J131	ELEMENTARY JAPANESE I	Fall 2008
Ronald Loftus		email: rloftus
Walton 144		voice: 6275

Course Objectives

To provide students with the basic tools necessary for communication in modern Japanese with emphasis on the spoken language. The textbook, Nakama, emphasizes a "proficiency" or "communications" (i.e., a "non-grammar") based approach to language learning which means that most class time will be spent "acting in the language," i.e., practicing realistic and communicative exercises such as learning dialogues, conducting role-plays, and practicing the key patterns and sentence structures introduced in the grammar portions of the text. "Facting about the language," or explanations of key grammar points in each lesson, will occur, but the emphasis will be on developing students' communicative skills.

There are four basic skill areas involved in learning a foreign language: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Our emphasis in Elementary will be on the first two, but the fundamentals of reading and writing will also be introduced. This semester we will learn the two phonetic syllabaries, katakana and hiragana; the study of kanji, the Chinese characters Japan borrowed to construct its written language, will begin in the middle of next semester.

My Teaching and Learning Philosophy: basically, what you need to successfully learn a second language is motivation, commitment and discipline. It does not require a lot of thinking and analysis; but it does require regular attention to the tasks at hand. You must read the textbook, study the new vocabulary, learn the new words and patterns by reading, repeating them out loud, covering up the Japanese and repeating them until you can say the Japanese word or pattern with ease. If you want/need to make flash cards or keep a vocab list in a notebook, fine. But as you write words or patterns down, be sure to say them out loud--over and over. This kind of learning cannot be done only through the eye; you need to involve your ears and your mouth!

You will be assigned regular homework activities. Do these assignments when they are scheduled and integrate the learning with what was practiced in class.

Course Requirements

1. Regular class attendance; on time. No more than 3-4 unexcused absences during the semester. (10%)

2. Full attention and participation during class time. NO FOOD IN CLASS, PLEASE!

3. Advance preparation of dialogues and activities.

4. Regular use of workbook and tapes/CD-ROM as called for.

5. Completion of all assigned homework in a timely manner (10%)

6. Completion of all in-class quizzes (15%)

7. In-class Unit Tests plus the final Exam (65%)

Textbooks:

Makino & Hatasa, Nakama 1:Japanese Communication, Culture,Context

Nakama is a textbook which tries to bring practical, everyday Japanese into the language classroom with an emphasis on gaining language proficiency. Each lesson has clear objectives in terms of teaching the students to be able to carry out certain language tasks: introducing yourself, meeting others, talking about yourself, getting around, counting, shopping, telling time, etc. Your text, and the materials which accompany it--including the tapes, workbook and any computer materials--are your keys to a successful language learning experience. In this class, you must be able to learn by ear because speaking skills cannot be learned solely through the eye. All our work in class and the studying you do at home are based on this principle. Feel free to consult the Nakama webpage.

Workbook: Hatasa & Hatasa Workbook/Laboratory Manual (WB) contains exercises and homeowrk assignments to accompany each lesson. Portions of assignments may be on the student tape.

Class Schedule and Assignments

Class Time

Homework/Assignment

Sept. 2 First Day: Course Overview, Introducing Yourself (Nakama, p. 6)	Hiragana I, WB, 1-2 LLC Program JapanEase
4 Hiragana overview, Greetings, Thanking, Addressing "How do you say?" People (Nakama,13-14) More Greetings Aisatsu Visit LLC	Hiragana II, WB, 3-4
5 Review, Apologizing, Polite Requests, Requesting (16-17)	Review Hiragana 1-2, Handout

Some websites that may be beneficial for kana study:

http://www.csus.edu/fl/japanese/gahoh/engrishutext/hiragana-e.htmlhttp://www.csus.edu/fl/japanese/gahoh/engrishutext/hiragana-e.html

http://members.aol.com/writejapan/hiragana/writutor.htm

http://web.mit.edu/21f.501/www/hiragana.html

http://www.umich.edu/~umichjlp/Hiraganapro/index.html

http://www.kanjistep.com/en/online/hiraganasteps/index.html

http://www.thejapanesepage.com/beginners/hiragana

Flashcards to quiz yourself on hiragana

8 Asking for Japanese Equivalents, Words (Nakama, 17-20)	Hiragana III, WB, 5-6
9 Hiragana I-III Quiz, Double Consonants and Glides (21-22)	Hiragana IV-VII, Read Dialogue Ch. 2, 31-32
11 Useful Expressions, (Nakama, 21-23) Begin Ch. 2: Nationalities and Languages	Hiragana Handout; Read Text, 28-30
12 Ch. 2 Dialogue, Year in School,	Hiragana handout; also, WB, L. 2, I, pp. 7-8

15 Ch. 2 "I am..." Greetings & Introductions A wa B desu Pattern (35); Asking Y/N Questions	Practice hiragana; WB II, 8-9
16 Noun1+no+Noun2	Practice hiragana; WB, III, 9-10
18 Using Interrogatives: What, where, which?	Practice hiragana; WB, IV, 10
19 Listing/describing similarities with to and mo	WB V+ Integration, 11-13

Visit an interesting site for quizzing yourself on kana

22 Review Dialogue (29-33); Reading practice (50-51)	Write about yourself (Text, 51)
23 Integrated Practice (54)	Dict-a-conversation
25 Review, Role Play (54)	Review Materials
26 Unit Test, Chs. 1-2	Read Ch. 3, p. 60

29 Ch. 3: Japanese Houses; Adjectives + Nouns	WB I, 14
30Kono, sono, ano, dono + Noun (68-71) Ko/So/A/Do	WB II, 15-16
Oct. 2 Location Words + arimasu/imasu (72-75); Practice A*B (73-74)	WB III, 16-18
3 Practice C&D (75); More Location Nouns 75-76; Practice A-C (77-78)	WB IV, 18-19

6 Particles yo and ne (79-80), Reading Practice (81-82)	WB V, 20
7 Review, Dialogue (62-63), Integration (84)	WB Integration, 21-22
9 Role Play, Oral Performance	Dict-a-conversation
10 Review	unit-test review materials

13 Unit Test Ch. 3	WB, 23-24, a-so
14 Katakana 89-97 See for example http://members.aol.com/writejapan/katakana/kana.htm http://marinebat.com/gahoh/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=40 http://www.umich.edu/~umichjlp/Katakanapro/index.html http://web.mit.edu/21f.501/www/katakana.html	WB, 25-27, ta-ho
16 Introduce L. 4, New Vocabulary (100) Katakana Words	WB, 28-31, ma-n
17 L. 4 Text B-C (101); D, Colors (102); Adjectives, totemo-amari (105-7)	WB, I A (32)

20 Practice A-B (107-108), More katakana	WB, I B 33
21 Practice C-D (108-109); Practive A-B (110-111) Adj. + no or na no	WB, II A & B 34-35
23 Review: kore/sore/are/dore (111-113)	WB III A 35-36
24 MID SEMESTER DAY--NO CLASSES

27 Review; Practice B-D (113-114)	WB III B, 36-37
28 Using wa and ga (115-117)	WB IV, 37-38
30 Expressing Location with ~wa, ~ni + arimasu/imasu (118-120)	WB V, 38-40
31Dialogue (103-04); Location Word Practice B-D (120-122)	Integration WB 41-42

November 3 Review, Reading(122-124)
4 Listening and Dict-A-Conversation (124-125)	Unit Test Review Sentences
6 Review, Integration (126-127)
7 Unit Test Ch. 4

10 Ch. 5 New Vocabulary and Dialogue; Telling time (137-140)	4 Sentence Types New Vocabulary Ch. 5, 132-33
11 Particles ni, de and o (141-143)	WB I A-B, 43-44
13 Reveiw/Practice (143); Routine/future actions (144-7)	WB II A-B, 44-45
14 Adverbs, expressing frequency (147-149)	WB III, 45

17 Approximate time, duration goro, gurai (150-152)	WB IV A-B, 46-47
18 Prereading, Reading (153-54)	WB V, 47-48
20 Review, Listening, Dict-A-Conversation	WB, Integration, 48-49
21 Review/Video	?@

24Totoro See Totoro site	?@
25 Finish Totoro	Tonari no Totoro
27-28 THANKSGIVING BREAK--NO CLASS	Review Sentences Ch. 5

Dec. 1 Review, dialogue (103-04); Integration (156)
2 Review key points
Dec. 4 Review
Dec. 5 Ch. 5 Unit Test

9 Review
9 Review
11 Review	Review Materials here.
12 LAST CLASS

Final Exam:

Final for section-01 is Thursday Dec. 18 9:00 am;

Final for section-02, it is on Monday Dec. 15 9:00 am

(you may take the final early if you are in section-01 and vice versa, of course)

Note: The schedule says 8:00-11:00 am but we will start the exam at 9:00 am!!