In this paper, an effort is made to explore the authors' involvement as resource persons and facilitators in an exchange programme between Japan and India. The 15-day programme was created to understand the culture and rich heritage of India, particularly Rajasthan, by involving Japanese participants in a Tour based student exchange programme. The…

This study examines the possibility that interaction through social network platforms can serve as an informal means of developing intercultural competence among international students in higher education settings. Japanese students studying in the United States at a university in the Northwestern US were invited to participate in a mixed-method…

There is currently strong recognition within the field of intercultural language teaching of the need for language learners to develop the ability to actively interpret and critically reflect on cultural meanings and representations from a variety of perspectives. This article argues that cultural representations contained in language textbooks,…

English-speaking learners of L2 Spanish who were taking part in a four-week study abroad program in Spain and Japanese-speaking learners of L2 English who were individually studying in year-long abroad experiences participated in the present study. Quantitative and qualitative data from language questionnaires and contact profiles along with…

The International Virtual Exchange Project (IVEProject) has been connecting students across multiple countries through asynchronous forums on a large scale since 2015. However, considering the variety of virtual exchange methods and the advantages they bring to the field of foreign language learning, there is an increased need to explore the…

As internationalization in the learning environment is still developing in Japan, there is a need for further practical research in foreign language education which embeds international cooperative learning. The study reported in this paper aimed to explore the effectiveness of Intercultural Cooperative Project-Based Learning (IC-PBL) based on the…

Researchers and intercultural educators have put forward various theoretical principles and pedagogical ideas related to the design and implementation of intercultural communication (IC) courses. Recently, researchers have called for curriculum development to include students' voices about their intercultural communication education (ICE). This…

While empirical investigations and the development of theories for studying intercultural communication are important for developing our understanding of what happens when people of diverse backgrounds come together, equally important are records of specific instances of contact as these provide opportunities to reflect on what we know; to…

This paper introduces and analyzes a cooperative learning (CL) group survey project implemented in a freshman university English-as-a-foreign-language class focused on intercultural communication and taught at a co-ed university in the Tokyo metropolitan area in the spring semester, 2008. The project consisted of three phases, with students…

Educational research in cooperative learning suggests that inequity based on perceived status may be an issue with heterogeneous cooperative learning groups. This paper explores issues of status based on race, ethnicity and cultural background in the New Zealand tertiary classroom where there is a diverse mix of domestic and international…