82-172 Elementary Japanese II Spring 2005





Syllabus

Objectives of the Course

I. Communication: To develop contextually appropriate communication skills in both spoken and written Japanese.
1. Communication Skills:
a. describe things and people
b. exchange information about oneself and other people
c. explain one's intention, speculation, desire/wish
d. use appropriate time/aspect frames
2. Speaking/Listening:
a. handle transactional situations with context-appropriate forms
b. catch  necessary information from given conversations (audio and video material)
c. give a formal presentation
3. Reading/Writing:
a. read and write descriptive texts and narratives
b. write personal letters and descriptive texts
c. distinguish context-appropriate sentence/text styles

4. Vocabulary:
a. develop vocabulary knowledge
b. augment Kanji knowledge
c. improve inference strategies

II. Grammar: To understand the basic structure of the Japanese language.
a. case-marking particles
b. verb/adjective conjugation
c. request forms
d. quotation
e. conjunctions (and, but, if, etc.)
f. verb potential forms
g. compound expressions
III. Culture: To develop a clear understanding of Japanese culture.
a. everyday customs in Japan
b. basic cultural way of thinking underlying linguistic structures and expressions
c. basic geography
d. basic history
e. foods
f. housing

Textbooks

I. Required materials
  1. Carnegie Mellon University original course packet (Elementary Japanese II 82-172)
  2. Basic Kanji Book (or BKB) I by Kano, Shimitzu, Takenaka, and Ishii, published by Bonjinsha Co., Ltd. (ISBN4-89358-091-4). (Since the acquisition of Kanji vocabulary is an important part of learning Japanese, “Basic Kanji Book I, “ will be used throughout the semester. One lesson will be assigned every Friday, which should be submitted on the following Monday. There will be biweekly quizzes to test your Kanji knowledge.)

II. Optional Materials

English-Japanese, Japanese-English Dictionary
  1. Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary by Seigo Nakao, Random House Reference &; ISBN: 0679780017
  2. Kodansha's Furigana Japanese-English Dictionary by Kodansha International, Paul C. Hulbert (Editor), Kodansha; ISBN: 477001983,
  3. Kodansha's Furigana English-Japanese Dictionary by Kodansha International, Paul C. Hulbert (Editor), Kodansha; ISBN: 477002055, or
Grammar dictionary
A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (by Seiichi Makino and Michio Tsutsui, 1989, The Japan Times, ISBN: 4-7890-0454-6).

Kanji Dictionary
  1. The Compact Nelson: Japanese-English Character Dictionary by Andrew Nathaniel Nelson. Charles E Tuttle Co; ISBN: 4-8053-0574-6.
  2. Ntc's New Japanese-English Character Dictionary by Jack Halpern. National Textbook Company; ISBN: 0844284343.
  3. The Kanji Dictionary by Mark Spahn, Wolfgang Hadamitzky, Kumiko Fujie-Winter, Wolfgang Hadamitsky. Charles E Tuttle Co; ISBN: 0804820589.
III. Materials available at the MLRC or Modern Language Resource Center, PH 225C
  1. Video Tape: Main text dialogues (shown in class).
  2. Japanese-English, English-Japanese, Kanji dictionaries available at the MLRC.
IV. Materials available on-line (Blackboard, www.cmu.edu/blackboard & www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/82-172/ )
  1. Course syllabus
  2. weekly schedule & homework (Updated information will be announced in class.)
  3. listening exercises
  4. main text dialogues, video and audio
  5. other useful links (e.g.,  Hiragana and Katakana recognition exercises)

Learning Activities

I. Major Components of Classroom Activities:
a. main text dialogues: explanation and practice
b. grammar explanation
c. conversation practice
II. Communication Exercises:
Communication exercises help you better understand the use of each grammatical structure since grammar points make sense more clearly when you practice them in a meaning context. Communication exercises also aim at helping you develop functional skills to use your new knowledge in actual communication settings.
III.  Cultural Activities:
Japanese culture is introduced at every opportunity through various activities and materials. Also, there is a part in the textbook called “Culture Notes,” in which you will be assigned to do web-based research on selected topics.
IV. Learning about Language Learning (LaLL)
Three topics concerning language learning (i.e., reading, writing, listening) will be discussed both in class and on b-board to enhance your language learning strategies.
V. Homework Assignments:
One of our instructional goals is the simultaneous development of the four language skills--speaking, listening, reading, and writing. While in-class activities will focus on your oral communication skills, homework will be assigned on a daily basis to develop your literacy skills. These assignments are carefully coordinated with in-class activities. It is extremely important, therefore, that you do the homework on the day it is assigned. To ensure the effectiveness of such out-of-class learning activities, we will provide prompt and detailed feedback on a daily basis.

Evaluation

An individual  mid-semester conference will be held to inform you of your progress.
 
1. Class participation
10%
If you are late or if you leave early, you will not be given full credit for your attendance. Likewise, if you are not participating class activities, you will NOT be credited. Your active participation (not only attendance) is what is expected.
2. Daily performance
20%
Daily quizzes include vocabulary quizzes (from the dialogues), biweekly (every other Friday) Kanji quizzes from BKB, conjugation quizzes, and L.4 & L.5 dialogue presentations. Presentations consist of L.6 Creative dialogue presentation (5%), and an Hotel presentation (5%).
3. Lesson tests
30%
Lesson 4 Test
Lesson 5 Test
Lesson 6 Test
4. Homework
20%
Homework assignments include vocabulary exercises, reading comprehension, guided composition, listening comprehension.
5. Final component
20%
Final component consists of a conversation test (5 %), final project (writing assignment) (5 %), and final exam (held during the final week) (10 %).

Grade Distribution

A: 100%-90%
B: 89%-80%
C: 79%-70%
D: 69%-60%

Important Rules

I. Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is an extremely important issue. If a student submitted work completed by copying down someone else’s work (i.e., homework assignments, quizzes, tests), the student who copied and the student who allowed their assignments to be copied would receive no credit for the work. It is also important to keep in mind that no quizzes or tests administered in this course are open-book. Thus, using any unauthorized material during quizzes and tests is unacceptable. Furthermore, sharing any information of the content of quizzes and tests with those who have not taken them could be construed as a violation of academic integrity. Depending on the seriousness of the nature of the incident, those involved will be reported to the Division of Student Affairs, will receive a lower grade, and/or fail the entire course.
    It is perfectly appropriate for you to seek help from native speakers of Japanese and/or the students of Japanese who have studied Japanese longer than you especially in writing essays. For example, you might ask if a certain phrase or sentence is correct. However, receiving "too much help" would affect academic integrity. The line between legitimate help and cheating is this: Could you reproduce this "help" on a test or on your own? If the answer is yes―i.e., you learned something from your question and will not make the same mistake again, that is okay. If the answer is no--(e.g., you can not identify the parts of speech in the phrase) then you should not turn in the assignment as your own work. We have been teaching Japanese for a number of years and can recognize essays that are written by native, near-native, or advanced speakers, or are copied from other sources. If you are unsure about your particular situation, please ask your instructor for clarification BEFORE you submit your work as your own work. For more information, please read the discussion guide to promoting academic integrity by Student Affairs at the following site. (http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/acad_integ/acad_int.html)
II. Quizzes & tests
Quizzes will be given at the beginning of the class so that students can concentrate on class content for the rest of the time. Neither make-up quizzes nor tests will be arranged unless you have a valid reason and you have notified your instructor beforehand. If you are ill, you need to contact your instructor before the class starts. The same policy holds for those who come to class late.
III. Attendance policy
Class attendance is extremely important. Failure to come to class causes numerous difficulties in the study of the Japanese language and culture. Here is our policy for attendance.
- 3 unexcused absences will lower your final grade by 3%.
- 4 unexcused absences will lower your final grade by 4 %
- 5 unexcused absences will lower your final grade by 7 %
- 6 unexcused absences will lower your final grade by 10 %
- 7 or more unexcused absences will seriously affect your final grade with the, possibility of failure.

Exceptions can be made in case of serious illness with health center (or doctor’s) notification; personal emergency with official notification ; or extenuating academic circumstances, for example, required travel to a conference with official notification. Absences that can influence your final grade vary, but some common ones include oversleeping, busy work with other courses, and problems with an alarm clock and transportation or parking. If any attendance problems arise, consult with your instructor as soon as possible. If you are late to class more than 5 minutes, you will not be given full credit. If you are late more than 15 minutes, it will be marked as an absence.
IV. Homework
You should work on each assignment carefully. However, you are welcome to be creative in your answers. As long as each assignment is completed, you will be given full credit for your work. When full credit is not given for incomplete, sloppy work, or any other reasons, your instructor will notify you by writing down “REDO” on your assignment sheet. Work on that assignment and turn it in again immediately to receive some additional credit but not full credit.
    Most of the assignments are DUE THE FOLLOWING DAY , at the BEGINNING OF THE CLASS, unless otherwise indicated. It is extremely important that you meet the deadline for each assignment.
    To those who know a lot of kanji: You are encouraged to use kanji in your work. However, for any kanji words that have not been introduced in the texbook or in class, their readings (or pronunciation) must be inscribed in ひらがな (called ふりがな). If you use those unlearned kanji words without furigana on tests, quizzes, or projects, you may not receive full credit.

   けんこう    りょこう
e.g., 健康、  旅行



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