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Teaching Japanese In An American High School: How Japanese Teachers Make Sense Of Their American Students’ Communication Styles, Teppei Kiyosue

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This qualitative research study explores how Japanese teachers make sense of their American students’ communication styles. I conducted classroom observations in two Japanese classes by two different teachers and interviewed four Japanese teachers at high schools in Cabell County, West Virginia. The results indicate that the American students don’t communicate with others under the pressure of enryo (response to group pressure for conformity) in their Japanese classes. Furthermore, the Japanese teachers usually approve of their American students’ active communication styles without enryo. The results also show that the native Japanese teachers use high-context communication styles frequently in their Japanese classes …