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The Second Annual Conference on Global Higher Education at Lakeland College Japan

Presentation Summary

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Brian Masshardt
Orientating with Purpose: Initiating Discovery, Investigation, and Growth in Global Students
Musashi University
Panel 1-A   •   9:50-11:05   •   International Student Support
Brian Masshardt is Associate Professor of the Faculty of Humanities and Director of the East Asian Program at Musashi University. Dr. Masshardt obtained a PhD in Political Science at the University of Hawaii Manoa. He has conducted workshops in Japan on the development of best practices for orientation programs for short-term students. He has worked in the international education field since 1997.
With the growing pressure to cultivate “Global Talent” and train “Global Citizens,” universities face challenges to develop, implement and sustain appealing, appropriate, and actionable programs; both in and out of the classroom. One way to address these challenges is by improving the out-of-classroom experience through purposeful orientation programs for short-term, in-bound global students. This presentation will explore ways in which the development of an on-going orientation program provides benefits to students, practitioners, and institutions.

Regan Tyndall
Freshman International Students' English Study at a Japanese University
Asia University 亜細亜大学
Panel 1-A   •   9:50-11:05   •   International Student Support
Regan Tyndall is a Visiting Faculty Member (and the Assistant Vice Director) at the CELE, Asia University, Tokyo. He has previously taught in Canada and Taiwan. His current research interest is the internationalization of Japan-based education.
This presentation reports and discusses survey results from 63 Asian international students in their freshman year at Asia University. The survey concerns the importance of English study to the students, comparisons of norms in the students’ home-country to norms in Japan, and international students’ perceptions of the English abilities of their Japanese classmates. Anecdotal information obtained in student interviews is also discussed.

Kevin Watson
Teaching Culture in an Integrated Assessment Context
University of the Ryukyus
Panel 1-A   •   9:50-11:05   •   International Student Support
Kevin Watson is a curriculum development and teaching methods specialist.He holds an MSc in Education from the University of Surrey. He holds professional teaching credentials from Canada and has been teaching for 18 years. His research interests include instructional methods, mentorship, motivation, and integrated process assessment.
This presentation explores the success of an integrated Japanese culture curriculum that accommodates the needs of international students (i.e., ECTS, AACSB accreditation), and that concomitantly meets the needs of high-level Japanese students (MEXT). Additionally, this presentation elucidates four major issues/questions surrounding culture: (1) defining culture, (2) bridging the gap between cultural theory and pragmatic practice, (3) determining how to assess cultural learning, and (4) determining how to make cultural learning and cultural competence visible.

Michael C. Boyce
Harnessing the Power of Conflict: Easy guidelines for the use of constructive controversy in the classroom
Aichi University
Panel 1-B   •   9:50-11:05   •   Welcoming Diversity
Michael Boyce has eighteen years experience teaching in conversation classes, corporate programs, and universities in the Tokai area of Japan. He is currently lecturing at three universities, and doing technical writing work. His research and practical interests include environmental and organizational conflict resolution using his MA in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding as much as possible. Michael is the volunteer director of both bSEEN Enshunada Environmental Network and KneeBoard Surfing Japan.
Communication in any environment is rife with conflict, and conflict is an integral and essential part of any community interaction or development. Although often interpreted negatively, conflict holds within it tremendous capacity for education and development. This presentation will demonstrate the use of a transformational framework with a constructive controversy approach. This format can be used to develop critical thinking and guide the evolution of a debate into a positive outcome for all parties.

Carl Gabrielson
LGBT Support in Japanese Higher Education
Lakeland College Japan Campus
Panel 1-B   •   9:50-11:05   •   Welcoming Diversity
Carl Gabrielson received his Master's in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. He has taught US-Japan Relations and English for Academic Purposes at Lakeland College Japan since April 2011.
This presentation will examine to what extent "global" and "international" college programs in Japan are offering support systems and protection form harassment and discrimination to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students.

Roger Grabowski, Jr.
Presenting Across Disciplines and Specialties
Lakeland College Japan
Panel 1-B   •   9:50-11:05   •   Welcoming Diversity
Roger Grabowski is an Assistant Professor of General Studies at Lakeland College Japan, where he teaches Fundamentals of Public Speaking and Reading Workshop.
Academic and professional presentations often fall short in connecting with the audience, particularly in a venue, such as today’s conference, in which attendees come from different professional or academic backgrounds. This session will introduce a short list of guidelines to be applied to the writing and preparation of presentations with the goal of helping speakers overcome such differences and better engage listeners in such situations.

Mika Shimura
Influences of Relationships in Class on Japanese University Students' Presentations
Gakushuin University
Panel 1-C   •   9:50-11:05   •   The Global Classroom
Mika Shimura is an assistant professor in the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Centre at Gakushuin University. Her research interests include second language writing, reading and pragmatics.
The Central Council for Education announced in December 2014 that universities should evaluate applicants’ presentations and discussion skills as part of entrance examinations. This indicates that acquiring better skills of presentation given in English will be necessary for university students, but most of Japanese universities cannot offer presentation classes. The purpose of this study is to investigate what university instructors should do to help students acquire better presentation skills in non-presentation classes.

Luis Poza
Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Academic Dishonesty
Lakeland College Japan
Panel 1-C   •   9:50-11:05   •   The Global Classroom
Luis Poza is an Assistant Professor of General Studies, and has been teaching academic writing at Lakeland College Japan for 17 years.
In an international academic setting, students from various cultures often lack awareness of the rules and penalties concerning plagiarism; it is perhaps just as common for knowing students to take advantage of the ambiguities. This session will address the nature of plagiarism in an intercultural environment, and will suggest a course of action for dealing with the problem at the classroom and institutional level.

Derek DiMatteo
Transnational Education and the Figure of the Returnee
Indiana University, Bloomington
Panel 1-C   •   9:50-11:05   •   The Global Classroom
Associate Instructor in the Department of English at Indiana University-Bloomington, Derek DiMatteo teaches courses in composition while completing a PhD in English literature, specializing in post-World War II American literature and cultural studies. Research areas include university fiction and representations of schooling in US culture, critical university studies, critical ethnic studies, and globalization and the transnational. He also holds an MAT in English education from Tufts University and taught in Japan for eight years.
Bridging the gap between education and literary & cultural studies, this presentation draws upon research on returnees to tease out some of the cultural implications of transnational education, global citizenship, and new forms of identity that operate in tension with concepts of the nation-state, particularly as these tensions are represented in literary-cultural work such as Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Andrea Levy’s Small Island, and Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being.

Leah Solmerin Corpuz
Strategies Promoting Active Class Engagement (SPACE)
University of the Cordilleras, Philippines
Special Session A   •   11:20-12:20   •   Workshop
Leah Solmerin Corpuz is graduate school professor of the University of the Cordilleras, Baguio City, Philippines. She is also the president and founder of the TEACHcorp, Inc., a non profit organization that trains teachers and other professionals in classroom strategies, language proficiency, and personality enhancement. In addition, she is the High School principal of the Divine Grace Montessori and High School in Pangasinan.
SPACE is a lecture embedded with workshops and teaching demonstrations on how to promote active classroom engagement among l students, focusing on the factors: space, modes of response, rehearsal, involvement, and processing strategies.

Anna Husson Isozaki
Critical Media Literacy: Media Competence and Global Learner Empowerment by Building Strategies and Skills for Engagement
Gunma Women's University
Special Session B   •   11:20-12:20   •   Workshop
Anna Husson Isozaki (Gunma Kenritsu Joshidai, Kanda TESOL program) teaches journalism, media studies, reading and other courses. Her interests include: news literacy and empowerment, critical thinking and learner collaboration in the L2 classroom, and literacy acquisition. Her BA was from Mount Holyoke College and she holds an MA from Sheffield University and a certificate in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She can be contacted at anna-isozaki@nifty.com
Designing and teaching news media and journalism courses with the goals of building skills and empowerment in critical media literacy can be straightforward, fresh and relevant, using resources freely available on the Internet today. This will be a hands-on, online workshop, highlighting new resources to help stimulate critical thinking and learners’ active engagement with news beyond their coursework, and touching on connections learners may make as engaged, global citizens.

Lajos Brons
What Is Global Education Good for?
Lakeland College Japan & Nihon University
Special Session C   •   11:20-12:20   •   Discussion
Lajos Brons received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands for a dissertation in the history and philosophy of the social sciences. Since then, his research focused on relations between language, thought, and reality, especially in the philosophy of Donald Davidson and in Asian philosophy, but he has also done research in ethics and social philosophy and the philosophy of education. For more information about publications, work in progress, research interests, and so forth, see: www.lajosbrons.net
In this discussion we will be trying to clarify what the purpose and nature of global higher education are. In my introduction to the discussion, I will distinguish five different kinds of stakeholders in customer-like roles based on a brief exploration of the education as business analogy, and discuss their interests in and perspectives on global higher education (GHE). The three main perspectives are individual (students and their parents), corporate (corporations and states), and social (society or societies).  Answers to questions about what GHE is or should be and what (or who) it is good for depend very much on the stakeholder perspective chosen and are incompatible, but these answers co-determine curricular decisions. From the corporate perspective, the purpose of GHE is to produce "global human resources", but this purpose clashes with views on GHE from the other two perspectives. Lacking perspective-independent answers GHE institutes need to choose (implicitly or explicitly) which stakeholder to prioritize.

Akira Kuwamura
Update on International Higher Education Policy in Japan: A Glance at MEXT's 2015 Budget for IHE
Aichi Prefectural University
Panel 2-A   •   13:35-14:50   •   Emerging Programs
Akira Kuwamura has been a language and international educator in and outside of Japan since mid-1980s. He holds his M.A. in Teaching from the School for International Training, now called The SIT Graduate Institute. He is currently an associate professor of international education at Aichi Prefectural University after assuming the directorship of international affairs at Yamagata University till 2011. His areas of interest include international tertiary education, teaching and learning of and in L2, and sociolinguistics.
This session updates on the Japanese government’s international higher education (IHE) policy and its implementation which is being seemingly accelerated towards 2020. The current IHE policy aims to produce globally competent graduates through internationalization of higher education institutions and reciprocal international student mobility, which goes hand in hand with the ongoing university reform in Japan. The presenter discusses key initiatives and issues in this context with a glance at the corresponding government budget and reports.

Carmen Sapunaru Tamas
'Super Global Universities'' and the International Baccalaureate: a Two-Way Road towards a Multilingual, Multicultural Society
Okayama University
Panel 2-A   •   13:35-14:50   •   Emerging Programs
Dr. Carmen Tamas obtained her Ph.D. from Osaka University and she taught cultural anthropology classes at Osaka University and Lakeland College, Japan. She currently works for the Admissions Office of Okayama University, in charge of International Baccalaureate Admissions.
This presentation will focus on on the two-sided effort towards internationalization and globalization. Although one is represented by a complete curriculum taught in English, for international students, and the other is the attempt to integrate in the traditional higher education system students who have completed a non-traditional high-school course, both are highly significant, as they indicate that the Japanese educational system is moving from a monolingual, monocultural academic environment towards a wider, richer and more tolerant one.

Maria Guajardo
Leadership to Advance Global Higher Education
Soka University
Panel 2-A   •   13:35-14:50   •   Emerging Programs
Maria Guajardo is the Dean for the Faculty of International Liberal Arts at Soka University. Her area of expertise is leadership, with a focus on women and ethnic minorities. Prior to her arrival in Japan, Maria served as the Executive Director of the Denver Mayor’s Office for Education and Children. She serves as a Trustee for Soka University of America. Maria received her B.A. from Harvard University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Denver.
Reimagining the design of a globally engaged higher education experience requires leadership. Soka University embarked on a journey to reimagine a global design for a new Faculty in International Liberal Arts (FILA). FILA prepares students to meet the demands of a fast-changing global environment with interdisciplinary awareness, analytical skills, and creative problem solving. Courageous leadership has been required to ensure a successful launch. Leaders must walk the talk. Challenges, defining principles and leadership strategies will be explored.

Lisa Friedli
Global Competency and Higher Education's Challenge to Prepare Japanese Students
NUCB
Panel 2-B   •   13:35-14:50   •   Language and Global Education
Awarded a Ph.D. in French from the University of Washington in 2011, Lisa Friedli is a specialist of 20th century French literature, trained in post-colonial and critical theory. She researches literature relative to war, immigration, and transnationalism, with an eye to the influence of cultural studies. She has taught French, English and humanities courses in history, film and media studies, in France, Japan and the U.S. and is currently an Assistant Professor of Communication at NUCB in Nagoya.
Japan, while promoting programs to meet the demands of 21st century globalization, falls short of meeting UNESCO standards of global competency in the field of language learning. At stake is the nation’s capacity for intercultural communication and exchange. In order to pinpoint causes and consider possible solutions: a brief overview of current research on the failure to meet teaching goals of global competency will be discussed, along with specific case study findings.

Leigh Bennett
An Investigation of Japanese Students' Perception of Critical Thinking in Academic Writing.
AIU
Panel 2-B   •   13:35-14:50   •   Language and Global Education

Critical thinking is considered to be a key ingredient of successful academic writing at Western universities. Yet the nature of critical thinking is difficult to define, and especially troublesome for students coming from Confucian-heritage cultures. This study presents findings from 2nd year undergraduate Japanese students studying at a university where all subjects are taught in English. The study presents data regarding student understanding of critical thinking, aspects which affect implementing critical thinking and student notions of how they themselves developed as critical thinkers. Data gathered from semi-structured interviews with five students suggests that they possess a moderate understanding of critical thinking. Secondly, problems identified included doubt as to what constitutes an argument, insufficient subject knowledge, and issues concerning personal stance and assessment requirements. Lastly, although cultural background has an impact in influencing their style of writing, students felt they were able to learn and acquire a new discourse. Suggested improvements for faculty include, firstly, correcting guidelines in order to ensure the requirements of argument are explicit and comprehensive, and secondly, reassessing the standard traditional essay model in order to accommodate a wider range of self-expression.

Andrew J. Lawson
English as the Global Language - Linguistic Imperialism?
NIC International College in Japan
Panel 2-B   •   13:35-14:50   •   Language and Global Education
Andy Lawson is a native of Glasgow, Scotland who has spent eighteen years living and working in Japan, struggling to resist the temptation to teach Japanese learners to roll their 'R's properly, use 'ach' as the preferred interjection, and perfect the glottal stop. Alas, his wife and two sons have been less fortunate, much to the amusement of the English-speaking community of Narita, where they reside.
The position of English in today’s world is the closest we have ever come to a ‘global language’. However, since the publication of Robert Phillipson’s Linguistic Imperialism in 1992, heated argument has continued unabatedly over the role of English as an international language, and whether its increasing presence in the world should be seen as benevolent or malignant. This presentation examines various perspectives in the debate, particularly with reference to Japan.

Gregory King & Patrick Maher
Strengthening Cross-Cultural Communication in International Service-Learning Projects
Chubu University
Panel 2-C   •   13:35-14:50   •   Engaging with the Community

Service-learning, experiential education combining meaningful community service with instruction and reflection, aims at benefiting students and service recipients equally. This presentation outlines efforts to incorporate aspects of service-learning into a collaborative disaster relief project in Iwate Prefecture. Select Japanese students served as interpreters after extensive pre-volunteer training and received course credit after completing a written reflection report. Ways to more efficiently prepare and utilize student interpreters for future service-learning initiatives will be discussed.

Iskra Gencheva
Not For Sale: Vox Humana in the Market ''Wonderland''
Lakeland College
Panel 2-C   •   13:35-14:50   •   Engaging with the Community

All educational reforms of nowadays claim to respond adequately to the student demands. The road to success is seemingly simple: the more practical a college curriculum is, the more Wonderland-like and, therefore, attractive it looks. Can such approach to college education be the way to making it more relevant? In order to answer the question, this presentation introduces an interdisciplinary volunteer project Vox Humana through the voices of participating in the project Lakeland College students.

Beryl Hawkins & Barry Natusch
Museums as Facilitators of Transnational Cross-cultural Understanding
"Nihon University, College of Economics
" Panel 2-C   •   13:35-14:50   •   Engaging with the Community
"Beryl Hawkins is an adjunct professor in the Communications Department at Temple University Japan and also lectures at Waseda University and Nihon University, where she teaches academic writing, media and cultural studies. Previously she has worked as a radio journalist, talk show host, and producer for NBC’s radio station in Washington D.C. Her research interests and publications include museology, cultural and performance studies and stylistic analysis of international news. Barry Natusch, professor at the College of Economics, Nihon University, specializes in international relations, economics and sociolinguistics and teaches undergraduate and graduate seminars in communication theory, management theory, language learning theory, technology enhanced language learning. He has published on news analysis, films, translation, visual media, sociolinguistics, museology, and language in technology. His current interests lie in documentary filmmaking, particularly in stories focusing on international negotiations, the environment, technology and the arts.
" Museums, as academies of informal learning, have an important role to play in intercultural understanding. Contemporary museums, through enlightened policy, curatorship educational programs and technology, offer learning experiences which are richer than everyday life, and less formal and restrictive than state-controlled education. Japanese and American museums are compared through interviews, onsite visits and website analyses. Results suggest that there is much to learn from United States museums innovations in curatorial and educational initiatives.

Anthony L Fenton & Stephen Jennings
Internationalisation and Quality Assurance Vulnerabilities in Higher Education: Building Awareness
University of New England; Tokyo University of Science
Panel 3-A   •   16:15-17:55   •   Institutional Concerns
"Anthony Fenton PhD (Candidate) University of New England [Anthony’s PhD research is on globalisation, internationalisation and quality assurance in higher education.] Stephen Jennings Associate Professor Tokyo University of Science [Steve’s research interests includes internationalisation in universities in Japan with regard to English language teaching strategies.]
" Global competition amongst internationalising universities, confronted with diminished funds and under increased scrutiny to deliver more at a lower cost basis, has in some instances opened the door to increased vulnerabilities. Presented in this paper are two taxonomic frameworks designed for examining internationalisation and corruption descriptors, as well as the causes and effects of such. Our research objective is to better inform principal stakeholders who are committed to organisational capacity building while remaining globally competitive.

Gregory Poole
Administrative Practices as Institutional Identity: Local Impediments to the Globalization of HEIs
Doshisha University, The Institute for the Liberal Arts
Panel 3-A   •   16:15-17:55   •   Institutional Concerns
Gregory Poole is Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology and Dean of The Institute for the Liberal Arts at Doshisha University. His areas of research are the anthropology of education and language, and his publications include Reframing Diversity in the Anthropology of Japan (2015, co-edited with J.Ertl, J.Mock, and J.McCreery), Foreign Language Education in Japan: Exploring Qualitative Approaches (2015, co-edited with S.Horiguchi and Y.Imoto), and The Japanese Professor: An Ethnography of a University Faculty (2010).
"This paper is an exploration of how administrative practices constitute an institutional identity that impedes the facilitation of interdisciplinary and transnational education programs at universities in Japan. How are administrative practices affecting the ability of institutions, and individuals in these institutions, to respond to the “problems” and pressures of globalization being felt by Japanese HEIs? Are the present models of university administration sufficient to respond to the globalized degree programs being promoted by the State?
"
Annette Bradford
Implementation Challenges facing English-taught Degree Programs in Japanese Universities
Meiji University
Panel 3-A   •   16:15-17:55   •   Institutional Concerns
Annette Bradford is an assistant professor in the School of Business Administration at Meiji University. Prior to joining Meiji University, she completed a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship in Japan. Her current research focuses on student mobility and the internationalization of Japanese universities through the introduction of English-taught programs. She holds a doctorate in Educational Administration and Policy Studies from the George Washington University.
Japanese government policies promote the introduction of English-taught programs (ETPs) as part of a strategy for higher education internationalization. However, there is perhaps insufficient consideration of the difficulties in implementing these programs. Drawing on data gathered via a multiple-case study, this presentation provides deeper understanding of the challenges with which Japanese higher education institutions (HEIs) are currently grappling as they introduce undergraduate ETPs. Best practices to improve the implementation process will also be highlighted.

Howard Brown
Towards Best Practices for EMI in Japan
University of Niigata Prefecture
Panel 3-A   •   16:15-17:55   •   Institutional Concerns

This presentation combines evidence from interviews with program stakeholders, a nation-wide survey, and case studies to outline an overview of the current state of undergraduate EMI in Japan. The researcher will propose tentative best practices for EMI in Japan covering issues related to faculty recruitment and FD, student language proficiency, program design, and connections between EMI and language programs. The presentation concludes with discussion of the best practices in relation to the audience members’ programs.

Peter Hourdequin
Changing Discourses of Social Practice: Foreign Language Literacy and Digital Mediation in Japanese Higher Education
Tokoha University (Japan) / Lancaster University (U.K.)
Panel 3-B   •   16:15-17:55   •   Global Education in the Information Age
Peter Hourdequin is a foreign language educator working in Japan who is completing a PhD in Educational Research at Lancaster University, U.K. His research focuses on the social construction of foreign language literacy discourse and practice in the digital age.
This presentation will explore social practices and perceptions related to foreign-language digital media literacy in one contemporary Japanese higher education setting. Drawing upon a preliminary analysis of data collected using narrative frames, I will examine the effect of new media literacy practices on foreign language learning and learner identity in Japanese tertiary intercultural education.

Jonathan Derr
Using Blended Learning Techniques in the Global Classroom
Lakeland College Japan
Panel 3-B   •   16:15-17:55   •   Global Education in the Information Age

This presentation will provide an overview of some of the current research in using Blended Learning to improve student outcomes in the Global classroom.

Mikhail Kotykhov
Using Online Discussion As a Learning Tool
Lakeland College Japan
Panel 3-B   •   16:15-17:55   •   Global Education in the Information Age

This conference presentation summarizes the experiences of using an online discussion as a learning tool in Business and Economics classes at Lakeland College Japan.

Paul Horness & John Charles
Using Winsteps in Developing Tests.
Atomi University
Panel 3-B   •   16:15-17:55   •   Global Education in the Information Age
Paul Horness received his Ph.D. in Education from Temple University. His research interests include assessment, study abroad, and bilingualism.
This presentation outlines the basic principals of the Rasch model, and then demonstrates the fundamental steps in examining a listening comprehension test. We will demonstrate how the items interacted with the students’ ability to comprehend the listening passages. The presentation will demonstrate which items were most difficult for the students to comprehend, and what question type was the easiest. Teachers will be able to make better tests in the future.

Mario Leto
Short Fiction and Cross-Cultural Explorations in the Works of Lapcharoensap, Bezmozgis, and Li
University of Tsukuba
Panel 3-C   •   16:15-17:55   •   Questions of Culture
Mario Leto is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. He has one MA in 20th-century American literature and another MA in applied linguistics. He is currently working on his PhD in the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics at the University of Birmingham in the UK. His research interests are in sociolinguistics, media, literature, and language education.
This presentation will discuss the application of literature in the tertiary classroom for the promotion of subjective interpretation of text as relates culturally, politically, and historically to the learner. Part theoretical approach and part pedagogical solution, this presentation will briefly explore the reader-response theory of literature, and will then introduce the short fiction of three international writers: Rattawut Lapcharoensap, David Bezmozgis, and Yiyun Li. The presentation will conclude with some pedagogical applications of their work.

Robert J. Lowe & Matthew W. Turner
Promoting Intercultural Competence by Reducing Target Culture Bias: A Critical Course Assessment
Tokyo Kasei University
Panel 3-C   •   16:15-17:55   •   Questions of Culture
"Robert J. Lowe works in the English Communication Department at Tokyo Kasei University, where he teaches courses on English language, English culture, and sociolinguistics. He holds an MA in Applied Linguistics, and is a PhD student researching native-speakerism in Japanese higher education. He is a cohost of the TEFLology podcast. Matthew W. Turner works in the Centre for English Discussion at Rikkyo University, Tokyo. Matthew has been teaching in Japan for six years, and currently holds an MA in Applied Linguistics & TESOL from the University of Leicester, as well as a DipTESOL qualification. Matthew's research interests include TBLT, form-focused instruction, culture, and materials development. He is also a cohost of the TEFLology podcast.
" "It is common practice to present target language within the context of a ‘native-speaking’ culture. However, as English continues to diversify with more people from periphery backgrounds normalizing use of the language, using ‘target cultures’ in ELT materials could be considered problematic. This presentation will describe and critically evaluate a semester-long pilot course that was developed in response to these concerns. The presenters will reflect on the successes and shortcomings of their approach.
"
Ms. Valerie Hansford
Cultural Awareness: A New Understanding for Globalization
Soka University
Panel 3-C   •   16:15-17:55   •   Questions of Culture
Valerie Hansford is a Lecturer in the Faculty of International Liberal Arts at Soka University Japan. Her research interests include curriculum design, integrating culture into the language classroom, and intercultural communication.
The need for global citizens who can work with diversity has led many universities to target developing students’ cultural awareness as an important goal. Achieving this is challenging. The Faculty of International Liberal Arts at Soka University has developed a study to measure student cultural awareness gained over the course of their 4-year program. This presentation will share some insights gained from this ongoing study as well as samples that show students’ developing cultural awareness.

John Rucynski, Jr.
Think Global, Start Local: Focusing on Japanese Culture in English Language Classes
Okayama University
Panel 3-C   •   16:15-17:55   •   Questions of Culture
John Rucynski, Jr. has been teaching at universities in Japan for the past 10 years and is currently Associate Professor in the Language Education Center at Okayama University. His primary research interest is the integration of language and culture teaching. He is the co-author (with Alice Gordenker) of Surprising Japan and Working in Japan, two textbooks designed to help Japanese students explore and describe their own culture in English.
Becoming a global person requires not only knowledge of foreign cultures, but also the ability to explain one’s own culture. In this session, practical classroom ideas for helping students describe Japanese culture in English will be presented. The presenter will demonstrate how to modify traditional language learning tasks to place a greater emphasis on cultural identity. In addition, ELT materials which make use of foreign perspectives of Japanese culture will be introduced.

Vincent Petrin
University Freshman Study Abroad Goals and ''International Actualization''

Panel 3-D   •   16:15-17:55   •   Studying Abroad

As the focus on internationalizing Japanese universities continues with government initiatives (e.g. "Top Global University Project") it might be helpful to step back and consider the freshman learners' own international educational goals, and experiences. This presentation begins with the results of learner surveys to determine if study abroad is an academic goal; then provides a summary analysis of the learners' "International Actualization" (experiences) during their first summer vacation at university.

Anthonette Andrea Gibson
Are Our Students Ready for the World? Global Health Literacy in Japanese Higher Education
Lakeland College Japan
Panel 3-D   •   16:15-17:55   •   Studying Abroad

The purpose of this research is to determine the level of awareness among Japanese University students of the behavioral and social science factors that influence health and disease. Specifically, this project aims to: (1) To identify current academic curricula among various institutions in the Kanto and Kansai areas which addresses global health literacy; (2) What does the concept of Global Health Literacy mean to our students, particularly graduating seniors who have plans to travel abroad.

Hiroshi Moritani, Craig Manning and Stephen Henneberry
A Preliminary Investigation of L2 Learning Motivation in Relation to Short-Term Study Abroad Programs
University of Shimane
Panel 3-D   •   16:15-17:55   •   Studying Abroad

During this presentation, participants will gain insight into student motivation surrounding a study abroad experience, as well as how to better support them. This presentation outlines changes in the L2 learning motivation of fifteen Japanese university students who participated in a four-week study abroad program in Hawaii. The initial findings of the pilot study will be briefly reported and future directions for research will be discussed.

Robert Aspinall
Managing the Risks of Study Abroad Programmes in Japan and the West
Shiga University
Panel 3-D   •   16:15-17:55   •   Studying Abroad
Robert Aspinall is a Professor at Shiga University and author of International Education Policy in Japan in an Age of Globalisation and Risk. 2013 Leiden and Boston: Brill.
The number of Japanese students studying abroad has not increased in the last five years because many students regard the risks of leaving Japan as prohibitive. This presentation will introduce different approaches to the understanding of risk as it is applied to study abroad programmes, as well as risk management practices in various countries. The paper will also open a discussion about how Japanese universities can improve the risk management of their Study Abroad programmes.