Students’ Perceptions of Effectiveness and Engagement of a Performed Culture Approach and Collaborative Online International Learning in Japanese Language Practices in Higher Education

The whole purpose of this project is to examine the Japanese language learners’ reactions to Performed Culture Approach (PCA) and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). PCA is a language learning approach based on experiential learning, and students are asked to perform in a class. PCA has ACT classes which students are asked to perform, and FACT classes which have explanations and discussion about the grammar points. COIL can create opportunities for the students to interact with people who are living far away using online platforms. The COIL project can be fitted in PCA nicely as an additional activity during the course because COIL can provide an authentic situation in which students can actually use and practice the target language to communicate with Japanese students in Japan with the online format. The collected data was analyzed and discussed in this capstone to see the effectiveness and students’ engagement in ACT class and the COIL project. The collected data indicated that the students\u27 engagement level was high, and students felt ACT class was an effective classroom setting for Japanese language learning. And the COIL project could be a supplemental activity to make the Japanese course even stronger and more enjoyable for the learners. Even though the COIL project has the possibility of lower engagement for some students and lower effectiveness for language learning in the elementary level, the COIL project as a part of PCA is still very useful and effective as a part of the students’ experience in the Elementary Japanese language courses