J131	ELEMENTARY JAPANESE I	Fall 2009
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 1a, 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; the study of kanji, the Chinese characters that Japan borrowed to construct its written language, were formerly not introduced until second semester, but now 5 kanji are introduced in L. 4, 10 in L. 5 and another 13 in L. 6, so we get a small taste of kanji learning in Fall Semester. Please visit this link in order to see a set of kanji study materials complete with Quick Time movies of a calligrapher writing each character with a brush.

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. Then it is really not so hard. 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 assigments in the Workbook (WB) when they are due. 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. There are wonderful tools now avaliable 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 (but I will refer to it as "WB" on the syllabus). 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 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 1a: Introductory Japanese: Communication, Culture,Context

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.　Note: Nakama was recently revised into two first-year volumes, Nakama 1a and Nakama 1b for Fall and Spring semesters respectively. The revision is thorough so much of the material linked to earlier versions of my online syllabus may no longer be quite appropriate. I am updating my links and pages as we go; please have patience.

Workbook: Hatasa, Hatasa, and Makino, Student Activities Manual Naskama 1a (WB) contains exercises and homeowrk assignments to accompany each lesson. Portions of assignments may be on the student CD and all will be avialble also through WISE.

Class Time

Homework/Assignment

Sept. 1 First Day: Course Overview, Introducing Yourself (Nakama 1a, p. 7) Learning Hiragana	Homework Hiragana I, WB, 1-3 Other Kana and LLC Programs
3 Hiragana overview, Greetings, Addressing, (Nakama 1a,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 Visit LLC	Homework Hiragana I Supplement 1 PDF Hiragana II, WB, 4-6
4 Review, Apologizing, Requesting (23). Useful Expressions, pp. 22-23 A Game	Homework Hiragana III, WB 7-8 Review Hiragana 1-2, Hiragana Suppl 2 PDF

Some websites that may be beneficial for kana study:

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

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

7 Asking for Japanese Equivalents, Words (Nakama 1a 25-28) Voiced consonants and Long vowels 17-20 ; Double Consonants and Glides (21-25)	Homework Voiced consonants and long vowels, WB pp. 9-12 Hiragana Supplemet 3, PDF
8 Review all hiragana, More practice asking for things; Introduce and Practice Dialogue Ch. 2, 41-43	Hiragana Suppl 4-5 PDF, Hiragana Suppl 6 PDF;
10 Hiragana I-III Quiz; Begin Ch. 2 Greetings and introductions Nakama 1a pp. 26-40 See 2: and Nationalities and Language and Languages "I am..." Greetings & Introductions A wa B desu Pattern (46-49); Useful Expressions;	Homework WB I, pp. 25-27WB, Lab Activities , Double consonants and glides, WB, pp. 13-24
11 L. 2 Dialogue, Year in School, Asking Y/N Questions 50-52	Homework Hiragana Suppl 7-9 PDF; also, WB, L. 2, I, pp. 29-30

4 Sentence Types

14 L. 2 Noun1+no+Noun2, pp. 53-55	Homework WB p. 31
15 L.2 Asking for Personal Information with Interrogatives, pp. 56-60	WB p. 33-34
17 L.2 Using Interrogatives: What, where, which?	WB V, 35-36
18 L.2 Listing/describing similarities with MO, 61-63; see also to and mo	Integration p. 37;

21 Review Dialogue (41-42); Listening 65; Reading practice (67-69)	Lab Activities WB pp. 39- 43
22 Integrated Practice (70-71);	Lab Activites WB. pp. 45-47; Dict-a-conversation, WB p. 49
24 Review All	Review Materials
25 Unit Test, Chs. 1-2	Begin Katakana, WB pp. 51-56; Read Textbook Ch. 3, p. 88-97

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 for section-01 is Tuesday Dec. 15 9:00 am;

Final for section-02, it is on Saturday Dec. 19 9:00 am

(you may take the final early if you are in section-02 and vice versa, of course)

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