Abstract:

The rapidly evolving situation of COVID-19 is challenging the traditional structure of classroom learning. In many places the use of online solutions has gone from a supplementary position to a primary one. In light of this shift, this report focuses on a language course structured as a project-based collaborative project conducted using online tools.

In the authors’ preliminary project, students used the Design Thinking method to discover and address issues specific to the foreign-resident community. Through this approach they learned not only the Design Thinking methodology, but also English communication and teamwork strategies, applying their knowledge of technology, and deepening their relationship with the community in the process throughout the course of the project. This project applies the Design Thinking method to address a new need in the foreign-resident community. Students use the target language throughout the entire process as a tool for finding and solving problems. The project also allows students to discern the necessities for living in a given community that they may have never considered, and improve the day-to-day life of its residents and city services.

Extending from our project-based language course, the authors planned to conduct a dual target-language learning project. The original plan was an in-person collaboration between English as a foreign language (EFL) and Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) learners, however, the onset of the pandemic compelled us to conduct the entire process online.

The course consisted of a series of assignments involving interviews, and finding problems and solutions using online tools, such as Zoom and Slack, between EFL and JFL learners at universities in Japan and the US. In the interview assignments, students interviewed residents in the local community about their daily life in Japan. Then, EFL learners shared the information with JFL learners in the U.S. over Slack, and discussed how to solve a given problem.

In this presentation we will provide an overview of the project and report how we conducted a project-based learning course during the pandemic, paying special attention to student perception of the activities to solve community problems.

Furthermore, we will share the challenges that we encountered, along with the pedagogical implications of the results.

Keywords:

Project-Based Learning, Language Learning (PBL), English as a foreign language (EFL), Japanese as a foreign language (JFL).