Acquiring A Multicultural Outlook through Bilingual Classes : Momoyama Students on the Front Line

In this paper, we use the model of the Momoyama Gakuin University (Osaka, Japan)-Douglas College (New Westminster, Canada) programme in Japanese and English to illustrate the advantages of the two-way bilingual approach to language learning. The programme, launched in 1992, is based on a simple contract between Japanese learners of English and Canadian learners of Japanese to the effect that: "If you help me learn your language, I'll help you learn mine". By allowing the students to spend sustained periods of time together in both structured and unstructured learning situations, the programme has the advantage of enabling them to develop not only language skills but also a multicultural outlook, within the broader skill of "intercultural communication competence". Homogeneous groups of ESL students, especially Japanese students, tend to have a high degree of "communicative inertia". Bilingual programmes, in which peers rather than a formal teacher act as the students' primary source of information, provide a stimulus to learn, create more authentic motivation than can be had in a teacher-centred classroom, and encourage students to speak English more readily. Another advantage of bilingual programmes is that they bring learners into regular contact with representatives of the target culture, giving them the chance to experience a more authentic cultural milieu. In addition, bilingual programmes, by using students as peer teachers, validate the students' own knowledge. Being able to share their general knowledge of their own country or culture with others hones their self-awareness while increasing their sense of responsibility as teacher. Finally, the nature of the bilingual programme makes it much easier for the students to develop friendships with one another. A questionnaire distributed to participating ESLs revealed that the programme was perceived by almost all of them as a total experience, one that brought both linguistic and socio-cultural enlightenment, changing their cultural perceptions profoundly as well as bringing them unprecedented linguistic confidence. In this sense, it may be said to have been an exercise in creating an environment in which education in its original sense-bringing out the students' essential nature and contributing to their personal growth-could take place.

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