Pluralistic approaches for Japanese university students preparing to study abroad

Oyama, Mayo; Yamamoto, Saeri

doi:10.3828/ejlp.2020.3

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…In 2020, foreign languages were introduced as a compulsory subject in elementary schools in Japan, a context in which English is often viewed as the only useful foreign language for international communication and is given priority at all levels of education (Oyama & Yamamoto, 2020). Cognizant of the fact that the globalized world is not just English, calls have been made to include greater linguistic and cultural diversity into the curriculum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plurilingual STEAM and School Lunches for Learning?

Pearce

Oyama

Moore

et al. 2021

International Journal of Bias, Identity and Diversities in Education

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In Japan, where there is a bias toward English-only in foreign language education, there are also grassroots efforts to introduce greater plurality in the classroom. However, introducing diverse languages and cultures into the classroom can lead to folklorization, the delivering of essentialized information in pre-packaged formats, which can potentially delegitimize other languages and cultures. This contribution examines a collaborative integrative plurilingual STEAM practice at an elementary school in Western Japan. In the ‘school lunches project,' the children experience various international cuisine, leading up to which they would engage with related languages and cultures through collaboratively produced plurilingual videos and museum-like exhibits of cultural artifacts. The interdisciplinary, hands-on, experiential learning within this project helped the children to develop an investigative stance toward linguistic and cultural artifacts, nurture a deeper awareness of languages and openness to diversity, foster reflexivity, and encourage interdisciplinary engagement.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%