Nationalism and Internationalisation in the Japanese University classroom: Active Learning as a Tool to Bridge Multiple Linguistic and Cultural Divides.

Japanese have long been simultaneously fascinated and threatened by the international. Since the 1980s, the discourse of kokusaika (internationalisation) has promoted both a more open approach to the international but, at the same time, a defensive, nationalistic stance. These contradictions can be felt in the classroom. On the one hand, ‘education for international understanding’ classes have been part of the primary school curriculum since 2002. In terms of English, the government’s goal is that every high school student will be able to communicate in everyday English in normal communicative situations by the time they graduate. Also, more and more universities are switching from language classes (classes on English) to content based courses (classes in English). On the other hand, students themselves, steeped in nationalistic discourses of a ‘uniquely’ unique Japan, often find the leap from ‘English class’ to ‘class in English’ too difficult to bridge, with many dropping out of the course or even university itself. In this way, internationally minded citizens and perhaps future scholars and members of the international relations community are lost. As ‘international’ educators in a non-English speaking environment, a key part of our job is to provide students with the tools to bridge the linguistic, cultural, and pedagogical divides they inevitably encounter when studying about the world outside Japan in a foreign language. Drawing on years of experience teaching Australia and Japanese studies in Japan, this paper looks at (a) some of the barriers in the ‘internationalisation’ of the Japanese university classroom and (b) practical techniques to help overcome these problems, specifically drawing on the wide range of activities and strategies known as active learning that involve students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]