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Brooks, Steven (2016) The differences between Western and Japanese academic culture: Their impact on the design and implementation of an EAP course at a Japanese university. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)]

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Abstract

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) is a field that is gaining increasing

prominence in Japan. As Japanese universities are charged with

becoming more international in order to improve their performance in

international university rankings, so the need to equip Japanese

students to participate in English-medium courses of study abroad has

grown. However, as well as the well-documented lack of confidence and

ability in general English skills amongst young Japanese people, there

is another factor which may hinder the teaching of EAP to Japanese

university students, the vastly different culture that prevails in

Japanese higher education institutions as opposed to those of the

universities in English-speaking countries in the West. Therefore, this

study was designed to assess the exact nature of these cultural

differences in order to more fully understand what influence they have

on the teaching of EAP in a Japanese university context. By conducting

semi-structured interviews with EAP instructors, and questionnaires

with EAP students, at a private university in Tokyo, this study is able to

identify four general factors that illustrate the differences between

Western and Japanese academic culture, and also to point to areas in

which these differences may cause problems in the EAP classroom.

Item Type:	Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Depositing User:	Gigg, Diane
Date Deposited:	23 Jun 2017 13:19
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2017 23:57
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/43743

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