'The Impact of Short-Term Study Abroad Experiences on Japanese University Students' Communicative Competence in English' is the title of the next seminar in the series Malta Review of Educational Research (MRER).
The speaker is Professor Yoko Sato, Hosei University, Tokyo. Professor Carmel Borg, Editor, Malta Review of Educational Research (MRER) will chair the seminar.
The seminar will be held on Thursday 12 April at 17:30 in the Open Access Area, Room 224, Faculty of Education, Old Humanities, University of Malta, Msida Campus.
Abstract
This presentation reports on some of the findings of a series of studies investigating the impact of short-term study abroad experiences on the oral communicative competence of Japanese university students. Pre- and post-test data were elicited through one-to-one, face-to-face oral proficiency interviews, each between a student and a native speaker interlocutor-examiner. The interview performances were rated by the examiners using the public version of the IELTS Speaking band descriptors. The interviewers were also asked to rate and provide comments on the negative affective impact that the students’ performances had on them. This is to explore the pragmatic aspect of communication, which was not adequately covered by the IELTS descriptors. The pre- and post-test data were compared to find out to what extent and in what area/s the students’ performance improved after the study abroad experiences.
Bio-note
Yoko Sato is Professor of EFL/TESOL at Hosei University, Tokyo, and a core member of the Study Abroad Committee of the Faculty of Business Administration. She holds an MA in English Literature from Chuo University, Japan, and an MA in TEFL and a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Reading, UK. Her research interests include the impact of study abroad experiences on L2 learners’ communicative competence, bilingual education, and English Medium Instruction.
