors influenced their comprehensibility ratings. In line with previous research, listeners rated non-Japanese guises as significantly more accented than the Japanese one, though differences in intelligibility were non-significant. A key finding was that while comprehensibility ratings were statistically comparable, the rationales given were qualitatively different. Groups who viewed the Caucasian or Southeast Asian photographs cited pronunciation issues significantly more than the Japanese group which reported grammatical and lexical factors as the reasons behind their downgraded ratings.

This article introduces an empirical study of "Connected Learning" in a Japanese EFL classroom context, instantiated through the Bridging Activities pedagogical framework. Students considered their interests, made groups, and joined Reddit communities. Self-selected texts were then analyzed with rigorous teacher mediation. Students participated by creating Reddit posts and several presentations detailing their text analysis and participation. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from these presentations and questionnaires. Findings revealed that students in this context focused predominantly on gaming and anime communities, and participated multimodally using text, images, videos, and polls. Regarding language learning, attention was paid to cultural similarities and differences, vocabulary, acronyms, and slang. Student perceptions were positive, with 96% of students considering the topics covered appropriate to their future language needs. Additionally, the opportunity to engage in intercultural communication with target language users was considered novel, meaningful, and empowering. Pedagogical implications of using public websites in FL instruction and future research ideas are discussed.

This study explores the identity positions that L2 English learners/users would take in case of hypothetical miscommunications. Based on positioning theory, at the time of L2 interaction, L2 learners assign themselves and others specific positions which are established through their learning experiences. It was hypothesized that their current positional identities would impact their communication abilities in their future L2 realities. The study investigated this hypothesis by asking 49 Japanese college students to describe potential triggers for L2 miscommunication in two scenarios: an L1 and an L2 English speaker, and two L2 English speakers. The analysis shows that participants assign themselves in distinctive positional identities of a subordinate English user (non-native deficit L2 English user in a traditional sense) in the L1-L2 miscommunication, and an equal identity in the L2-L2 scenarios. Consequently, the study discusses a critical understanding of L2 learner positional identity with respect to socio-cultural and ideological attributes.

As the volume of research on intercultural adaptation of international students (IAIS) increases significantly over the past decades, a systematic review of the diverse literature on a global scale and its development process becomes essential. This study conducted a thorough bibliometric analysis for the knowledge domain of IAIS research using relevant articles (N = 1,126) from 1990 to 2022 in Thompson Reuter's Web of Science (WoS) database-Core Collection. This work aims to analyze the advances and trends on the subject using a set of bibliometric analytical tools, including Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and BibExcel. The research findings demonstrate that the number of published articles projects an ostensible upward trend in terms of temporal distribution, especially since 2007. The USA occupies a leading position in terms of the largest publication output and a greater influence therewith. The most productive journal, author(s), and institution(s) are "International Journal of Intercultural Relations," Brown L and Wang KT, and the University of Hong Kong and the University of Queensland, respectively. Collaboration in this field has become mainstream but still needs to be enhanced among researchers and at national and institutional levels. The frequency and co-occurrence analysis of keywords reveals that the main keywords for discussion include international students, adjustment, acculturation, adaptation, acculturative stress, identity, social support, stress, experiences, and depression, while cultural intelligence and intercultural sensitivity, culture shock and intercultural challenges, and integration and migration serve as the emerging themes. The study would aid academic researchers and policymakers in understanding the intricacies of IAIS and identifying areas that require further investigation.

In this paper the results of an online survey (n=210) regarding the usefulness of Facebook for informal L2 learning will be presented. Participants were individual Facebook users who study either German (n=118) or Japanese (n=92). By using a combination of open and closed questions, the mostly quantitative findings of the survey indicate that for most participants Facebook is a suitable tool for improving their L2 skills, because the network enables them to establish or to maintain social contacts with native speakers and to have authentic opportunities to express themselves in the L2. As particularly effective activities, participants mentioned reading and writing L2 posts on the networks' timeline, exchanging private messages, and commenting on friends' posts. As far as effects on L2 learning are concerned, most participants noted an improvement in their reading and writing skills, as well as an expansion of their vocabulary and cultural understanding. Some respondents, however, raised concerns about the formal correctness of the language they encounter on the network as well as insecurity regarding communication with strangers. The information participants provided on their informal use of Facebook led to the conclusion, that learners of L2 German and learners of L2 Japanese show similar tendencies in using the network for their L2 learning. In contrast to using social networks in educational settings, their informal use allows learners much more freedom to decide when, how often, with whom, on which topic, and in which way they wish to interact in their target language on the network.

This article contains the results of a chi-squared analysis on the data set of a survey instrument completed by a class of Japanese elementary school students (n = 29) before and after a series of Skype® exchanges. The parametric results were reported previously (Ockert, 2015a). The instrument instructions requested students to rank six statements on a scale from 1 ("Completely Disagree") to 6 ("Completely Agree"). Comparing the chi-squared individual item results before and after the exchanges clearly shows the increases in the affective variables across the range of the scale numerical options. The implications for the use of voice over Internet protocol technologies in EFL contexts are discussed.

Study abroad destinations for Japanese students, particularly those aiming to improve their English language skills, tend to focus on the "Inner Circle" (Kachru, 1992) of English-speaking countries. However, over the last two decades, Korean and Japanese-owned English language schools in the Philippines started to appear, leading to over 6,700 people from Japan going to study English in the Philippines in 2018. In this paper, I aim to document the effects and self-perceived changes that occurred as a result of studying abroad in the Philippines by drawing on a case study of 103 Japanese university students on a four-week intensive English language program. Data collection was conducted over the course of May to December 2018 by means of interviews, questionnaires, and ethnographic observations. Among the common themes that emerged was a shift in focus from grammatical form and accuracy to communication-oriented goals for learning. Such changes in beliefs toward language learning triggered by a study abroad experience can be accounted for using the concept of language ideologies (Surtees, 2016). While this study only accounts for learner impressions shortly after their return, it illustrates the potential impact of a cross-cultural experience on students' overall belief systems regarding language learning and communication.

This paper examines email requests sent by Indonesian students to Japanese university professors using English as their lingua franca. It particularly analyzes how students modify their email requests using internal and external modifications as a way to soften the force of the imposed requests. Data were gathered from a total of 56 authentic emails and analyzed using a framework contrived by Economidou-Kogetsidis (2011), a modified Cross-Cultural of Speech Act Realization Patterns (CCSARP) coding scheme initially developed by Blum-Kulka, House & Kasper (1989). The result showed that while Indonesian students barely use the internal modifications to soften the imposition of their written requests, they tend to rely more on the use of external modifications using supporting moves. This strategy can indirectly modify the illocutionary force of the request as the students ensure that they provide their professors with enough background information and justify the reason behind their request through grounder moves. This present study also shows a shift in students' communication style where brevity is highly preferable.

This article critically examines the current state of a cross-cultural distance learning program (CCDLP) for English learning in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, which has been running since 1998 among four universities in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. The initial purpose of the program was to provide a networked English language learning program to overcome the limitations of Asian EFL contexts where authentic interaction in English is minimal and to enhance intercultural competence. With physical exposure to international students on campuses increasing and further developments in communication and educational technology, the CCDLP has needed to evolve. In this article, how courses offered in the program have changed is analyzed. Data from a survey given to participants in two courses in the program were examined to determine participants' perceptions towards their contributions and satisfaction with the courses in the program. Results show that courses need to be more customized to maximize interaction through online collaborative learning and that the technology part of such a program no longer needs to be emphasized in the wake of widespread remote learning. Lastly, implications for distance learning programs in general are discussed.

This study reviews the current body of research into reasons for Japanese university students' reluctance toward spoken class participation in English, along with a critical review of general teaching suggestions for encouraging participation. It then identifies the limitations of teaching strategies that may not take into account certain reasons for their silence, which may be rooted in the Japanese communication style or educational background rather than confidence or language ability. This paper aims to make use of these reasons to identify concrete, bottom-up participation skills that are more grounded in Japanese culture and communication style differences, and to provide related teaching suggestions. While this paper aims to address the issues affecting Japanese students, the implications can be applied to other East Asian students whose verbal participation may be affected by similar cultural factors.

Reducing gender disparities in Japan is an urgent issue that requires the attention of multilevel stakeholders, including higher education institutions. Under Sustainable Development Goal 4, target 4.7 calls for educational institutions, including universities, to explore innovative approaches to tackle issues such as gender inequality. The transition from student life to adulthood is a crucial time for university students as they face and become aware of gender inequalities in society. This study examines various opportunities in higher education, such as short study-abroad programs and globalization-related coursework, that positively influence university students' understanding of others and potentially broaden their gender perspectives. Historically, the impacts of studying abroad and intercultural experiences have only been subjectively assessed based on participants' self-evaluation. However, by using the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory, quantified data can be used to evaluate the nature and form of depth-based growth and compare three cases for potential changes before, after, or during educational programs. The study's findings shed light on opportunities and barriers to transforming students' views especially on gender issues. The study reveals (1) signs of improvement in students' gender perspectives after participating in a short study-abroad program, (2) that international students with diverse experiences tend to demonstrate lower gender traditionalism, and (3) that freshmen and sophomores have relatively moderate views on gender norms, indicating that further intervention could improve their gender perspectives. The results showcase the possibility of developing meaningful study-abroad programs and other coursework to drive the positive change in students' perspectives, especially regarding gender.

This study examined whether direct communication with people from other countries using Skype or Line would affect students' English test scores in listening and reading as well as the development of their curiosity concerning foreign cultures by comparing the data of an experimental group with that of a control group. The former group conducted online exchanges with foreign students, while the latter group did not. As many Japanese companies engaged in international business require high scores in the TOEIC test, which is one of the multiple-choice English tests of listening and reading often used to show each person's English proficiency, universities in Japan are making efforts to improve their students' scores in such an English test. Preparation classes for English tests have been offered. However, students have been likely to lose interest in learning English in the circumstances of this learning style. Results of the study indicated that although the aim of exchange activities is to foster students' curiosity concerning intercultural matters, students experiencing online exchange with skype significantly raised their scores in TOEIC tests in listening and reading after a programme of synchronous exchanges with foreign students, compared with ones who did not experience such online exchanges.

There is a common belief that one could quickly improve their second language proficiency once they reside in the country where the target language is spoken, because they have opportunities to use it constantly in an immersion environment. However, scholars have argued that it may be up to the individual student whether she could effectively utilize such a learning environment. Some learners might not have as much access to native speakers depending on their circumstances. Others may not feel comfortable enough to interact in the target language. It is possible that these learners have difficulties developing autonomy, where they take charge of their own learning. This study has examined such learners and their learning process when they are provided with opportunities to converse with native speakers. Specifically, it explored how regular interaction with native speakers could influence ESL learners' perspectives towards their language learning and learning process through examining their journal entries and interviews. The findings indicate that participants developed their own communicative strategies and grew optimistic perceptions towards language learning after these interactions. Pedagogical implications include the significance of creating opportunities for learners to experiment with the language and to reflect on their learning process.

While research on Western multimedia platforms, such as YouTube, is prolific and interdisciplinary, Asian portals remain unknown. We explore this field by analyzing the juvenile and intercultural uses of a popular visualization system in Japan and China, known as "danmaku" or "danmu". This technology inserts dynamic and contextualized comments on a photogram, with several typographical possibilities. Based on a corpus of 1,590 comments on "The Ministry of Time", collected from a fandom platform with millions of users, we analyzed the topics that arouse the most interest among Chinese fans. We combine content analysis, which incorporates coding and counting techniques of the categories with the most interventions (n>16), with multimodal discourse analysis (TV series, Asian platform and user comments). Results show that the viewers are most interested in the film genre (time travel), the characters, the plot, certain sociocultural contents, and the Spanish language. Their discussions address issues of interculturality, some topics that are taboo in China and the fandom culture in Asia. Our study illustrates the potential of participation, communication, and learning in Asian social media, and constitutes an interesting and innovative contribution to the field of media and digital literacy, with various suggestions to promote intercultural competence with the use of popular culture.

This paper describes a study designed to profile performances of L2 listenership. The writer examines the listenership behavior of 23 Japanese EFL learners, who were all freshmen students at a national university in Japan (16 females and 5 males) at the time the study was conducted, in an attempt to identify some of the features associated with different levels of performance concerning listenership behavior. Specifically, this study sought to identify some of the common characteristics of Japanese EFL participants who exhibited competent backchannel behavior compared to those who did not. Assessments involved having each student participate in an intercultural conversation, complete a questionnaire, and be interviewed. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were used to investigate the relationships between variables (i.e., whether various performances in sub-categories of listenership are interrelated, as well as how individual performances in sub-categories of listenership may be related to L2 proficiency, personality dimensions, willingness to communicate, etc.). Besides helping to provide researchers with a more detailed description of the dynamics of listenership/backchannel behavior, the results of this study will have practical implications for Japanese EFL practitioners.