Sunday Presentations

In order to address the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology’s recent policy statement emphasizing the importance of developing global human resources who “have excellent language and communication skills as well as a deep understanding of foreign cultures,” many universities have begun introducing courses and programs to try to attain these goals. The presenter will explain how the program at his institution was formulated, planned, reworked, and finally adopted as an elective course in which nursing students interested in English communication and other cultures can participate. The components of the program (i.e. English Communication, English Practice Abroad, Intercultural Awareness, and Practical English Skills), as well as the challenges faced during its compilation, will then be described. The rationale of selecting the Philippines (whose citizens will likely increasingly be working as nurses and caregivers at Japanese hospitals) as the study abroad destination will also be discussed.

Eric Fortin is a professor at St. Mary's College, where he has been teaching undergraduate and graduate nursing English and French courses for over 20 years. His interests include student motivation, learner autonomy, and third language study and beyond.

This presentation will discuss the current curriculum for first year students at the Global Nursing Department of Otemae University. The most important goal of our Global Nursing Department curriculum is to train students in global communication abilities and social skills. Students take a class called ‘Practice English for Nurses’ twice a week in the spring semester. In the fall semester students take the class called ‘Seminar in Global Nursing,’ where students learn more practical English in clinical settings. These courses are led by native English speakers. Therefore, we expect that some students might feel anxious or uncomfortable around these teachers. For this reason, we have organized an English cafe run by a Japanese teacher for those students in order to provide a more comfortable atmosphere and opportunities where they can practice their English. In this presentation, we will share how these activities work to improve student’s communicative ability, as well as how students respond to these English cafe activities.

Naoko Nishimura is a professor in the Global Nursing Department at Otemae University. She teaches Pediatric Nursing. Also, she is in charge of international affairs. Her research interests include body image, short stature, nursing for children required advanced medical care.

Yuri Nonami is a professor in the Global Nursing Department at Otemae University. She teaches Medical Anthropology and is in charge of English Cafe. Her research interests include medical pluralism, transmission of medicine, and patient choice regarding complementary and alternative medicine.

Hisashi Nakaguchi is an assistant professor in the Global Nursing Department at Otemae University. His specialized area is Pediatric nursing. His research interests include family-centered care nursing, intervention for role problems of child-rearing family, and approach to family nursing practice of nurses.

Different learners have different needs. In order to develop a program for adult EFL learners, an effective needs assessment is essential, because they usually have specific learning goals, needs, and interests. In this study, a needs analysis was conducted to assess an EFL learner with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). She wanted to learn English to discuss her disease and care (i.e. nursing English from a patient’s perspective), so that she could remain hopeful and encourage other ALS patients in the world. In Japan, it is often difficult for people with severe physical disabilities to create an optimal learning environment. The purpose of this study was to discover the needs and considerations of an adult EFL learner with physical difficulties in learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Data were collected from the learner, a family member, and visiting nurses through half-structured interviews. Universal design for learning ESP will be discussed.

Yoko Atsumi is an assistant professor at Seirei Chirstopher University. Her interests are ESP, learner development, and international education. She teaches EPS, as well as general English, for nursing, rehabilitation, and social work students.

This presentation will introduce an English for nursing purposes (ENP) course for nursing university students and discuss how intercultural communication (ICC) content can be linked with students' nursing study to enable more successful application of ICC awareness. While many ENP programs include intercultural content, few seem to analyze the extent to which students can apply their ICC knowledge, focusing on feedback and comprehension of course content instead. This presentation will introduce an ICC-focused course situated at the end of an ENP program, in which students learn about the cultures of guests with different cultural backgrounds, and will show that students cannot independently link nursing and ICC through an analysis of questions concerning guests' cultures and content on a presentation plan. The presentation will demonstrate that students can be made more aware of how to look at cultural differences from a nursing viewpoint by linking students’ nursing approach with ICC content.

Joel Hensley teaches a variety of ESP, including nursing, in which he is currently conducting collaborative research into the incorporation of intercultural awareness in the classroom. Naoko Kawakita teaches ENP, and her current research interests include designing in-class courses to develop nursing students' cross-cultural awareness, as well as study abroad programs.

Hear from committee members about our efforts to create a constitution and bylaws, register with the Science Council of Japan, and manage our growing group and its activities.