Keio Yokohama Elementary School "Global Communication Education"
The main visual shows a workshop on the Arabic language.
Mark Christianson
Teacher, Keio Yokohama Elementary School
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Interviewer: Keita Yamauchi (Vice-President)
The Meaning Behind the Name "GC"
──Mark, you have been in charge of English education since Keio Yokohama Elementary School opened in 2013. At the beginning, you proposed the subject name "GC (Global Communication) English" instead of just "English."
The biggest reason I chose the name "GC English" was because when I thought about what the students attending Keio Yokohama Elementary School would need to do most for Japan and the world in the future—10, 20, or 30 years from now—I felt it was "Global Communication." In other words, I wanted to emphasize acquiring the "foundation of the ability to communicate with people around the world." I proposed this because I wanted to aim for building a foundation during elementary school to become someone who can effectively cooperate with people from other countries and cultures, rather than just being able to do English as a subject of study.
──Specifically, what kind of abilities do you think are important during elementary school to "become someone who can effectively cooperate with people from other countries and cultures"?
"Skills" are important, but "values" (kokoro) are even more important. The motto we repeat in every GC class for lower grades is "Make friends around the world." In the upper grades, we add things like "make a peaceful world," and students become able to not only say the motto but also write it. At the elementary school stage, I want them to have the heart to want to become friends with people from other countries. Also, by actually experiencing communication with people from various cultures at the elementary school and trying out a foreign language, they gain the confidence and further motivation of "It worked!" and "I was able to share my feelings!" This is the important foundation of GC.
(The slide designs are by Mr. Bucknole, a fellow GC specialist.)
Of course, to experience communication and gain confidence, it is also important to have actual skills that build confidence, such as pronunciation, listening skills, the attitude to listen carefully to the other person's answer when asking a question, looking them in the eye, and considering their feelings. If you don't understand, it's important to have a resilient heart that doesn't give up, but instead asks back, "One more time please?" or "How do you spell that?" In GC, we aim to realize a cycle in the early stages of elementary school where students listen until they understand what the other person is saying and accumulate experiences of mutual understanding, which leads to confidence and further interest.
Experiences Touching on Languages Other Than English
──In that context, you are using various creative ways to spark interest not only in English but also in the languages and cultures of non-English speaking countries, aren't you?
To allow students to experience even a little of the "multilingual" and "multicultural" reality of the world, we have incorporated time to learn languages other than English into the GC curriculum for 2nd grade and above.
2nd graders learn about Portuguese and Brazilian culture. They practice greetings and very simple conversations in Portuguese and learn to say numbers from 1 to 10. A guest teacher makes a video for simple conversation practice, and after practicing "Obrigado" and "Ciao" repeatedly using that, the guest teacher comes to the class. The 2nd graders use Portuguese to greet them and interact using English and Japanese as well.
Following a similar flow, 3rd graders learn Chinese, 4th graders learn German, and 5th graders learn Arabic. They listen to and repeat a video of basic expressions for about one minute in almost every class, and then a guest teacher comes to the class for them to experience using that language.
For 3rd grade Chinese, international students from Keio University come around the time of the Lunar New Year in January, and they practice simple Chinese conversations. We provide a language and culture experience program where they interact by asking questions such as "What is life like in China?"
Arabic is also included because it is used in many countries and is a major language of the United Nations. In the past, a lecturer from the Keio Foreign Language School's Arabic course, who is from Libya, appeared at the school in traditional clothing and spoke about Arabic and the culture of the Arab world. He is skilled in Arabic calligraphy and writes each student's name on a card to give to them. In this way, we hold experience workshops to familiarize them with Islam and Arabic. This year, an international student from Morocco is scheduled to visit and interact with them.
Also, all 6th graders choose one country and conduct an activity where they research the main language of that country and examples of its greetings—such as Swahili if they choose Kenya—and share them with their classmates.
──How is the after-school interaction with international students from various countries?
Every year in April and October, we recruit international students who can come after school through the International Center and the International Exchange Services Group of the Office of Student Services. Centered on short-term exchange students, a team of about eight people from eight different countries comes each semester. After school, they come to the elementary school to play card games with students or help with a vocabulary proficiency test called the "GC Challenge."
Upper graders do an "Interview Rally." We distribute sheets with photos of the international students printed on them. When a student finds a person and interviews them, they get a sticker of that person's national flag to paste on the sheet. We do things like giving out a "Complete Medal" when they collect stickers from eight countries.
Interaction with international students has become embedded in the basic cycle of GC. Every year, we interview and hire students who seem likely to provide good interaction. They come about once or twice a week, and some come three times a week. During the periods of June–July and November–December, university students from various countries are in the GC room or multi-purpose rooms about three days a week after school, and students can interact with them. Some students gather because they want the flag or medal stickers, but that serves as a catalyst, and as they get older, many students communicate spontaneously and purely enjoy the interaction.
What is the Ability to Communicate Well with People Around the World?
──I understand that you plan to move forward using only the name "GC" instead of "GC English." What is the meaning behind this?
AI can now do quite a lot with English itself, and we are approaching a world where AI performs automatic translation in real-time. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that English will be the only necessary foreign language by the time elementary school students become adults. So, what should elementary school students become able to do? For students who will enter the world 10 years from now, what will undoubtedly be important is the ability to communicate skillfully and with consideration for people of any culture. Currently, English is convenient as a common language, so in GC classes, we experience learning English as a foreign language and trying to utilize it for communication, but English is not the only thing that is important. I want them to experience and gain confidence in how to succeed while making full use of various IT tools to communicate with people around the world.
To that end, we are creating exchange programs in partnership with schools in the UK and Australia, and I want to focus awareness on what kind of interaction and cooperation is possible and what should be done.
When they go to junior high school, they will study English more, and opportunities for study abroad will increase. While maintaining the experience of learning and acquisition—such as the importance of English as a tool and learning to use a foreign language properly from the basics—I want to shift the emphasis to how one can communicate in international projects.
For example, we are currently exploring new partnerships, such as pen-pal exchanges with an elementary school in South Korea. Also, in the first semester of this school year, almost all 5th graders at the elementary school were paired one-on-one with 5th graders at an elementary school in Taiwan and participated in a pilot project to communicate individually using an asynchronous video exchange site called FLIP. We are in an era where it is possible to realize learning not only with Japanese classmates but with children from all over the world. The elementary school is becoming equipped with the devices and IT environment to make this possible, so I want to explore those possibilities in the future.
English is ultimately just one tool, and I want to proceed with "GC" as the main focus. This is the reason why we are trying to change the subject name to "Global Communication" by removing the "English" from "English for Global Communication."
──I have heard that you yourself have had various GC experiences since you were a child. Those experiences are reflected in the development of your current classes, aren't they?
That's right. I came to Japan because my parents were missionaries, but my parents were not very proficient in Japanese. So, from the time I was a child, I often acted as an interpreter and translator for my parents, serving as a bridge between two cultures, so to speak. On the other hand, when I returned to the United States, I needed time to get used to America because I had lived in Japan for so long. The experience of being between two cultures made me think about how to get along well with people from completely different cultural backgrounds, and I have experienced many things since I was small.
Also, as an adult, I taught English at a university in China for two years. Life there involved communication misunderstandings and quite a bit of culture shock. There, too, I had experiences where I gained confidence little by little through interaction while making repeated mistakes with language and culture.
──I have high expectations for the future endeavors of you and the GC department. Thank you very much for today.