Effective Approaches to Adult Language Teaching in the Multicultural Australian Classroom: Cultural Issues

Abstract

In recent years the Australian federal government has seen Australian universities as entities that can serve the international market for Japanese language competency. However, the resulting multiculturalism in the classroom could be a hidden obstacle to the effective teaching of a foreign language to adults. The importance of this issue is also emphasized by the need for foreign language teachers to address their role as one of intercultural language teaching. What teaching strategies are most effective for teaching different L1 groups?

 Members of three different L1 groups, Chinese, Korean and English were tested on their Japanese writing skills after a 14-week course on expository writing in Japanese. This was part of their third year Japanese Language course.

The Chinese Group excelled in Kango writing skills, but found the use of traditional Japanese Ki Shoo Ten Ketsu text structures difficult. The Korean Group coped well with the syllabary based Yamatokotaba but the incidental observation was made that it found the Ki Shoo Ten Ketsu text structure and the sudden topic changein the Ten section of the text type difficult. Like the Koreans, Kango writing skills also challenged the English group. Members of the English group also did not score well on the use of repetition to promote thematic continuity.

The results of the research support the intercultural language teaching approach. A number of strategies are suggested to address the needs of student’s specific foreign language and culture.