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As Japan prepares for the 2020 Summer Olympics, the elementary school English curriculum is rapidly changing, with new textbooks and more class hours devoted to English education. These language classes have the potential to clarify and improve students' perceptions of global cultures, including their own. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to provide practical suggestions for Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs), Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs), and Japanese homeroom teachers to foster intercultural communication and understanding in their Grade 5 and 6 classrooms. Elaborating upon ideas in (Davidson & Liu, 2018), this article proposes that students may develop intercultural competencies through authentic materials, guided in-class discussions, English Notebook assignments, and local engagement with international interlocutors. While tailored to the Japanese elementary school classroom, these suggestions may be adapted to other EFL contexts as well.

The process of restoring water supply after service is interrupted is critical for determining the durations and spatial distribution of outages and thus the impacts that households, businesses, and others ultimately experience. Nevertheless, the restoration period is difficult to predict because it involves complex, dynamic interactions among the system hydraulics, operator restoration actions, and consumer adaptations to service interruptions. In this paper, we introduce a new computer model called Restoration of Water after an Event Tool (REWET) that (1) allows detailed representations of both the hydraulic operations of the system and the restoration process, (2) is flexible enough to apply to any system or disruptive event, enable varying levels of complexity, and allow deterministic or probabilistic analysis, and (3) is available as free, easy-to-use, open-source code. It uses pressure-demand driven hydraulic analysis and allows detailed discrete event simulation representation of the restoration process. We present case study applications of REWET for the Los Angeles water system and for a small, simple network to illustrate the tool's functionality, flexibility, and key features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the representation of culture in language textbooks rarely incorporates the concept of global citizenship, despite its increasing relevance to language education in our globalising world. To address this critique, a mixed-method study was conducted to investigate cultural representation in Japanese elementary school English textbooks, and the degree to which students feel connected to the concept of global citizenship. Content analysis of Japanese textbooks and thematic analysis of student and teacher interviews found that the texts are culturally simplistic and did not help this population of students fully realise the values of global citizenship. Meaningful cultural representation may reinforce cultural awareness, open-mindedness, and social responsibility -- the core dimensions of global citizenship. To this end, future English curricula would benefit from supplementary authentic materials, cultural exchange experiences, and explicit discussions of culture between teachers and students.

This article provides a case study of three educational digital storytelling (EDS) projects in which researchers use intercultural identity management theory (IMT) as a framework to investigate student claims of transformation within short-term study abroad courses. Across three separate hybrid digital production and intercultural communication courses with study abroad requirements, instructors noticed a pattern of students sharing similar sentiments that they experienced significant changes in beliefs, attitudes, or identity, with some even describing being “transformed” by the course experience. Analyses of multimedia student communications revealed that conducting interviews provided a discursive way to practice IMT agency. Furthermore, planning and editing digital stories prompted students’ consideration of intercultural identity transformations as they viewed self-depictions of intercultural communication experiences. Exploration into the EDS learning process reflects that of established IMT phases, lending support to how EDS projects can provide pedagogical guidance for instructors seeking IMT awareness as part of the short-term study abroad experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]