Section 1 - Course Description

Global Virtual University Project

JPN201

Elementary EFL/ Intermediate Japanese I

November, 2000

by Yoko Kano

Section 1 - Course Description

This course was designed to develop foreign language skills. American students will develop their Japanese language skills, and the Japanese students enhance their English communication skills.

The Videoconferences (VCs) were held for face-to-face interaction in Japanese and English to develop listening and speaking skills. An asynchronous written communication in Japanese and English was designed on the Internet as a discussion forum to enhance writing and reading skills.

For more details, please refer to the course syllabus on the web (refer to the "Related URL at the end of this report).

Section 2 - Course Participants

The participating university from the U.S. A. was University of North Carolina, Wilmington (UNCW) and that of Japan was Iwate Prefectural University (IPU). The instructors at each institution were Yoko Kano (UNCW) and Adrian Cohen (IPU).

The registered students were eight from UNCW and ten from IPU.

Section 3 - Teaching Strategies

a) Team-teaching and the combination of language classes:

The two language courses were combined to create the course "Elementary EFL/ Intermediate Japanese I". The Japanese language course was the third semester Japanese course, "Intermediate Japanese I" which was partially (half) on-line. Traditionally, a three-credit course needs to meet 2.5 hours a week, however, its’ being a partially on-line course, the students met with the instructor once a week for 75 minutes for speaking practices and taking quizzes. The course in Japan was a traditional class called "Listening Overseas" which course contents were modified by Cohen to get the students ready for the videoconferences sessions

VC and the Internet discussion Forum schedule was utilized in October and November to override the fall semester of IPU and UNCW. IPU starts in October and ends in January, and UNCW starts in August and ends in December.

Both English and Japanese languages were used to communicate among students. During VCs the American students spoke mostly in Japanese, and the Japanese students spoke mostly in English. Some may feel this situation is unnatural. However, thinking the process of learning Japanese, we find that the American students often experience that the Japanese people talk to them in English especially when the American’s Japanese language proficiency level is not as good or equal to the English level of the Japanese. Japanese language learners need to keep speaking in Japanese persistently to get some practice with the Japanese. So this format was thought to be appropriate for the Elementary or Intermediate level of Japanese language learners.

b) Videoconferences and Forum, Asynchronous Electronic Discussion:

Topics of the VCs were chosen and modified to suit the interest of the students and their proficiency levels. They have studied the textbook, Yookoso by Tohsaku, up to chapter 5.

Self-introductions of the students were posted in the students’ target language on homepages of each integrated course with photos of participating students for familiarization of each other and for easy identification during the VCs.

In order to let students feel comfortable in the videoconferencing environment, the instructors included some warming up activities at the beginning of each conferencing. These activities included a game, American students’ dressing up in Halloween costume to introduce the annual event, a video tape presentation created by the IPU students on Japanese students leisure activities, such as, eating and drinking at a bar and singing karaoke afterwards, and photos showing family gatherings at the Thanksgiving day which will be presented by the UNCW students.

The following were the dates and topics for the VCs from October through November 2000.

Date	Time	Topics
Oct. 12 (Thus.)	7:50 p.m. - 9:20 p.m.	Self-introduction
Oct. 19 (Thus.)	7:50 p.m. - 9:20 p.m.	What did you do this summer?
Oct. 26 (Thus.)	6:50 p.m. - 8:20 p.m.	Family
Nov. 9 (Thus.)	6:50 p.m. - 8:20 p.m.	Dating
Nov. 30 (Thus.)	6:50 p.m. - 8:20 p.m.	What do you do everyday?

(Oct. 12, 2000) Self-introduction:

The self-introduction page was posted in students’ foreign language prior to the VC and assigned that students read them and prepare some questions. At the VC, the instructors introduced themselves in their native language, and the students briefly introduced themselves in their foreign language and invited some questions and tried to get used to the videoconference classroom environment. A game was prepared as a warming-up activity for the beginning of the VC but it was not used in an effort to let everyone talk. Also, some instruction about the Forum page usage was necessary especially for Japanese students. American students already had a chance to use it as a part of class in August.

(Oct. 19, 2000) What did you do this summer? :
Students were paired up with their foreign counterparts to ask questions to each other on the topic on the Forum asynchronous discussion bulletin board. American students wrote the questions in Japanese, and Japanese students wrote their questions in English. At the same time, in receiving the questions from the partner, the students were instructed to correct their partner’s writings. Thus the students’ got feedback on their writings from their counterparts, and then instructor’s comments were added to their writings. A game was prepared as a warming-up activity for the beginning of the VC but it was not used since further instructions were necessary for Japanese students to understand the usage of Forum. During the VC, each student presented about their partner’s activities during the summer followed by questions from class at both countries.

(Oct. 26, 2000) Family:
Students were paired up with different (from the previous week) foreign counterparts to ask questions to each other on the topic on the Forum. Students wrote their questions in their foreign language and, in receiving the questions from the partner, the students were instructed to correct their partner’s writings. Thus, the students’ received feedback on their writings from the native speakers of languages in which correspondences were written, and then instructor’s comments were added after the natives’ corrections. A game was prepared as a warming-up activity for the beginning of the VC but it was not used due to time-constrains. Ninety-minutes is not enough to have all 18 students present about their partners including time for questions and answers.

. (Nov. 9, 2000) Dating/Comparing prices:
Students were paired up with the foreign counterparts, with whom they have not corresponded before. This time they were instucted to post their essay (instead of starting the correspondence with questions) on the topic and questions were asked afterwards based on their essays on the Forum. They were instructed to write about their dating activities when they have money and when they are broke. Students wrote their essays in their foreign language to post on Forum. After posting their essays to the partner, they received corrections from their counterparts as well as from the instructor. Halloween was introduced by American students as a warming up activity at the beginning. Some students dressed up in their favorite costume, Halloween candies were sent previously to Japan for them to taste, the phrase "trick or treat" was taught as well as a presentation on history of Halloween written in Japanese by an American student. Then presentations on the partner’s dating activities were followed. Comparisons on the dating activities were summarized into charts by the instructor and posted on the Forum prior to the VC. The students were instructed to print it out for easy reference during the VC.

(Nov. 30, 2000) What do you do everyday? (This report was written on Nov.21,2000):
Students were paired up with the foreign counterparts and posted essays on what they are busy with and what they do on leisure time. Questions will be followed on the Forum about what they write on the daily and leisure activities. As they have been doing, students write their essays and questions in their foreign languages and correct their partners writings. As warming-up activities, a video on Japanese student’s night-out will be edited and showed at the beginning of the VC followed by questions from the U.S. Then instead of presenting about their partners, the students will freely talk about daily and leisure activities. Also, the American students will talk what Thanksgiving is and what they will do during the holiday, followed by questions from the Japanese students.

c) Forum, Asynchronous Electronic Discussion:

This is how a discussion thread looks like. It is between the two students, Shizuka and Adrienne. They frequently corresponded and the instructor, Kano, added some more suggestions to student’s essay.

Read Entire Thread
[Previous Main Topic]
From Shizuka to Adrienne (Shizuka Ono, 10/23)
. . Re: From Shizuka to Adrienne (Shizuka Ono, 10/23)
. . . . Re: From Shizuka to Adrienne (Adrienne Westlake, 10/23)
. . . . . . Re: From Adrienne to Shizuka (Adrienne Westlake, 10/24)
. . . . . . . . Re: From Adrienne to Shizuka (Shizuka Ono, 10/25)
. . . . . . . . . . Re: From Adrienne to Shizuka (Adrienne Westlake, 10/25)
. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: From Adrienne to Shizuka (Shizuka Ono, 10/26) You are here.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: From Adrienne to Shizuka (Yoko Kano, 10/26)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: From Adrienne to Shizuka (Adrienne Westlake, 10/26)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: From Adrienne to Shizuka (Shizuka Ono, 10/26)
. . Re: From Shizuka to Adrienne (Yoko Kano, 10/25)

Section 4 Course Evaluations

The evaluation will be done in detail after the course is over. However, here are some recommendations and tips I have learned through developing this course.

Take advantage of every single opportunity from a sharing class with native speakers of target languages who actually live in the target countries. The class content, especially classroom activities and assignments can become more practical tasks for the students than those of traditional language classes. As examples, refer to the topics of assignments in the course calendar and activities at the beginning of the VCs.

Provide successful experiences and encouragements in communication with the people in the target languages so that the students increase their confidence. The American students were anxious to send their essay to Japanese students, wondering if they would understand what they mean but as the time goes by, this type of comments were not heard.

The VCs will create a great opportunity for language learners not only to acquire the language but also to observe the cultural differences and similarities including mannerism and ways of communication.

Some fun activities/ games/ presentations at the beginning of each class are necessary to ease the tension and to create friendly atmosphere. But keep it short (about 10 minutes at most).

Face-to-face interaction by videoconferencing is essential especially in this type of cultural and language course.

Assign some percentage (at least 15 %) of the final grade to Forum participation. Otherwise, the students except a few would not participate.

However, without instructor’s guidance and assistance on topics especially at the early stage of the interaction, they would not engage in the conversation. Some structures by the instructor are necessary for learners of this proficiency level to initiate and continue their conversation in their foreign languages. In order to increase the students’ participation on the Forum, the instructors can, for example, create assignments on the Forum from the beginning of the semester (such as interviews on the web) to encourage the conversation among them.

Matching up the students to correspond definitely helps to get the correspondence started.

Try not to plan too much. It may end up with overloading students. In this course, the American students had many new components for them to adjust to this course: learning complex compound structure of Japanese for the first time; learning course materials on the web (their previous course were taught in the traditional classroom); learning how to type in Japanese; getting used to the structures of the course materials on the web.

Topics for discussion need to be adjusted to something the students can easily relate to and also the American students can handle. Since Japanese students had much longer learning experiences in English than their American counterparts in Japanese, topics of discussion needed to be adjusted to the contents which American students have learned and are learning.

Hold computing sessions at the beginning of the semester and as necessary during the semester to give some suggestions and guidance to the students on how to learn from the web. Providing a self-study guide on a CD-ROM for basic computing skills and tips on learning on their own will greatly serve this purpose. The CD-ROM needs to be available for the students to check out or purchase.

Use of more visual (photos, videos, etc) materials as well as auditory (such as music) materials on the web or in the VCs can help and enrich the conversation and also enhance the course with more interesting and authentic contents/context.

It seems better to finish the VCs and Forum sessions by the end of the UNCW fall semester so that the Japanese students will have the same group of students throughout the course.

Flexibility is very important. Prepare some emergency lesson plans for technical glitches.

The combination of VCs and Asynchronous discussion bulletin board would give a nice balance to the students in different cultures and learning styles.

Collaborative teaching with the instructors at distance sites is a key to the successful long distance courses.

Related URLs

Kano's course syllabus on the web

<http://www.uncwil.edu/people/kanoy/JPN201/Syllabus.htm>

Course calendar (Assignments for American students)

<http://www.uncwil.edu/people/kanoy/JPN201/Calendar201-Fl-00.htm>

General course homepage as a sample syllabus for Japanese universities

< http://www.uncwil.edu/dpsee/VirtualU/framesetkano2.htm>

Page for Virtual University Project at UNCW

<http://www.uncwil.edu/dpsee/VirtualU/>

Kano’s course homepage

<http://uncw.collegis.com/courses/JPN201Kanc.nsf>

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