抄録
Despite the importance of enhancing pre-service English teachers’ intercultural understanding, few previous studies have suggested effective classroom activities to achieve it. The present study designed an activity titled “Intercultural Understanding Support Discussion.” It was conducted repeatedly during an English teacher training course on intercultural understanding in a university and its effects were measured. Participants included 37 students majoring in education at a university in Japan. During the activity, the participants practiced encouraging their imaginary friends or colleagues to help with their cultural understanding in English. The activity had seven objectives for enhancing intercultural understanding and one objective about learning English. Surveys, weekly assignments, and writing tasks were analyzed to examine the achievement of these objectives, participants’ motivation, and their perceptions of the activity. The results indicated that the activity was effective in enhancing pre-service teachers’ intercultural understanding and English language skills. Additionally, most participants were strongly motivated. However, some aspects require improvement, such as the length of the pre-speaking preparation time and instructions for avoiding cultural overgeneralization.
