Embedded Files
I created a 5-module online unit lesson on Canvas LMS that targets a scenario which adult learners may encounter in a formal social setting in the TL culture. The lesson aims to teach basic language and pragmatic skills that are essential on those likely occasions.
The unit targets university or adult beginner learners who have completed one semester of university-level Japanese course. The course closely follows the Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) principles in which meaning/goal oriented tasks that meet the standards (e.g., ACTFL) aim to simulate real life scenarios. The course meets synchronously twice a week (75min x 2). Learners virtually yet fully collaborate when engaging in tasks and activities.
tasks that are meaning/goal oriented and meeting the standards (e.g., ACTFL)
Collaboration takes place via different mediums in which learners work together to exercise language and pragmatic skills through brainstorming opinions and ideas, engaging in opinion gap activities, planning, and presenting. Each lesson, learners engage in staged tasks by using the language they receive as an input. Each activity prepares students to complete the next task that immediately follows.
course goals and objectives
course goals and objectives
Course Goal:
This online course will provide students with the basic language and pragmatic skills that are essential in social gathering situation.
Course Objectives - Students Will Be Able To:
express their likes and dislikes appropriately, in socializing context (that involve dining in someone’s home or at a restaurant)
carry out a basic conversation around favorite activities and routines by reacting to those of others
decline things they dislike in a culturally polite way
order food in a restaurant
appropriately express thanks during (orally) and after (written as a thank you note) the event
demonstrate culturally expected actions (bring gift, take shoes off, and basic table manner -- especially actions they should avoid)
How Does the Course Address ACTFL Standards?
How Does the Course Address ACTFL Standards?
Interpersonal: Learners can select a gift to bring to someone’s home by requesting and providing information of the inviter, using –い and –な adjectives
Interpretive: Learners can interpret the meaning of the text and identify target language features through analyzing the informational texts
Presentational: Learners can explain their choice of gift to bring to someone’s home, using ～ですから , as well as reporting the experience, using –い and –な adjectives
Teaching Pragmatics: How Does the Course Address the Challenges?
Teaching Pragmatics: How Does the Course Address the Challenges?
The challenge of this course is to teach pragmatics in an online classroom. Pragmatics is one language areas that L1 children come to master through years of overt instruction from their parents or caregivers while being immersed in the rich cultural context. This fact and with an absence of natural context for learners who are outside of L1 community, explicit pragmatics instruction is even more necessary in the L2 classroom. As is the case with L1 children, pragmatic skill takes time to develop, yet it is integral in everyday communication as they are part of the cultural norm. Lack of pragmatics knowledge can be consequential, especially for adult learners.
For this reason, both pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics resources are explicitly presented from the beginning in this course. The instructional effects can be enhanced through authentic materials (via use of technology) with explicit information about L2 pragmatics as well as opportunities for students to interact and produce output that target pragmatic convention through task cycles.
LESSON VIDEOS
LESSON VIDEOS
Lesson 1:
Tell a story about the experience of visiting someone’s home – Express likes and dislikes
Lesson 2:
Choosing a gift to take to someone’s home – Using adjectives
Lesson 3:
Engage in social conversation: Talk about your favorite activities by using te-form
Lesson 4:
Eating at a restaurant
Lesson 5:
Writing a thank you note
online course unit - design rationale paper
online course unit - design rationale paper
This rationale paper describes the decisions that went into my online unit design to achieve the learning objectives. The paper discusses my research grounded rationale for the sequencing of the lessons, how individual activities meet lesson objectives, and how I selected materials and technology to support lessons and unit goals.
YamamotoBorder_FLT-881_FinalDraft.docxresources
resources
ACTFL. (2017). NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements. Alexandria, VA: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Retrieved from https://www.actfl.org/publications
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