Sessions

A global approach to discussion class materials

While there have been attempts from Japanese universities to be more international and produce global jinzai (global human resources), guidelines for implementation have remained ambiguous. Therefore, this presentation explains how a global approach was used to design materials for an English discussion class. The approach combines elements from global Englishes, based on suggestions by Galloway (2017) that learners should be aware of world Englishes and English as a lingua franca, as well as elements from intercultural communication, based on suggestions by Yoshida, Yashiro and Suzuki (2013) that learners should develop an understanding of themselves, their own culture and cultural differences. Materials for two lessons are shown. One of them is about English in Singapore, as understanding the role of Singlish is beneficial to understand the connection between varieties of English and cultural identity (Jenkins, 2015). The other is about individualism versus collectivism, which is seen as essential in understanding the difference between western and Asian cultures (Servaes, 2016). The effectiveness of these lessons is discussed, and suggestions are made about how this approach could be used to generate more lessons which will help university students to be ready to successfully communicate with people from all over the world.