Professional DeveloPMent AP Japanese Language and Culture

122 Pages·2010·3.01 MB·English

Professional DeveloPMent
AP® Japanese Language
and Culture
Instructional Strategies
to Incorporate Culture
Curriculum Module
The College Board
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Contents
Introduction
Yoshiko Saito-Abbott.............................................................................1
Strategies to Integrate Culture
Eiko Ushida..........................................................................................3
Unit Plans
Obon Festival (お盆)
Mieko Avello.......................................................................................19
Energy Conservation (省エネ)
Kyoko Shoji..........................................................................................57
Travel and Transportation (旅行と交通機関)
Naomi Okada.......................................................................................77
About the Contributors....................................................................117

Introduction
Yoshiko Saito-Abbott
California State University, Monterey Bay
Seaside, California
Teaching culture is an essential element of Standards-based instruction. What are the
successful instructional strategies to incorporate culture into an AP® Japanese course?
In this curriculum module, the first article, “Strategies to Integrate Culture into AP
Japanese Language and Culture,” written by Eiko Ushida, briefly summarizes how
cultural knowledge is examined in the AP Japanese Exam; she then discusses some
useful strategies to teach culture in the classroom and follows with an introduction of
content-based instruction (CBI) as one approach to incorporate culture in the target
language. She thereby shows how to create a theme-based unit with instructional
strategies and sample activities.
Three unit plans introduced in this curriculum module, written by Mieko Avello, Kyoko
Shoji and Naomi Okada, respectively, were taught in their AP class and modified based on
students’ performance. The first unit, “Obon Festival,” written by Mieko Avello, illustrates
with step-by-step instruction how the author taught a Japanese cultural event, the Obon
festival, one of three major holidays in Japan. Avello helps students to understand and
be able to talk about the cultural practice and perspectives of Obon and related summer
festivals, using authentic materials.
The second unit, written by Kyoko Shoji, focuses on environmental issues, including
global warming and recycling. She incorporates multiple technologies in her teaching.
The Internet-based authentic materials help students to develop three modes of
communication skills and cultural knowledge. Assessments include various types of tasks
in formats similar to AP Exam questions.
The last unit, written by Naomi Okada, teaches students how to travel around Japan and
instructs students on how to check for lodging, create a realistic travel itinerary, and use
public transportation to navigate around the city. Her unit plan incorporates extensive
supplementary materials from many teaching resources.
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A Curriculum Module for AP Japanese Language and Culture
These unit plans were designed to help students develop cultural knowledge in three
modes of communication in order to improve their overall communicative competency.
Each unit includes an overall outline of the unit that shows when and how vocabulary,
new grammatical structures and cultural knowledge are introduced in class with an
approximate timeline. They also include detailed lesson plans with assessment tasks,
rubrics and sample activities with teaching materials.
The collection of articles and unit plans in this publication is a resource to aid reflection,
to reassure and to explore effective instructional strategies to guide students in reaching
higher levels of language proficiency.
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Strategies to Integrate Culture
Eiko Ushida
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California
1. Introduction
Culture has played various roles in foreign language classrooms. Its importance has become
greater since the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (Standards)
were published in 1996. For Japanese language education, the importance of culture was
further highlighted by the beginning of the AP Japanese Language and Culture Exam.
Up to now, culture has been included in secondary Japanese education in many ways,
such as conducting culture demonstrations or events, watching films and so on. Now,
the Standards and the AP Exam require us to look at culture as an integrated aspect of
language learning, not a separate one. Students need to be introduced to a wide range of
Japanese culture and engage in cognitively challenging topics through carefully designed
lessons that enhance language learning (College Board, 2007, 2008). To conduct such a
course, the emphasis must rely on language use and culture, integrating them in such a
way that opportunities for learning culture are maximized in a rich language context.
In this article, I will discuss the definition of culture for AP Japanese and look at the
role of cultural knowledge in the Standards and the AP Exam. Then, I will present
some useful strategies for the classroom. Finally, I will introduce content-based
instruction (CBI) by showing how to create a theme-based unit with instructional
strategies and sample activities.
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A Curriculum Module for AP Japanese Language and Culture
2. What Is Culture?
2.1. Culture in the Standards
Culture, together with Communication, Connections, Comparisons and Communities, is
one of the five goal areas in the Standards. Among the five, the Cultures and Comparisons
goals most directly target cultural learning. They specifically state, “gain knowledge and
understanding of other cultures” and “develop insight into the nature of language and
culture,” respectively. Furthermore, culture is embedded in the remaining goals as shown
in the following:
• Students are to communicate in a different mode on cultural topics using
culturally appropriate manners. (Communication)
• Students are to acquire information and learn distinctive points of view through
Japanese language and culture. (Connections)
• Students are to use Japanese language to participate in Japanese communities
within and outside of classrooms. (Communities)
Culture has been studied in various disciplines and defined in many different ways over
time. For example, some view culture as “everything in human life,” whereas in the field of
intercultural communication, it is more specifically perceived as values, beliefs, perceptions
and social relationship patterns. Sometimes, it is divided into two groups: “big-C culture”
and “little-c culture.” Big-C culture is considered formal, and it often includes what are
perceived as traditional or higher forms of it, for example literature, theater (e.g, kabuki, noh)
and art (e.g., ukiyoe, sumie). Little-c culture, on the other hand, is perceived as including
things that happen in daily/mundane life, such as human interaction and behavior (e.g.,
shopping, dating, eating). In the Standards, both aspects of big-C culture and little-c culture
are viewed as inseparable and important for language learning.
In the Standards, culture is defined as practices (i.e., patterns of social interaction), products
(e.g., books, foods, music) and perspectives (e.g., meanings, attitudes, values, ideas). Of these
three, the ultimate goal for learners of foreign language is to understand the perspectives
because cultural practices and products are based on cultural values. Additionally, the
Standards emphasize the importance of raising students’ cultural awareness at every stage
of language learning to develop cultural understanding and respect by analyzing both
similarities and differences between their own culture and other cultures.
Under this philosophy, the standards presented in the Cultures goal are aimed at
students demonstrating an understanding of the relationship between the practices and
perspectives (standard 2.1), and between the products and perspectives (standard 2.2)
of the cultures studied. Under the Comparisons goal, students are to demonstrate their
understanding of culture through the comparison of cultures studied and their own
(standard 4.2). What these standards tell us is that students are expected not only to know
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Instructional Strategies to Incorporate Culture
about Japanese culture but also to demonstrate (e.g., explain, describe, show, illustrate,
teach) their understanding (e.g., what they have understood, interpreted or learned) of it
through communication, using, of course, the Japanese language. And this is what the AP
Japanese Exam is trying to assess.
2.2. Culture in the AP Japanese Language and Culture Exam
The AP Japanese Language and Culture Exam is a performance assessment test/evaluation
designed to see how well students can perform in assigned tasks in Japanese for three
specific modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive and presentational. The
concept is similar to the ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K−12 Learners (1998), which
highlight the anticipated performance outcomes of the goals of the Standards, defining
how well students perform. In the Guidelines, culture is included as “cultural awareness”
to assess how students’ cultural understanding is reflected in their communication. For
example, cultural awareness for the intermediate learner range looks at the following
criteria for each communication mode:
Interpersonal Tasks
• Use some culturally appropriate vocabulary and idiomatic expressions.
• Use some gestures and body language of the target culture.
Interpretive Tasks
• Use knowledge of their own culture and that of the target culture(s) to interpret
oral or written texts more accurately.
• Recognize target culture influences in the products and practices of their own
culture.
• Recognize differences and similarities in the perspectives of the target culture and
their own.
Presentational Tasks
• Use some culturally appropriate vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and nonverbal
behaviors.
• Demonstrate some cultural knowledge in oral and written presentations.
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A Curriculum Module for AP Japanese Language and Culture
2.2.1. Culture in Interpersonal Tasks
Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express
feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.
For the Interpersonal Communication standard, students are to demonstrate their
knowledge of cultural perspectives, practices and products in negotiating meaning with
the person(s) to whom the students are communicating. Students also need to develop
the ability to recognize that different language and cultures use different patterns of
communication.
Cultural knowledge plays a critical role in three aspects: context, content and appropriate
use of language. Students need knowledge of cultural perspectives concerning interactions
between individuals of different ages, status and background to examine the context
of communication to identify with whom, when and how we are communicating, and
for what purpose. Then, students activate cultural knowledge to determine what to say
(content) and how to do it appropriately (register and style).
During communication, cultural elements appear frequently as a topic, information
(content), vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and/or nonverbal elements such as a gesture.
In order for students to engage in culturally appropriate Interpersonal Communication,
they should have cultural information that they can talk about, compare to that of other
culture(s) and give opinions about.
In the AP Japanese Exam, Interpersonal tasks (e.g., conversation, returning a telephone
call or text chat) are slightly different from real-life tasks because of a lack of opportunities
for negotiation of meaning and use of communication strategies. Therefore, planning
becomes very important. Before providing responses, students should first read the
instructions very carefully to understand the context. They need to anticipate what they
are going to communicate about, what information will be used and then what language
(vocabulary, grammar structures, discourse structures, register and style) they will hear/
see/use. With sufficient planning, students will be able to respond to the prompts properly,
provide elaborate responses and use appropriate language.
2.2.2. Culture in Interpretive Tasks
Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety
of topics.
For the Interpretive Communication standard, students are to show their knowledge
of how cultural perspectives are embedded in the text. Students also need the ability
to analyze and compare the content of the information available both in Japanese and
their own language, so they can examine linguistic and cultural differences. Students
understand cultural content, interpret the text and negotiate meanings by processing
language, and by using visual cues and background knowledge.
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