| b.
Exploring Japanese culture using discussion board as that
of the constructive approach
The
culture project using technology requires students to conduct
research on a selected topic using the Internet and then to
post their findings on WebCT's Discussion board. This project
allows students to explore their personal interest in Japanese
culture freely, build knowledge of Japanese culture with their
classmates collaboratively, and reflect upon their own learning
critically without overwhelming students’ workload.
In this section, I describe
an Internet search project on “Dos and Don’ts
in Japan” in the Spring of 2004. Table 1 shows the steps,
students’ tasks, and teacher’s tasks of the culture
project using technology.
| |
Students’
tasks |
Teacher’s
tasks |
Needs assessment |
-
State their interests in Japanese culture and society
|
- Take
a survey on students’ interests in Japanese
culture and society.
-
Select 3 topics (e.g. food, movie, customs and manners)
|
| Pre-Internet
search activity |
- Analyze
36 illustrations of “ugly” behaviors of
both Japanese and Americans
-
Discuss with classmates
-
Read the instruction for the posting carefully and
begin to plan what and when to post regarding Japanese
manners and customs
- Engage
students in the selected topic through classroom activities
(e.g. illustration/pictures, discussion, reading)
|
- Post
a topic and specific instructions on online schedule
& Discussion Board with the due date: “Begin
your internet search on Japanese manners and customs.
Use a search engine find something of interest to
you about it (e.g. eye contact, greeting, gift giving)
and report back to the class via WebCT's Discussion
board….”
-
Announce the posting in the Smart Classroom and Lab
and demonstrate how to find the information
|
| Internet
search activity |
- Conduct
Internet search with results posted on Discussion
Board, using students’ L1 outside of class time
(1) Search word (s)
(2) Website address
(3) Information
(4) Importance and relevancy to their lives
(5) A question for an exam in a multiple-choice or
true-false format, with the correct answer indicated
(* French Professor Laurette Suter at CSUS shared
me with this approach.)
-
Take online quiz
-
Assess the postings of their own and classmates by
posting their critical and reflective comments
|
- Assist
and monitor Internet search activity by contacting
individual via email; modeling what “good”
research and questions; acknowledging students who
write original and intellectual postings; and facilitating
students evaluation of their own posting
-
Making online quiz (password protected & limited
time) using students’ generated questions
-
Create 2-3 discussion questions to let students evaluate
the validity of their research (e.g. Choose the most
educational posting and state the reason(s) for your
choice)
|
| Post-Internet
search activity |
- Perform
role play (S’s target language)
-
Make a ‘Dos and Don’ts in Japan’
poster (S’s target language)
- Develop
Students’ Homepage (S’s target language)
-
Write a reflective essay about their learning (Ss’
L1)
-
Give advices on ‘Do’s and Don’ts
in Japan’ to their friends as an expert (Ss’
L1)
-
Analyze case studies on cross-cultural conflicts (Ss’
L1)
|
- Give
several tasks, which students can apply what they
learned through Internet search activity and reflect
upon their learning experience.
|
Table 1. Culture project using technology: Steps, students’
tasks, and teacher’s tasks.
Example task: Japanese customs and manners – “Dos”
and “Don’ts” in Japan.
Step
1: Needs Assessment
At
the beginning of each semester, I took a survey of the students’
interests in Japanese culture and society, and selected three
topics. Past topics have included geography, places, food,
pop-culture, products, music, movies, and customs.
Step
2: Pre-Internet search activity
Before
the Internet search activity, I conducted several activities
(“pre-Internet search activity”) in class and
via WebCT to engage students in the task. For example, when
students were asked to conduct a research on Japanese customs
and manners, I showed a number of illustrations on gestures
and manners, which could be viewed as “ugly” from
Japanese and American perspectives, and had students discuss
why those gestures and manners were offensive in different
cultural settings.
Step
3: Main Task
In
the main task (“Internet search activity”), students
were asked to use a search engine to find something of interest
to them on a selected topic, and report back to the class
via WebCT Discussions. This main task was conducted independently
outside of class time. The students’ report included
(1) search word(s), (2) the website address, (3) the information,
(4) the importance and relevancy to their lives, and (5) a
question for an exam in a multiple-choice or true-false format,
with the correct answer indicated. To substantiate this activity,
I informed students that their research findings would be
used as questions in major exams (10 - 20% out of 100). Thus,
the materials that students produced were compiled and used
as the study guide. See a list of postings, student’s
posting and poster (1) & (2), and Discussion Board on
WebCT homepage.
Before and during the Internet
search activity, I showed examples to assist students in conducting
their tasks successfully. I asked students what characterizes
“good” research questions and provided opportunities
for students to reflect their research critically. I praised
students who came up with thoughtful and intellectual questions,
and contacted the individuals who needed more assistance via
email (scaffolding and guiding).
To assess the students’
learning, I employed several approaches. For each Internet
search, I first created an online exam based on the students’
questions to test knowledge gained through the Internet search,
and then asked students to choose the “best” research
and discuss the reasons for their choice on the Discussion
board. In addition, the students were instructed to analyze
problem-solving situations and post their solution to the
Discussion board.
Step
4: Post-internet search activities
Post-Internet
search activities included role-play, poster making, and student
homepages in the target language (Japanese), and essay writing
and case studies analysis in English. Some activities were
conducted during class time and others were done outside of
class time. These post-Internet search activities were aimed
to provide students opportunities to apply their gained knowledge
and integrate their cultural learning in their language learning.
The primary language for the
teacher’s instruction and students’ postings was
English. It was not practical for the novice level learners
to express their research findings using the intermediate
and advanced level of the Japanese language. In addition to
offering students an opportunity to gain cultural knowledge,
the purpose of this culture project was to facilitate students’
independent learning using Internet and collaborative learning
by building and sharing knowledge. This project also aimed
to rejuvenate motivation especially for those linguistically
weak, but cognitively advanced students, who might be able
to contribute to the class through sociologically-oriented
research in their language. While allowing the use of the
native language to conduct research, I incorporated the target
language whenever possible. For example, in the post-Internet
search activities, students were encouraged to use the target
language only, especially for in class role plays and the
student homepages on WebCT.
Students
response
At
the end of each semester, to investigate the impact of this
Internet cultural projet based on the constructive approach,
online surveys and interviews were conducted and reflective
essays were collected. The following three themes were emerged:
Knowledge building; community building; and Increasing Motivation.
Knowledge
building
The
culture projects have created opportunities for students to
expose themselves to a great deal of information on Japanese
culture through not only his or her own research, but also
the postings of his or her classmates. In a class of thirty
students in which each student conducted research three times
a semester, there were ninety postings. Students stated: “The
amounts of things that I picked up were surprising to me,
who knew that such a small country would hold such an abundant
amount of culture and history“; “…They (culture
projects) introduced new topics and subject matters that we
probably have never researched on our own”; and “I
have the whole information on Japan within my finger tip.”
A number of students’
comments on their learning outcomes have led to the conclusion
that the culture projects were not simply information gathering
activities, but meaningful exploratory activities to discover
a fascinating culture from various perspectives. Their comments
include: “This exercise have opened my eyes to reasons
why the Japanese do and say some of the things they do”;
“I think we got a representation of a variety of things
from different perspectives that increased the curiosity so
you’ll want to examine more of the culture. ”
A student saw this learning experience as a spring-board for
the further learning, saying “I now have a foundation
of knowledge I can build from.” Another student reflected
on this whole learning experience, saying “I will be
more understanding and tolerant of other cultures. This class
has made me realize that America is not the only place on
earth. There are thousands of different cultures all over
the world. Within each of these cultures come a different
way of life and thought.”
Community
building
A
student wrote, “These exercises not only allowed us
to learn about the culture but they allowed us to learn about
our classmates and ourselves as well. You can get a sense
of people’s personalities and interest by reading what
kinds of topics they wrote about.” Another wrote, “Finding
the information on this and reading what others had found
was very interesting to me.” Because students were free
to choose any subject within the assigned topics, each posting
consequently showed some of the personality of each student.
The variety of postings created many opportunities to interact
with each other: “It created another avenue to interact
with fellow students and develop a relationship that I will
miss next year.” It seems that the Discussion board
turned into a sort of after-class “cyber café,”
where students could get to know each other and share their
interests and knowledge about Japan genuinely: “These
exercises were an interactive way to encourage the whole class
to participate in learning outside of the classroom.”
The sense of comradeship has
promoted active and collaborative learning: “If we had
any problems with the exercise, we had more than enough chances
to ask the teacher or our fellow classmates for help.”
Many students felt that they were comfortable with other students
and learned from other students. Although there were many
other types of collaborative activities such as role-plays
and paired activities, the culture projects could be viewed
as a major collaborative activity since the postings of their
classmates served as the learning sources and the students
were expected to act as knowledge providers to their classmates.
Thus, the culture projects created a strong learning community,
which facilitated active collaborative learning among students.
Increasing
Motivation
A
majority of students (over 80%) indicated that they enjoyed
the class activities, and viewed their learning experiences
as beneficial to their lives. The culture projects were not
the only factor that might have contributed to such overwhelming
positive responses, but they seems to “trigger”
students to want to study more about Japanese language and
culture: “I know after doing a lot of the research I
have become even more interested and motivated in learning
the Japanese language. It just adds more reason and interest
to my continuation of learning the language”; “These
cultural exercises have made learning Japanese fun. It has
made me want to learn Japanese for my own benefit rather than
fulfill the requirement for foreign language”; and “These
exercises helped me understand Japanese culture more. They
made learning Japanese more fun. They also made learning Japanese
seem more real. More real in that they showed that there is
so much more to a country than its language.”
In the interview, the students
showed their intrinsic fondness and respect towards Japanese
culture, which they regarded as fundamentally “good,”
“desirable,” or “worthwhile.” The
interviewees were not able to define or pinpoint the origin
of their preference; yet, it was evident that some students
began to be driven by a deep fascination with the Japanese
people and culture. A student commented: “In taking
Japanese these last two semesters, I can tell you this. A
year ago, I wanted to learn the language because I liked it.
Now? Well, now I want to learn more of the language because
I love it.”
Dilemma
and challenges
There
were two types of comments on the learning of the Japanese
language through the culture projects: (1) in some cases they
learned language; and (2) in some cases they did not. What
they learned were key phrases and identified essential cultural
vocabulary. Some stated that the knowledge gained through
these exercises indirectly helped their language learning.
A student said, “While I do not believe that studying
these various culture aspects of Japan have directly aided
my learning or usage of the Japanese language, they have helped
me to better understand the culture that is speaking it…”
Due to the use of the students’ L1 as the medium to
conduct the research, it seems that the acquisition of the
Japanese language had not been facilitated significantly.
It is ideal to use the target
language as a tool of instruction, not just the object of
instruction. To facilitate language acquisition, it is critical
to incorporate the target language in instruction and research
itself because students’ intrinsic motivation to make
sense of the world provides the impetus and vehicle for language
acquisition. The need to understand, to participate in meaningful
and purposeful life activities, provides both the motivation
and channel for language learning. On the other hand, the
extensive use of the target language at the initial stage
of learning may overburden students, whose intrinsic interests
and curiosity may in turn be diminished. For some students,
these culture projects will no longer feel like “enjoyable”
exercises, but change into “demanding” exercises.
Instead of using the culture projects as a “hook”
to the language learning, many students may find the learning
of the Japanese language too difficult and troublesome.
As Lier (2004) stated, the challenge
of project-based learning is how to incorporate more target
language in the process in project-based learning. The ultimate
decision has to come from classroom practitioners. In most
cases, practitioners including myself fell into this dilemma.
A sense of guilt emerges when instructors allow students to
use their L1 because it is against to current theories of
teaching, which emphasize meaningful usages of the target
language through teaching content. A sense of skepticism emerges
when instructors use extensive amount of the target language
in foreign language teaching context because many beginning
students have little understanding of the content.
Final
remarks for cultural project
Omaggio
(1986) stated that cultural understanding must be promoted
in various ways so that students are prepared to live more
harmoniously in the target-language community (p.36). This
study shows a way to expose various aspects of the target
culture that the learners want to learn more about it on their
terms. This study revealed that the culture projects using
technology helped students to gain knowledge, motivated students
for further learning, and created a sense of community among
students. On the other hand, it was questionable how much
these activities contributed to the acquisition of the target
language among students.
Then, in what way, could we
promote the acquisition of the target language at the beginning
level course? First, choosing more linguistically oriented
topics may help students learn vocabulary (e.g. “The
meaning of kanji letters,” “Japanese proverbs,”
etc.). Secondly, it is critical to link content knowledge
that students gained through the culture projects to the teaching
of language whenever applicable grammar patterns are introduced.
For example, in geography and food topics, students learn
that Osaka is famous for Okonomiyaki (Japanese style pizza).
When a grammar pattern of “famous for” is introduced,
students should be encouraged to connect their content knowledge
and language by saying “Osaka wa okonomiyaki de yuumei
desu (Osaka is famous for Okonomiyaki).” Thirdly, the
target language needs to be integrated more with the process
of instruction and in a manageable manner. It may be effective
to provide the bilingual instruction at the beginning, but
later the instruction should be gradually shifted in the target
language in comprehensible manners. Fourthly, the Internet
search activity alone may lead to the creation of some culture
stereotypes. It is critical to develop meaningful post-Internet
search activities to reflect upon their learning and apply
what they learned in problem-solving contexts (e.g. Quiz shows
on cultural topics in the target language).
Lastly this framework of culture
projects could be easily applied to the advanced level of
learners. At the advanced level, it is possible to develop
a course based on subject matter, provide instruction in the
target language, use search engines of the target language,
and conduct pre- and post- Internet search activities in the
target language.
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