Designing Online Language Courses : Lessons Learned from Teaching Vietnamese Language and Culture for Japanese Learners

This paper shows the lessons learned after several courses on “Basic Vietnamese language and culture” targeting Japanese university students and adult learners, which have been conducted in 2020. Influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic, the materials and methods prepared for conventional classroom have been adapted and modified to suit the online platform. Although intended for beginners, these courses have applied and integrated approach for teaching a language and its corresponding culture in line with principles of adult learning, active learning, and problem-based learning. The lessons were designed using a wide range of techniques such as videos, pictures, anecdotes, crosswords, open-ended question, quizzes using multiple choice answers followed by analysis of each choice, online test. For each lesson, the learners were introduced to new vocabulary and basic expressions related to a socio-cultural theme such as history, national character, medical system, sightseeing, business etc. Looking from the perspective of both learners and teachers by evaluations and reflections, these courses have shown some positive experiences and suggested points for improvement of online language classroom in the future

International Students’ Acceptance of Online Learning During Pandemic : Some Exploratory Findings

The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 has impacted campus life in many ways, including shifting to online mode of teaching and learning, restricting face-to-face communication and activities, and forming of new norms of education. This paper investigates impacts of the pandemic to the way international students taking class and doing research, the satisfaction level, and obstacles of international students in Japan to online learning, as well as the factors which may influence the students’ acceptance of online learning, A questionnaire containing both Likert-style and open-ended questions were sent to all international students at a university in Japan. Almost half of the non-research international students reported that their taking class was impacted, while almost 30% of graduate international students reported that their doing research was impacted during the pandemic. Japanese proficiency, years of enrollment and family status are found to be associated with impact on taking class. Access to supportive information from university is found associated with satisfaction level of online learning. These findings imply further investigation may need to be conducted for more evidence on whether that acceptance of online learning could be associated with certain factors, and if online learning could be a new norm of education

The Vision and Preference of International Students Enrolled in a Japanese Language School Post-Pandemic

In 2022, Japan re-opened its border creating a new wave of students coming to Japan. In the summer of 2022, we investigated a group of 36 international students, coming from eight countries, who are currently enrolled in a Japanese language school in southern Japan. We conducted a rapid survey using a qualitative approach, asking the participants about the reason why they decided to come to Japan for studying Japanese, who were influencing the decision-making process, their priority goals while staying in Japan, their preferences for the place to live and study, as well as their intention for getting a job in Japan. The results showed that the students who came to Japan tend to have more long-term visions such as gaining a degree, specialty, job, or knowledge than short-term goals such as experiencing life in Japan. More students reported making the decision to come to Japan by themselves. Many of them reported a specific field or school that they want to enroll in after checking out from the Japanese language school. While a few of them wanted to enroll in higher education, more participants preferred to enter vocational school or just start job hunting. Most of the students showed hope to find a long-term job in Japan, while over a half seemed to prefer a quiet locality to live in. These results imply that the new wave of international students in Japan may show diversified needs and preferences, and it may need further research for effective recruiting strategies

MODERN ANECDOTES : A POTENTIAL TOOL FOR TEACHING CROSS-CULTURAL ISSUES

This paper presents the results and challenges of using modern anecdotes in language lessons for warming up the class and teaching cross-culturalism. In 2020, we conducted a Vietnamese language and culture course targeting university students and adult learners in Japan. The course was conducted online using a variety of teaching methods, and participants perceived modern anecdotes as an effective way to convey cross-cultural understanding and enhance their curiosity and motivation to study the language. The study materials were designed by the trainer, and the anecdotes used in the lessons were selected from various sources. The results demonstrate that using anecdotes was an effective strategy for teaching culture and promoting understanding. The paper also examines the responses, acceptance, and preferences of learners towards using anecdotes, providing evidence for effective use and the types of anecdotes that teachers and students find effective. The findings of this study suggest that using anecdotes could contribute to stimulating learners’ motivation for better learning outcomes

Pressure Transient Techniques for Continuous Monitoring of CO2 Storage/EOR

Pressure well testing has been widely used in the oil and gas industry for determining reservoir properties and well conditions. More recently, studies have been done to show the applicability of well testing for the continuous monitoring of CO2 storage projects. In the current thesis, we study a diverse range of pressure transient techniques with the same goal of characterizing CO2. The thesis finds that the use of pressure transient analysis is a strong tool for CO2 monitoring. Each method discussed within the paper has its advantages and disadvantages. The first technique is able to determine the CO2 plume extent in the reservoir, using a simple test, but relies on high resolution gauges and is unable to determine the location of the CO2. The second technique is able to determine the location of the plume boundary along with the average gas saturation but may require multiple monitoring locations inside and outside the plume to determine the boundary. The third method is able to determine the location of the plume boundary by use of a single well test, but other than the boundary, no other information can be derived. The last chapter builds the ground work for the first analytical linear composite model in the frequency domain. This approach has the potential to provide the most accurate representation of the CO2 within the reservoir in an efficient way