Students take Armidale experience back to Japan

June 27, 2007

The University of New England has said farewell to its third group of English language students from Chubu University in Japan after further cementing the productive relationship between the two universities.

That relationship allows Chubu University students majoring in English to come to Armidale to fulfil their course requirement of spending half a year abroad in an English-speaking environment.

After arriving at UNE in February, the 18 second-year university students completed more than 300 hours of tuition at UNE's English Language Centre while gaining first-hand experience of Australian culture, landscapes, and family and university life.

This one-semester program for students of English represents only part of the relationship between Chubu and New England Universities: exchange programs for both students and staff are also under way. Several of last year's English language students from Chubu University have come back to UNE this year as exchange students.

This year's English language students ended their Australian experience last week with a guided tour of Sydney. Before leaving for Sydney they took part in a farewell function at UNE, during which UNE's Director of English Language and International Services, Dr Vernon Crew, presented each of them with a certificate of achievement, Dr Naoki Motouchi from Chubu University expressed his institution's thanks for the invaluable "experience of Australian life" the students had received, and the students themselves entertained the audience with a varied musical program. "These young people are very good ambassadors for their country," Dr Crew said. "We look forward to seeing more of them here."

Mark Cooper, Deputy Director of Studies at the English Language Centre, said the specially designed program of study for the Chubu University students included the development of a range of social communication skills, and skills in listening, reading, writing, oral presentation – and singing. He said that an important part of the students' learning had been a period of "homestay" during the Easter vacation, when they were billeted with Armidale families to experience Australian family life.

In addition to their English-language program, the students joined UNE undergraduates for lectures and discussions in a linguistics unit, taught by Professor Cliff Goddard, called "Cross-cultural Communication Study". "The University provided them with a support teacher who prepared them for each of Professor Goddard's classes, enhancing their level of engagement in the course," Mr Cooper said. "This gave them valuable experience in an English-language academic environment."

Mark Cooper is pictured here with one of the students from Chubu University, Yasuhiro Kondo. The photograph expands to include another of the students, Aymi Endo.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at June 27, 2007 03:48 PM