| 研究概要 |
This research project set out to provide support for Japanese university students who plan to study English abroad. It aimed to furnish such support through the creation of self-study material that would provide exposure to authentic situations. To this end an ‘Online Study Abroad Center (OSAC) was created to provide self-study material. Initially, the material created was to be housed on the Moodle platform and/or a dedicated website. However, with the advent of iBooks Author in 2012 it was decided, for pedagogical reasons, to situate the material in the form of an interactive study abroad text (ISAT).
Using the iBooks author software a multi-touch textbook was created which has weblike functionality. Material collected on research trips to England, Australia and America was used to create the ISAT material. Ten categories of material were created based on past research into students’ study abroad experiences.
In 2013 a pilot study investigating the effectiveness of the OSAC material was conducted. The results of the OSAC project and its accompanying Interactive Study Abroad Text (ISAT) for iPads were extremely promising. Students commented that the material was extremely useful and effective. They said that it helped them prepare for the challenges they would face when studying abroad. Many noted that having material online, or in the form of an interactive text, was interesting, motivating and effective. By using the OSAC and the ISAT students stated that their test scores and overall communicative competence showed a marked improvement.
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