The integration of a three-year-long intercultural collaborative project into a foreign language classroom for the development of intercultural competence

Abstract

Many studies on intercultural communication introduced how their collaborative projects were conducted. There are also several studies that discuss how intercultural collaborative activities can be integrated into a foreign language curriculum, as well as a big project (the INTENT project) that helps teachers integrate collaborative activities into their language curricula. Nonetheless, intercultural collaborative projects have not yet been mainstreamed for various reasons, such as insufficient pedagogical support from their institutions and a lack of interest in getting involved in projects among colleagues. We need to continuously examine and develop activities that can be relatively easily integrated into language curricula and that are appealing to more teachers to get involved in collaborative projects. Starting in the fall of 2013, we have been conducting a three-year experimental Facebook video project with learners of English in Japan and those of Japanese in the US. This paper will provide a brief overview of the Facebook collaboration projects and present the outcomes.

The Effectiveness of Intercultural Sensitivity Development Activities Integrated With Scientific Research Methods Course

“…Studies on integrated curriculum with regard to intercultural competence or sensitivity developing (Ferguson-Patrick, Reynolds, and Macqueen, 2018; Hirotani and Fujii, 2015; Li, 2017; McRae and Ramji, 2017; Taraban-Gordon and Page, 2017) have been encountered recently in the literature. In a study by Hirotani and Fujii (2015), it was ascertained that the integration of the intercultural collaborative activities with the foreign language curriculum contributed to students' reflection of what they had learned about cultural differences and similarities. Ayvaz- Tuncel (2009) concluded that the communication, cooperation and social problem solving skills and the self-respect of the experimental group, which was administered an integrated curriculum developed more than the control group.…”