[Feature: International Exchange at Keio University] Masami Nakajima: International Exchange at Affiliated Schools—The Significance of Exchange Between Affiliated Schools and Schools in Non-English-Speaking Regions

2024/10/07

In April 2023, I moved to Keio Shiki Senior High School after working at Keio Futsubu School for 17 years. Due to the nature of my subject, Foreign Languages, I had the opportunity to be involved in international exchange with Finland at Keio Futsubu School, and with both Finland and Taiwan at Keio Shiki Senior High School *1. Since these countries are not native English-speaking regions, the students communicate with each other using English as a foreign language. As an English teacher and as someone involved in international exchange at both the junior high and high school levels, I would like to consider the significance of exchange with schools in non-English-speaking regions.

While it seems that the number of students with overseas experience is increasing at both Keio Futsubu School and Keio Shiki Senior High School, the vast majority of students have either only traveled abroad or have no overseas experience at all. They learn English in the classroom and believe that being able to speak like native speakers from countries such as the US or UK is necessary in the global era. However, there are downsides to over-idealizing the native speaker standard. In fact, some students become excessively nervous in front of native speakers, and even though they are adapting to the other person's native language, they assume their own lack of English proficiency is to blame if they are not understood. As a result, they may lose motivation for learning English or become timid about communicating through English.

Exchange with people from non-English-speaking regions plays a major role in dispelling such concerns. If the exchange partner is a school in an English-speaking region, it is common for us to use English to match the other person's native language. However, when the partner is from a non-English-speaking region like Finland or Taiwan, English is a foreign language for both parties, allowing for interaction on equal footing. Furthermore, since interactions between non-native speakers are based on the premise that English will not be perfect, an attitude of trying to communicate without fear of making mistakes begins to sprout. I believe this is extremely valuable for junior high and high school students as they consider how they should use English.

Keio Futsubu School students who participated in the exchange with Finland gained various insights. They noticed that even Finnish people who are fluent in English make quite a few pronunciation and grammar mistakes. They saw that staff members other than English teachers, as well as ordinary people they met in town, would work hard to explain things by switching to English for the students who did not know Finnish. They realized that even their developing English could get the message across, and therefore it was okay to speak up proactively, etc. Many students became positive about communicating using English. This sense of achievement led to further growth. Some students began to speak up more actively in class after the exchange, and others became interested in countries outside the English-speaking world. Some have even gone on to study abroad in non-English-speaking countries as high school or university students. One student even learned Finnish after the exchange and revisited their former host family as a university student.

The exchange with Taiwan at Keio Shiki Senior High School also provides many insights. When we hosted Taiwanese students in July 2024, both the Keio Shiki students and the Taiwanese students responded flexibly to situations where communication in English was difficult, such as by writing out Kanji characters or mixing Japanese into English sentences. The commonality of Kanji supplemented their lack of English proficiency and eased the tension of feeling they had to speak "good English." The attitude they showed—aiming for mutual understanding by skillfully utilizing not only English but also their various linguistic knowledge and socio-cultural backgrounds—is essential when interacting with people from diverse backgrounds in a global society.

English has long been called a global lingua franca or international language because it is the language most frequently chosen when people with different native tongues attempt to communicate. Because English is shared worldwide, it incorporates the influences and linguistic characteristics of each speaker's native language, resulting in the existence of diverse Englishes. Keeping this reality in mind, while using native-speaker English as a learning benchmark, it is important not to treat it as an absolute. Instead, one should assume the existence of various English varieties and users, and maintain a flexible and tolerant attitude to attempt communication according to the partner. Skills such as occasionally switching part of the language to something other than English, or rephrasing into simple and plain English, will be indispensable, especially when the partner is not a native English speaker.

Exchange with non-English-speaking regions provides an opportunity for participating students to reconsider their conventional, native-speaker-centric views on English and communication. I feel that one of the great significances of the exchanges with Finland and Taiwan at Keio Futsubu School and Keio Shiki Senior High School lies here. As a Japanese teacher teaching English as a global lingua franca, I want to help students who will likely be active in the global world in the near future by conveying that they should interact with people around the world with confidence even if they are not perfect, and by demonstrating that attitude myself.