Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, students and teachers have been isolated and required to work and study from home. This alienation has arguably made it especially difficult for Japanese students at APU to make connections with international students. In the CLE English Program, AOL (Assurance of Learning) Learning Goal 2 states that students should obtain the English skills to communicate effectively in multicultural contexts. As APU’s student body is comprised of almost 50% of students from 92 different countries and regions, it is hoped that domestic and international students receive opportunities to make connections and form bonds so that when they graduate and enter the working world, they will have a multiculturally sensitive global perspective. In 2019, a survey was given to 325 students who had lived at AP House (235 Japanese-basis and 90 English-basis) to identify if students were able to maintain friendships with students from the opposite language-basis after leaving AP house. Surprisingly, over 50% of surveyed students both Japanese-basis and English-basis indicated they were unable to maintain or only barely maintained friendships after leaving AP house. If one of the end goals before graduating APU is to be able to communicate in diverse multicultural contexts, then this is a large gap that needs to be addressed. This project has two main parts: an investigatory analysis on students’ language and communication needs and an intervention to address these needs with an end goal of fostering communities at APU. The investigatory analysis will consist of surveying students to better understand their expectations, goals, and needs when it comes to language exchange and communicating with students of the opposite language-basis. Additionally, TAs will be hired to interview both Japanese and English-basis students to get a deeper look at students' needs that cannot be identified through a survey. The findings from this investigatory analysis will provide the foundation for the interventions we will employ to help foster lasting communities at APU for students.