Saturday, June 27, 2015

2015 June 27 | Rob Fritz | The (Intercultural) Language Classroom



Thanks to everyone who braved the rainy weather to make it out! 

Notes from the presentation

Part 1: Theory
Rob Fritz
Despite the Ministry of Education's (MEXT) aims to produce globally-minded citizens, the recent educational climate in Japan is that of students who are inward-looking, or uchi-muki. The problem is exacerbated by the implantation of language education that remains focused on grammatical accuracy. To achieve the Ministry's stated aims, Mr. Fritz argues that language education must incorporate culture into the curriculum in a meaningful way. He advocates the following changes:
  • Deep adjustment to the educational infrastructure
  • Deep awareness of development of self 
  • Awareness of how sociocultural factors influence our subjective world view