University and college students in Japan are among the luckiest young people on the planet. They have been raised in an environment of relative physical and social safety, in an affluent society that has valued education for all. One of the goals set by Japan's Ministry of Education is for Japanese students "to be capable of contributing to a peaceful international society" (Onishi, 1995, p. 236). Yet, how many college students are able to use their capacities to attain this goal? In this article, we will share some specific activities that we have found useful in empowering our students to recognize and develop competency in their ability to fulfill this noble goal, while at the same time helping them to overcome some of the cultural obstacles to its achievement.
Background
The educational environment
Kokusaika (internationalization), the term used and abused in Japanese society, may be behind the Ministry's aspiration. McVeigh (1997, p. 66) writes,
A careful examination of this word's contextual usage reveals an important discourse centering on national identity: what is international is anything non-Japanese, and to talk about things non-Japanese is in fact an indirect strategy for discussing Japaneseness.... Being Japanese and being a Kokusai-jin (international person) are often contrasted and seem to define each other. Education on matters international and second language acquisition more often than not reinforce an us-them mode of thinking.
This attitude and approach has some negative effects. The us-them mode of thinking when applied to foreign language acquisition turns the concept of internationalization into a Japanese window on the world, viewed from a familiar safety net of Japanese values. Many ESL students, while bright and eager in their own way, are also naive and undernourished in their vision of the world. Those students who go beyond the us-them mentality and who, for example, manage to forge deeper ties with a host family on a homestay program, are the minority. The majority of students have studied English as a compulsory subject for six years, and are unable to complete an entire sentence unaided or indeed to understand one spoken to them. What is worse, their concept of the world seems shallow and confined to stereotypes, and they appear to lack the skills necessary to take a more in-depth look. Teachers may despair that these students appear not only to lack communicative competence, but more importantly seem to lack enquiring minds and motivation.
What is a teacher to do, especially one who believes that a fundamental goal of teaching is the empowerment of others? By empowerment we mean a process of providing each student with access, skill, and expertise to tap the powers of their own minds and hearts so that they can investigate, interact with, and develop themselves within the matrix of the world. Conveying the concept that our world can be shaped and reshaped by our own vision through the development of our competencies, including communicative competency, is to spark individual empowerment.
A teacher concerned with empowerment can use global issues to encourage students, while they are learning English, to become capable contributors to society, locally and globally. To be contributors to society at any level requires development of critical thinking skills. Expanding vocabulary and linguistic concepts so that students are able to comprehend, make inferences, predict outcomes, and evaluate principles and goals are among the critical thinking skills which lead to a greater sense of self and internal guidance systems which enable people to work as "empowered" independent individuals. Democracies work on the principle that individuals are educated to work in cooperation with others within an informed connection to authority. Terms such as "power" and "authority" are often misused and maligned. However, viewed in another way, power is energy and capacity for change. We all have a given measure of it. Authority, in its root meaning, is the "power to increase" and implies that we gain greater strength and power by increasing our capacities as we put ourselves in organized service to that which can benefit humanity.
This has a great deal to do with education (which means to educe, or draw out one's innate capacities), and in this case particularly, education in English as a second language. When we face classes of apparently apathetic and disoriented students, we can easily "catch" their sense of powerlessness if we view our task as one of merely putting students through the curriculum without addressing their need to connect to the power of a deeper motivation. In order to understand and ultimately encourage an atmosphere where self-empowered global citizenship can emerge, ESL teachers in Japan would do well to accept as the normal starting point for their students, the limited concept of internationalization as described above. In addition to understanding their students' limited worldview, teachers may also find it useful to be aware of the following cultural conditions.
The classroom as a "ritual domain"
Consider that all students have come through a system of education which has chiefly trained them to pass rote memorization examinations, and where they have experienced their learning in a 'ritual domain' as described by Lebra (1976). The ritual domain of the Japanese classroom is one in which social distance is maintained, the student's behavior becomes guarded and reticent in order to avoid making mistakes (Mutch, 1995). The "examination hell," as it is commonly called, and experience of the ritual domain produce disastrous results in communication skills:
Thus in an English language course, for example, there is careful preparation for the sort of complex grammar questions that are asked on examinations, but less attention is paid to actually learning to read English and virtually none to speaking it or understanding it by ear. (Reischauer & Jansen, 1995, p. 193)
Cultural modesty
This reticent behavior is also seen as a cultural norm in Japan and exhibited in the classroom as a "cultural modesty in speaking in public or displaying knowledge, coupled with a tendency to avoid situations where an incorrect answer might be given. Students are reluctant to volunteer answers or to speak in English unless the whole class does" (Mutch, 1995, pp. 14-15).
Burn-out and discontent
In many cases attitudes displayed by university students in Japan include a very real and somewhat justified apathy:
Students who have won admittance to the prestige universities as well as those who have had to settle for lesser institutions often find university life disappointing, and many react to it with apathy or unrest. This is in part a psychological letdown after the years of preparation for the entrance exam. (Reischauer & Jansen, 1995, p. 197).
It is a formidable challenge to face a classroom of students whose limited world view, cultural reticence, ritual training, and educational battle fatigue have left them with ingrained habits that strongly resemble incompetence and apathy in a classroom requiring communicative interaction. However, awareness of the psychological implications of their passage through the system allows us to be accepting of them. It is a starting point from which to create a positive environment conducive to the transformation necessary for empowerment to take place: "Teaching, after all, is unlike any other profession in the complex balance it must strike between nurturing and challenging, between private and public, between sympathetic regard and timely demand" (Hess, 1992, p. 24).
Given these general conditions and given the brief time span of generally less than 40 class hours in the average university year, what activities might an ESL/EFL teacher do to empower the vision, the communicative skills, and global awareness and concern that will spark the students' identity as world citizens? The following sections will offer specific activities that we have found effective in this regard.
Overview
The authors have taught Global Issues at the university level as required credit courses. Both teach first and second year students in classes of 25 or less, and meet these classes once a week for 90 minutes. Our students enter college with varying goals, but whether or not our graduates will be engaged in work or travel overseas, involved formally or informally in on-going international discussions, or only occasionally meeting foreigners in public or private sector activities in Japan, our students attitudes toward people of other nations and their ability to communicate in English are important tools for their future.
From our combined 15 years of efforts in developing and refining creative curricula that empower students as world citizens, we offer a selection of activities from simple basic exercises to more complex skills and communicative activities.
Course goals
One of our aims is to help students gain confidence in extracting the essence of information and ideas available in "authentic materials" such as maps, atlases, newspapers, UN reports, documentary videos, music, the Internet, and CD-ROMs. When the students leave the classroom, they will no longer have the sheltered world of textbook materials with Japanese notes and carefully written comprehension exercises to rely on. By using authentic materials an attempt is made to introduce students to the real world of English.
A second aim is to encourage students to recognize and develop the power of their own voice. Through creating a nurturing atmosphere of classroom discussion and group consultation, as well as varied formats for expressing themselves simply yet directly, many of our students gain their first experience of having their opinions taken seriously. The element of consultation is important, for, "By participating in the group's problem solving...students become part of the solution" (Gibbs, 1987, p. 69).
Methods
The course style is part lecture, combined with an activity orientation using as many visual aids as necessary to help students build "maps" of reference, including videos, documentary or news reports, and occasional movies. Textbooks have been experimented with over the years, but we have found they do not help the student make the leap from merely reading about a topic to gaining a developing sense of identity as a member of a global family. The most effective approach we have found is for the teacher to read as much background information on a theme as possible, break down the information to its essential components, and then to reassemble it into a unit that introduces the vocabulary and concepts. Each unit will include an exercise with language patterns that draw out the questions and express content; then a task is set for the students to investigate, engage in some form of discussion and report what they have learned or concluded. The process is designed to move from the simple to the complex, from the known to the unknown, building on vocabulary and concepts as it goes. [Editor's note: See the article by Cates, Higgins, and MacConville in this issue for a list of resources and useful materials.]
Themes
Some of the topics selected for exploration in our classes include (1) gaining a global vision; (2) focus on global and local environment; (3) life-styles (including comparison of indigenous, rural, and urban patterns) and economic balance; (4) the functioning of the United Nations; (5) human rights; (6) equality (specifically gender equality); (7) literacy, health, and population issues, and (8) religions and beliefs. Regrettably, the time available permits just a bare scratching of the surface of these important issues, and not all topics can be covered in any one year. However, within an essential framework, topics of current interest, often related to UN activities or emerging global news developments, are selected and balanced within the course in any academic year. Through the process of building an appropriate vocabulary and learning various ways to investigate and express facts, feelings, principles and concepts, students gain confidence in obtaining, discussing and communicating knowledge, as well as their own ideas for solving issues. They work with formats such as interviews, role-plays, poster presentations, panel discussions, preparing fact sheets to share with the class, informal research reports, essays, and letters to the editor.
Increasing Global Vision
Begin with a map: The starting point is envisioning the entire world and gaining a perspective of where one is in relation to the whole. Gaining this global perspective can be initiated simply by presenting a world map and practicing in rote fashion the names of countries and geographic relationships between countries to hone vocabulary and pronunciation skills. Stressing the fact that katakana pronunciation is not likely to be understood outside of Japan and prevents the Japanese from understanding other foreign and native speakers, for example E-JI-PU-TO for Egypt or IN-DO for India, spurs students to practice more accurate English speech patterns.
Some other map and atlas activities:
- Have students quickly draw a map of the world. This is a telling exercise which shows the emphasis on some countries and continents, and the exclusion or misperception of geographic size, locality or even existence of others.
- Using the world map, practice the basic regions and country names with the class and in pairs. Teach students to ask and answer questions about people, languages and cultures of the various counties. E.g., "What do you call people who live in Japan?" "Japanese." What language do they speak?" "Japanese." Then move to the less known and more complex, "What do you call the people who live in Brazil?" "Brazilians." "What language do they speak?" "Portuguese."
- Teach students to use available resources, including their fellow students, the teacher, an atlas, dictionary or encyclopedia to find out information that is not immediately known to them. The teacher will often be the first to need to use the atlas or encyclopedia to check on answers to little known questions such as "What do you call the people in Chad? Chadese? Chadians? Chadors?" The teacher should also be ready to admit that information is not cut-and-dried or may have more than one appropriate answer; e. g., "Where is Egypt?" "Egypt is in Africa, north of Sudan", but also "Egypt is in the Middle East." "Where is Russia?" "Part of Russia is in Europe, part of it is in Asia."
Engage the imagination: Students may be asked to develop imaginary interviews or role playing exercises about visiting different regions of the world and expressing what they expect to find, or how their experience would be different as an astronaut viewing the world from space. Imagination is reinforced and expanded through using video and pictures to focus on the reality of global conditions. The imagery of storytelling is used through recounting travels in different environments--on land, at sea, in the air, or in space--and pulls the learner toward a richer vocabulary and appreciation of the unity in diversity of our globe. The concept of our interconnectedness is stressed here.
Environmental Issues
Topics such as ozone depletion, acid rain and deforestation are issues that most students are already familiar with from their high school texts and general education. This familiarity gives them a degree of confidence to tackle the more difficult vocabulary. These issues are then connected to local issues such as recycling, resource and waste management, water quality. Other issues, such as air quality, or noise pollution always make their own way into the discussions. Since there is currently a wealth of materials on this theme, we will merely list a few lesson plans that we have used effectively:
- Viewing of the animated movie "Ferngully" (1991) followed by a take-home quiz regarding general knowledge of deforestation, its causes and effects.
- Viewing of the documentary "Spaceship Earth" (1991) followed by an assigned essay on the facts and interconnections that impressed the student.
- In-class group consultative discussion about actions and life-style changes that help the environment: recycling, consumer discretion, educating ourselves about the consequences of our choices.
- A group research and poster presentation assignment choosing from a range of environmental topics such as recycling milk cartons, nuclear energy or dioxins, etc. While students have some time in class to prepare, most preparation is done outside of class. During the week or two of preparation leading to their group presentation, students are called on to give one-minute "pop topics" -- extemporaneous speeches on simple subjects in preparation for their group poster presentations. This exercise allows verbal presentation skills to be coached in a casual way. Using posters to support a prepared oral presentation helps students to condense their information to a few essential points in a process that can be reviewed, corrected and coached before the presentation itself.
Clarifying the Facts
Clarifying the facts forms the basis of our work and is carried through all the themes of the Global Issues Course. We begin the course with the Environmental Issues section as part of "increasing global vision", because this subject is one the students are already familiar with. But after this unit, we help the students to "dig into" the facts about our world more deeply by introducing the following exercises:
News diary: Encourage students to obtain information from news programs and newspapers (either English or Japanese) by asking them to make a diary of three or more factual items from the news each day for one week. Follow-up in class includes identifying positive trends and negative trends, and distinguishing facts from opinion and speculation.
Numbers and statistics: Using the World Banks "Basic Indicators Table" (which lists the statistical data for 125 countries of the world including, area, population, GNP, life expectancy and literacy, 1991) to learn to read and to comprehend large numbers, and to make comparisons using whole numbers and percentages, fractions and multiples
After the exercise, we ask students to express feelings about what the facts tell them about the world. They are often most shocked to realize the extremes of wealth and poverty in the global village that they are becoming familiar enough with to care about. They are surprised to learn that over 25% of the world's adults, and up to 90% in some countries, cannot read or write. They are also surprised to learn that Japan is actually larger than over half the countries in the world, and is the second highest in GNP.
We may reinforce the practice process with a cooperative game in which students race the clock in asking and recording on the board answers to questions regarding area, population, literacy rate, GNP, etc. for selected countries.
World Hunger and Economic Balance
A simulation exercise helps students visualize the global impact of these "statistical" facts. The class is divided according to the population of various regions of the world and the teacher passes out crackers in proportion to the GNP of each region. "Adequate nutritional standard" is represented by one cracker per student. Students discuss their feelings and thoughts about the fact that while there are about twice as many crackers as "needed for survival," and while middle income regions are "adequately fed," North Americans, Europeans, Japan, and newly industrialized economies such as Hong Kong and Singapore are given stacks of crackers while the remaining Asian population and Africans (over 50% of the class) have the equivalent of crumbs.
In groups, students are then asked to identify as many possible reasons as they can for world hunger. Facts concerning world hunger gathered from United Nations data are then put on the board and compared with fallacies about hunger. Students are given a fact sheet about hunger (in Japanese and/or English) at the end of class.
Understanding Other Lifestyles
Documentary films, stories or pictures help students to get a closer view of life in other "economic zones." These paint a clearer portrait of the positive points and disadvantages of tribal life in the rainforest, or rural life in middle-income economies, or urban life which includes poor, average and rich life-styles. This theme returns in the course of other lessons on global environment, or women and work.
The United Nations
The agency most vitally involved in the issues of global citizenship is the United Nations. Understanding the structure and work of the United Nations is vital to the students understanding of the news, and their access to effective globally based action.
Students are asked to share what they know about the UN in words or phrases which are written on the board to build up a vision of their initial impression. Then they are asked to make a list of questions about what they would like to know by the end of the two or three weeks of lessons on the UN.
We present a diagram of the organizational structure of the UN and its agencies along with facts about the role of various organs and agencies. Students learn to match the functions and work with the "alphabet soup" of acronyms: UNGA, UNSC, ECOSOC, WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, PKO, and NGO.
Other activities include reading aloud and studying the UN charter, and either taking a video tour of the UN or watching a video on its world-wide outreach. Students also imagine that they work for the UN: what agency would they choose to work for and in what kind of projects would they like to be involved?
The UN Declaration of Human Rights adapted in simplified English is also introduced and students not only learn about the basic rights but compare the current conditions in Japan and other countries in the news regarding selected human rights problems. Each student investigates and prepares a fact sheet for the class on a human rights issue of their choice. Students are given a pamphlet on the UN in Japanese at the end of the unit.
Equality
Overcoming prejudice and establishing equality may engage various issues including race relations, economic status, age and gender. As our students are mostly women, we have focussed on the issue of the equality of men and women.
- A vision of equality is presented through the analogy of the two wings of a bird. Though the two wings operate independently to some extent, they must cooperate and be equally strong for the bird to fly. This is a metaphor for the equality of men and women in their responsibility for the advancement of human society.
- We draw out and discuss differences and similarities of men and women and their life roles.
- The importance of education of women is discussed and powerfully reinforced by UN data showing the connection between womens education and solutions to the population problem, reduction of child mortality rates, advancement of economic conditions and so on.
- Documentary videos such as "Women in the Third World" (Global links, 1996) or "Real Life in America" (Pauley, 1991) help expand the students' perception on the roles women can and do play in the world.
- The movie "Nine to Five" is used to give the students a break from interactive routine with a comedy film that focuses on the serious issues of the rights and responsibilities of women in the workplace.
Faith, Belief, and the Path to Peace
Religious intolerance as one cause of conflict can be identified in such trouble spots as the Middle East, India, and Northern Ireland. The principles of respect and understanding are identified as necessary components in the elimination of prejudice that is at the root of such conflicts. An outline of world religions in the form of a timeline, indicating dates, founders, major teachings and cultural achievements that have advanced human civilization as a result of the rise of these religious paths is presented to provide a positive and impartial view.
The golden rule as it is expressed in various religious scriptures can be presented. Students realize that the same thought, expressed in different words, is at the core of all of the major spiritual teachings, and that at times the teachings are so similar that their sources cannot be distinguished (Rost, 1986).
Students are helped to build a vocabulary of "virtues" or spiritual values such as love, patience, kindness, justice, and so on, along with definitions and thoughts on the virtue from various spiritual teachings. Then we ask them to identify a virtue in themselves, focus on developing the virtue over the course of a week and, if possible, to notice the virtue in the actions of others.
Evaluation and Summary
Evaluation of the development of the students in our Global Issues classes happens in the cyclical process of teaching, with grading of written work, group and individual presentations, and communication skills in group tasks taking place throughout the term. Our purpose in these evaluations is not only to provide the necessary grades/credits but also to gain insight into how much of the content the students are comprehending and able to express so that we can guide them to greater clarity on the subject. We can thus adjust the content to meet their needs, and the message clearly conveyed to the students in this course is that development and communication of their ideas are the most important elements of their evaluation.
We encourage our students to find harmony and unity in the diversity of thoughts presented through the "non-adversarial" discussion method in which they are actively trained. In contrast to the "pro/con" systems of debate and other "parliamentary-style" discussion methods, this style of group consultation allows and enables the students to employ and improve their cognitive, affective and intuitive capacities in an atmosphere where they do not have to fear being attacked or belittled for their ideas (Higgins, 1990). We have observed that students gain both confidence and self-awareness that extends beyond the classroom. We believe that the content of these courses provides our students with the essential tools to enable each of them to begin to play their part in the design of a unified, just and peaceful international world.
The students themselves provide us evaluations which help us to refine our teaching "power" for the next group of students. Although we have been accused by some students of "making them think too much", most of the comments are positive and give us the feeling we are indeed succeeding in our goals. Here in closing is an example from the students' evaluative comments:
Most teachers don't check our attendance in their classes. As a result they have to look at the result of my work only on exams. I hate it. Compared with that, I wrote journals, some reports, and told my opinions in your classes. And especially, I could think about world issues deeply. We young people are always thinking only about enjoyment. But we have a lot of problems to solve around us, I think.
References
Ferngully (1991). Based on the stories of Ferngully by Diane Young. Fox Video Incorporated.
Gibbs, J. (1987). Tribes. Santa Rosa, CA: Center Source Publications.
Global links (1996). Six 30-minute videos covering complex issues of Third World development, including Women, Education, Environment, Tropical Diseases, and Urban Dilemma.
Hess, A. G. Jr. (Ed.). (1992). Empowering teachers and parents: School restructuring through the eyes of anthropologists. Westport: Bergin & Garvey; Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Higgins, M. L. (1990). Overcoming teacher bias in the global issues language classroom. The Language Teacher, 14 (5), 31-33.
Lebra, T. (1976). Japanese patterns of behavior. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
McVeigh, B. J. (1997). Life in a Japanese women's college: Learning to be ladylike. Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series. London: Routledge.
Mutch, B. M. (1995). Motivation and cultural attitudes: Increasing language use in the classroom. The Language Teacher, 19 (8), 14-15.
Nine to five. (1982). Story by Patricia Resnick. Film produced by 20th Century Fox.
Onishi, F. (1995). Social changes in post-war Japan. In Search of Moral Education in the 21st Century, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Moral Education, Tokyo: The Institute of Morology.
Pauley, J. (1991). Real life in America. NBC. CC. Study. Gakkuen Vortex Corporation.
Reischauer, E. O., & Jansen, M. B. (1995). The Japanese today: Change and continuity. Harvard: The Belknap Press; Harvard University Press.
Rost, H. T. D. (1986). The golden rule. Oxford: George Ronald.
SPACESHIP EARTH: Our global environment (1991). San Francisco: Worldlink.
World Development Report. (1991). Published for the World Bank by Oxford University Press. (Contains the "Basic Indicator's Table.)