Overall Concept of The World Youth Meeting

World Youth Meeting is the international youth conference that has been hosted by Ministry of Education in Japan and local boards of education.  This year we will celebrate its 20^th anniversary.

It started in 1999 in Japan, and more than 10,000 participants have joined and discussed various themes such as “My Identity as a Member of the International Community,” and so on.  The theme of WYM 2018 was decided on “What do well-beings mean for our future?”

University students and high school students in various Asian regions come together to challenge themselves by composing a joint presentation, overcoming the conflicts that arise during the process of completing their presentations

In Japan’s case, it is true that it has been difficult to have opportunities to use English as a communicative language.  However, recent advances in technology have changed the communicative environment.  We can see how well English functions and works in many fields through ICT technology.  The environment and aims of English acquisition are changing rapidly and drastically.  Therefore, more attention should be directed to an exposure to English itself and English education with ICTs, or with authentic settings in which English is being used, in order that we can find solutions to global issues by taking advantage of the increasing interest in Globalism

Through their experiences of authentic events such as the “ World Youth Meeting” (Figure1) and the “Asian Student Exchange Program,” students come to know that international ties based on constructivism can surely change mindsets which inherent cultures, traditions, convention, views, and so on have strongly burnt into individuals.  In fact, they can change their mindsets by experiencing authentic communication with students with different backgrounds, face to face or by utilizing ICTs.

Three stages of WYM

WYM emphasizes the role of English as a medium for problem solving and overcoming conflicts or differences by having students come together to work on presentations in English.  

WYM is comprised of these three stages;

 1) Preparatory Online Activities Stage

2) Event: Face to Face Stage

3) Post Event Stage

1) Preparatory Online Activities Stage—In the first stage of WYM, they are living in different places, so they communicate during this period via SNS or Skype sessions to share ideas and deepen the contents of the theme, and decide the direction of their presentation, gathering data by sending questionnaires to each other to enrich their presentation.

2) Face to Face Stage---After coming to Japan, and meeting each other, to have their presentation through  collaborative work, they are scheduled to perform their joint presentation in WYM.  More than 1,000 participants from outside and inside Japan participate. The joint presentations in English are a significant outcome that demonstrates how meaningful and useful it is for the participating students to collaborate with international colleagues.  In the process of completing their presentation, overcoming conflicts or differences among students with different backgrounds is necessary.  In this way, they come to acquire the skills and ways to bridge the gaps among people, or countries, contributing to the advancement of world peace.

3) Post Event Stage

After the main event of WYM hosted in Japan, we are sure not only participating students but teachers can share its meaningful outcomes through video clips of the collaborative presentations performed by each group and can review what they should do to improve their skills and methods, and establish further friendship with their partner schools and friends. They can surely find tips to working internationally and reaching their own goals.  All the participants can definitely build motivation to start acting globally with broadened vision through these experiences

N.B.: This event’s design is based on “Constructivist Learning Environment (Jonassen, 2011),” which includes such elements as modeling, coaching and scaffolding.