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 surrounding the idea 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: Vocabulary Control 

  • Writing diverse vocabulary words 

Learning Objectives (SWBATS)

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

2. Deepen use of descriptive vocabulary in English, specifically the use and meaning of adjectives and emotion-words.

3. Utilize recall of specific vocabulary words 

4. Learn 5 Japanese words connected to nature & symbolism 

5. Develop increased cross-cultural awareness 

Preparation & Materials 

Preparation: No preparation for the teacher is needed. Students are given the link to the activity and that is all (everything is conducted online). 

Materials 

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

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

• Equipment: Tablets or computers for each student/small group of students. Additionally, 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 

Phase 1: 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.

Phase 2: Begin task with learning about stones (ishi) 

Students access the activity through the Lapentor link and begin. The first aspect of a traditional Japanese garden they will learn about is ishi (stones). 

• Students complete a short reading task 

• Next, students must submit 3 descriptive adjectives about stones in the embedded Google Form to receive a clue to unlock the next stage 

Phase 3: Continue task learning about water (mizu) 

Phase 4: Continue task learning about plants (shokubutsu)

Phase 5: Continue task learning about gravel (shirasu)

Phase 6: Continue task learning about bridges (hashi)

Phase 7: Final puzzle & reflection 

Example