Abstract
The teachers in the individualist country usually teach students using individualist approach while teachers in the collectivist countries teach students using collectivist approach. However, teachers and students do not usually share the same educational culture in language classrooms. The purpose of this study has two: first, to examine individualist and collectivist characteristics; second, to ascertain the students’ teaching preference whether it is individualist or collectivist approach in a British university. Participants were 19 students who study Japanese language through institution wide language program at a British university in the South of England. The collected data consist of two: questionnaire and an informal interview, both of which were conducted at the end of spring term 2019. The data were analysed using mixed methods. The quantitative results showed that students preferred a mixture of both educational cultures. The ratio of individualist:collectivist:neutral position was 74:11:16 in spite of the fact that this study was conducted in an individualist education culture. Keywords: Collectivist, educational culture, higher education, individualist, Japanese learning
Highlights
Internationalisation and a multicultural learning environment have become the norm at British universities
According to Winch’s (2013) study, students’ teaching and learning preferences were categorised into the following three types: Type 1 consisted of students who came from a collectivist educational cultural background and were studying in an individualist educational culture
Type 2 covered students from an individualist educational cultural background continuing to study in an individualist educational culture
Summary
Internationalisation and a multicultural learning environment have become the norm at British universities. The students, who study at the British universities from overseas, are committed to their own educational culture and they usually prefer the teaching and learning environment where came from and are familiar with. The problem that I have been encountered in my Japanese language teaching is that there are variety of students’ teaching learning preferences and requirements which may be specific to the culture and I am not familiar with. Having educational cultural knowledge would help myself, and other language teachers and students’ learning. The purpose of this study is to identify if students who study Japanese language at a British university show any preferences to either individualist or collectivist educational culture. The researcher tries to answer the following specific research question: Do students in this study prefer individualist or collectivist teaching approaches?
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