Abstract
This study reports on the result of implementing online intercultural communication as a pre-PBLT activity to encourage the English learners of Japanese to use L2 during the project in an EFL context. Self-evaluation of their English speaking confidence level was conducted at three different stages of the project to track the change of Japanese EFL learners’ confidence level before and after the completion of intercultural communication and finally after the completion of the entire project. Measuring the L2 speaking confidence level at three stages of our PBLT course allowed us to examine 1) whether the pre-PBLT intercultural communication successfully primed the Japanese EFL learners to speak in L2 in the subsequent PBLT activities, and 2) whether the Japanese EFL learners could maintain the “English-speaking mode” even during their communication with other Japanese speakers. The results indicate that most of the participants could successfully build L2 speaking confidence after the pre-PBLT intercultural communication and maintain the raised L2 speaking confidence by practicing L2 communication for the completion of the PBLT project with their Japanese partners.
Highlights
This paper reports on the process and the result of implementing the intercultural communication sessions designed to encourage Japanese EFL learners to use L2 during their tasks conducted in a university PBLT (Project-Based Language Teaching) class
What is on the left is the picture of students participating in the intercultural communication on Zoom, and what is on the right shows Japanese students communicating with other Japanese group members via Zoom. In both types of sessions, students were very much engaged in the Zoom discussion in English. In their reflective writing after the four intercultural communication sessions, many Japanese EFL learners reported that they enjoyed their interaction with the international friends very much
The result suggests that the preparatory intercultural communication session could positively influence the L2 speaking confidence of Japanese EFL learners’ and help them set the L2 mode of communication for the following activities with other Japanese speakers
Summary
This paper reports on the process and the result of implementing the intercultural communication sessions designed to encourage Japanese EFL learners to use L2 during their tasks conducted in a university PBLT (Project-Based Language Teaching) class. One of the challenges of implementing PBLT in an EFL setting is students’ predominant use of L1 when the learners share the same native language in a given EFL class. Before Japanese students work on a project in an EFL class at our university, they participated in four online intercultural communication sessions with Chinese and Vietnamese university students The communication during the PBLT tasks in this course including the four preparatory sessions before the main meetings was via Zoom (technology-mediated PBLT), which, we believe, contributed to the continued use of L2 in the main PBLT session among Japanese learners
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