タグ: English

Date: May 29th on Friday, 2020 from 13:40 to 15:10 (14:40 – 16:10 in JST)

Course: Japanese Conversation 4

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 59 slides

Numbers of Students: 25 of 28, 3 were recorded as completely absent by the system.

Fully attendant for 90min : 21

Shorter signing-in: 12, 7, 2 minutes, and 29 seconds. Those who were recorded for their short participation sometimes sent 5-question quiz answer. Probably they are running other applications on their computer while the online class is ongoing.

Responses onto the BBS:

– Attendance check by a student his/herself : 26 students input “Shusseki” onto BBS. One of the 26 was actually recorded, by the system, as completely absent.

– 1st Quiz: 24 students responded. The quiz was to find a passive sentence that was correctly converted from an active sentence with four selections. Everyone got the right answer.

– 2nd Quiz: 23 students responded. The question was to find a difference of types of conjunctive particles (c.p.). Four sentences were shown to the students; three were using c.p.s that were contradictory to expectation,  one was using c.p. that was conforming expectation. The students were asked to choose the latter one. But all the students got the wrong answer. That meant the students had not got the concept of two types of conjunctive particles correctly yet; one is used when the main clause is conforming the preceding clause, the other is used when the main clause is contradictory to the preceding clause.

– 3rd Quiz: 23 students responded. The question was to check if the students understand the conversation that was of Section 37 of “Min’nano Nihongo”.

– Attendance check at the end: 21 students responded. Students were asked to compose a passive sentence from their own experience in which he/she was damaged by someone or something.

Teaching: 

– Basic concepts of Japanese passive sentences. Four types were explained.

– Exercise using the textbook.

– Listening activity using script that contained passive sentences. The convesation “Kinkakuji-wa….” in section 37 of “Minnano Nihongo” was used.

– One sentence composition at the end of the class

Homework Assignment:

– Short test of section 13 that is about passive sentences.

– Four students were asked to send a mp3 or m4a sound data by speaking the script of conversation of two part time job workers; Park-san and Chin-san that was in Dekiru Nihongo (yellow).

Issues and Problems:

Many students wrote passive sentences using intransitive verbs. It is fact that intransitive verbs also can be used for passive sentences in Japanese. However, I think that the passive sentence using transitive verbs should be prioritized in order to understand the concept of passive sentences. It seems that Japanese textbooks in this country are just trying dealing with everything about grammar. The textbook writers don’t care about what is basic or detail, what is useful to the students in practical sense, what teaching order helps student understand and so on.

Date: May 25th on Monday, 2020 from 8:00 to 9:30 (9:00 – 10:30 in JST)

Course: Japanese Conversation 4

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 68 slides

Numbers of Students: 25 out of 28. 3 students were recorded as completely absent.

Fully attendant for 90min : 21

Shorter signing-in: 81, 72, 59, and 3 minutes.

Responses onto the BBS:

– Attendance check by a student his/herself: 25. However, one student of the 25 was recorded as completely absent by the system. Two came late and stayed shorter times.

– 1st Quiz: 21 students responded. This was to know which verbs need to be “-rareru” for passive form instead of  “-reru”.

– 2nd Quiz: 21 students responded. This was to choose a sentence using a conjunctive particle regretful “-noni” .

– 3rd Quiz: 19 students responded. This was just a joking that asked who built the Osala Castle; Toyotomi Hideyoshi or carpenters. If one answered “Toyotomi Hideyoshi”, then the asking person will change the answer to carpenters. If one answered “carpenters”, then the asking person will change the answer to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The purpose of this question was to introduce one type of passive sentences like “The main castle was built in 1931.”

– Attendance check at the end: 20 students responded. This was to choose a passive sentence from the four.

Teaching: 

– How to make a passive form of a verb, focusing on which verbs could be “rareru”.

– Basics of passive sentences in Japanese.

– Review of the passive sentences in which a person who made an action was clear.

– Introduction and exercise of passive sentences using intransitive verbs.

– Introduction and  exercise of passive sentences that do not difine who made the action.

Homework Assignment:

– No homework was assigned.

– Three students were asked to send a MP3 or M4A by Wednesday night. Those students were asked to record their own speaking of conversation between two part time job workers.

Issues and Problems:

Since this is conversation class, I should facilitate students’ utterances. But I feel it technically difficult for me to do so under the current conditions. I mean, I don’t think the online teaching can be a substitute of class activities. No way.

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

Course: Japanese Conversation 4

Used app: Streaming on DingTalk, Presentation by Powerpoint with 62 slides

Numbers of Students: 24 of 28, 4 were recorded as completely absent

Fully attendant for 90min : 21

Shorter signing-in: 65, 59, and 44 minutes.

Responses onto the BBS:

– Attendance check y a student his/herself : 26 students input “Shusseki” onto BBS. Two of the 26 were actually recorded by the system, as completely absent.

– 1st Quiz: 23 students responded. The quiz was about “Ra-omission” among younger generation. The students were asked to choose one sentence that could  be “Ra-omission”. There were three sentences using passive, respectful, and potential “V-rareru”.

– 2nd Quiz: 21 students responded. The question was to find a similarity in use of the particle “-ni” in one sentence from the four. The particle “-ni” indicates a person who initiates an action in passive sentences as well as give-and-take sentences.

– 3rd Quiz: 23 students responded. The question was to think about emotions in the four situations in the textbook. Only one was positive (pleased), but three were negative emotions. The purpose of the question was to make the students know that Japanese passive sentences are used, in many cases, to express when a person gets damaged.

– Attendance check at the end: 22 students responded. Students were asked to input a passive form of a verb with ending “-ta”. Some students input passive forms of intransitive verbs. It is an interesting nature of Japanese to use intransitive verbs for passive expression. However, in order to introduce the concept of passive sentences, I should have limited the verbs for this question to transitive verbs only.

Teaching: 

– Review for short test that was about conditional conjunctive particles “-to,” and “-tara,”.

– Introduction of passive sentences using Dekiru Nihongo (Yellow).

– Practices of passive sentences using the textbook. The types of passive sentences were limited today to types in which the person making action was clear.

– Introduction of a conjunctive particle; regretful “-noni”

Homework Assignment:

– No homework assignment to submit that was for every students.

– Only four students were asked to send a mp3 or m4a sound data by speaking the script of conversation of two part time job workers; Park-san and Chin-san that was in Dekiru Nihongo (yellow).

Issues and Problems:

This is a conversation class. Therefore I don’t think it is my duty to introduce grammatical things about passive sentences. However, I was not sure how much the students have already got used to passive sentences. Perhaps I may need to spend more time for rote exercise like conversion to passive form together with exercise for meaningful conversation.