ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces two representative extracurricular activities implemented in the Japanese program to facilitate student motivation levels and alleviate the poverty of interest problem. The aims, procedures, and outcomes of the two activities, year-end presentations and a speech contest, held in the UNC Charlotte Japanese program are described. Year-end presentations is an event in which all of the Japanese language classes got together at the end of each year to show their performances to their fellow learners and to celebrate finishing the year together and motivate them to proceed to the higher level language classes in the coming year. UNC Charlotte also hosts a Japanese speech contest that employs a unique approach that provides language learners with the precious experience of giving a speech in their target language in front of an audience. Both of these extracurricular activities are truly effective to heighten students’ drive toward learning the language.
