Hatty Gardner & D'Andre Thompson The Connection between Interculturality and Foreign Language Education: A Comparison between Japan and the United States 外国語教育とインターカルチュラリティ「異文化相互理解」:日米比較研究 Advisors: Dr. Yoshiko Saito-Abbott & Dr. Shigeko Sekine
Abstract
Over the past years, both Japanese and American foreign language education has been moving from the traditional grammar and memorization based approaches to a more communication focused approach, to varying degrees of success. The purpose of the communicative approach is to build interculturality, which is the ability to use your foreign language skills in appropriate cultural contexts. This ability is indispensable in today’s globalized society. We administered a survey to American and Japanese University students in order to answer the following questions: What are students’ experiences with their foreign language education? To what extent are students gaining interculturality from their foreign language education? And what role does foreign language education play in creating connections between students and multicultural/multilingual communities? We found that American students typically had a more positive experience experience with their foreign language classes, in which more attention was paid to the development of interculturality than was typical in Japanese classes. This seems to be linked with the inclusion of activities in American classes which connected students to their target language communities. American students were also more confident in their ability to use their foreign language skills in a culturally appropriate manner.