Conducting Cross-cultural Communication Lessons through E-mails : A Cooperative Pilot Project between Japan's English Language Education and Canada's Japanese Language Education

This paper reports a two-year-long cooperative pilot project between Japan's English Language Education and Canada's Japanese Language Education on the theme of conducting cross-cultural communication lessons through e-mails. The project was participated in by Japanese students learning English communication skills at Nara University of Education in Nara, Japan, and Canadian students learning Japanese communication skills at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Japanese students were paired with Canadian students to form e-mail exchange groups. Students on each side were asked to exchange e-mails with their partners in the groups. Students were encouraged to write their e-mails both in English and Japanese so that they could benefit equally from this e-mail exchange project. The main aim of this e-mail exchange project was to promote authentic cross-cultural communication both in English and Japanese between Japanese students and Canadian students through an effective use of the internet. Students reactions toward this e-mail exchange project were examined through the questionnaires which were conducted at the end of each course in which the e-mail exchange project was embedded on each side. Most of the students responded favorably to the questions as to the effectiveness of this project in fostering the recognition of the importance of cross-cultural communication through e-mails, in strengthening their confidence in their communicative skills in the target language, and in promoting mutual understanding among the participants. Possible plans to improve the project were also described with a view to setting up a cooperative lesson scheme between Japan and Canada to promote cross-cultural communication and understanding through computer-mediated human communication on the internet