Kevin Cleary Invited Speaker Talk: Think Globally, Teach Locally: Ideas From Rural Japan
This talk will summarize lessons learned from the presenter’s four decades of experience working with global education, an exciting pedagogical field that encourages language teachers to bring the world into the classroom and take students out into the wider world. Global education arose in the 1980s with the work of scholars such as Pike and Selby (1988). Pioneering work on global education and language teaching began in Japan with the publication of TLT special issues on global issues (Cates & Mark, 1990) and global education (Cates, 1993).
The session will start with a brief overview of the presenter’s background, his rationale for taking a global education approach to language teaching, and his experiments creating language classes designed to prepare students for global citizenship in a multicultural world. It will then describe initiatives the presenter has taken to engage students with the world beyond the classroom. These include overseas pen-pal programs, community research tasks, field trips to national NGO festivals, and overseas programs to Korea and Mexico. Most notable is the annual one-week Asian Youth Forum for EFL college students, designed to promote global awareness, international understanding, cross-cultural communication, and leadership skills.
The session will conclude by emphasizing the message of scholars, such as Bentley (1998) and Jacobs and Crookes (2022), that one key aspect of our mission as educators is to provide students with opportunities to use their language skills through real-world experiences in the local community and the wider world.
Kevin Cleary Invited Speaker Workshop: Exploring Global Identities in a Multicultural World
According to the current Course of Study of the Japanese Ministry of Education, the goals of foreign language teaching include developing students’ practical communication abilities, deepening their understanding of language and culture, and fostering a positive attitude toward cross-cultural communication (MEXT, n.d.). This latter goal of promoting positive attitudes toward communicating with people from different cultures can be hindered by student mindsets linked to ethnocentrism.
Early scholars, such as Cadd (1994) and Hinenoya (1997), have described the negative impacts that ethnocentric mindsets have on foreign language learning and on productive engagement with cultural others. More recent scholars, such as Cater (2020) and Walpole (2026), have discussed how Japan-centric thinking inhibits healthy interactions with people from other countries, whereas Bybee (2024) has explored ways to reduce student ethnocentrism through promoting students’ critical thinking.
This session will introduce a set of classroom-tested activities designed to break down “us/them” mindsets and encourage students to rethink their identities in a multicultural, interconnected world. The first activity has students explore the variety of connections they have with people overseas. The second has students calculate what percentage of their identity is linked to foreign countries and cultures. The third activity engages students in ranking the importance of different aspects of their identity from local to global.
Participants will come away with a better understanding of how to design classroom activities that broaden student perspectives, explore multicultural connections, and encourage students to redefine how they see themselves as citizens living in a global age.
Kevin Cleary Invited Speaker
Kip A. Cates
The theme of JALT2026 is Beyond the Classroom: From Local Voice to Global Impact. For me, this theme is especially relevant because it directly reflects the aims of JALT’s Global Issues in Language Education Special Interest Group (GILE SIG). When my colleagues and I founded this GILE SIG back in 1991, it became the world’s first professional language teaching group to address the field of global education.
Therefore, how can we engage our students with the world beyond the classroom? How can we empower them to find their voices and make a global impact? In this article, I will outline six levels where language teachers can invest their energies to promote these aims. Let’s start with the four Cs!
Classroom
The first C is the classroom, our home base. This is our launchpad for preparing students to become responsible global citizens in a multicultural world. How can we do this? We can do this by designing content-based lessons on global themes, by addressing UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); by having students discuss current events, and by experimenting with activities from fields, such as global education, peace education, and environmental education. Classroom teaching should aim to provide students with knowledge (about the world’s peoples, cultures, and issues), skills (critical thinking, problem solving, conflict resolution), attitudes (curiosity, empathy, respect for diversity), and action (encouraging students to “think globally and act locally”). Ideas can be found in resources such as Sampedro and Hillyard (2004).
Campus
The second C stands for campus. This means engaging students with activities on your college campus or school grounds. This can take several forms. One is assignments that require learners to interview foreign students, to talk to professors researching social issues, or to visit the international center to learn about overseas programs. Another is extracurricular activities that promote language learning and global awareness. These can include speech contests on environmental themes, a sister-city booth at the school festival, or talks by returned Peace Corps volunteers. More ambitious projects include starting a global issues study group, setting up a human rights club, launching a campus Global Awareness Week, or organizing school charity campaigns to raise money for war victims.
Community
The third C is for community—involving students with the outside world through community engagement. Educators such as Bentley (1998) and Jacobs and Crookes (2022) emphasize the value of giving students opportunities to grow through real-world experiences in the local community. These can include language learning excursions to local museums, NGO offices, or recycling centers. Another option is service learning. This aims to have students acquire knowledge, skills, and experience through tackling real-life problems in the local community. Service-learning projects can range from litter pickups to helping at homeless shelters, hospitals, or refugee centers. Kaye (2010) is a key guide to this field, and Radoman et al. (2024) provide an example of service learning through EFL.
Country
The fourth C stands for country. This involves seeking out destinations around the nation that provide students with opportunities that promote language learning and global awareness. In Japan, some schools arrange peace education trips to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These often include a language learning component that allows students to practice English while learning about war and peace. Other options can include visits to a major mosque (Kobe), an Ainu museum (Hokkaido), the United Nations University (Tokyo), or a world peace museum (Kyoto). Excursions can also include ethnic festivals (Brazil, India, Oktoberfest, etc.) or national events, such as Earth Day Tokyo and Global Festa, Japan’s largest gathering of global-issue NGOs. Vascellaro (2011) provides more ideas.
Region
The fifth level is world region. For language teachers in Japan, this means engaging students with neighboring countries in Asia. This can be done through school trips, video links, or online exchanges. My first attempt at promoting inter-Asian understanding was a 1991 English pen-pal program between Japan and Korea (Cates, 2016). This resulted in a rich series of exchanges that improved student writing skills while fostering friendship between Korean and Japanese youth. In 1999, I joined EFL colleagues in Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan to set up an annual Asian Youth Forum. This brought together students from across the region for an exciting week of activities designed to promote international understanding and leadership skills (Cates, 2017). There is an urgent need to work for better relations between Japan and its Asian neighbors, a task that language teachers can help to address.
World
The final level is to “go global” by engaging students with the wider world. This can be done in a few ways. One is by connecting students via online projects and exchanges with their peers around the globe. Hagley (2020) describes one example. Another way is by taking students abroad for study tours, international events, or volunteer projects. Smith (2002), for example, described how his Japanese students flew to Southeast Asia to teach disadvantaged children and build houses with Habitat for Humanity. Lynch (2006) reported on student eco-tours he arranged to Australia and Indonesia, and Zenuk-Nishide et al. (2019) explained what Japanese students learned from a Model United Nations in New York.
Taking part in overseas programs can be a life-changing experience. Unfortunately, taking students abroad involves several challenges. These include rising prices for flights and hotels, an unstable international situation, and a lack of student interest linked to fear of the outside world and “my-country-first” nationalism. According to Japan’s Foreign Ministry, only 17% of Japanese people have a passport, compared with the UK (80%), the US (48%), and South Korea (40%) (Inoue, 2025).
Conclusion
Giving students a chance to use their language skills in real-world situations is an invaluable experience that can promote language proficiency, global awareness, and personal growth. These six levels of engagement provide an exciting set of opportunities for teachers to explore. Educating beyond the classroom, whether at the local, national, or international levels, is a valuable part of our work as foreign language teachers.
References
Bentley, T. (1998). Learning beyond the classroom: Education for a changing world. Routledge.
Bybee, R. J. (2024). Exploring how to reduce ethnocentrism through critical analysis of foreign news reports in foreign language learning [Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University]. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/10760
Cadd, M. (1994). An attempt to reduce ethnocentrism in the foreign language classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 27(2), 143–160. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1994.tb01198.x
Cater, M. (2020). Japan has four seasons: Nihonjinron and native-speakerisms at the eikaiwa gakkou. In D. Hooper & N. Hashimoto (Eds.), Teacher narratives from the eikaiwa classroom: Moving beyond “McEnglish” (pp. 64–72). Candlin & Mynard. https://doi.org/10.47908/13/5
Cates, K. (Ed.). (1993). Global education [Special issue]. The Language Teacher, 17(5). https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/issues/1993-05_17.5
Cates, K. A. (2016). Healing colonial pain: English as a bridge between Japan and Korea. In C. Hastings & L. Jacob (Eds.), Social justice in English language teaching (pp. 65–78). TESOL Press.
Cates, K. (2017). Promoting inter-Asian understanding through English: Cross-border exchanges through an Asian Youth Forum. Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching, 12(2), 131–147. https://doi.org/10.25170/ijelt.v12i2.1474
Cates, K., & Mark, K. (Eds.). (1990). Global issues in language education [Special issue]. The Language Teacher, 14(5). https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/issues/1990-05_14.5
Hagley, E. (2020). Linking the world’s EFL classrooms: The IVE project. The Language Teacher, 44(5), 26–29. https://jalt-publications.org/articles/26152-linking-world’s-efl-classrooms-iveproject
Hinenoya, K. (1997). A sociolinguistic study of the effects of ethnocentrism and cultural traits on proficiency of Japanese speakers of English [Master’s thesis, Concordia University]. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/373/
Inoue, Y. (2025, February 25). Only 17% of Japanese own passports, Foreign Ministry says. The Japan Times. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/02/25/japan/society/japan-passport-holders/
Jacobs, G. M., & Crookes, G. V. (Eds.). (2022). Becoming community-engaged educators: Engaging students within and beyond the classroom walls. Springer.
Kaye, C. B. (2010). The complete guide to service learning: Proven, practical ways to engage students in civic responsibility, academic curriculum, & social action (2nd ed.). Free Spirit Publishing.
Lynch, J. (2006, June). Taking students on an overseas eco-tour. Global Issues in Language Education Newsletter, 61.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). (2023). National curriculum standards for high school: Part 8 Foreign languages. https://www.mext.go.jp/content/20230328-mxt_kyoiku02_100014466_001.pdf
Pike, G., & Selby, D. (1988). Global teacher, global learner. Hodder & Stoughton.
Radoman, D., Cerovic, M., & Bojic, M. (2024, July). Service-learning projects for EFL in Montenegro. Global Issues in Language Education Newsletter, 131, 14–16. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_4H33OdeqHmRLg1cqEULOJOVAawT01nf/view
Sampedro, R., & Hillyard, S. (2004). Global issues. Oxford University Press.
Smith, C. (2002). EFL and international community work. Global Issues in Language Education Newsletter, 48.
Vascellaro, S. (2011). Out of the classroom and into the world: Learning from field trips, educating from experience, and unlocking the potential of our students and teachers. The New Press.
Walpole, D. (2026). Nihonjinron discourse and English language learning attitudes: Unimpeded perspectives among Japanese high school students. Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, 26(1). https://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/ejcjs/vol26/iss1/walpole.html
Zenuk-Nishide, L., Tatsuki, D., & Hollenback, M. (2019). National Model United Nations: Building political and self efficacy. The Kobe Gaidai Ronso: The Kobe City University Journal, 71(1), 23–45. https://kobe-cufs.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2486
Kip A. Cates is professor emeritus in the Faculty of Regional Sciences at Tottori University. For the past 40 years, he has been active in the field of global education and language teaching as a writer, speaker, and teacher trainer. He is a founder of JALT’s Global Issues in Language Education Special Interest Group (GILE SIG; https://www.gilesig.org) and edits its quarterly Global Issues in Language Education Newsletter (https://www.gilesig.org/jalt-gile-sig-newsletter-archives). He has lived, worked, or traveled in 50 countries and speaks nine languages.
