In this paper, I present practices that incorporate audio-visual materials into educational lectures for international understanding.

The ideal method for international understanding is face-to-face communication among students. At the university, foreign students are valuable for such courses. Therefore, in the classroom, I promote exchanges between Japanese and foreign students through a variety of group activities. However, I cannot provide simulations of international experiences in every topic, such as those involving overseas or returnee students, foreign students living in Japan, and Japanese students studying abroad. Consequently, I discovered that audio-visual (AV) materials are effective to compensate for the lack of face-to-face international experiences. I focus on the contents of the AV materials that I select and edit to verify whether they are consistent with the purpose and theme of the class. This ensures that the materials will hold the attention and interest of the students.

AV materials broaden the outlook of students, reduce prejudice, and raise awareness about unknown societies or cultures. On the other hand, students’ misconceptions might inadvertently be strengthened by stereotypical images of other cultures, as AV materials only partially present the facts. Therefore, media literacy education is also required in teaching international understanding.