BACKGROUND AND GOAL

• Reconsidering intermediate and advanced Japanese curricula
• Language, Society, and Culture- Recent developments in sociolinguistics and applied linguistics
• The goal of the CALPER "Learning Through Listening" project

BACKGROUND AND GOAL

Reconsidering intermediate and advanced Japanese curricula

During the last two decades, the number of learners of Japanese in the United States has dramatically increased. Along with this wave of popularity, the development of curricula, materials, and teacher training programs for Japanese language instruction has made rapid progress. However, these two decades have also seen changes in learners' motivations and their purposes for studying Japanese, as well as changes in social and technological environments. All of these changes have forced us to reevaluate our existing curricula, materials, and methods for teaching.

In particular, today, exploring realistic goals and appropriate materials and methods for instructions beyond the introductory level appears to be an important on-going task for instructors in many programs. The Framework for Post-basic Japanese Language Curricula" put together by the Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ) (2003) also refers to this current state, and underscores the importance of balancing the four skills (i.e., speaking, writing, listening, reading) in intermediate and advanced curricula. While what learners can accomplish in the target language expands as they develop their language proficiency, instructors face challenges in selecting the most suitable and effective materials and tasks that can fit into the limited time available for a course. Further, the diversity among learners concerning their proficiency, background, motivation, purpose, and so on adds another challenge for the development of curricula for intermediate and advanced level courses. Many instructors also seem to feel it necessary to help learners develop the ability to participate in social activities outside of Japanese classrooms as well as the ability to engage in further self-study of the language in order to improve their proficiency to function in the real world. This is particularly true for courses that may become the students' last opportunity for formal language instruction.

References

The Association of Teachers of Japanese (2003). "The Framework for Post-basic Japanese Language Curricula."

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Language, Society, and Culture: Recent Developments in Sociolinguistics and Applied Linguistics

Alongside the call for further developing post-basic curricula, a growing number of sociolinguists and applied linguists have begun to critically study materials and classroom tasks for Japanese language instruction (e.g., Kubota (ed.), 2003; Jones and Ono (eds.), forthcoming; Mori, 2002; Ohara, et. al. 2001; Ohta, 2001). Observations made by these researchers include:

• scripted dialogs introduced in language textbooks tend not to represent real-life language use
• these dialogs, and their accompanying culture notes, tend not to address sufficiently the diversity among Japanese speakers and their language use.

One of the very important missions in foreign language education is to encourage learners to appreciate the differences between norms and perspectives taken for granted in their own native language, society, or culture and those in Japanese language, society, and culture, so that they can successfully participate in cross-cultural communication using Japanese as their second language. However, often times, efforts of demonstrating differences have been undertaken at the expense of simplifying the features to be compared and contrasted. While a degree of simplification may be necessary for novice learners "to see" these differences, caution needs to be taken in order to avoid reinforcing various stereotypes, or so-called "Nihonjin-ron (the theory of Japanese uniqueness)" by introducing overly simplified, uniformed or standardized speech behaviors as "the Japanese ways." In this regard, the complex linguistic systems for indexing a speaker’s understanding of various features of interactions (e.g., the setting, the relationship with the interlocutors) also present an added challenge. This is because the norms of, or the perspectives towards, honorifics, speech styles, or gender specific forms, have been constantly changing and negotiated among native speakers of Japanese from different regional, professional, or generational backgrounds.

As one possible solution to these issues, some researchers have suggested to incorporate real-life speech samples of Japanese speakers into instructional materials and classroom activities. By doing so, they reason, learners, as well as instructors, are going to be exposed to real-life speech behaviors that are not often reflected in scripted textbook dialogs. Further, by listening to spontaneous speech by a number of speakers, learners might appreciate differences among those speakers in terms of the use of particular expressions, ways of participating in interactions, as well as indvidual perspectives of speakers towards a particular social issue.

While the perspectives of authors of textbooks and other reading materials or those of instructors may likely be taken as "the Japanese ways of thinking," some researchers emphasize the necessity of having learners themselves explore diverse experiences and perspectives. Thus, rather than presenting a set of social or cultural norms as prescriptive, static rules, instructors should have learners experience a range of ways in which the particular sets of norms are interpreted by Japanese speakers.

A study abroad program, an internship, or employment in Japan exposes students to Japanese speakers' spontaneous talk and diverse perspectives. However, for those who are studying in the United States, these chances may be limited even though today instructors make great efforts to introduce Japanese speakers to the classroom or arrange to have learners engage in computer mediated communication through email, chat, or bulletin boards. Nonetheless, even for those learners who do have opportunities to interact frequently with a number of Japanese speakers in real-life situations, it seems important to assist these learners in developing their readiness in interpreting the experience from various perspectives to maximize their gains from such occasions. It is here, where we believe that the use of digital video clips developed in the "Learning Through Listening" project can make a contribution. As will be discussed below, classroom activities that focus on the use of natural discourse, we hope, can serve to enhance learners' abilities to listen, interpret, and eventually reflect on their own speech behaviors.

References

Kubota, R. (Ed.) (2003). "Special issue: Sociocultural issues in teaching Japanese: Critical approaches. Japanese Language and Literature, 37 (1)

Jones, K. and T. Ono (Eds.). Forthcoming. Special issue: Discourse and Pedagogy. Japanese Language and Literature.

Mori, J. (2002). "Task design, plan, and development of talk-in-interaction: A study of a small group activity in a Japanese language classroom." Applied Linguistics, 23 (3), 323-347.

Ohara, Y., Saft,S. and G. Crookes (2001). "Toward a feminist critical pedagogy in a beginning Japanese-as-a-foreign-language class." Japanese Language and Literature, 35, 105-133.

Ohta, A.S. (2001). Second language acquisition processes in the classroom: Learning Japanese. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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The goal of the CALPER "Learning Through Listening" project

Based on the reflections of current developments as described above, we collected speech samples of Japanese speakers, by asking them to talk about topics that that are frequently introduced in intermediate and/or advanced Japanese courses in the United States. We then videotaped the interactions between speakers, which were either conducted in an interview format or in a conversation format. Subsequently, we digitized and transcribed the recordings. Resulting transcripts form a large database of natural discourse. On this site, we make selected segments from this discourse database available for Japanese language instruction. We plan on adding more video clips to this collection as well as to categorize them based on linguistic expressions employed. It is not our intention to suggest that these digital video clips should replace other listening or viewing materials, but it is our hope to explore new approaches for teaching and learning by adding these digital video clips to the array of existing Japanese language teaching and learning materials.

Types of existing materials. The following kinds of materials are used for language instruction on a fairly regular basis:

• Tapes and CDs that accompany textbooks
• Tapes and CDs published as supplementary listening comprehension materials
• Video programs made for different levels of Japanese language learners
• Films (including animation films)
• TV Programs (e.g., drama, news, variety show, commercials)
• Various genres of video or audio clips available through the Internet (e.g. news, stories, commercials, etc) including those designed for language learners and those designed for the general public
• Songs
• Actual speech of instructors, guest speakers, other learners

Each of these materials have numerous positive features and aspects to their use. For instance, some might be considered easily accessible to a particular level of learners, because of their careful control of vocabulary and grammar. Others might be considered helpful for learners to increase their interest and motivation in learning the language because of their appealing content or styles of presentation. Yet others are useful because they reflect current social issues, or they are valuable because they introduce traditional, cultural information.

Characteristics of CALPER's "Learning Through Listening" Digital Video Clips.

Clips present interactions rather than monologues

The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines refer to the ability "to understand main ideas and most details of connected discourse on a variety of topics" in the description of Advanced level proficiency for listening . Examples of "connected discourse" include "interviews, short lectures on familiar topics, and news items and reports primarily dealing with factual information." This idea appears to be reflected in a number of tapes and CDs published as supplementary listening exercises, which often include scripted monologues. Listening to such scripted or pre-planned monologues, which are designed for the delivery of information, and listening to spontaneous dialogs, in which multiple speakers talk with each other by taking turns, may require quite different skills. To our knowledge, however, the latter has not been emphasized as much as the former in existing materials. There are many sites where you can view the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines . Here is one from SIL International.

The purpose of these interactions does not necessarily center on the transfer of information

The video clips, which are currently featured in our Materials Bank, present interviews with and/or conversations among Japanese speakers. Typically, those speech recodings do not contain as many technical terms as those found in news programs or lectures, but rather they tend to contain more idiomatic expressions or colloquial speech. In addition, interactions do not just deliver particular pieces of information, but they also include many expressions of the speakers' stances towards a given theme, topic or issue and expressions of agreement or disagreement with the other participants. On some occasions, you will see that speakers try to avoid asserting their stances and remain intentionally vague in their expressions partly due to the need to save face of their interlocutors' as well as their own. To be able to interpret these subtly expressed stances is considered a "superior" level skill, according to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines.

Clips represent spontaneous speech rather than scripted dialogs

Of course, there are various existing listening or viewing materials that include interviews and dialogs. However, most conversations in tapes and CDs accompanying textbooks, films, or TV dramas were originally created by particular authors, who imagine how real-life conversations would be like (and, in some cases, who also take into consideration the learners' level of vocabulary or grammar). These written scripts were read aloud or acted out by performers to recreate the scenes of the authors' imagination. Such "made-up" conversations often do not include features such as repairs, incomplete utterances, overlapping utterances of multiple speakers, which are frequently observed in spontaneous interactions. These "clean and well-organized" interactions" – i.e., those that are written, acted out, and recorded in a studio with high-quality equipments – are easier for learners to listen to and comprehend. However, learners' listening to scripted interactions is quite different from their experiences of listening to real-life conversations. Real-life conversations typically are "messier" than dialogs in textbooks or dramas, and they more often than not are accompanied by various noises (e.g., other conversations occurring in the same place, traffic noises, background music at a restaurant or coffee shop, etc. etc.). Further, related to the point discussed in the previous section, dialogs created by particular authors may only reflect their perceptions of realities concerning each individual speaker’s style or perspective. Of course, we cannot say that the interviews and conversations we recorded are completely "natural." The procedures that we adopted, namely, explaining to the participants about the purpose of this project, asking them to talk about a given topic and video recording the resulting interaction, might have influenced, to a certain degree, the ways in which they spoke. Also the samples gathered through such procedures only represent a small portion of speech behaviors in daily life. Nevertheless, we believe these video clips demonstrate closer to real-life language use than many existing materials and therefore we hope that these video clips will widen the possibilities for designing curricula for intermediate and advanced level courses.

Video materials are not controlled for proficiency level

Participants in these interviews and conversations were informed about the purpose of this project, but we asked them to talk as naturally as possible rather than intentionally controlling their ways of speaking, their use of vocabulary, or expressions so that certain levels of language learners could understand what they are saying. When we selected 1 to 5 minute segments out of 30 to 60 minute interviews and conversations, however, we did consider comprehensibility as a factor and selected segments from which we thought intermediate or advanced learners could grasp at least some ideas. However, we did not classify our selected segments on the basis of their potential difficulty for a particular group of learners. We did not do so, because we believe that instructors can use one and the same video clip in a number of different ways and thus integrate the clips in their respective instructional environments. If we consider situations that learners would actually encounter in Japan, they do not always receive comprehensible inputs that are controlled according to their proficiency level. Therefore, it seems important for the learners to develop, through classroom activities, abilities or strategies to pick up, or conjecture, some information without being overly discouraged or hindered by unknown elements.

Topics correspond to topics typically found in existing instructional materials

In order to collect natural speech from Japanese speakers, we identified potential topics and themes by surveying textbooks that are widely used across Japanese programs in the US. We also asked a large number of Japanese instructors about the kinds of topics they would like to see addressed in video materials. We then selected an area of themes, among which are: "college life", "home stay", "food", "customs", "gender", "popular culture", and "cross-cultural communication". We hope that our selection will facilitate incorporating the "Learning Through Listening" materials into the curricula of existing language programs and courses. Specifically that it will help instructors to connect the video materials to other reading materials and tasks they already use and aid in creating theme-based unit for instruction .

The length of each clip is from one to five minutes

To further facilitate incorporating our video materials into courses, we kept the length of each clip between one and five minutes. Although they may seem short, each clip contains at least one sequence of talk that often consists of questions and answers, topic introduction and development, story telling and reactions, and so on, from which we can extract certain information, expressions, grammar, styles, etc. to be introduced, discussed, or practiced in class. Further, for learners who have been used to the materials that are designed and controlled for the purpose of language instruction and recorded in a studio, it can be challenging to listen to such a naturalistic, spontaneous interaction even for only the duration of one minute or two.

Clips can be linked to tasks that encourage students to interact with other Japanese speakers

When we presented the outline of this project at a conference, a person in the audience pointed out that a more realistic goal is for learners to be able to engage in actual interactions with Japanese speakers (asking questions or requesting clarifications when they do not understand) rather than having them eavesdrop on the others' interactions as a bystander. In fact, this point was also mentioned in student evaluations of the use of these video clips when we tested them in a course at the UW-Madison. While we acknowledge that learners' actual engagement in interaction with Japanese speakers constitutes an important learning experience, regularly providing such opportunities for all the students can present physical and/or economical challenges. The use of these video clips could serve as a reasonable alternative to direct interactions with Japanese speakers. It will at least have the learners expose to naturalistic speech samples, and further it can serve as pre-task teaching materials or post-task review materials combined with the learners’ actual interaction with Japanese.

Indeed, some students in the aforementioned UW-Madison course also mentioned that viewing the clips acclimated them to Japanese speakers’ natural ways of speaking and reduced their apprehension for interacting with Japanese speakers other than their teachers. Others in the same course noted that because they could view the digital video clips by stopping, or rewinding and replaying, as needed, they were able to understand what Japanese speakers were saying much more than what they could by listening to them just once. For another course, we introduced video clips in which Japanese students, who have just returned to Japan after studying abroad in the US, were discussing their observations of American students’ lifestyles. A student in this course mentioned to us that it was interesting to hear these Japanese students’ "true voices," which he thought would be unlikely to be disclosed when he was actually interacting with these students in person.

We should also note that when Japanese speakers talk with learners, they might adjust their ways of speaking according to their judgment of the learners’ proficiency. This phenomenon has certain positive aspects for the learners, but it might not be effective for the learners to develop their listening comprehension skills beyond their current proficiency level. Further, while learners may be able to engage in one-to-one interaction, when there are more than two speakers in a conversation, there are times when the conversation splits and learners become left out while the others who have native or higher proficiencies carry on the conversation. In order to be able to get back into the conversation, these learners, who are left out, need to be able to exercise the aforementioned strategies of picking up, or guessing, what they can understand. To help the learners develop such skills, we believe that the video clips introduced in this site would be valuable.

This section provided an overview of the background and goal of the current project. The next section discusses some points of consideration for adopting these digital video clips into classroom instruction by introducing some examples from the UW-Madison courses and the group work projects that the participants of our first workshop accomplished.

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