How to Enhance Self-Directed EFL Learning in an Authentic International Collaborative Learning

Abstract

This study aims to clarify how to enhance self-directed learning based on authentic settings, such as international collaborative learning. We set an international collaborative project for the students to try the joint presentation overcoming the conflicts that occur in the process of completing the presentation. The Japanese have a tendency for keeping an island mentality due to the fact that Japan is surrounded the sea and more than 98 percent of the people are Japanese. It has been difficult to have opportunities to use English as a communicative language. But recent technology has been changing this environment. Through the recent disaster in Japan, we could learn how the world works at once due to the internet. Plenty of relief goods and financial support has been arriving and pushing the people in the Tohoku region toward recovery. The good news lies in the new technology and English use as international language(a lingua franca). The environment of second language acquisition has changed rapidly. It was found that for students as EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners, more attention should be directed to an exposure to English using ICT or authentic settings where communication is in English and the acquisition of role models for effective presentations by observing them