Language Sensei

A Language Teacher's Journey

A “Meaningful” Review Using an “Authentic” Cultural Component

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file000742939575There’s a lot of talk about review. Do you review specifics? Do you review ‘everything you did the year before’ you start the new one? I have shifted lately from an overall review to activities at the start that remind students ‘how’ we operate in class.  If you teach on a semester system you can encounter students who have not had the language for a year (!) and something must be done. Although this review style features something specific to Japanese – I think that the ‘culture’ or ‘real authentic use’ component could be adaptable to any language.

Like many languages, Japanese has a variety of ‘politeness levels’ and students in high school typically master the regular ‘formal’ and the more vernacular ‘plain’. In Year 3 my students acquire the plain form – and in Year 4 need to ensure that they start with a clear grasp of it – ready to use at any time. With 2, 6 or even 12 months since the Yr3 course ended how can I a) review the plain and in doing so not b) just make it a march through rules. I want a ‘purpose’ beyond “we need to remember how to…”. I needed a ‘hook’…

And then it came to me. A ‘mini-unit’ that I sometimes did in Year 3 but now, with more expanded time on other units, have not been able to do recently. A cultural exploration of a literary genre that, because it emphasizes/relies on brevity necessitates the use of this plain form. Yes – the Haiku. The traditional 5-7-5 poem already familiar (in English) to my students.  So this year my Yr4’s will begin their course with an exploration of the Haiku. They will look (in English) at the history, requirements, styles of haiku. They will read/analyze in both English and Japanese. They will, as great haiku masters have done, select a pen name to sign their haiku with (and have to explain in Japanese why they chose what they did). And they will write haiku using the required elements and forms. They will share their haiku with the class via a ‘poetry book’ we will put together. And finally they will take up the brushes and experience, many for the first time, writing their haiku using traditional brushes/ink/calligraphy paper.

I am looking forward to this – to the ‘review’ that this exploration provides. It spurs me on to think of other opportunities that I may have to ‘place’ a required review into an authentic context. What natural forms of expression in your Target Language might allow you to do the same?

Colleen

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