Disaster Preparedness Activities for Beginner-Level Japanese Learners to Improve Their Self-Help Skills

Abstract

　This paper reports on disaster preparedness learning activities aimed at improving self-help skills, which were conducted in a beginner-level Japanese language course for graduate students at a university in Tokyo. It describes what international students experienced and what they gained based on records of the activities and reflections from both participating students and the instructor. The GLI model (Mitsuhara, 2018), which proposes a method to overcome challenges in conventional disaster preparedness learning, was applied to the learning activities conducted in the course. The implementation consisted of 1) watching a documentary film about the Great East Japan Earthquake, 2) reading activities about natural disasters in Japan, 3) experiential learning at a life safety learning center, 4) fieldwork on campus, 5) fieldwork off campus, and 6） dissemination of information about disaster preparedness. The following three benefits were obtained from these activities: 1) students learned basic and practical information about natural disasters in a realistic way, 2) students were provided with a place to learn Japanese language related to natural disasters effectively, and 3) students raised their awareness of the need to protect themselves from natural disasters.