Helping Exchange Students Respond to Intercultural Conflicts and Dilemmas

Speaker: Bob Long

Date: Saturday, July 9th, 2005

Time: 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Location: Kitakyushu, Fukuoka

Venue: Kitakyushu International Conference Center, room 31

Description: Going abroad for Japanese exchange students is often fun, but it may not be uncommon for students to encounter difficult situations. Unfortunately, most English language programs provide little instruction and guidance about conflicts or problematic situations. This presentation will review sixteen dilemmas were identified based on previous data gathered from 8 years of student exchanges between a national university in Kyushu, and with a university located in Virginia. A survey and a series of related discourse completion tasks were constructed involving three kinds of conflicts and three kinds of dilemmas - epistemic conflicts, obligation dilemmas, and prohibition dilemmas. Teachers will evaluate each situation and write down how they would have responded to the demands, questions, and comments of each speaker. The student ratings and responses will then be shown for comparison. Discussion will center on the pragmalinguistic and sociolinguistic failure that occurred in these L2 contexts. Discussion will focus on two areas: (a) the fours criteria for intercultural conflict competence, and (b) specific recommendations concerning potential problematic situations that exchange students might have and how they could better respond to them.

Cost for JALT members: free

Cost for JALT non-members: 1,000 yen

Organization: Kitakyushu Chapter, Japan Association for Language Teaching

This URL: http://www.eltcalendar.com/events/details/2558

Contact Kitakyushu JALT Chapter:

URL: http://jalt.org/chapters/kq/

Dennis Woolbright:

woolbright@seinan-jo.ac.jp

Upcoming Events for Kitakyushu JALT Chapter:

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

Podcasting and Digital Recording for Pedagogical Purposes

Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM