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INSIDE... FLIGHTS OF FANCY • AS LEVEL Q&A • WRITING A DIARY
MADOVOLUME 12 • JANUARY 2002
THE JAPAN FOUNDATIONNIHONGO CENTRE NEWSLETTER
SUCCESS STORIES FROM THE UK JAPANESE CLASSROOMThe Class Acts video, created for Japan 2001with the help of teachers and pupils from 20secondary schools in the UK, has now beencompleted and will be launched in February.The most extensive project ever carried out bythe Nihongo Centre, Class Acts took a year tofinish and involved shooting more than 70hours of footage, which was edited into a 150minute film, combining classroom practicewith teacher and pupil comment.
Rebecca Poole, Head of Modern ForeignLanguages at Hendon School in London,described Class Acts as “an excellent videothat could sustain anybody’s attention,”adding, “The points raised are very pertinentand it’s bursting with good ideas from targetlanguage use to setting up role plays. ClassActs is the first video I have seen with GoodPractice throughout, probably the only one onthe market. It’s an excellent teacher trainingvideo, and not just for teachers of Japanese!”
Andrew Llewellyn currently teaches Spanishand French at Hayes School in Bromley, whichis introducing Japanese to sixth formstudents from September. He feels that ClassActs will be an invaluable resource whenstarting to teach Japanese, adding, “Boysunderachieving in languages has been asubject of concern to me, and Class Actsshows examples of how successfully boys cantackle Japanese. I am certain that the videowill push Japanese Language Education in theUK secondary sector forward.”
Gina Edens, Head of Japanese at WhitgiftSchool in Croydon, is one of the teachersfeatured in Class Acts. She felt the projectprovided a great opportunity to share ideaswith others as well as to reflect on her ownclassroom practice: “Watching the video putme as near as I can get to the kids’ shoes, soit was interesting andquite aconfidencebooster tosee thatmany of
the activities we do are really a lot of fun! Itwas extremely useful to watch other teachersin action and I’ve already used some of theirideas in class.”
Nihongo Centre Director, Tsuneyuki Osato,hopes that in addition to being a valuableasset for all teachers of Japanese in the UK,Class Acts will make a significant contributionto Japanese Language Education as a whole:“We are very proud at the Nihongo Centre thatwe were able to develop this idea and carry it
through to a successful end. My heartfeltthanks go to everyone involved in itsproduction and to Japan 2001 who havegenerously stepped in with a grant to enableits completion.”
Class Acts will be formally launched at theNihongo Centre on February 11. We hope thatas many teachers and interested colleagues aspossible will join us on that occasion –please call Sally Lewis on 020 7838 9955 if you would like to attend.
PAGE 2 NIHONGO CENTRE NEWS
Hello, my name is Kornelia Achrafie - not really a ‘new face’as I have been based at the Nihongo Centre for nearly ayear now, working on two major Japan 2001 projects - ClassActs and Homestay UK. After taking a degree in Japanese,
Korean and Economics at Bonn University, I worked for anEnglish-Japanese Educational Magazine in Japan, and before
joining the Nihongo Centre as Programme Officer, I was involved inorganising Japan-related Career Fairs. Kore kara mo dozo yoroshiku!
Comparative Analysis:University Textbooks andGCSE & A-level Syllabus The Nihongo Centre has produced aninformation sheet which gives the results ofa comparative analysis of the structures andkanji found in the most commonly useduniversity textbooks: Minna no Nihongo,Situational Functional Japanese, Japanese forCollege Students (ICU), Japanese forEveryone, and Japanese for Busy People,showing to what extent these overlap withstructures and kanji taught as part of theGCSE and A-level syllabi. To receive a copy,please contact Etsuko Yamada at theNihongo Centre on 020 7838 9955 or sendan email to: [email protected].
Homestay UK, a joint JFET/Nihongo Centreproject, has done much to encourage lastinglinks between the Japanese community andyoung British learners of Japanese through anationwide weekend homestay programme aspart of Japan 2001. Over 80 visits havealready taken place, giving many youngpeople their first taste of Japanese family lifeand culture. All participants have a chance towin flights to Japan courtesy of BritishAirways through the Finding Japan in BritainCompetition. Don’t let your pupils miss outon this great opportunity – all they have todo is to send in an account of their homestayexperience in Japanese; this can be in simplesentences, photo and caption style, diaryform (see this issue’s Teacher’s Pages forhints!) or even in manga format. Details ofhow to enter can be found at the back of theLanguage Pack – contact JFET on 020 76308696 or by email: [email protected] if youneed another copy or for further details. Thedeadline is February 28, so don’t delay!
Lift Off!
Apply now for the UrawaSummer Course!As a result of the very positive response fromteachers to the Urawa Summer Course, athree-week training programme held at theJapan Foundation’s Language Institute inUrawa for the first time last July, it has beendecided to run the course again this summer.
Designed to improve participants’ Japaneselanguage proficiency as well as to deepentheir understanding of Japanese culture, thecourse includes intensive language training insmall groups. At a feedback session held atthe Nihongo Centre in October last year, threeBritish participants told an audience of fellowteachers and sponsors of the programme -The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation andJapan Airlines - how much they had benefitedfrom the experience. “I cannot stress enoughhow much I enjoyed the course and howuseful it was for me as a teacher,”commented Sian Hanlon, who heads HendonSchool’s Japanese Department. Sally Benson,an NQT at Tavistock College, outlined theextensive cultural programme, which, she felt,complemented the study sessions extremelywell, while Margaret Teasdale from AldercarCommunity Language College describedresource-gathering expeditions with Japanesehigh school students.
The next Urawa Summer Course will takeplace from July 8 to 27, 2002. Applicantsshould be non-native speaking teachers ofJapanese based at UK secondary schools. Forfurther details and to request an applicationform, contact Rie Endo at the NihongoCentre on 020 7838 9955 or by email:[email protected]. The deadline forapplications is Friday, February 15.
Robert Weighman with Yuto Sudo
Win flights toJapan with
PAGE 3
A group of teachers who had experienced thefirst round of the new AS examinations gottogether at the Nihongo Centre in Octoberfor a feedback session organised by Edexceland led by Lydia Morey. A good proportion ofthe day was spent looking closely atassessment criteria and participants also hadthe chance to do trial marking in thepresence of examiners. Teachers were glad ofthe opportunity to ask questions directly tothe examiners. We asked Bill Penty ofWhitgift School in Croydon to give asummary of the main issues covered.
Wasn’t the opening task in the AS a littledifficult, and not in keeping with otherlanguages where opening tasks were agentle feed into the paper?Yes, it did seem challenging to many. Carefulthought will be given to this important firstquestion next time.
What question types can we expect?The published rubrics give a very good ideaof what is possible, although the list is notexhaustive. The key is to use authenticmaterial in your selection of material. Ifthere is Q&A in the target language, it mustbe answered by full sentences, unlike thecomprehension question in the A2 paper.
Are any question types guaranteed toappear in the AS Paper?In Section 1, candidates will always beexpected to write and give the reading ofkanji (taken from the context of a passage),and a gap-fill exercise (of the type whichappeared in the M01 paper) is highly likelyin the test of grammatical awareness.
Do you have any advice for Section 2(Translation)?When practising, use authentic material.General vocabulary acquisition is as (if notmore) important as topic-specific vocabulary.Always bear the marking criteria in mind.
And for Section 3 (Creative Writing)?Candidates are advised to write a separateparagraph for each of the ‘hints’ given in thequestion. Irrelevance to the question was aproblem for many candidates. On thelanguage side, examiners are looking forevidence of post GCSE structures, and anability to use post GCSE kanji. It would alsobe useful for teachers to do some work onessay style phrases, and possibly onstatistical analysis phrases.
Is the word limit strictly applied?If the piece is too short, candidates will bepenalised on content. This year, theexaminers marked up to the end of the page.An upper limit may be imposed (400characters), but this has not been decidedyet.
In Paper 2, what advice can you giveconcerning the first section,Comprehension?Candidates should allocate enough time.They should also read the questions carefullyand answer relevantly and appropriately. Agood technique is to check for the grammarpattern in the question and use it to help inthe answer.
Are full sentences required here?No. As long as the candidate showscomprehension, the marks are awarded.Sometimes a simple yes/no is enough.Candidates should look at the number ofmarks available – if a question is worth twomarks, then it requires two items in theanswer. The question should give clues as towhat is required to get full marks.
What about difficult words in thepassage?Examiners try to give an ‘in-text glossary’which means that a difficult word will beparaphrased in the text by way ofexplanation.
Do you have any advice for the ProseTranslation (Section 2)?The topic is linked to that of theComprehension and candidates might findhelp there (vocabulary etc). It is alsoimportant for candidates to look for whatJapanese grammar is being tested behindthe English passage.
Does the translation have to be literal /exact?No. Don’t be afraid of using basic sentences,nor of splitting up sentences which are longin the original English. Don’t get too tied upin direct translation and thereby mess upyour Japanese sentence structure. Examinersare not looking for anything fancy – good accurate ‘desu...masu’ Japanese isperfectly acceptable.
What about Section 3 (Essays: Topics &Texts)?Well-prepared candidates did fine on this,although pre-preparation did lead toirrelevance in some scripts. Candidatesshould read the question carefully andanswer what is being asked. The need to beflexible is important.
Three lucky finalists are planning trips toJapan after coming top in their respectivecategories in Flights of Fancy, the BritishAirways Japanese Speech Contest for Schools,organised by the Japanese LanguageCommittee of the Association for LanguageLearning as part of Japan 2001.
Over 150 people attended Finals Day, whichtook place at British Airways’ flagship venue
Waterside, near Heathrowairport, on Monday
December 10.Everyone wasimpressed bythe standard of
spoken Japanese demonstrated by thefinalists, who came from 16 different schoolsaround the UK to present a speech inJapanese on the theme Perfect Day. They wereaccompanied by fellow pupils, teachers andparents and spoke in front of an invitedaudience of key figures from the Anglo-Japanese world as well as a panel of fivejudges, chaired by Naoyuki Kitani, theNihongo Centre’s Chief Advisor. The bestspeaker in each category received two freeflights to Japan courtesy of British Airways,the main sponsor of the contest.
The programme for Finals Day also includedan exciting series of workshops, wherefinalists and supporters could use theirJapanese in themed environments including atraditional restaurant, a virtual cabin with in-flight announcements in Japanese, aninternet café and a night club complete withkaraoke. The Japan Festival Education Trustgave hands-on demonstrations of calligraphyand origami while entertainment was providedby Mugenkyo, Europe’s leading taikodrummers, and HOE-International, a group oftalented Japanese storytellers and musicians
who had flown over from Japan especially forthe occasion. Speaking at the reception whichfollowed the contest, Minister KenShimanouchi of the Embassy of Japandescribed Flights of Fancy as “one of the mostimportant educational events of Japan 2001.”
The World Traveller category was won byHannah Rickman from Oxford High School,with Jade Edwards from Aldercar CommunityLanguage College, Nottingham, in secondplace and Helen Leach, James Allen’s Girls’School, London, in third. First prize in ClubWorld was awarded to Robert Harrap,Northamptonshire Grammar School, with MarcGabriel from Impington Village College,Cambridge, in second place and Tewedros Silefrom Hendon School in third. Top prize in theFirst category went to Alice Freeman from TheSchool of St Helen and St Katherine,Abingdon, with Cameron Nichol, MillfieldSchool, Somerset in second place andRuairidh Villar from Eton College winning thethird prize.
No-one went home empty-handed however, asall finalists received a host of prizes as wellas high praise for their spoken Japanese.
A PERFECT DAY FOR FLIGHTS OF FANCY WINNERS
The AS Examination in Japanese - Your Questions Answered
Warming up for the contest in the virtual cabin
VOCABULARY
PAGE 4 TEACHER’S PAGE
Writing a Diary
Happy New Year! The Japanesesaying, “January 1st sets the tonefor the whole year,” reflects theidea that the first day of a newyear offers the best chance tostart something new. What bettertime to ask your pupils to write adiary in Japanese? I am sure thatyour students will experience atremendous boost to their self-confidence, and a sense ofachievement when they can seefor themselves what they havewritten in their diaries over thecourse of a whole year and howtheir Japanese has improved.
family
to commute
help
for the first time
about, concerning
to explain
at the end of ….
a photograph collection
to receive
hard, tough
to be tired
to gain confidence
someday
various
more
AimsTo encourage pupils to get into the habit ofwriting sentences in Japanese at their ownlevel of ability and about familiar topics.
To enable pupils to develop their writingskills, progressing from short, simplesentences to longer, more complexsentences.
To provide pupils with practice of writingcoherent sentences by applying andcombining vocabulary and sentencestructures they have learnt in class.
To allow pupils to enjoy writing by addingvisual aids such as photos, pictures, ormagazine cuttings.
ProcedureOn the first day of a new course, explain theaims, methods and benefits of writing adiary to your pupils, and make a ‘gentleman’sagreement’ with them to keep a regular diaryin Japanese throughout the course.
Choose appropriate topics from the syllabusand your Scheme of Work and decide on theorder that you would like pupils to tacklethem.
Explain the style of a typical Japanese diaryas follows:
date and weather
one-line summary of the maintheme, topic or event for that day
main diary entry, with details ofactivities and events and feelings about them
summary of generalimpressions and opinions on what wasdescribed
Encourage pupils to use a variety ofsentences and in particular to useconnecting forms of nouns, adjectives andverb sentences, as well as phrases to expressemotions and opinions. See below for some examples:
WorksheetOn page 5, I have provided a sample diaryentry about a Homestay which can be usedby your pupils as the basis for creating theirown diary entry. Inserted next to page 5, youwill also find a worksheet for them to fill in,
which can be decoratedwith photos andcuttings. Some ofthe vocabulary used
in the sample is listedin the chart below.
TEACHER’S PAGE PAGE 5
Tavistock CollegeTavistock College in
Devon is a mixed statecomprehensive language college withapproximately 2000 students aged 11 to18.The school introduced Japanese in 1996 as acompulsory main foreign language alongsideFrench in Years 7 and 8 with options to takeit as a second language in Years 9 and 10and ab initio in the 6th Form. Tavistock hassucceeded in establishing Japanese as amainstream language at KS3 and KS4 and in2001/2002 has just over 1000 studentsstudying the subject – 13 doing the AS leveland four continuing on with the A2. Manypupils are opting for Japanese in Year 9 andcontinuing in Year 10 with both GCSE and ashort course option. Tavistock is piloting anin-house certification now that theCambridge Certificate is in its last year. Theschool now has six staff teaching Japanese,including two NQTs and one trainedJapanese volunteer teacher through theCultural Internship Youth Exchange scheme.
Anupameya Jain, who together with CrispinChambers set up Japanese at the school,sees a number of advantages of teachingJapanese as a mainstream language: “Thefact that it is different linguistically andculturally provides motivation for allstudents but in particular for boys incontinuing a language to GCSE or A leveland for pupils with dyslexia and otherspecial needs. Having a relatively large
Japanese team also creates developmentopportunities for staff.”
Tavistock set up a link with Hikawa HighSchool in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1999 andthe resulting annual exchange scheme hashad a huge impact on student motivation.The number of students involved has beenrising steadily, and this year participantswere able to email images directly onto the
website and webtext to TV screensthroughout the school so that all studentscould see what they were up to on a dailybasis. Future plans at Tavistock includedeveloping an on-line curriculum forJapanese and the setting up of a videoexchange with Hikawa High School. Imagesfrom the exchange can be seen on thewebsite: www.tavistockcollege.devon.sch.uk.
BATJ UpdateBATJ’s key activities have centred around fourpaths since its establishment in 1998 byformer Chair, Kazumi Tanaka. These are toteach the Japanese language, to study theJapanese language, to organise conferences,seminars and workshops to disseminate goodpractice; and to publish academic journals.
On December 8, BATJ’s series of seminars andworkshops on the theme of e-learning was
launched at Royal Holloway, University of London,with an absorbing presentation by Professor Yoshiko
Kawamura from Tokyo International University on thesubject of How to improve the Reading Skills of JFL learners inthe internet era. Future events in this series include VirtualVisit to the Nagoya University, an experience of virtual realityfor Japanese teaching and learning by Jonathan Bunt andRichard Harrison at the Japan Centre, University of Manchester,on February 16 (contact: [email protected]); and Languageand Culture – 101 things to do with the Internet and Japaneseby Suzuko Anai from Essex University at the University ofEdinburgh in March (date to be announced - contact:[email protected]).
In addition to the focus on e-learning, the Oral ProficiencyInterview (OPI) Assessment Method will be introduced at theNihongo Centre on January 26 by participants of the OPItraining course in Berlin in November 2001. The programmewill include a presentation on How to assess conversationability with the OPI Assessment Method by Miyoko Yamashita,University of Birmingham (contact [email protected]).
To find out more about BATJ’s activities please visitwww.batj.org.uk or contact the new Chair:
Kazuko Sorensen, Language Centre, Royal Holloway, Universityof London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX; tel: 01784-443912. email: [email protected].
JLC at LanguageWorld 2002The JLC is once again running a special programmeof Japanese talks and workshops at ALL’s annualconference, which will be held at the University ofYork from April 12 to 14.
This year’s conference theme Building Bridges includesthe concept of bridging the gap between: languageteaching for different age groups in different educationalsectors; different subjects on the curriculum; mainstreamand voluntary education; school and community; teachers,learners and learning; policy and practice / theory and practice;countries and culture. Within this broad theme, the JLC presentationswill be Surviving your NQT Year by Sally Benson from TavistockCollege; Establishing Japanese on a school curriculum by Claire Dugardand Sian Hanlon, Developing materials for secondary students ofJapanese by Miwa Moriwaki and Yoko Masano and Revising for the ASJapanese exam by Jane Rutherford from Queen Mary’s High School,Walsall. Members of the committee will also be available throughoutthe conference to answer your questions on Japanese languageteaching and, as usual, there will be an extensive range of books,courses and promotions on the Language World exhibition stands.
Language World is the most prestigious annual event for anyoneinvolved in the teaching of languages and the conference provides agreat opportunity to keep in touch with the latest developments inlanguage education, refresh your teaching with new ideas and meetand share experiences with other language professionals. Last year, arecord number of teachers of Japanese attended the event and wereceived very positive and enthusiastic feedback to the programme ofJapanese-related presentations. We would like to set another recordthis year so don’t delay, apply for the conference today!
To find out more or to book a place, call ALL on 01788 546443 or seethe ALL and JLC websites at www.jlcweb.org.uk and www.ALL-languages.org.uk.
PAGE 6 NEWS UPDATE
LIBRARY & RESOURCES PAGE 7
As you know, our library catalogue can now be accessed through the Nihongo Centre website(www.nihongocentre.org.uk) and can be searched either in romaji or Japanese – just click on theHELP button for details. You can search by title, author, ISBN number or by browsing through thecatalogue and a special new feature can help you to identify resource materials to suit the level,exam course and/or skills you want to teach. This section contains recommended resources from ouradvisory team, including CD-ROMs, videos, cassette tapes and workbooks. To whet your appetite,we have asked our Assistant Advisor Naruki Enomoto to review a selection of CD-ROMs – don’tforget, you can borrow these through our Loan by Post service, too. Library Holidays this termwill be March 29, April 1, May 3 & 6 and June 3 & 4. For general library enquiries, contact
Francoise Simmons on 020 7838 9955 or by email: [email protected].
Puzzle Busters!Puzzle Busters is full of puzzles and gamesand provides a brilliant way of building upvocabulary. Seventeen topics are covered andsome of them are in line with GCSE topicssuch as body parts, school, shopping andfamily. No katakana or kanji are used in anyof the puzzles which allows even first yearpupils to try it out. It’s a great idea forthose who teach GCSE to let pupils have ago with relevant sections. Learners canchoose from among six amazingly designedtypes of puzzles and three levels. Puzzlesinclude crosswords, matching picture to wordor word to word, finding differences betweentwo pictures, finding hidden figures in a bigpicture, putting hiragana in the right orderto make a word and sentence-orderingactivities.
This CD-ROM is designed for self-study.Although vocabulary is not introduced beforeeach activity, the CD-ROM comes with anextensive vocabulary list which lists allwords as they appear in each topic soteachers could prepare flash cards tointroduce vocabulary before pupils startworking on the computer.
Vocabulary Builder JapaneseVocabulary Builder Japanese is primarilydesigned for young beginners, especially forKS2 and KS3 pupils, as it introduces andprovides practice for nouns such as thenames of animals, objects, means oftransport, colours and occupations and alsosimple phrases used to indicate thepositions of things, for example. The CD-ROMis organised in three sections: Learn, Gamesand Record. The first section lists vocabulary,while in the second section, pupils canpractise vocabulary by choosing from threetypes of activity games such as memory andmatching games. The third section enablespupils to check their pronunciation byrecording a word or phrase using amicrophone. When the recording is playedback, the relevant picture appears on thescreen. Learners can print out their owncertificate of either bronze, silver or golddepending on what score they have reachedafter each game. This provides motivation toimprove their knowledge of vocabulary in afun way. The illustrations are another strongpoint in this CD-ROM. Designed for youngpupils, it depicts comical characters thatare colourful and fun to look at. Becausethis is a multi- language collection, thereare some words and sections which are notrelevant to Japanese. However, it wouldhave been helpful if it could have offered away to practise counting. This CD-ROM ismost suited to pre-GCSE study.
Learn Japanese NowLearn Japanese Now (LJN) is most suitablefor adults. It is designed primarily for self-study and will provide a good opportunity topractise survival Japanese and dailyconversation. Every lesson containsdialogues, pictures, simple translations forwords and phrases and grammaticalinformation. The text is written in romajiand is always accompanied by images, whichprovide a useful context for new language.The style of Japanese used is polite,adopting keigo wherever appropriate. One ofthe many useful features to be found in LJNis the ‘speech correctness meter’, whichenables learners to compare their speechwith the model pronunciation and literally‘see’ the difference between a nativespeaker’s speech and their own.
LJN consists of four parts – the first providesan overview of Japan through short filmsincluding both historical and geographicalinformation, while the second introducessigns commonly seen at stations,restaurants, post offices and other places,giving learners the opportunity to practiserelevant vocabulary and phrases. The thirdpart focuses on survival phrases with lessonscovering typical situations such as going toa bank, asking for directions and taking ataxi. Both this and the following sectionhave a useful role play function. The finalpart follows the actual process of a visit toJapan, from sitting in the plane tosightseeing in Tokyo.
LJN is a powerful tool for language practicealthough it does take time to becomefamiliar with the instructions, mainlybecause of the rich variety of functionswhich the CD-ROM offers.
CD-ROMs Reviewed
All the reviewed CD-ROMs requireWindows 95 or higher and arePC/Mac compatible. They areavailable at the Nihongo Centre forviewing, so why not come in andtry them out for yourself?
In this New Year issue,which also marks Mado’sthird birthday, wereport back on two ofthe majorlanguage-relatedevents of Japan2001 – the completion of Class Acts, theNihongo Centre’s video project which will beofficially launched in February – and theFinals of Flights of Fancy, the British AirwaysSpeech Contest for Schools, organised by theJapanese Language Committee (see page 3).It was wonderful to see so many teachersactively involved in these projects, both ofwhich are set to raise the profile ofJapanese language teaching in the UK tonew heights. It’s not too late for your pupilsto win a flight to Japan, however, as thereis still time to enter the Homestay UKcompetition featured on page 2 – KitaniSensei’s great teaching ideas using the Diaryform should help to provide someinspiration. Dates for your diary include ourResources Workshop in February, and lookingfurther ahead, Language World 2002, whichincludes a special Japanese-relatedprogramme, courtesy of JLC. We look forwardto seeing you soon!
PAGE 8 EVENTS & NOTICEBOARD
THE NIHONGO CENTRE NEWSLETTEREditor: Caroline Lewis Design: François Hall
Published byTHE JAPAN FOUNDATION
LONDON LANGUAGE CENTRE27 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LY
Telephone: 020 7838 9955 Fax: 020 7838 9966Website: www.nihongocentre.org.uk
HEAD START 2002Wednesday 23 - Friday 25 January
An intensive introduction to Japaneseand the issues associated with teaching
it for Heads of Modern ForeignLanguages and Senior Managers.
NEW RESOURCES FOR GCSEJAPANESE
Thursday 28 February A day of resource ideas organised
jointly with JFET and The Japan Forum,including a chance to explore the latest
GCSE materials being created by theNihongo Centre. All teachers attending
will receive a free set of DEAI, theJapan Forum’s new photographic
resource.
JAPANESE SIXTH FORM WEEKEND Friday 22 - Sunday 24 March
The annual residential immersion coursein the New Forest for pupils in Years 11,12 and 13. For further details, contact
Lydia Morey on 02920 492997.
LANGUAGE WORLD2002 Friday 12 - Sunday 14April ALL’s Annual Conference, tobe held at the University ofYork. See page 6 for details ofJapanese-specific programmeorganised by JLC. For furtherinformation or to book a placecall ALL on 01788 546443.
GETTING TO GRIPS WITHGRAMMAR Tuesday 11 June An inset day exploring differentaspects of teaching Japanesegrammar, jointly organised withCILT.
SUMMER REFRESHER COURSE Monday 15 – Friday 19 JulyThe Nihongo Centre’s popularannual intensive immersion coursefor non-native teachers ofJapanese. All levels.
Unless otherwise stated, all events takeplace at the Nihongo Centre. Please call
020 7838 9955 for further details.
NATIONAL JAPANESE
SPEECH AWARD
This speech competition, the finals of which
will be held at Eton College, Windsor on
Sunday 3 March, is open to 15 - 18 year old
students whose native language is not
Japanese and who have not lived in Japan for
more than 3 months. Candidates will be judged
on a five-minute speech in Japanese on a topic
of their choice, followed by a two-minute
interview. The winner will receive an invitation
to the 7th JSA International Competition
Language Study & Cultural Experience
Programme in Japan. Students wishing to
participate should send a taped speech in
Japanese with a short letter of
recommendation from their Japanese teacher
to the address below by Monday 11 February.
For further details, contact the JSA Committee
Office, 1 F Lawford House, Albert Place,
Finchley, London N3 1QA, Tel: 01753 801504
(English) , 020 8343 4332 (Japanese), e-mail:
New Resources for GCSE Japanese
This inset day, jointly organised by JFET & The Japan Forum, will
be held at the Nihongo Centre on Thursday 28 February from
9.30am to 4.30pm. Presentations and workshops will cover a
variety of inspiring resource ideas, ranging from ways to make use
of JFET Resources as a language teacher to learning how to use
kanji visuals, posters and stunning photographs in the classroom.
Participants will also be able to take a closer look at ways of using
photographic DEAI materials, presented by Kayoko Nakano,
Programme Director, The Japan Forum, Tokyo. Other speakers
include Heidi Potter, Director, JFET and Naoyuki Kitani, Chief
Advisor at the Nihongo Centre. Participation is free, but booking is
essential. For further information please contact the Nihongo
Centre on 020 7838 9955.
Dear Editor,I am writing to let readers know about an e-linkexchange project set up by the British Council inTokyo. The aim of the scheme is to help schools inthe UK and Japan to create partnerships via theinternet and so far, we have over 100 participatingschools. The type of exchange ranges from simplee-mail correspondence to more ambitiouscurriculum-based projects, with some schoolseventually arranging pupil exchanges. Our newwebsite (www.e-linkschools.org) enables schools inJapan and the UK to advertise for partnersdirectly. The site also includes advice on how tobuild successful links as well as ideas for projectsand exchange activities. Many schools find e-linkexchanges highly rewarding, as students aremotivated to learn more about each other’scultures and languages, and stereotypes arechallenged. To find out more about the project,please visit the website or feel free to contact meby e-mail at [email protected] oron my direct line: 00 81 3 3235 8078. Pred Evans, School Links Co-ordinatorBritish Council, Tokyo
