ICIS Newsletter - December 2021 (Plain Text Version)
|
||
|
In this issue: |
USING THE SENPAI/KOHAI RELATIONSHIP TO MOTIVATE JAPANESE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS Aviva Ueno, Meiji Gakuin University, Yokohama, Japan
"Please listen to the voices of university students. I'm a freshman who has never attended a real lecture, and I'm at the end of my tether" (as cited in Shoji, 2020). These words perfectly capture the feelings of frustration that many first-year university students have been experiencing after the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in universities in Japan moving to an online learning format from the 2020 academic year. In the "before times," it was common for Japanese universities to welcome incoming students with an orientation week mainly run by upper-level students which included recruitment for club activities and opportunities to learn about campus life and study abroad programs. Orientation week is an essential part of incoming students' transition to university because they can develop relationships with upper-level students. This hierarchical relationship, known as the senpai (senior)/kohai (junior) relationship, is deeply embedded in Japanese culture. Based on seniority, it exists within all educational, business, or sports settings in Japan. It is a codependent relationship in which senpai are responsible for teaching and mentoring their kohai, and in return, kohai show respect for their senpai (Takeuchi, 2015). However, in 2020, due to the pandemic, orientation week was canceled, and incoming students had no chance to receive guidance from their senpai. For many students, starting university without developing this vital senpai/kohai relationship exacerbated feelings of isolation and adversely affected all aspects of their university life, including their motivation to study English. Therefore, when it became clear that classes would remain online in our university for the entire 2020 academic year, as an English instructor, it became crucial for me to find a way to motivate my first-year students. With the help of three outstanding third-year students I could bring new excitement and purpose to a first-year English communication class by tapping into the senpai/kohai relationship. To preserve the anonymity of these students, I have used pseudonyms below. The Kohai In April 2020, as we began the new academic year online, my first-year students were uncomfortable in our Zoom classes. It was challenging to elicit responses or get students to express their opinions. Thinking that it was unnerving for students to speak in front of the whole class, I incorporated breakout sessions to allow students to discuss in small groups before eliciting responses in the main room. However, when I monitored the breakout rooms, I discovered that many students were still reluctant to speak English, even in small groups, and either spoke Japanese or remained silent. When I asked about this reluctance, Yuta commented, “It is hard to make friends when we have never met, and I can't express my opinion in English in front of people I don't know well” (translated by the author from Japanese). Near the end of the semester, when I asked about summer plans, students expressed disappointment about canceled study abroad programs and overseas travel. I realized that the pandemic had dashed aspirations to go overseas, where they could have used their English and learned about different aspects of English-speaking cultures. This added disappointment further dampened the students' motivation. The Senpai As I was contemplating how to increase my learner's motivation in the second semester, I received a message from Mona, a former student currently in her third year whose study abroad program had been cut short by COVID-19. Returning to Japan to online courses that were primarily asynchronous was deeply disappointing for her. When she was a first-year student, she was inspired to study abroad by listening to her senpai talk about their experiences studying English and learning about other cultures overseas. Although she wanted to do the same for her kohai, she had no opportunity to meet them because of the pandemic, so she volunteered to be my teaching assistant in my first-year class. Rika and Mia, two of her classmates who had returned from studying overseas, also wanted to volunteer. The Senpai/Kohai Project I was confident that integrating the three senpai into my class could be the ideal remedy to rekindle my students' motivation, so I invited them to my first-year intermediate-level speaking class. The class had 14 female and four male students, aged 18-19 years old. The course objectives were to develop English language speaking, discussion, and presentation skills. It was a 90-minute class that met once a week on Zoom for the 15-week semester. On the first day of the semester in September 2020, when the three senpai introduced themselves, I could feel the excitement bubbling up amongst the students -- even through the computer screen. After class, Ai and Hikaru stayed online (the first time they had done that!) and asked their senpai additional questions about studying abroad and university life. Afterward, Ai commented, "Getting a chance to talk to my senpai today was great! I thought my senpai are so cool!" Hikaru said, "I was going to give up my dream to study abroad, but now I want to try!" (translated from Japanese). Later, the three senpai said how fun the class had been and asked if they could come every week. In subsequent classes, they shared their contact information with their kohai and asked me to designate weekly chatting/bonding time in breakout rooms to field their kohai’s questions. It was an overwhelmingly positive experience that completely changed the class dynamic. As the course progressed, I observed significant changes in my learners' attitudes. Because there were three senpai, I could create four breakout rooms to give students more individualized attention from myself and their senpai. As a result, discussions were more animated, students spoke more confidently, and the use of Japanese and silence in the breakout rooms was minimal. The interaction with their senpai in breakout rooms combined with the positive reinforcement and constructive comments they received from them appeared to be highly meaningful to the students. The senpai concurred that student engagement and motivation was improving. The Outcomes An end-of-course survey with multiple-choice questions and sections for comments was completed by 17 of 18 students. The three senpai completed a similar survey. The responses confirmed what I had observed regarding the positive shift in my learners' motivation to learn English. (Comments below were in English). When asked how their motivation for learning English had been affected by having their senpai join the class, 11 out of 17 respondents chose the response, "It has raised my motivation," and the six other respondents chose, "It has maintained my motivation." Sara commented that "All senpai were very good at speaking English, and that makes me feel like if I put in that much effort, I might be able to be like them in the near future, so it motivate [sic] me a lot." Mai said, "I was able to set goals by listening to their experiences." All 17 respondents agreed that it was helpful having their senpai join the class because they could ask questions about school, study abroad, study skills, and other courses. Nana said, "I was able to spend meaningful time listening to senpai talk about various things related to student life, such as studying abroad." Seiya said, "I don't know how university life is. So, senpai taught me how real school life is." All but one respondent, a student from China, indicated that it had been challenging adjusting to university life because they had not had a chance to meet their senpai. Another one of the Japanese students, Saki, commented that "Connections with senpai are key for first-year students to know what class or professor is good and how they should spend their university life, but we have few chances to get to know senpai. So, I think adjusting to university is harder than usual." The senpai were equally motivated by their experiences with their kohai. Rika commented that, for example, "the connection became a motivation to me. I was impressed by how well they made a speech and presentation. That was kind of shocking to me, and I realized I should keep learning English and other things more" and "I think it is important to help kohai and to be a good role model because it motivates them to study and improve their skills." Mona added that "having a relationship with the kohai has made me be like a senpai. Each class made me feel like I need to pull myself together and act like a third-year student!" The senpai /kohai project was a win-win solution. Having the senpai join the class as TA's every week raised both the senpai's and the kohai's motivation to improve their English language knowledge and skills. Moreover, developing relationships with their senpai helped many kohai set goals to not only improve their English but also to get more involved in university life and to study abroad. The senpai were able to feel satisfied that they had fulfilled their duties to their kohai. Much has been written about the senpai/kohai relationship within the business context (see Bright, 2005; Hosomi et al., 2020). However, the ways in which this deeply embedded Japanese cultural tradition can be used within education to motivate language learners is an area that seems to be largely unexplored. Further research may show that using the senpai/kohai relationship to motivate Japanese English language learners can help instructors in Japan and those teaching Japanese learners in other countries. References Bright, M. I. (2005). Can Japanese mentoring enhance understanding of Western mentoring? Employee Relations, 27(4), 325-339. Hosomi, M., Sekiguchi, T. and Froese, F.J. (2020), Mentoring in Japan: A systematic review and conceptual model. In Kumar, P. and P. Budhwar (Eds.), Mentorship-driven Talent Management (pp. 43-65). Emerald Publishing Limited. Shoji, K. (2020, November 7). Japan's students struggle to embrace online learning amid COVID-19. The Japan Times. Takeuchi, H. (2015). Peer tutoring in Japan: A new approach for a unique educational system. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 6(1), 112-119.
Aviva Ueno is an assistant professor at Meiji Gakuin University in Yokohama, Japan. Her research interests include reflective practice and learner motivation. She holds an MA TESOL from Anaheim University (California). |
|