This paper reports on the experiences of Japanese students studying abroad in Australia. Nine female Japanese university students were asked to keep a journal of their thoughts, experiences, and reflections during a five-week study tour in Perth, Australia. In addition, the researcher observed the students’ language classes, and interviewed teachers and program administrators. These journals and observations provide insight into their concerns and expectations, unique challenges, as well as the strategies the participants used to improve their linguistic and sociocultural competency. Drawing on selected passages from the students’ journals, the author discusses them with a focus on themes of anxiety, powerlessness, and empowerment. The results of this study may serve as a resource to program administrators, pre-departure curriculum developers, and teachers who aim to improve the study abroad experiences of their students.

In Japan, COVID-19 has resulted in the closing of physical campuses of many universities, with online learning the new normal. In this paper we focus on student experiences during the pandemic using a Communities of Practice framework, drawing on qualitative data from 133 university students, including written responses and audio recordings, fieldnotes, and analytic memos.

This is a semester-long task culminating in a traditional classroom-style presentation and (optional) written report, the topic of which is a possible career path. The task can be done either individually or in pairs or small groups. Depending on time constraints, certain steps of the task can be omitted or developed in more detail.

This paper reports on Japanese students’ use of digital tools while studying abroad. Data was collected from student journals on two study tours to Australia and then used to formulate an online survey that was administered program-wide to students who had participated in programs of varying length to a variety of destinations. The results show that students use digital tools, such as smart phones, to deal with a variety of challenges they face from personal interaction and language issues to navigating their environment. Attitudes about the effects of digital tools and internet connectivity on study abroad were mixed but generally positive.

Autonomous Language Learning With Technology Beyond the Classroom by Chun Lai is a new volume in the “Ad- vances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching” series edited by Michael Thomas, Mark Peterson, and Mark Warschauer that offers a thorough over- view of an area that has received far less attention: the use of technology by language learners outside the classroom.

This paper describes the evaluation of service learning that was implemented as one component of a global studies course at a Japanese university. University educators who are teaching content that is far-removed from their students’ lives often struggle to engage their students in the classroom. Although programs like study abroad and internships offer rewarding experiences for students outside the classroom, they are not usually well-linked to course content at the students’ home institution. Service-learning is a pedagogical approach that combines classroom study with community service projects. The benefits of service-learning on various student outcomes are reviewed and service learning at one institution in Japan is evaluated using established criteria. Suggestions for educators planning to start or develop their own service-learning programs are given.

University language educators often struggle to find the balance of providing their students with interesting and relevant content while also promoting language learning through interaction with appropriate vocabulary and structures. Courses that focus on content may rely on more traditional learning methods, such as lecture and reading, leaving students without adequate opportunities to actively interact with the language they need to improve their ability. However, more communicative language skill courses may not deal with the discipline specific language and tasks that students need for success in their major of study or future career. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) employs a range of approaches to create a balance between academic content and language study. This paper describes the development and implementation of an e-learning simulation activity in which groups of students in a university foreign studies program assumed the roles of diplomats to negotiate an agreement between several state actors involved in the North Korean denuclearization talks. The CLIL lesson unit combined traditional academic study with online interaction to engage students with their learning and provide them with opportunities to practice real world communication strategies. Outcomes of the simulation are discussed.

The purpose of this case study was to document the experiences of a deaf learner, while she was studying in an English communication course at a Japanese university. The subject was asked to keep a journal of her reflections about the unique challenges that she encountered over the course of one semester. During the class she participated in all class activities along with her hearing calssmetes, includeing communicative conversation and discussion tasks,while utilizing the help of volunteer note-takers and various other support strategies. In her journal, she writes about her experiences, shares the anxiety she felt, as well as offers suggestions for improving communication with her teacher and classmates. Her reflections are discussed along wiith observations and comments from her teacher and note-taker with hopes of providing insight into better ways to support students with special needs in a language classroom.

This paper reviews the popular listening and pronunciation website EnglishCentral. After first providing an overview of the main features available to learners, the author evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of various aspects of the acivities offered by consulting previous research and current principles related to language acquisition, vocabulary learning, shadowing, attention, and motivation.Overall, the website provides a well-organized library of listening material paired with useful tools for language leaners. However, further empirical research needs to be carried out to determine the best practices for using the website and to compare the tasks offered with alternative approaches to language study.

Since gaining greater acceptance throughout higher education in the 1980s, strategic planning has come to play a central role in the success of many academic institutions of all types and sizes. Most often connected to its longer record of use in the business world, strategic planning utilizes assessments of often dynamic environmental factors to help identify an organization's current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in order to foster a proactive approach for meeting projected future needs. While the specific forms that the strategic planning process may take vary from one context ot another, the central elements that make up the process, and, importantly, the factors that have been found most likely to contribute to its success have been revealed throughout a broad range of literature on hte topic over hte past thirty years. Drawing from this literature, this paper seeks to provide an overview of the various approaches that academic institutions have taken toward strategic planning, an outline oft h e potential benefits that strategic planning has to otter in these contexts, and a set of recommendations for how the strategic planning process can be implemented most effectively within any academic institution.

The Global Crisis Group is a series of content-based lessons woven together by a fictional narrative and related tasks that involve students working together to make decisions about both a story, its characters, and real world issues. The course was created by the instructor as part of the curriculum at a Japanese university in the department of international studies, and involved students with upper-intermediate to advanced English ability (TOEIC 720 to 850), who had completed three years of study in the fields of linguistics, business, economics, development, and cultural studies. The course objectives included practicing academic research skills, writing fiction and nonfiction, actively participating in discussion, and giving an effective multimedia presentation. The course was to make use of a content-based language learning approach with an overall theme of global communication.

This paper reports on the implementation of a semester-long project in a content-based language course with a career theme. Over the course of one semester, Japanese university students in an international studies program worked with a group of peers to investigate career fields that they were considering entering after graduation. The project included individual research of companies and occupations, site visits to companies, interviews of professionals in the chosen field, and a group multimedia presentation on their findings. Suggestions are made for teachers considering adopting a similar project as part of their curriculum.

This paper reports on the researchers’ efforts to expand their students’ learning to include real world content learning and authentic language practice outside the classroom. The researchers guided a group of six Japanese international studies students on a study tour to Cambodia, dur- ing which they learned about the history and culture of the area, while also seeing firsthand how NGOs and the local community are dealing with the issues of rural poverty, rapid development, and responsible tourism. The tour involved visiting an NGO that is attempting to coordinate development efforts, witnessing the installation of bio-sand water filters in a rural village, teaching at a supplemental school, learning about vocational training, and experiencing the history and culture of Cambodia at the Angkor Archeological Park. The students’ reactions to their experiences through journal entries are presented and discussed.

Utilizing the curriculum design framework provided by Nation and Macalister (2010), this paper discusses issues affecting an English- language curriculum that exists within an international studies program. Recommendations are made for designing a program that addresses the unique environment and needs of such a program in order to prepare students to engage the world community and serve as global citizens.

This paper describes the implementation of a blogging project and the attitudes toward blogging in English at a private university in Japan. The researchers describe the growth and use of blogging with specific advantages for second language learners highlighted. A pre- and post- survey conducted among 165 first year university students measured the attitudes of students toward technology and the use of blogs as a fluency writing tool. The results showed that the students maintained overwhelmingly positive attitudes toward blogging in English and recognized it as a useful activity for improving their writing and second language acquisition.

This study looks at the experiences that two Japanese learners of English had playing an online fantasy role playing game. Samples of the types of interaction they encountered in the game itself as well as with other players are given. Excerpts from the participants’ journals are used to provide a learner’s perspective on their experience and to gain insight into benefits this type of virtual world might hold as a language learning resource.

This paper describes the curriculum development process in putting a language focus back into a content course. The course had become an eclectic collection of new student orientation materials, tips for living in the U.S., and information about local and American culture. Teachers had become confused by the seemingly random and hopelessly disorganized materials available for use in the course, and students often commented that they could not see the purpose of the class and did not feel that it was helping them learn English. The process that we followed to re-establish a clearer link between content and language in this course may be of use to others engaged in curriculum development or revision.

このプレゼンテーションでは、日本の学生が留学経験中に直面する課題がどのようなものかを紹介した。第一段階で、９人の日本の女子生徒が、５週間のオーストラリアでの海外留学経験中の彼らの考えや経験を日記に付けた。この生徒たちの感想により、幅広い興味、期待、心配、また無力感と自信の両方の気持ちを洞察した。

この発表では、アジア太平洋研究コースを例に、コンテンツベースの英語コースの作り方を説明した。コンテンツベースの方法論の概要、カリキュラムデザイン、コース作りの実践的なポイントなどを説明した。

本論文では、各国に留学中の日本人大学生による各種デジタルツール（モバイル機器、コンピューター、ウェブサイト、アプリ、インターネット接続等）の活用状況を報告した。データは、２度実施されたオーストラリアへのスタディツアーでの学生のジャーナルから収集され、その後、さまざまな目的地へさまざまな長さの留学プログラムに参加した学生に向けたオンライン調査の作成に使用された。その結果、学生はスマートフォンなどのデジタルツールを使用して、個人的なやり取りや言語の問題から道案内に至るまでに直面するさまざまな課題に対処していることがわかった。デジタルツールとインターネット接続が留学に与える影響については賛否両論があったが、一般的に肯定的だった。

本発表では、日本の大学でのグローバルスタディコースの1部として導入されたサービスラーニングの評価について論じた。サービスラーニングは、教室での学習と地域奉仕プロジェクトを組み合わせた教育的アプローチである。さまざまな学生の成果に対するサービスラーニングの成果を批評し、確立された基準を使用し、日本の一つの教育機関にてサービスラーニングを評価する。本発表は、独自のサービスラーニング・プログラムの開始または開発を計画している教育者への提案である。