カテゴリー: 宿題

Date: May 18th on Monday, 2020 from 9:50 to 11:20 (10:50 – 12:20 in JST)

Course: Japanese Listening 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 70 slides

Numbers of Students: 27

27 students stayed with me from the start to the end.

Students’ Responses:

– Attendance Check : 27 students typed his/her attendance by themselves on BBS.

– Quiz 1 : 26 students answered. This was to show that “tsumori” would be better only for subject “watashi-wa” from the point of view of politeness.

– Quiz 2: 27 students answered. This was to tell the difference between “-kara ” for reason and “-kara” for the order of actions.

– Quiz 3: 27 students answered. This was to make sure that a verb must be in dictionary form before “-maeni” and be  in Ta-form before “-atode”

– Quiz at the End: 27 students typed their own sentences that consisted of the subject, place, an object, and a transitive verb.

Teaching:

1: Basics of Japanese grammar

– In “wa-ga construction”, the whole uses “-wa” and a part uses “-ga”.

– A subject uses “-ga” and an object uses “-o” in a transitive verb predicate sentence. subject

2: Review of grammar in the last class

– “-Koto”, “tsumori”, and “tokoro” are a type of nouns that are often used to connect a verb and a particle. They are less meaningful but functional.

3: Listening using textbook material

Homework Assignment:

– No homework was assigned.

Issues and Problems:

<no time to write them right now>

Date: May 13th on Wednesday, 2020 from 8:00 to 9:30 (9:00 – 10:30 in JST)

Course: Japanese Listening 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 66 slides

Numbers of Students: 27

Every student stayed with me from the start to the end.

Students’ Responses:

– Attendance Check : All of the 27 students typed his/her attendance on BBS.

– Quiz 1 : 26 students answered.The question asked the relation between “Naze” in the question and “-karadesu” in the answer which seems to have similarity with English’s “Why?- Because”.

– Quiz 2: 26 students answered.The question was to distinguish the function of a noun “tokoro” that can mean just before, ongoing, and right after

– Quiz 3: 26 students answered. Question was about a noun “koto”. The students were asked to choose one sentence from four, in which “koto” meant a decision by the one’s will.

– Quiz at the End: 26 students typed their own sentences that meant like “A person can d osomething”(of course in Japanese) .

Teaching:

1: Basics of Japanese grammar

– Intransitive verb predicate sentences and particles used in such sentences.

– Wa-ga construction for existence focusing on relations between the topic “wa” that contains and the subject “ga ” that is contained; in other words, “wa” for the entire and “ga” for a part. The students not only over-generalize “Wa-ga construction”, but also reversely place the entire thing and a part in the wa-ga construction. Also a caution was given to the students. the subject is unclear in a “Wa-ga construction” because it has the topic and the subject. It is better to use another construction that has a clear subject in order to make a sentence to say an existence of a thing and matter.

2: Review of grammar in the last class

– The section 18 of the textbook that contains some expressions using “V-te iru”.

3: Introduction to the section 19 of the textbook

– Functional nouns like koto, tsumori, and tokoro. Especially the expressions for capabilities were explained for both two types. One was that a person has potentiality to do something and the other was that the situation allows someone to do something.

– Exercise1 and 2 of the section 19 in the textbook.

Homework Assignment:

– No homework was assigned.

Issues and Problems:

– I used many PPT slides to make the students understand that there is a relationship of “contains – contained” in Wa-ga construction. “Contains” uses “-wa” as the topic and “Contained” uses “-ga” as the subject. But some students often place those words in reverse. It seems that, rather than teaching the same thing over and over and over again with a lot of repetitive PPT slides, I wonder that there might be a decisive way to make the students learn a correct use in just one time. If I repeat the same teachings again and again, but the students didn’t understand, it would be wasting the hours and it would mean that I am just damaging students’ opportunities to learn.

Date: May 11th on Monday, 2020 from 9:50 to 11:20 (10:50 – 12:20 in JST)

Course: Japanese Listening 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 70 slides

Numbers of Students: 27

26 students stayed with me from the start to the end. One student was absent.

Students’ Responses:

– Attendance Check : 26 students typed his/her attendance by themselves on BBS.

– Quiz 1 : 25 students answered.The question was conversions from Masu-form to Te-form for four verbs. Some students tended to put the small “tsu” for 1-dan verbs, but it is not correct. Putting a small “tsu” happens on some types of 5-dan verbs, not 1-dan verbs.

– Quiz 2: 24 students answered.The question was  to choose the correct combination of four particles from the selections. Students typed wrong answer that came from over generalization of  “Wa-ga construction”. Many students are sticking to “Wa-ga construction” and make errors on particles by over-generalizing it. I stopped them and made them answer again.

– Quiz 2: 24 students answered. Question was about tense for past, present progressive, and non-past. All 23 were right. The purpose of this question is to make students understand the usage of “V-te iru” in the concept of tense-aspect.

– Quiz 3: 24 students answered. The question was to choose the right combination of a question and an answer. When a question was done with “Naze (why)”, the answer must have the ending “-karadesu.”. This seems like the relation between why and because. This quiz intended to make the students find the relation between “naze” and “karadesu”.

– Quiz at the End: 25 students typed their own sentences in the form of “V-te kudasai”.

Teaching:

1: Basics of Japanese grammar

– Verb predicate sentences end with “-masu”, which is different from the endings of Noun and Adjective predicate sentences.

– Do not over-generalize “Wa-ga construction” to verb predicate sentences especially for transitive verb sentences for action/movement. Use proper particle for a word’s function.

2: Review of grammar in the last class

– Introduction of Te-form, “V-te iru” for ongoing actions, and uses of particle “-de”.

3: Listening using textbook material

Homework Assignment:

– No homework was assigned.

Issues and Problems:

When the students were typing the wrong answer by over-generalizing “Wa-ga” construction, I stopped their inputting with shouting and made them input again. Since some students had not yet input, this forced redo could not be used for knowing the first reaction of a student. However, I expected that could be an effective action to make the students realize that they got an wrong answer.

Another issue was that  I was ill-prepared for the activities with textbook’s listening materials. Making the students listen to and simply showing the answer for it was not a good teaching style. I had been concentrating on making PPT slides that reflects my own ideas about damage by “Wa-da construction” or other issue. But I didn’t spend enough time to think how to use and teach the textbook materials effectively to the students.

Date: May 6th on Wednesday, 2020 from 8:00 to 9:30 (9:00 – 10:30 in JST)

Course: Japanese Listening 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 79 slides

Numbers of Students: 27

26 students stayed with me from the start to the end. One student was recorded shorter participation of 78 minutes, probably coming late because this student did not send attendance of “Shusseki”.

Students’ Responses:

– Attendance Check : All the 26 students typed his/her attendance by themselves on BBS.

– Quiz 1 : 25 students answered. This question was to choose the correct usages of particles. 12 students typed the wrong answer that came from over generalization of  “Wa-ga construction”. Damage caused by “Wa-ga construction” is still severe.

– Quiz 2: 23 students answered. Question was about tense for past, present progressive, and non-past. All 23 were right. The purpose of this question is to make students understand the usage of “V-te iru” in the concept of tense-aspect.

– Quiz 3: 25 students answered. The question was to understand the difference between uses of particles “-de” and “-ni”.

– Quiz at the End: 25 students typed their own sentences that includes a subject, “Now”, and “V-te iru”.

Teaching:

1: Re- submission of homework

– Someone edited the original document of the homework on BBS. Because the replaced file contains two errors in it, a students used that one would make at least four errors. Therefore, I postponed the deadline by Friday night.

2: The very basic of Japanese sentence.

– The end of the sentence is the most important part. It needs to be changed properly according to the tense if there is a word about time that works as an adverbial. It is quite often observed that even when a word like “yesterday” is being used, students’ sentence is left as present tense at the end of the sentence. The relation between time adverbials and the sentence endings was taught.

3: Differences between intransitive verb sentences and transitive verb sentences

– “-ga” is used in an intransitive verb sentence, but it is not always. It is not the function of “-ga”. The most important function of “-ga” is to be a marker of the subject.

4: “V-te iru”

– Four types were explained about “V-te iru”. Only the usage as present progressive was the target of the textbook for now.

5: Particle “-de”

– Five uses of the particle “-de” were introduced; the place of action, tool/way, transportation, language, and materials to make something.

6: Listening materials from the textbook

Homework Assignment:

– Those who used the replace document for homework on April 30 were recommended checking and submitting the homework again.

– The new homework was given. That was to understand how to make Te-form of verbs.

Issues and Problems:

There were a lot. Probably too much. I mean the volume of what to teach in 90 minutes class. Even the most excellent student would not be able to fully understand today’s class.

Date: April 29th on Wednesday, 2020 from 8:00 to 9:30 (9:00 – 10:30 in JST)

Course: Japanese Listening 2

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 69 slides

Numbers of Students: 27

26 students stayed with me from the start to the end. One student was recorded shorter participation of 71 minutes.

Students’ Responses:

– Attendance Check : All the 27 students typed his/her attendance by themselves on BBS

– Quiz 1 : 25 students answered. This question was to choose the correct usages of two particles; “-ni” for status/position after the change, and “-o” for a location you are departing from.

– Quiz 2: 24 students answered. Question was to choose the right combination about sentence endings for Noun-, Na-adjective, and I-adjective predicated sentences in past tense.

– Quiz 3: 24 students answered. The question was to distinguish an intransitive verb sentence and a transitive verb sentence.

– Quiz at the End: 25 students typed their own sentences in which an adjective conjugated to modify a verb as an adverbial. The verb must be an intransitive verb, not a transitive verb.

Teaching:

1: Review of a short test about particles

– many students have not got used to how to use “-ni”.

– There seemed to be a severe misunderstandings about “Wa-ga construction”. “Wa-ga construction” must be in the form of [The whole]wa [a part]ga [exists]. It never be [a part]wa [the whole]ga [exists].

2: Review on the last lesson

– How to make I- and Na- adjectives adverbials to modifies a verb.

– Difference between the intransitive verb for change “-naru” and the transitive verb “-suru”.

3: Listening activities using the textbook

Homework Assignment:

– On the following day on April 30, two homeworks were assigned to the students through the BBS on Dingtalk. (1) Test with 100 questions and (2) Listening and dictation.

Issues and Problems:

Some students showed that their understandings were still not good in the following points:

– couldn’t tell the difference between intransitive verbs and transitive verbs

– didn’t know that particle “-o” is usually used for transitive verb sentence

– didn’t know that an adjective must conjugate to be an adverbial

– couldn’t tell the difference between I-adjectives and Na-adjectives

– didn’t operate different conjugations for I-adjective and Na-adjective

These were exhibited when they made their own sentences at the end of the class.