J131	ELEMENTARY JAPANESE I	Fall 2011
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 1, emphasizes a "proficiency" or "communications" (i.e., a "non-grammar") based approach to language learning which means that the emphasis will be on "using Japanese for real-world communicative purposes." Accordingly, most of our class time will be spent "acting in the language," i.e., practicing realistic and communicative exercises such as dialogues, or model conversations, role-plays, and practicing variations on 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 and begin the study of kanji, the Chinese characters that Japan borrowed to construct its written language. Please visit the LLC website in order to see a list of a wide variety of study materials available online. For a specific set of Quick Time movies of a calligrapher writing each character with a brush that are coordinated with Nakama, see here.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. To learn to speak in the target language in task-oriented situations modeled on dialogues and exercises found in the textbook.

2. To learn how to read in the target language by recognizing the symbols of the two phonetic (kana) scripts and the few Chinese characters that are introduced in the first semester.

3. To be able to listen and understand short, learned utterances in the target language building up to sentence-length utterances situated in   clear contexts.

4. To learn how to write in the target language at the level of sentences and short paragraphs featuring the two phonetic scripts and the few Chinese characters introduced this semester.

My Teaching and Learning Philosophy: basically, what you need to do in order to successfully learn a second language is to be motivated, disciplined, and able to break down the learning process into manageable pieces. Learning Japanese does not require a lot of thinking or analysis; but it does require focus and regular attention to the tasks at hand including completing your homework assignments in the Student Activities Manual (SAM) when they are due. This, in itself, though, may not be sufficient. You must read the textbook caredully, 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. There are wonderful tools now available online like "WordChamp" that you can use to make and practice flash cards. But as you write words or patterns down, or select them from a website, be sure to say them out loud--over and over. Learning tp speak effectively is a skill that cannot be learned only through the eye; you need to involve your ears and your mouth!

You will be assigned regular homework activities, many of them contained in your companion workbook called the Student Activities Manual (SAM ). As noted above, you need to do these assignments when they are scheduled and integrate/reinforce 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. Completion of all assigned homework in a timely manner; late homework will not be given full credit (10%)

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

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

Textbooks:

Makino & Hatasa,Nakama 1 by Makino and Hatasa plus the Student Activities Manual (SAM)

Nakama1a is a textbook that brings practical, everyday Japanese into the language classroom with an emphasis on gaining language proficiency. Each lesson has clear objectives in terms of teaching 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 CD, the 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.　Portions of assignments may be on the student CD and all will be avialble also as audio files through WISE at the Nakama Audio 2009 site.

Class Time

Homework/Assignment

August 30 First Day: Course Overview, Introducing Yourself (Nakama 1, p. 7) Learning Hiragana	Homework Hiragana I, SAM, pp. 1-3 Hiragana Table Kana and LLC Programs
September 1 Hiragana overview, Greetings, Addressing, (Nakama 1,6; 10 -12) Leave taking, 15-16 Useful Expressions (p. 20), Polite Requests, Thanking, (18); Useful Expressions (p. 22) "How do you say?" (25-27) More Greetings Aisatsu (move cursor over greeting for sound) Useful Expressions;	Homework Hiragana I Supplement 1 PDF Hiragana II, SAM, pp. 4-6
2 Review, Apologizing, Requesting (23). Useful Expressions, pp. 22-23 Asking for Japanese Equivalents, Words (Nakama 1, 25-28) Online Vocab Quiz	Homework Hiragana III, SAM. pp 7-8 Hiragana Supplement 2 PDF, and Hiragana Supplement 3, PDF

Flashcards to quiz yourself on hiragana

5 LABOR DAY--NO CLASS
6 Hiragana: Voiced consonants and Long vowels 17-20 ; Double Consonants and Glides (21-25) ; Introduce and Practice Dialogue Ch. 2, 41-43	Homework Voiced consonants and long vowels, SAM pp. 9-12 Hiragana Suppl 4-5 PDF, Hiragana Suppl 6 PDF;
8 Hiragana I-III Quiz; Begin Ch. 2 Greetings and introductions Nakama 1 pp. 26-40 See Lesson 2: and Nationalities and Language and Languages "	, "Lab Activities" in the SAM: Double consonants and glides, pp. 13-24
9 L. 2 Dialogue, Year in School, Majors, Gender terms	Homework Hiragana Suppl 7-9 PDF; Homework SAM, L.2, p. 2５、

4 Sentence Types

12 A wa B desu Greetings & Introductions "I am..."Pattern (46-49);	Homework SAM, L.2, I, p.27
13 Asking Y/N Questions 50-52 Examples	SAM, L. 2,I I, pp. 29-30
15 L. 2 III Noun1+no+Noun2, pp. 53-55	Homework SAM, III p. 31 Hiragana II Quiz Review Materials
16 L.2, IVAsking for Personal Information with Interrogatives, pp. 56-60 L.2 IV Using Interrogatives: What, where, which? Hiragana Quiz II	SAM, IV p. 33-34

19 L.2 V, Listing/describing similarities with MO, 61-63; see also to and mo Review Dialogue (41-42); Listening 65; Reading practice (67-69)	SAM V, 35-36 SAM, Integration p. 37;
20 Integrated Practice (70-71);	Lab Activities SAM pp. 39- 43 Lab Activites SAM. pp. 45-47; Dict-a-conversation, SAM p. 49
22 Review All	Review Materials
23 Unit Test, Chs. 1-2	Begin Katakana, SAM pp. 51-56; Read Textbook Ch. 3, p. 88-97

Learning Katakana: See Nakama 1 SAM, pp 51-65 See also Supplemental PDFs on Syllabus and on WISE, in the Resources Folder

Katakana Learning Sites:

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

Final Exam:

Final will beThursday Dec. 15 9:00 am

You can get started at 8:30 am if you wish