Exploring Tranquility at Japan House

Exploring Tranquility at Japan House is an interactive virtual tour through the Japan House gardens at UIUC. Students are tasked with learning about the elements of a Japanese garden and the traditional, philosophical concept of "mono no aware" - the transience of beauty - in order to gain access to a traditional tea ceremony taking place at the Japan House. Students need to find a variety of clues through various cultural/language learning tasks  to create a word that “opens” the house for the ceremony. 

Contextualization 

• Target Age: Secondary school-aged  and beyond 

• Target Language Level (based on CEFR): B1+ English Learners 

• Location: Anywhere students have internet connection to use a computer to follow the 360 tour 

Lesson Aims 

Students are ESL learners. The presented text/videos, while being about Japanese culture, will be presented in English at a level adequate for B1+ learners.  Students will learn about some Japanese words/cultural idea, but no profieiceny of the language is required. This virtual activity will mainly focus on: 

• Reception: Written and aural 

  • Reading short texts 

  • Listening to short videos 

• Communicative Language Competencies: Linguistic & Vocabulary Control 

  • Using diverse vocabulary words 

  • Interacting with metaphorical/figurative language 

• Plurilingual & Pluricultrual 

Learning Objectives (SWBATS)

1. Improve reading & listening skills in the target language through multimodal input 

2.  Use descriptive vocabulary in English, specifically adjectives and emotion-words.

3. Recall specific vocabulary words 

4. Explain 4 Japanese words connected to nature & symbolism 

5. Identify the structural use & meaning of metaphorical language 

6. Develop increased cross-cultural awareness 

Preparation & Materials 

Preparation: A brief introduction to frame the activity would be beneficial, such as an introduction to Japanese culture/context for why students are learning about Japanese gardens. This activity could be integrated into a greater unit about cultural awareness. 

Materials 

• Link to the app used: https://lapentor.com/

• Handouts: Texts, videos, and Google Forms are embedded within the virtual tour 

• Equipment: Students are given the link to the activity and that is all (everything is conducted online). Tablets or computers for each student/small group of students is needed. Conversely, instructors could choose to conduct the lesson as a whole class, in which a projector and interactive SmartBoard would be needed. 

Phases of the Task Cycle 

Pre-task 

Before the lesson begins, students will be informed by the instructor of their task: to gain access to a “tea ceremony” at the Japan House at UIUC. In order to attend the tea ceremony, they will need to have some basic understanding of Japanese symbolism and tradition. Students need to collect 4 letters hidden through the stages of the Japanese garden. 

Main Task

At the beginning of the hunt, students are introduced to one of the core ideas of Japanese culture – mono no aware, the gentle awareness of life’s impermanence and the beauty found in change. They are told that by completing each stage, they will collect letters that together form one English word symbolizing this concept. As they move through five stages – stones (ishi), water (mizu), plants (shokubutsu), and gravel (shirasu)– students explore the meaning of each element, learn its Japanese name, and complete short English tasks such as watching a short video, listening to an audio clip, reading a text, or doing a quiz. Each of these tasks requires submission of en embedded Google form that upon submission, will reveal the letter they need to use as the passcode to access the next task, AND a letter they will need to solve the final puzzle to gain entrance to the tea ceremony. At the end, they use the letters they gathered (one of them extra) to form a word that captures the heart of mono no aware.

Post-task 

Students reflect upon their submissions made to the Google forms throughout the task, and what they have learned about Japanese culture. Through it all, students have practiced English reading/listening/and writing comprehension. At the instructor's discretion, a speaking activity or assessment can be done after the task to assess the fourth facet of language production/comprehension. Instructors can create a set a structured questions that they ask students relating to the elements of a Japanese garden, or asl students to describe mono no aware using descriptive vocabulary. 

Access the Virtual Tour! 

Access Link: https://app.lapentor.com/sphere/japan-house