Eiko Ujitani
Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
Eiko Ujitani is a professor of English and intercultural communication in the Department of British and American Studies at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. She also teaches “Cross-cultural communication” in TESOL graduate program at the same institution. Her research interest is improving students’ intercultural communicative competence through intercultural interactions.
Sessions
Fostering Intercultural Understandings
The aim of this study was to explore the possibility of fostering Japanese and Taiwanese university students’ intercultural understanding through synchronous online intercultural exchange. Students’ reflection reports showed that they gained deeper knowledge about each other’s culture and their stereotypes were reduced. In this presentation, inhibiting factors such as technological and scheduling issues and suggestions for more efficient online exchange will be also discussed.