(1549)CROSS-CULTURAL PROJECT-BASED LEARNING USING SOCIALMEDIA: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE FOUR-YEAR EXPERIENCEOF INTERNATIONAL JOINT CLASS BETWEEN HUNGARIAN ANDJAPANESE STUDENTS

摘要

With the tools of social media, it is becoming increasingly popular to connect students in differentcountries in informal and formal educational settings for the purpose of foreign language learning aswell as intercultural learning. Before the advent of social media, email exchanges and videoconferencing were mainly used for similar purposes, but now with the social media such as Facebookand Google+, the online intercultural experience can be richer and more diverse. Intuitively it sounds agreat idea to connect students in different countries to communicate and collaborate for particularobjectives and the success stories of such projects have been reported fairly frequently. However,rarely discussed are the factors that have to be taken into account in designing such internationalcollaborative learning. Drawing from the four years of experience in conducting joint classes betweena class in Karoli Gaspar University, Hungary and that in Kanda University of International Studies,Japan, the authors will discuss what work and what do not work in such international telecollaborativeactivities. In addition, the authors will suggest ways to increase the chance of success in designingand conducting international joint classes for foreign language and intercultural learning.