Focus on Laos, with Ladomchanh Khantry, Alounsavath Sengduanpeth, and Chris Ruddenklau at Osaka Jogakuin University

What happens when students take the lead in building intercultural understanding through language? This workshop explores student-centered simulation as a powerful tool for language development, global competence, and reflective learning. Based on the Intercultural & Social Entrepreneurship Exchange (ISEE)—a long-running international collaboration between students in Germany, Jordan, Kosovo, and China—participants will explore how learners design, adapt, and reflect on fictional business ideas across cultural boundaries.

The workshop guides attendees through sample activities where students act as entrepreneurs, collaborators, and cultural analysts. Participants will engage in a brief simulation, consider the role of cultural difference in shaping communication and teamwork, and explore how learners synthesize theory and experience through final presentations and guided cultural reflection.

Discussion will focus on how such simulations promote language use in authentic, purposeful tasks, build intercultural awareness, and encourage learners to take ownership of their progress. Attendees will also receive low-threshold, adaptable templates, reflection prompts, and a project planning framework to design their own intercultural experiences with minimal resources.

Whether you’re teaching business English, CLIL, general EFL, or global citizenship, this session will offer practical, student-centered strategies for fostering meaningful cultural engagement and language growth.

Eileen Kuepper (Küpper) is a Senior Lecturer in Intercultural Communication and English at the Language Center of the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, in Germany. Her academic interests include international exchange, intercultural business communication, and diversity management. She actively develops summer schools in underrepresented study-abroad destinations and promotes low-threshold internationalisation at home to enhance students’ intercultural competence, support inclusive student development, and broaden perspectives on global academic engagement.

The meeting will take place in Room 6 of the Osaka Municipal Lifelong Learning Center, on the 5th floor of the Ekimae Dai-2 Building in Umeda.

RSVP HERE to let us know how many to expect for the meeting, and for dinner and drinks afterward.

JALT members and full-time students: FREE, Non-members: ¥1000