Author: aki
Goal of the class:
Students get to learn how to communicate with Japanese people
Students will learn how to say no, how to accept the offer, how to invite someone to something.
Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):
Warm up Activity—Any news on academic and personal life? Each student has to say something about her/his life! (10 to 15 minutes)
Students come up with the communication styles in America and how are they different from Japanese communication. (10 to 15 minutes)
Student’s images on how Japanese people behave when they talk with other people. How it’s different from same age people/older people. (10 to 15 minutes)
What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)
How did students feel about the topic?
Students loved it. It was a great lesson especially for students who are planning to go study abroad in Japan soon.
Language and Section: Japanese Intermediate/advanced
Class theme/topics discussed: Questions and answers to establish people’s appearance, interests and other details.
Goal of the class: To be able to describe details of the people
Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):
5-10 minutes I asked students how they feel that day.
50 minutes each student makes a “biographical card” of a well-known person, all these biographical cards are displayed. All the students study the cards on display and write down the names. Students work in pairs to figure out who the person is.
What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)
None. Just some handouts
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
It worked well. Some students did not have enough vocabularies to describe people.
Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.
Conversation Class
Lesson Summary
Language and Section: Advanced Japanese
Date: October 16th
Class theme/topics discussed: What do you think of death penalty?
Goal of the class: Students learn new vocabularies and feel comfortable expressing their opinions in Japanese.
Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):
I introduced some vocabularies related to death penalty and students were divided into two groups. One is agree with death penalty and the other one is disagree with it.
After they spend about 10 minutes why they disagree and agree, students from each group presented their opinions.
What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
It worked well in terms of learning new vocabularies.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
I will prepare not only vocabularies but also basic/useful grammars and sentences for this kind of topics.
Next time I will choose more easy topics rather than this kind of hard topics.
Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.
Conversation Class
Lesson Summary
Language and Section: Japanese intermediate
Date: November 27th
Class theme/topics discussed: Speed dating and new vocabularies sheet
Goal of the class: Students learn new vocabularies and interact with others in Japanese without being shy!
Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):
Students spent about 15 minutes learning new beginners to intermediate vocabularies/expressions from a sheet of paper I prepared for them.
Then, students were given a piece of paper with simple facts of the character they have to act during speed dating. Students add some interesting facts on their character and three questions they want to ask to speed dating partners.
After they finished preparing questions, they did speed dating for two minutes with each partner and try to find potential partner!
After the speed dating, each student share their character and their favorite partner!
What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
It worked very well!! Students were comfortable talking with each other and because it was short so that they talked more promptly.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Time management.
Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.
Language and Section: Japanese Intermediate
Class theme/topics discussed: Let’s learn useful expressions for describing your feelings.
Goal of the class: Students learn/use useful expression when want to describe their feeling.
Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):
Students share their recent news on academic/personal life (15 minutes)
I described students how they have limited vocabularies when they talk about their feelings. It is an uninteresting when people say, “How are you?” and you say, “ I am fine” or “I am not good”. And having useful expressions helps students to have good communication with others.
Therefore I taught 15 useful expressions on feelings from the lists of expressions I found on Internet. (30 minutes)
When the vocabularies are taught, teachers should describe the words with gestures/mimes or play and students guess them.
Each student describes their feelings that they feel recently with new vocabularies!
(15 minutes)
What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)
N /A
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Because most of my students are planning to go to study abroad in Japan, this kind of exercise was very useful to them so students were very motivated to learn new vocabularies.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Students were so eager to learn new vocabularies, so I should have prepared more of vocabularies!
Class theme/topics discussed: Telephoning/role play
Goal of the class: directing the conversation, hesitating, expressing uncertainty.
Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):
5-10 minutes ice break talks —–we talked about our plans for the coming weekend
15 minutes——let’s sing Japanese song, learned about vocabularies and the meaning of the song.
35 minutes——provided useful expressions and the situations written in a piece of paper. Less complicated situations for intermediate students, more complicated situations for advanced students. Paired into 2 people, then one person and the other person act the telephone conversations in front of everyone.
What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)
None. Just some handouts.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
YES: Students loved creating the conversations and without assistance, they kept talking.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
For the Let’s sing a Japanese song, I used old song from 50s, they disliked the old song (even though I thought they will like it, because it is so beautiful song!) I will use more up to date song.
Language and Section: Japanese Intermediate/Advanced
Date: Feb 21st
Class theme/topics discussed: FOODS!
Goal of the class: Students learn about rare foods we eat in Japan.
Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):
1. Students have to name Japanese foods they know. (10 minutes)
2. I showed power point slide shows with pictures of “gross” Japanese foods. Students have to guess what they are (15 minutes)
3. I talked about those foods I showed: Where, when, how often do people in Japan eat the foods. (15 minutes) Students ask questions on them.
4. Discussions on “gross” foods in Japan. When did we start eating them? Which one do they like to try? Or not and why. (20 minutes)
What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)
Powerpoint
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Students loved this activity! It was a great opportunity for them to know rare, “gross” Japanese foods because they do not get to see or eat in America.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
It would be great if lrs prepared power point with pictures of rare food in Japan and make students try to guess what they are.
Conversation Class
Lesson Summary
Language and Section: Japanese Advanced and intermediate: Homosexuality and Law in Japan and America
Date: November 22nd
Class theme/topics discussed: Homosexuality
Goal of the class: To learn about Japan’s social issue and compare it with American society.
Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):
Japanese songs dictation: 10 to 15 minutes. ( You can choose songs according to students’ favorite genre)
First, students were asked how each state has different laws on same-sex marriage and the people’s reactions on it. Let students explain them to you. They speak well when they are asked to explain to you.
I introduced Japanese laws on the topic and people’s attitudes on it. I showed some Japanese TV shows that are ran by mainly gay people, which is very rare in Japanese TV history. I asked how they think of it and we had discussion on it.
What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)
I used youtube for the song dictation.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Students enjoyed this topic a lot, since students in my class are interested in social issues. They were curious on learning my (Japanese) perspectives on this issues. I recommend you to choose this topic after learning about your students first.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Before start the discussion in big group, I will divide students into smaller groups and let them discuss on it first in the future.
If you have international students in class, you should definitely ask other country’s situations on this topic.
Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.
