Abstract
This study reports on a long-term project to improve the English presentation skills of students in the Faculty of Design at a Japanese university. The first two years of a collaborative effort to pair Industrial Design majors with advanced students in the Department of International Culture to collaborate on a product or product concept and present their work in English will be described. Recent measures to improve English education in Japan include the introduction of English study in elementary school, and adopting communicative-based learning in high schools. At the university level, content-based English education, or English for Specific Purposes (ESP), has been implemented in some curricula to provide students with language ability and competence that will serve them in careers where English is a required skill set. A number of disciplines have attempted to use content-based teaching; unfortunately, little has successfully been done in design faculties at Japanese universities to prepare graduates to become international designers. This project recognizes that it is essential for design students to get specialized training in not only communicative English, but also the specialized vocabulary and presentation skills that will be required of them in careers in the design field.
Keywords
English, presentation, globalization, multidisciplinary, Japan
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/learnxdesign.2013.135
Citation
Sheehan, M.D., Ryan, J., Takayama, Y., Mine, I.,and Kose, S.(2013) Design English collaboration and presentation: Developing international designers at a Japanese university, in Reitan, J.B., Lloyd, P., Bohemia, E., Nielsen, L.M., Digranes, I., & Lutnæs, E. (eds.), DRS // Cumulus: Design Learning for Tomorrow, 14-17 May, Oslo, Norway. https://doi.org/10.21606/learnxdesign.2013.135
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Design English collaboration and presentation: Developing international designers at a Japanese university
This study reports on a long-term project to improve the English presentation skills of students in the Faculty of Design at a Japanese university. The first two years of a collaborative effort to pair Industrial Design majors with advanced students in the Department of International Culture to collaborate on a product or product concept and present their work in English will be described. Recent measures to improve English education in Japan include the introduction of English study in elementary school, and adopting communicative-based learning in high schools. At the university level, content-based English education, or English for Specific Purposes (ESP), has been implemented in some curricula to provide students with language ability and competence that will serve them in careers where English is a required skill set. A number of disciplines have attempted to use content-based teaching; unfortunately, little has successfully been done in design faculties at Japanese universities to prepare graduates to become international designers. This project recognizes that it is essential for design students to get specialized training in not only communicative English, but also the specialized vocabulary and presentation skills that will be required of them in careers in the design field.