Edu-Tech and Its Implications in Promoting Japanese Language Education in India

With the growing closeness of the India-Japan political and economic relationship over the past decade, Japanese language and cultural education has become important in India as these foster and bolster this growing relationship. However, Japanese remains an uncommon foreign language, and the Japanese language education and learning environment in India for even the basic level of Japanese language learning at universities is not yet equally or well developed. Thus, this somewhat under-representation of Japanese lends itself to limited opportunities for learners to practice and experience the language in India. This chapter focuses on the large-scale Japanese-language education at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH), which has laid the foundation for an ongoing Japan-India academic, research, and employment collaboration. The chapter introduces the initial phase of Japanese language educational collaborations for IITH students and reviews 11 Japanese language courses at IITH for more than 1687 students in the past seven years on how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been effectively utilized to increase learners enthusiasm, knowledge, and skills in Japanese. Using an interactive methodology and ICT techniques, interest in and retention of Japanese culture were sustained among the Indian students, thus enhancing learning effectiveness and enabling a greater desire to engage in a multitude of activities within the Japanese context.