カテゴリー: 作业

Date: July 3rd on Friday, 2020 from 8:00 to 9:30 (9:00 – 10:30 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Streaming of Dingtalk to show PPT presentation.

Numbers of Students:

  – Self-claming attendance on BBS by inputting “Shusseki”: 25

  – Attendance check by the submission of 60-question quiz at the end of the class: 23 

Class Activities:

 – Almost identical to the composition class on Tuesday for the class 1836. What was learned during the first and the second semesters were reviewed in the form of quiz with each having four selections.

(1) Speech/writing style of Japanese

 Japanese speech/writing style varies from situation to situation. You use honorifics to elderlies and teachers, polite expressions in public,  and casual expressions to your friends. Foreign Japanese learners often speak and write Japanese with mixing those different speech style. Further more, writing Japanese has clear distinction between “desu-masu” style and “Da-dearu” style. “Desu-masu” is also used in spoken Japanese but “Da-dearu” is usually only for writing.         

(2) “Da-Dearu” writing style for composition.

 So the important thing for the students to learn is that they learn to use another type of Japanese language style that is different from what they usually learn in their textbook. This has been continuing to be a quite big issue in the composition classes. Many students were sticking to “Desu-masu” even if I told them to write in “Da-dearu”. It seems that changes in language style to adapt the situation are beyonf imagination to the students. In order to measure how well or bad he/she operates “Da-dearu” style writing, all the parameters were taken into the quiz;

Past/non-past for tense, Positive/negative, and four predicates: Noun, Na-adjective, I-adjective, and Verb predicate sentences. 

And several sentences ending with auxiliary verbs were added. Those were of conjugation type of I-adjectives (ex. -tai) or Na-adjective (ex. -youda)        

(3) Proper uses of conjunctive particles

It is so important to learn many conjunctive particles in order to write a complex sentences. But most students can use only “-kara” and “-te/de”. Several other conjunctive particles were examined if the students could choose them.   

(4) Sentence ending to describe changes in time sequence

Expressions “te-iru”, “te-kita”, and “te-iku+guess” were reviewed.

 

 Homework:

  – No HWA.

Issues and Problems:

 The first class that I had as a Japanese teacher in university was the one for this composition class for 1837 class. Through the first and second semeters, I have learned a lot of things. I know that I haven’t had enough experience to teach Japanese language yet.   

Date: June 22th on Monday, 2020 from 13:40 to 15:10 (14:40 – 16:10 in JST)

<This was a supplementary class on irregular time>

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Video Conference on DingTalk. BBS was supplementary used to show PNG images that was the instruction for procedures of 1-minute speech and QA session.

Numbers of Students: 28

 – At the beginning:

     – Self-claiming attendance by the means of input “Shusseki” onto BBS: 28

     – Attendance check using the video conference monitor: 26

– At the end by sending photos of composition: 25

Class Activities:

  Each student made his/her one minute speech about tourism in a particular prefecture in Japan. This was done in the order of student ID number.

  There were question and answer times for each speech when it was ended. A student to ask a question was assigned randomly so that other students would try to listen to the speech. It is important to know how to ask a question in a conference where many people are gathering. So the teacher instructed the students at the beginning of the class about how to make a question in a conference.  

  The teacher controlled the progression of speeches. In order to give every students chances to speak, the time that one student could spend was getting shorter and shorter towards the end.

Homework:

No HWA

Issues and Problems:

 Most of students wouldn’t like to listen to other students’ speech. So I assigned a questioner randomly. All the students just made the same question that I prepared for them as examples. Some questioning students didn’t know what prefecture was talked. I should have recorded such an incident and reduced his/her score for grading.    

Date: June 28th on Sunday, 2020 from 8:00 to 9:30 (9:00 – 10:30 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Video conference on DingTalk. Several images were shown to the students through BBS of the class.

Numbers of Students:

  – Self-claming attendance on BBS by inputting “Shusseki”: 25

  – Attendances that were confirmed on the display of video conference: 25

  – Attendance check at the end of the class: 23 students input the designated alphabet onto BBS 

Class Activities:

 – One minutes speech and question-and-answer time for tourism of a certain prefecture in Japan. 21 students spoke and 20 questioned.

 – The students made their speeches in the reverse order of student number. A student who to make a question was assigned by the teacher in random manner in order to keep the students concentrate on other students’ speeches.

 – It was taught about how to make a question in a conference. Identify him/herself first, say some kind of praise to the presentation, and then start asking a question.

 Homework:

  – No HWA.

Issues and Problems:

  Most of the students have written the papers about a tourism issue of one particular prefecture in Japan. But some have not done yet. There are some students who have never submitted his/her draft. Those were not given the chance to make a speech today. Perhaps it was likely that those students had also prepared only for today’s 1-minute speech. It is an issue how the teacher would deal with such student and his/her opportunity to speak under the limited class time. 

Date: June 27th on Saturday, 2020 from 13:40 to 15:10 (14:40 – 16:10 in JST)

<This was a supplementary class that was done in irregular hours>

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Video conference on DingTalk, BBS of the class was also used simultaneously to show the students some pictures.

Numbers of Students:

  – Self-claming attendance on BBS by inputting “Shusseki”: 17

  – Attendances that were confirmed on the display of video conference: 18

Class Activities:

 – Composition: part of book was shown to the students and they wrote a short essay about their impressions. The article was page 52 -56 of “Iryou-no koto, motto shitte hoshii” by Mr.Jun’ichiro YAMAOKA, which was the No.637 book of “Iwanami Junior Shinso” series. This was about a terminally ill old lady who was brought back to her house for the last moment with her family. 

 – Reading aloud: A student was called online and asked to read part of his/her draft of paper about tourism of a particular prefecture in Japan. Usually it was 1 minutes 30 seconds.    

Homework:

  – Drafting a memo for 1 minutes speech that would be spoken in the next composition class.

Issues and Problems:

So two activities were being done simultaneously in this composition class. While most of the students were writing, one student was reading part of his/her paper. Since I knew that it took time to connect and disconnect a student one by one, I decided to call a student and to ask him/her to read under the condition that the video conference with everyone was going on. It should have been noisy for other students, but I didn’t want to waste time. Today I scolded some students whose attendance and attitude were not good. This must have created uncomfortable atmosphere for other students.

Date: June 22th on Monday, 2020 from 13:40 to 15:10 (14:40 – 16:10 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Video Conference on DingTalk. BBS was supplementary used to show pictures that were materials for composition. Powerpoint was also used but only on the teacher’s computer screen.

Numbers of Students:

 – At the beginning:

     – Self-claiming attendance by the means of input “Shusseki” onto BBS: 28

     – Attendance check using the video conference monitor: 26

– At the end by sending photos of composition:

Class Activities:

 -1: In the 1st session, the students were asked to proofread and revise the chapter of abstract, conclusions, and remarks in their paper.

 -2: Each student was called and read part of his/her paper. Teacher gave him/her advice.

-3: In the 2nd session, the students write a short essay to describe one of three poems about love. Those three poems were given to the student using BBS. The students were required to take a photo of their hand writing and send it to me when the class was over.

Homework:

No HWA

Issues and Problems:

Three poems about love were given to the students to write a short essay. The most popular one that was chosen by many students was “Aki no Seppun (A Kiss in Autumn)” by Ms.Masako Takiguchi. I think this poem is about love that was lost. Scattered white flowers of bushclover on a path, White ashes on a trail in the mountain, and wind blow coming through Japanese pampas grasses are all indicating the sadness of losing love. This is just my understanding. I feel sadness, emptiness, and a huge void in mind when I read this poem. Am I wrong? I don’t know. But it was interesting that most students thought this poem was romantic and beautiful with joy of love. Maybe it is natural that there is a difference about interpretations on the same poem between 20-year olds and a 50-year old.     

Date: June 20th on Saturday, 2020 from 13:40 to 15:10 (14:40 – 16:10 in JST)

<This was a supplementary class that was done in irregular hours>

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Video conference on DingTalk, BBS of the class was also used simultaneously to show the students some pictures.

Numbers of Students:

  –

Responses to my requests like Quiz answers onto BBS:

  –       

  –

Class Activities:

Homework:

.

Issues and Problems:

Date: June 19th on Friday, 2020 from 8:00 to 9:30 (9:00 – 10:30 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Video conference on DingTalk, BBS of the class was also used simultaneously to show the students some pictures.

Numbers of Students:

  – 24 students input their attendances on BBS. However only 19 students sent me their compositions at the end of the class. Also several students replied to me in the interview session. Therefore the self-claiming attendance is not accurate measure to record students’ attendance. 

Class Activities:

 Three activities were done in the class.

 -1: To proofread and correct their paper about tourism of a particular prefecture of Japan. This was a task only in the first session.

 -2: To compose a description about 4-picture manga which was one of three that were drawn by the late Machiko Hasegawa. This was a task in the second session. Those compositions were sent in the form of JPEG to the teacher when the class was over. 

 -3: Each student was called by teacher one by one to video call. He/she was asked to read out part of his/her paper for 1 minutes and 30 seconds. The teacher gave a feedback for writing and/or speaking. Since these interview took time, this activity had been done all through the first and second sessions. So two activities were simultaneously ongoing; 3 and either of 1 or 2.  17 students could made interviews with me. 

Homework:

. – No HWA

Issues and Problems:

 On Tuesday 16th for class 1836 , I called each student one by one after I closed video conference. That took minutes only just to make a connection. So for this time, I was just keeping the video conference turned on, I called a student in that conference. This might have been a disturbance for other students to write their composition. However, I wanted to save the class time.   

Date: June 16th on Tuesday, 2020 from 15:30 to 17:00 (16:30 – 18:00 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Video Conference on DingTalk. BBS was supplementary used to show pictures that were materials for composition. Powerpoint was also used but only on the teacher’s computer screen.

Numbers of Students: 28.

Students’ Responses:

 -1: Attendance check at the beginning: 26 students responded. One didn’t.

 -2: Submission of composition at the end of the class: 25 students sent me photographs of their composition on sheet of paper. Two students didn’t. 

Class Activities:

 -1: In the 1st session, the students were asked to proofread and revise the chapter of suggestion in their paper.

 -2: Each student was called and read part of his/her paper. Teacher gave him/her advice.

-3: In the 2nd session, the students write a short essay to describe one of three mangas that were shown on BBS. The students were required to take a photo of their hand writing and send it to me.

Homework:

To write abstract, conclusion, and remarks for the paper.

Issues and Problems:

I sent comments on their composition to describe a manga one by one after the class.

Date: June 9th on Tuesday, 2020 from 15:30 to 17:00 (16:30 – 18:00 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 58 slides

Numbers of Students: 28.

– 90 minutes attendance: 24 students

– One student was recorded as complete absent through the class time by the system. However, the student sent me the answers of 5-question quiz. Three students were recorded their shorter participation; 84, 83, and 79 minutes.

Responses to my requests like Quiz answers onto BBS:

 -1: Attendance check at the beginning: 27 students responded. One came late.

 -2: Connection check in the middle of the class: 25 students responded to the question about stroke order of the kanji “必”.

  -3: Attendance check at the end: the answers of 5-question quiz were sent to me right after the class. 25 students sent. 8 student got the perfect scores of 5. But of the eight, two students sent their answers more than 20 minutes late. 

Teaching:

Review of 5-question quiz of the last class. Writing a research paper about tourism, and some grammatical issues from the textbook.

Homework:

To write abstract, conclusion, and remarks for the paper.

Issues and Problems:

< no time to write them right now>

Date: June 12th on Friday, 2020 from 8:00 to 9:30 (9:00 – 10:30 in JST)

Course: Japanese Basic Composition 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 57 slides

Numbers of Students: 22 out of 28; 5 students were thought to be absent based on the system and responses.

– 90 minutes attendance: 21 students

– One student was recorded for shorter attendances of 62 minutes.

Responses to my requests like Quiz answers onto BBS:

 -1: Attendance check at the beginning: 25 students responded. Of the 25, it seemed that three students were not participating because of no responses to the class activities.

 -2: Connection check in the middle of the class: the internet connections were checked by making the students input Alphabet onto BBS. 20 students responded. Actually one student input it 8 minutes late, this was judged that the student was not with me at the time of question. This was a question to ask the stroke order of one Kanji that meant “certainly” and/or “surely” as shown in the figure 1 below. 19 student answered C. There was only one exception of F that meant her stroke order was not covered by A through E. Japanese use either of A, B, or C that are commonly accepted. But A is being taught in school recent years. On Tuesday class, many students answered that their stroke orders were none of A, B, or C. So I added D and E for the class 1837. But this time almost of 1837 students answered with C. I don’t know the reason why many 1836 students answered differently.       

  -3: Attendance check at the end: the answers of 5-question quiz were sent to me right after the class. 21 students sent. Only one student got the perfect scores of 5.

Teaching:

Teachings were almost identical to the class for 1836 on Tuesday.

Homework:

Homework assignment was also almost identical to what was assigned for class 1836.

Issues and Problems:

I forgot to make quiz #3 when I was making PPT slides for Tuesday composition class 1836. So I gave the 1836 students a quiz only by my voice on Tuesday. I again forgot to make quiz #3 today. One student pointed that out by typing on BBS saying “Teacher, is there quiz #3?. Then again I gave the 1837 students the quiz #3 only by my speaking. For that particular question #3, 4 of 21 students just gave up answering. It meant that several students are not good at listening. This course is not listening but composition. So I don’t think it is my duty in this course to enhance the students’ listening. However, it seems that such students listening abilities are not in a good level at the time of the end of second years, because I said my question very simply and also used English. Can I, or, how can I incorporate listening activities into composition class, if I try to improve their listening?