Using NGOs or Charitable Causes to Motivate Thematic Transcultural Teaching :

In this poster session, the presenter will show the motivating impact of having a course objective beyond the classroom, namely getting the class involved in an agreed upon NGO or charitable cause. This is a work in progress that first germinated at a workshop on charity teaching at the JALT 2000 National Convention. Since the, the presenter has desired to incorporate work toward benefiting a charitable cause into some of his intercultural classes taught to students preparing to study abroad. Many ideas for integrating volunteerism with teaching English have been shared in a charity-teaching email group founded by participants in the above-mentioned workshop. Recently, this group changed into a more broadly focused email group called, "Peace Education", with a web-site at groups.yahoo.com/group/peaceeducation. Then, quite serendipitously in the beginning of this year, one of the presenter's students, Ms. Kanae Hayashi, gave a presentation on an NGO that she co-founded with a Korean friend. This group, the Korea Japan Asia Fund, was designed to promote Korean, Japanese, and Asian friendship through reconciliation complemented by working to help an impoverished Asian country together, in this case, Kampuchea (formerly called Cambodia). Already a school has been founded for children who cannot afford to go to school and an orphanage is supported in order to give hope to children whose parents have died due to warfare, AIDS, or other causes. A web-site which explains these efforts can be found at www.iloveasiafund.com. This unique effort was part of the impetus toward a class project, which will be detailed in the poster presentation, along with the various benefits and difficulties encountered. In addition, other charitable causes and ideas used by teachers elsewhere in Japan will be presented, in order that any educator may benefit from this exchange of information. The presenter's hope is that through this poster pr esentation, others will be encouraged to integrate such thematic projects into their courses. Since these types of projects have also been done from the elementary to the university level, they could provide some continuity during the upcoming changes in the educational system. In other words, meaningful themes adjusted to the appropriate level of English are an excellent way to motivate learners and allow English to be learned in a more communicative and purposeful fashion.