2016 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Comparison of the uses of Social Media by International Students.
| Project/Area Number |
15K12893
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| Research Institution | Kobe University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
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| Keywords | Social Media / Study Abroad / Community of Enquiry |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The initial plan for this second year, was to create an online survey to gain both qualitative and quantitative data on the use of Social Media. However, after gaining feedback from interviews with educators, at the AJE conference, France; social media experts at APAIE in Melbourne; added to data from a pilot survey carried out in Manchester in March 2016, it was clear that further in-depth interviewing was needed to create a more robust survey.
In September 2016 I gave a paper ‘Using Moodle to create a J-E Bilingual Learning Environment - collaborative second language acquisition’ at the Bali ICJLE Conference, during which I also carried out focused interviews with Balinese students who had returned from a year of study abroad in Kobe. I then conducted focused interviews in Korea, at Sogang and Seoul National University, where I interviewed both Korean students planning to study in Japan, and Japanese students currently on study abroad programs at these two universities.
I analyzed these (recorded) interviews from September 2016 thru January 2017. In order to refine the survey, I decided to use the questions in further interviews with staff and students in Japan and UK. I carried out interviews in February 2017 at Hokkaido University (study abroad coordinator), and March 2017 at Manchester University (head of Japanese studies and a student who had recently returned from study abroad at Kobe University). The results of these focused interviews helped me to improve and refine the survey.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
The main delay to the project has been the creation of a final online survey, for gaining quantitative data to accompany the qualitative data gained through interview methods. As outlined above, this was due to the growing realization that the creation of an online questionnaire, and the analysis of the data was more complicated than had been anticipated. In this second year of the project, priority was therefore given to qualitative approaches based on conducting in-depth focused interviews with specialists in Japanese language teaching, study abroad coordinators, social media experts and students themselves, to produce a more robust survey for gaining data for the final year of the project.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The plan for the final year of this project is as follows.
From May thru July 2017, the final version of the online survey will be implemented to gain quantitative data for the final report. The data will be analyzed by an assistant, who will also aid in constructing the accompanying pilot website ‘Japan Study Abroad’.
In August 2017, I will give a presentation entitled ‘Use of Social Media by Learners of Japanese as a Foreign Language in the UK’, based on the findings of this research, at EAJS 2017 an international conference that will be held in Lisbon. It is expected that this presentation will lead to a journal paper as part of the proceedings of the conference.
From September thru December, I will continue to gain data from the online survey, and analyze it, with the help of an assistant, to further enhance the final report for this project. In December thru March I will create the final report, and pilot website ‘Japan Study Abroad’.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The main reason for not using all of the budget is that I had estimated that I would need assistance for analysis of quantitative data gained from the online survey. However, as outlined above, the creation of the survey was delayed due to the need for more qualitative data, as a result of findings from the extensive interviews carried out at various locations.
It was decided to carry over the funding to the final year, when the online survey will be implemented, and data will need analyzing for dissemination at my presentation at the EAJS conference in Lisbon and through the final report and website.
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| Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget |
The extra funding carried over from the second year will be used to employing an assistant for extra hours to analyze the greater amount of data that will be gained from the online survey.
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