Designing a better intercultural exchange project for improving communication skills in English

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02758
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Chiba University of Commerce
• Principal Investigator: Yamauchi Mari 千葉商科大学, 商経学部, 教授 (40411863)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: Virtual Exchange / L2 Confidence / WTC / 動画利用

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In an online intercultural exchange, video chat activities can help increase participants’ interest in their partners and motivation to join the project, but the synchronous communication can increase the anxiety level for Japanese students students who have not communicated in English before. As this study confirmed, "asynchronous communication using group videos,” with similar advantages of video chats, facilitated student participation in the interactions and helped them overcome their low L2 confidence. The importance of helping participants in class to interact with new people and to deal with miscommunication was also suggested. In terms of technology use, this asynchronous video-based communication, requiring no special skills, is an easy online activity that can be used in general English language courses for non-English majors.

Free Research Field

英語教育