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This study explored the effects of the writing experiences of supervisors on undergraduate English language thesis supervision, specifically focusing on the Japanese and Swedish tertiary contexts where English medium instruction (EMI) is delivered to students whose first language is not English. Employing a Collaborative Autoethnographic (CAE) approach, three teacher-researchers working at universities in Japan and Sweden jointly co-constructed their narratives about their own literacy practices in the historical development of their writing and current thesis supervision. Findings demonstrated limited influences of the teachers’ personal experiences on their practices, with social and educational norms in each country emerging as more significant factors. Particularly, the teacher-centeredness and exam-orientation were observed by the Japan-based supervisors to affect Japanese students, whereas the more horizontal relationship between students and teachers in Swedish education was reported as impacting university students’ autonomy in thesis writing. We concluded that in both tertiary EMI contexts, local embedded educational norms largely influenced teachers' supervisory practices.

While many universities offer foreign culture courses as part of their language programs, some of the materials and contents may promote stereotypes and essentialism. Although the definition of “culture” varies depending on field and context, students and teachers in foreign language classrooms commonly perceive culture unconsciously as national culture. Moreover, emphasizing cultural differences, a common practice in such courses, can also result in the formation of stereotypes. 

Many of my students taking courses on Japanese culture are initially fascinated by the surface culture and especially pop culture, including anime, manga, video games, and music as well as food, literature, and language. It is not uncommon for such students to have already formed specific stereotypes or images of Japan from the media they consume. 

This presentation will first introduce various ways of understanding culture. Thereafter, various challenges and initiatives involved in discussing foreign culture(s) with students will be shared using the course related to Japanese culture I teach at a Swedish university as an example. 

Based on previous studies of teaching culture as part of foreign language instruction, my own practice as well as course evaluations by students, I will propose an optimal design for a culture course that does not promote essentialism from the following perspectives: (1) selection of teaching materials presenting various perspectives and encouraging critical thinking; (2) appropriate ordering of topics from deep- to surface-level culture; and (3) learners’ identities. Instead of defining what culture is, teachers can provide opportunities for questioning and discussing how culture is used and what people do with it while deepening students’ understanding not only of Japanese culture but also of the diverse culture that surrounds each student's daily life promoting pluriculturalism.  

There have been a number of studies dealing with the concepts of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in primary, secondary and university education, especially in the European context, as plurilingual and intercultural education have long been promoted by the Council of Europe. However, little discussion of these two concepts has taken place in the context of adult education targeting employees in multinational workplaces. 

Due to the increasing number of companies purchased by or merged with a Japanese company in Sweden, the commissioned education course on “Communicating and Doing Business with the Japanese” I teach at our university has gained in popularity over the past several years. These multinational companies encourage managerial personnel to take such a course in the hope that they will learn the “Japanese way” of communication and conducting business. Despite their extensive experience living and working in other countries, with many of them capable of communicating in several languages at various proficiency levels, these learners often join the course with the expectation of molding themselves into something they are not. However, the course is designed to aid these learners in rethinking their identities as plurilingual- and pluricultural selves along with their roles in the multinational, multilingual company rather than learning to behave like Japanese business executives. This is implemented by first identifying their own plurilingualism and pluriculturalism of which they are initially unaware, followed by a critical analysis of the portrayal of how things are done the “Japanese way,” which is accomplished by exposing the learners to a variety of perspectives. A discussion of “culture” is also necessary as many of them consciously or unconsciously associate “culture” with “national culture.”

In this practical report, I will introduce the initiatives used in this commissioned education course to induce pluricultural thinking before results of the thematic analysis of follow-up interview data from former course participants are presented to show how they further developed plurilingual and pluricultural competence in their workplace over several years after the course ended. These testimonies make it evident that plurilingual and pluricultural awareness should be encouraged in adult education. 

成人教育における複言語主義と複文化主義の推進：日系スウェーデン企業を対象とした委託教育を例に

 欧州評議会により複言語及び異文化間教育が長年に亘って推奨されてきたため、初等・中等・高等教育における複言語、複文化主義に関してはこれまで多くの研究がなされてきた。しかしこういった議論は多国籍企業の雇用者を対象とした成人教育においてはほとんど表面化していない。

 スウェーデンにおいては近年、日本企業による現地企業の買収または合併案件が増加しており、筆者が勤務大学を通じて提供している日本人とのコミュニケーション及びビジネス手法についての委託教育講座が人気を集めている。これらの企業は「日本流」のコミュニケーションやビジネス手法を学ばせようと、管理職に対しこのような講座の受講を奨励している。受講者は他国での生活や仕事の経験があり、習熟度の差こそあれ複数の言語を使用できるにも関わらず、その多くが「より日本人らしい言動」を身につけることを希望している。しかし、この講座は日本のビジネスマンのように振る舞うことを学ぶのが目的ではなく、複言語および複文化を持つ自身のアイデンティティの認識と、多国籍企業における自分の役割を再考するのに役立つようデザインされている。その実現のため、今まで気づいていなかった自らの内の複言語と複文化の存在を認識させ、受講者を様々な視点に触れさせ議論させることで、「日本流」に関する固定観念を批判的に分析できるよう促す。また、無意識に「文化」を「国民文化」と結びつける学習者が多いため、「文化」の定義についての議論も必要となる。 

 本実践報告では、この委託教育講座における複文化主義的思考を促す取り組みについて紹介すると共に、過去の受講者の追跡インタビューの主題分析の結果から、講座終了後の数年間に彼らが職場でどのように複言語および複文化主義を実践してきたかを紹介する。参加者の証言は、成人教育においても複言語・複文化の認識をより深める必要があることを示唆している。

今日，日本国内をはじめ海外の教育機関においても「日本文化」を含む日本事情のコースが外国語としての日本語教育の一環として多く存在するが，ステレオタイプや本質主義を助長しかねないような教材や内容の物も数多く見受けられる。「文化」の定義は分野やコンテキストによって実に多様であるが，多くの学生，そして教員が無意識に「文化」＝ 国民文化として捉えているのが一般的なのではないだろうか。また文化間の差異を強調することによりステレオタイプを形成する結果になってしまっていることも多いと感じられる。

 日本に興味を持つ学生の多くは，表層文化，つまりアニメや漫画，ビデオゲームや音楽といったポップカルチャーや食べ物，文学，言語などに関心を持っている。そういった学生の中では，「日本文化」に関するコースを履修する以前に，既に接触のあるそれらの媒体を基に日本に対する特定のステレオタイプやイメージが出来上がっていることも少なくない。

 本発表では「文化」についての様々な捉え方を提示した上で，自身が欧州の大学で担当する日本事情のコースを例に，学生と共に「日本文化」について考察する際の課題と取り組みについて共有する。外国語教育の一環としての「文化」教育に関する先行研究を踏まえて，自らの実践と学生のコース評価を基に，(1) 教材選択 （多様な視点の提供・批判的視点の推進），(2)トピックの導入順序（深層から表層文化へ），(3) 学習者のアイデンティティの３つの観点から本質主義を助長しない「文化」教育の在り方について検証すると共に，「文化」とは何かを定義しようとする代わりに，「文化」は人々によってどのように利用/使用されているのかについて問いかけ，「日本文化」のみならず，学生一人一人の日常をとりまく多種多様な文化についての理解も深める機会をどのように提供できるのかを提案する。

Can Culture be Taught? 

Issues and Initiatives in Teaching a Course on Japanese Culture

While many universities offer Japanese Culture courses as part of their language programs, some of the materials and contents may promote stereotypes and essentialism. Although the definition of “culture” varies depending on field and context, students and teachers in foreign language classrooms commonly perceive culture unconsciously as national culture. Moreover, emphasizing cultural differences, a common practice in such courses, can also result in the formation of stereotypes. 

Many students taking courses on Japanese culture are initially fascinated by the surface culture and especially pop culture, including anime, manga, video games, and music as well as food, literature, and language. It is not uncommon for such students to have already formed specific stereotypes or images of Japan from the media they consume. 

This presentation will first introduce various ways of understanding culture. Using the course related to Japanese culture I teach at a European university as an example, various challenges and initiatives involved in discussing Japanese culture with students will be shared. Based on previous studies of teaching culture as part of foreign language instruction, my own practice as well as course evaluations by students, I will propose an optimal design for a culture course that does not promote essentialism from the following perspectives: (1) selection of teaching materials presenting various perspectives and encouraging critical thinking; (2) appropriate ordering of topics from deep- to surface-level culture; and (3) learners’ identities. Instead of defining what culture is, teachers can provide opportunities for questioning and discussing how culture is used and what people do with it while deepening students’ understanding not only of Japanese culture but also of the diverse culture that surrounds each student's daily life.

Contemporary workplaces are characterized by diversity, involving participants from multiple linguistic and cultural traditions. In such settings, translanguaging is considered a common practice in which multilinguals “create an apparently seamless flow between languages and language varieties and to transcend the boundaries between named languages and/or language varieties as well as the boundaries between language and other semiotic systems” (Hua et al., 2022, p. 315). Little research, however, exists on such practices in multilingual workplaces (Du & Zhou, 2022), and even less on the linguistically diverse Swedish workplace. To gain greater insight into the seamlessness, transcendence, and boundaries such language users create and perceive, we explore the communication practices of employees in different Swedish workplaces. As an initial departure point, five employees in managerial positions were interviewed in the pilot study. We adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing “culture” as a dynamic concept, which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. Findings show that categorisations of languages are prevalent, with participants applying a scale of linguistic sophistication or complexity and ranking formality conventions on a strong-to-weak scale. When categorising people and groups, participants foreground identity and face, and group dynamics is a recurring theme, with distinctions made between groups and orientations. This presentation focuses on participants’ descriptions of L1 and L2 identities and their perceived effects on workplace communication. Findings suggest that translanguaging has yet to be commonplace in the workplaces we investigated and shed light on lay perspectives on (trans)languaging in the workplace.

References

Du, J., & Zhou, X. (2022). Translanguaging practices in Chinese/English bilingual engineers’ communications in the workplace. Applied Linguistics Review, 13(3), 389-402.

Hua, Z., Jones, R.H. & Jaworska, S. (2022). Acts of distinction at times of crisis: An epistemological challenge to intercultural communication research. Language and Intercultural Communication, 22(3), 312-323.

In this talk, we present a research project that we plan to launch in late 2023. The aim of the project is to investigate professional communication in video meetings, which is justified given their growing importance in the modern and post-pandemic workplace. The setting is workplaces in Sweden where English is used as a lingua franca, due to the increasing societal impact of multilingual workplaces. In the specific context of study, communication is embedded in several layers of complexity: It takes place in an institutional setting; it is digital and takes place in video mode; it is done across cultures and marked by diversity; and it is done partly in English as a lingua franca. The project focuses on internal communication within the workplace and does not consider external communication, for example involving customers. The overarching research question is: What factors contribute to (un)successful digital intercultural interactions in multilingual workplaces, specifically in video meetings? To map the characteristics of video meetings, we compare them to in-person meetings. We thus ask: (a) What (perceived and actual) differences and similarities are there between digital and in-person workplace meetings? To map the video meeting as a genre, we ask: (b) What are the key structural, linguistic, and interactional patterns of the video meeting? Given the central role of English as a lingua franca in these workplaces, we ask: (c) To what extent and how does English language proficiency—including participants’ beliefs about and attitudes to English language proficiency—affect workplace communication in digital intercultural interactions? Finally, we adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing ‘culture’ as a dynamic concept (e.g., Hua et al., 2022), which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. We ask: (d) To what extent and how is culture seen as relevant in multilingual workplaces? Participants will be interviewed about communication practices in the workplace both individually and in focus groups. We will also record and analyze samples of (i) video and (ii) in-person meetings, to enable triangulation of different types of data. We conclude by discussing how the project's findings can be used as a basis for best practices and for developing workplace communication training materials.

Contemporary workplaces are often characterized by diversity, involving participants from multiple linguistic and cultural traditions (e.g., Angouri, 2014). In such settings, participants draw on their rich cultural assumptions and values to co-construct meaning (e.g., Takamiya & Aida Niendorf, 2019), as language use and communication patterns have been found to be inextricably linked to different group belongings. While diversity enriches workplace interaction linguistically and culturally, it also presents “communicative challenges to many employers and co-workers” (Holmes, 2018, p. 335). These communicative challenges include increased likelihood of miscommunication, social exclusion (Lønsmann, 2014), and limited interpersonal communication (Tange & Lauring, 2009). While considerable research has been devoted to understanding intercultural workplaces communication, little research exists on the linguistically and culturally diverse Swedish workplace. To gain greater insights into how diversity may enrich workplace interaction and the communicative challenges employees may experience, this pilot study explores employees’ attitudes to and beliefs about intercultural communication in the Swedish workplace. The pilot study is part of a larger project on digital professional communication in multilingual workplaces in Sweden. Five employees in managerial positions in Swedish higher education and corporations were interviewed. We adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing “culture” as a dynamic concept, which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. Findings show that: (a) language competence in English is seen as indexing general competence; (b) categorisations of cultures are prevalent: Participants often view culture as synonymous with nation and point at differences between groups as a challenge to achieve effective communication; (c) identity and face are foregrounded: Some participants feel like a different person when using a different language, while others see a specific language as a way to adopt a different persona or professional role; and (d) culture and language are used to explain group dynamics (e.g., feeling as an outsider or as part of the group), and as tools to actively integrate or exclude others. The material has raised our awareness about not seeing the workplace as a monolith, but workplaces may be marked by internal variation when it comes to intercultural communication. 

References   Angouri, J. (2014). Multilingualism in the workplace: Language practices in multicultural contexts. Multilingua 33, 1-9.     

Holmes, J. (2018). Intercultural communication in the workplace. In B. Vine (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language in the workplace (pp. 335-347). Routledge.    

Lønsmann, D. (2014). Linguistic diversity in the international workplace: Language ideologies and processes of exclusion. Multilingua 33, 89–116.    

Takamiya, Y. & Aida Niendorf, M. (2019). Identity (re)construction and improvement in intercultural competence through synchronous and asynchronous telecollaboration: Connecting Japanese language learners in the United States and Sweden. In Zimmerman, E. & McMeekin, A. (Eds.), Technology-supported learning in and out of the Japanese language classroom: Theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical developments (pp. 111-145). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.    

Tange, H., & Lauring, J. (2009). Language management and social interaction within the multilingual workplace. Journal of Communication Management 13(3), 218–232.     

近年のCALLに関する研究において、オンラインツールを外国語学習に利用することにより、「真正な」異文化環境が築けることが実証されている。過去の研究は母語話者と非母語話者間の交流を対象にしたものが主であったが、本研究では非母語話者同士の日本語を媒体としたテレコラボレーションを通して、学生のアイデンティティーがどのように構築されていくのかに焦点をあてる。

異なったL1背景を持つ２つの日本語学習者グループの非同期記述式（ブログ）と同期口述式（オンラインディスカッション）コミュニケーション活動から得たデータをHoughton (2012)の異文化間対話モデル ( IDモデル) を枠組みとし、分析を行った。IDモデルは 以下の5段階から構成される：1) 自己分析; 2) 他者の分析; 3) 自己と他者の価値の類似性（または差異）の批判的分析; 4) 自己と他者の価値について特定の基準を参照した批判的評価; 5) アイデンティティーの構築。

分析結果は、学生の選択する単語ひとつひとつが自身のイメージ又は他者に見られたい自分のイメージを形成すると同時に、自身のアイデンティティーへの理解を深めることに繋がっていることを示唆している。またIDモデルにおいても、1)に先立って「自己についての認識なし」という新たな段階の存在が見受けられた。更に1)の自己認識は、1-a) 単独アイデンティティーの認識、1-b) 複数のアイデンティティーの認識、の二つのサブステージを踏んで展開していくことも分かった。データによると、4)においても複数の学生がそれぞれ違った自己と他者に関する批判的評価をしていた。それは既存のアイデンティティー構築モデルが対応していない、自文化の基準と日本の文化基準の混在によるものと考えられる。つまり、異なるL1背景を持つ非母語話者同士の交流の多文化的性質はアイデンティティーの構築をより促進すると言えるだろう。また、本発表では、テレコラボレーションのマルチモーダル分析の可能性についても言及する。

Recent studies of Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) demonstrate that authentic intercultural contexts can be achieved by the use of online tools so as to enhance students’ foreign language learning and identity development. While previous research on telecollaboration and identity has mainly focused on NS-NNS interactions, this study investigates various stages of identity construction through NNS-NNS telecollaborative interactions using Japanese as lingua franca. 

The study (which was conducted together with a researcher in the U.S.) examines two sets of NNSs with different L1 backgrounds, namely NNSs of Japanese from universities in the US and Sweden. The project combines telecollaborative activities consisting of both asynchronous written (blogs) and synchronous verbal (online discussions) communication.

The Intercultural Dialogue (ID) model (Houghton, 2012) was used to evaluate the outcome. The model consists of five stages: 1) Analysis of Self; 2) Analysis of Other; 3) Critical analysis of value similarities (or differences) between Self and Other; 4) Critical evaluation of the values of Self and Other relative to a standard; and 5) Identity development.

Our findings indicate that through their written and oral discussions in Japanese, the students’ choice of words constructed images of the person they are or wished to be perceived as while building an understanding of their own identities. This shows that language use does not necessarily reflect who one is but is used to contribute to the construction of one’s identities. It was also observed that there exists a stage prior to the first stage in the ID-model, namely a “no-awareness” stage. Furthermore, our findings indicate that Stage 1 “Awareness of Self” occurs as two sub-stages: 1-a) Awareness of single identity; and 1-b) Awareness of having multiple identities. Our data also suggest that at one point, several students were offering different critical evaluations of Self and Other as a result of their own and the Japanese cultural standard not fitting the standard identity development model, suggesting that the multicultural nature of NNS-NNS interactions involving different L1 backgrounds can accelerate identity development.

The potential and challenges of multimodal analysis of intercultural telecollaboration are also discussed.

While synchronous online telecollaboration has been gaining popularity in foreign language education over the past few decades, both Multimodal Communicative Competence and Intercultural Communicative Competence have become increasingly important as a result of many educational institutions, business establishments, and governmental organizations being forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to switch their means of communication to online video conferencing systems.

Although access to digital communication technology and tools allow more people to be part of intercultural communicative exchanges, it is suspected that a considerable amount of miscommunication is caused by mis- or non-understanding of the variety of modes used in synchronous digital communication due to differences in interlocutors’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds, which can affect verbal and prosodic elements such as speed, pitch, and intonation as well as non-verbal dimensions such as facial expressions, gaze, and gestures together with spatial aspects and the positioning of participants in the video frame.

Existing methods of multimodal analysis of digital communication often deal with monolingual situations. Even in cases of analysis of intercultural communication, at least one of the participating parties use their native language. 

The current study intends to fill the research gap seen in methodological issues concerning the analysis of multimodal, and (specifically) synchronous, digital intercultural communication when a non-native language is used by all participants as a lingua franca. To this end, methodological implications of multimodal analysis of synchronous digital intercultural interactions between Swedish and U.S. participants using Japanese as a lingua franca were explored, highlighting challenges that surfaced during the analysis of the data gathered for a separate study of identity development through online telecollaboration and focusing especially on the problems that may arise when a third language is used as means of communication between non-native speakers.