Effects of International Online Video Talk in a Language Exchange Situation on Japanese EFL College Students Taking a Teacher Training Program

抄録

The effects of international online video talk in a language exchange situation on Japanese EFL (English as a foreign language) college students taking a teacher training program are discussed in this paper. Twenty-eight college students who were taking a teacher training program in Tokyo and 14 university students who were taking a Japanese language course in Melbourne, Australia, participated in an international exchange project through online video talk. The effects of this international exchange experience were researched, with special focus on the willingness of the Japanese students to communicate, their motivation to learn English, and their perspective on teaching English in high school. The video talk situation contributed to increasing their willingness to communicate, because they could have stronger feelings of friendship for their partners due to the visual information received through the video screen. Also, the language exchange situation led them to feel more motivated to acquire fluent English communication ability, because the high Japanese proficiency of some of their partners stimulated them to make more effort to learn English. Furthermore, they found the international exchange experience through video talk very impressive and came to think that they should use it in their future English teaching in high school.