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Language(s) |
Japanese |
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Learner level |
Beginners |
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Institution |
MLU, University of Birmingham |
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Name(s) |
Satoko Takami
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Contact details |
takamis@hhs.bham.ac.uk
Queen's College,
Somerset Road,
Edgbaston,
Birmingham
B15 2QH
tel. 0973-150071
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Objectives |
To motivate learners to learn hiragana, one of the three
writing system of Japanese by another kind of workbook:
one on the web, which can give feedback immediately without
their having struggle with a hiragana chart. As a result it
is hoped that learners may feel more confident and motivated.
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Implementation |
I made 20 sets of multiple-choice hiragana quizzes by using JBC,
one of the Hot Potatoes software suite. For 15 sets, each
consisted of three or five quizzes in which five characters and
multiple-choices were presented in different order so as not to
make the quizzes too simple. The other five sets were for review
and they were consisted of eight or ten quizzes. To avoid the
inconvenience of unavailability of a Japanese font in computers
that learners use, JPEG files for 46 hiragana characters were made
and used in the quizzes. The web page for hiragana was set up at
the end of October 1999. A questionnaire form was included on the
web page so that I could have some feedback from users. Students
were informed of the URL and were encouraged to do the quizzes in
their own time. I also gave information on the URL to Japanese
teachers I know/knew and asked them to tell their students about
the page. At the end of the autumn term, students filled in a
printed questionnaire when they took the class test. The score
of the hiragana section of the students were compared with the one
of last year.
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Outcome |
Although the average score of the whole class on the hiragana
section of the test this year was better by 30 per cent than
that of last year, there seemed no difference between the students
who tried the web page and those who did not. The web page was
just meant as one of various study tools and you cannot expect too much of it, and it was a success that no one dropped out before
Christmas in the evening class this year. The reasons some
students did not try the page were all related to the difficult
access to the internet because of time or work place constraints
or limited facilities. However, the feedback was positive which
I received from the students who actually tried the web page.
The web page gave rapid feedback to them and it was easy to correct
themselves when they were wrong, they could concentrate on
hiragana more than just trying to remember them. They wanted more
quizzes. I also received positive feedback through the
questionnaire on the web from students, especially in Nottingham,
who I do not know directly. Those students also wanted more quizzes
as well as the quizzes of katakana, another set of Japanese character.
I would like to thank everyone who kindly recommended the web page
to their students, especially Takanori Funamoto of Nottingham Trent
University. Comments from the users showed that the web page was
useful to them, and the aim of the project has been achieved.
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Evaluation |
To make a web page in the first place was a time-consuming task,
and it took me two whole weeks to solve various problems to set
up one, consulting books about web pages. Hot Potato software
makes it easy to make various types of questions, but still you
need some knowledge of HTML files to link the files one another
and to design the whole structure of the web page. However, I
think it is worthwhile doing so if the use of computer helps
students' learning. As for my project, the main advantage was
that students were free from struggling with hiragana chart and
it reduces the stress of learning new characters very much.
There are also other advantages of computer that printed workbooks
do not have. For example, computers can choose questions randomly
to produces different set of quizzes each time, which unfortunately
I have not succeeded yet due to my inadequacy of technical knowledge.
By making available your quizzes on the web, you can help not only
your students but also all students who learn the target language
all over the world, which I think is great pleasure. It can also be
used for years. Here, the most important and difficult thing is to
advertise the web page to many students and teachers every year.
Co-operation with other web page owners will be a solution.
Updating web pages is also very important to keep learners' interest.
I am planning to make katakana quizzes next at the users' request.
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Project url |
http://www.clg.bham.ac.uk/satoko/japanese/top.htm |
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