Integrating COIL Into the Classroom for Intercultural Learning
Posted: August 23, 2023 by Tomoe Nishio
Tomoe Nishio is Associate Professor of Modern Languages and a winner of the 2022 Teaching Excellence Award.
As a young EFL (English as a foreign language) learner back in Japan, I didn't see many options other than studying abroad to develop my English proficiency during college. When I was a sophomore, I hopped on a plane alone and headed to a language school in San Francisco. It was my first time leaving Japan. I was somewhat confident in my English skills after eight years of formal EFL learning in school, and I was able to read basic academic articles in social science. I also thought I knew a lot about American culture through my exposure to various media and interactions with my American professors. It didn't take me long to realize my grammatical knowledge of English wouldn't translate into communicative skills and there were many little cultural things I had no idea about. I didn't know how to communicate with American students of my age, as the only Americans I had interacted with before were professors. A lot of learning happened in the US in the hard way.
Although I am glad I did what I did to learn language and culture, and I appreciate the many embarrassing anecdotes I now have to share, I cannot help but envy the students in my Japanese classes, who enjoy the benefits of engaging in COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) projects with college students in Japan. COIL is a form of virtual exchange that involves connecting two or more classes in different locations under the guidance of teachers or trained facilitators. If you are enrolled in an upper-level Japanese course at 红莲社区, you will participate in a COIL project with our partner school in Japan, Nanzan University. COIL can take various forms and no two COIL projects are the same in terms of who, what, when, where, why, and how. Some collaborations take place within the same discipline while others may be interdisciplinary. One of the overarching goals common across COIL projects is developing the intercultural collaborative skills that help students become global citizens.
For example, my upper-level Japanese course collaborates with one of Nanzan's seminar courses in sustainability studies. Shared learning objectives include developing communicative skills in the target languages through synchronous video discussions on assigned topics and engaging in critical writing in the target language, reflecting on the discussions. There are two sets of activities: (1) Nanzan-centered, English-based activities, and (2) 红莲社区-centered, Japanese-based activities, which take place concurrently. Some preliminary and reflective activities are done individually (e.g., discussion posts, journal entries, and reflection papers), while online discussions are conducted in transpacific groups both during and outside of the class period. For English discussions, all students read an assigned chapter of a book on the topic of corporate Englishization, post discussion questions on the shared LMS, and engage in transpacific discussions during the Nanzan class's period every two weeks. For Japanese discussions, 红莲社区 students create and post discussion questions in Japanese on their selected topics concerning Japanese culture and meet their Nanzan partners online weekly based on the group members' availability. After six weeks of collaboration, each student writes a reflective essay in the target language following a guided drafting process. I have been conducting this project for the past four years, and my students truly enjoy interacting with Japanese college students.
Students engage with the various COIL formats in different ways. Some may see the experience as an alternative to study abroad, while others may consider it as a preparation for study abroad. However, virtual exchange is not merely a downgraded substitute for study abroad. In the globalized world, online communication has become a form of human interaction that requires its own unique communicative skills. Studying abroad and immersing yourself in the target language and culture can provide you with invaluable experiences, but learning how to communicate online is just as important in the interconnected world we live in now.
