Event Report, Gunma Chapter October 2018

Short and Practical Intercultural Activities for Active Learning
by Jon Dujmovich
Educators often speak of using appropriate techniques and activities suitable for each stage of learning. But when it comes to cultural learning or cross-cultural communicative skills, there is usually very little consideration given to the learners’ developmental stage of intercultural learning. The consequences of ill-matched activities can lead to reaffirmed or deeper cultural misunderstandings, with little or no growth in intercultural competency.
In this workshop Dujmovich will demonstrate and discuss how to incorporate short and practical culture-based activities into the active learning classroom according to the learners’ intercultural developmental stage, age, language ability, and other factors. All activities and techniques were grounded in intercultural communication theory and methodology coupled with language learning pedagogy. Dujmovich provided opportunities to experiment with ideas and activities in a participatory workshop format. He also demonstrated how active learning can be adjusted for learning stage appropriateness. Gunma JALT members and their classes will no doubt benefit from the ideas and activities in this workshop.
Jon Dujmovich has an M.A. in intercultural relations with a CELTA and has been in the field of intercultural communication training for over 25 years. He has been invited internationally and throughout Japan to give workshops on teaching intercultural communication in various contexts and has twice won The Best of JALT award for his workshops. His experience includes: being an intercultural trainer and language instructor at Matsushita National/Panasonic Overseas Training Center, serving as the Director of Imagination Ink, a cross-cultural education staff and programs support company, and teaching at various Japanese universities.