| Project/Area Number |
23K00695
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
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| Research Institution | Chiba University |
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Principal Investigator |
森川 セーラ 千葉大学, 大学院国際学術研究院, 准教授 (80506882)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
ハリントン ルーク 千葉大学, 国際未来教育基幹, 特別語学講師 (70636274)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2023-04-01 – 2026-03-31
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| Project Status |
Granted (Fiscal Year 2023)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,120,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥720,000)
Fiscal Year 2025: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Fiscal Year 2024: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 2023: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
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| Keywords | OIE / Tandem / Autonomous learning / Intercultural exchange / Out-of-class learning |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
With a view to expanding university students’ opportunities to develop communicative and intercultural competence, after researching current online intercultural exchange (OIE) programmes in Japan and abroad and establishing the most efficient ways of delivering this kind of exchange, we aim to create a sustainable, effective OIE system for Japanese university students, by which pairs of students who would like to learn each other’s language converse to practice their target language and learn about each other’s culture.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
From April 2023 to April 2024, three tandem projects were carried out and a comparison was made between face-to-face intercultural tandem exchange and online intercultural exchange (OIE) with respect to motivation to continue the exchange and activities conducted by students during the exchange. Two presentations resulted: one at a conference in Japan and one at an international conference in Cambodia. One paper on curriculum development, including the place of autonomous tandem learning was published.
A review of literature related to OIE is ongoing, as new articles and books continue to be found. In post-2015 articles and books, many of these publications focus on intercultural communicative competence rather than linguistic competence, so further research is necessary to explore the range of positive outcomes and ascertain features of OIE programmes that contribute to these outcomes. Interviews with professors of notable OIE programmes in Japan are planned for this semester. Additionally, a review of current tandem websites, both public and university-based has been conducted, focusing on the features of these sites that may affect student participation. A web design company has been contacted with a view to opening discussions on building a suitable website for the OIE project.
Discussions with professors in the Japanese departments of universities in the UK and Canada have commenced, with future discussion planned in Sweden, Finland, and the USA.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Intercultural exchange projects, both online and face-to-face have been conducted involving around 400 students. The online intercultural exchange (OIE) project investigated Japanese students who paired with German students on the EuroTandem programme managed by Heinrich Heinle University. Discussions with professors regarding online exchanges with students in universities in the UK and Canada 2024-2025 are ongoing and there are possibilities to create OIE projects with universities in the USA, Finland and Sweden.
A literature review is ongoing, with good progress in researching OIE and effects on intercultural communicative competence. However, research into the effects of OIE on linguistic competence is a little behind as much of the literature in this area appears to be more than ten years old. Therefore, we are still researching more recent publications to create an updated view of the field. A review of public and university-based online tandem websites has revealed some useful information about possible features of websites that could be effective for our OIE project and we are planning to contact the administrators in charge to find out what software they use and how they deal with information privacy.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In 2024, we plan to hire a company to create a website that will facilitate online intercultural exchange between Chiba University and universities in other countries. While this is being done, we will complete the literature review. In addition, we will be conducting research into online intercultural exchange (OIE) and face-to-face language exchange, using our intra-university language exchange programme, to investigate whether students demonstrate an increase in linguistic competence by the end of the programme, and the features of their exchanges that supported this increase. When the website is available, we will conduct a small-scale trial with small numbers of Japanese students interacting with students at overseas universities. This will involve three types of OIE that have been demonstrated as being effective in the literature. Five pairs of students will be recruited for each type of OIE trial. Each pair will consist of one Japanese student from Chiba University and one student from one of our partner universities who is studying Japanese. Each pair of students will complete 9 recorded OIE sessions. Transcriptions of the first, middle and last recordings will be analysed by Morikawa and Nishizumi to discover whether there was any improvement in communicative competence, and whether there was any difference in outcomes between the types of OIE that were trialled. The participating students will also be surveyed before and after the programme by Harrington to discover whether the programme affected their attitudes toward intercultural communication.
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