Preparatory education, Writing course, COVID-19, Remote education
The purpose of this paper is to report on an advanced-level writing course conducted remotely online due to 2020 COVID-19 restrictions for Tokyo University of Foreign Studies MEXT pre- undergraduate students in JLC (Japanese Language Center for International Students).
Due to the worldwide spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease), MEXT pre-undergraduate students were unable to come to Japan as of early April 2020. Since the situation did not seem to improve after that, it was decided that the entire first semester of the preparatory education (April 20th to July 17th) had to be conducted remotely as an online class.
In this advanced level writing course, 6 tasks were set during the semester. Giving assignments with explanations and sample texts, submission of assignments, individual feedback, and feedback to the entire class were all conducted through TUFS Moodle on an educational platform.
One-year preparatory education after coming to Japan is mandatory for MEXT pre- undergraduate students. It was extremely unusual for them to receive preparatory education through distance learning in their home country before coming to Japan. However almost all the students completed the writing tasks before the deadline.
Due to the time difference, it was not possible to schedule tutorials for every student individually. However, it will be beneficial to take this opportunity to record in detail the task description and feedback for the future of the writing courses.
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