Using English for Academic Purposes to improve students' research skills in global project-based learning teams

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K16875
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Dalsky David 京都大学, 国際高等教育院, 准教授 (90512020)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: Online Exchanges / Transculturality / Exploratory Practice / Team Learning / Folk Psychology / Emic cultural concepts / Interculturality / EFL

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research project involved several online intercultural exchanges between students in Japan, China, Indonesia, and Germany. The focus of the online exchanges was to improve research skills through English by 1) posing research questions about emic cultural concepts, 2) trying to understand the concepts through academic readings and discussion, 3) writing academic papers about them, and 4) reflecting on the concepts. Emic cultural concepts are native or indigenous to cultures and are usually difficult to understand in other cultural contexts. For example, in Japanese, such concepts are: wa, honne / tatemae, and amae. Most of the students were able to successfully improve their English research skills by discussing these concepts with their international counterparts. The students not only improved their research skills but realized transcultural understanding when they were able to successfully agree upon translations of the concepts in their native languages through English.

Free Research Field

Cross-Cultural Communication

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

この研究において、1)参加者に探索的課題を与えること 2)チームラーニングへの参加 3) 先住民の心理学 4)民俗心理学の知見を用いて、異文化理解と外国語としての英語教育（EFL）への新しい学際的アプローチを実施した。更に、参加者はオンライン学習を利用してバーチャルに共同作業を行い、英語を通して様々な文化のイーミック特徴を深く議論することができた。
また、本研究の社会的意義について、異文化間コミュニケーション研究のプロセス、特に互いに英語でイーミック用語と概念の翻訳説明をして、様々な文化の特徴を共同で深く学ぶことができた研究参加者の中には異文化理解に到達したと言える者もいた。