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Paper short abstract:

This study is a practical report on the use of the K-code developed by Dr. Taha. K-code typifies the smallest morphological units of Kanji as a learning tool for non-Kanji learners unfamiliar with Kanji. Practice result indicated that K-code was effective in identifying characters and writing well.

Paper long abstract:

Character instruction for non-Kanji learners of Japanese is mainly based on the same characters and radicals as in education for native Japanese students, which is not optimal for learners of Japanese. Sinousy E. M. Taha developed the K-code and published the revised version in 2022, which typifies the smallest morphological units of Kanji as a learning tool for non-Kanji learners unfamiliar with Kanji. The smallest units of the K-code are six basic lines, with each line shape corresponding to them, including the alphabet (一 = H, | = I, ノ= Z, 乀= N, ✓ = V, L = L), with an underline for continuous writing, “w” to indicate a spring, and the length of the line in uppercase and lowercase letters. These can convey the “form, position, and direction of the starting point and shape of the end point” of a line. The K-code allows us to break down the lines into smaller lines than radicals and explain all the lines of a Kanji character in code. Consequently, it allows us to recognize a character as a collection of basic lines and to write well-formed characters.

We have been practicing katakana/Kanji instruction using K-code for seven years, mainly with introductory Kanji learners in Asia. This study aimed to implement K-code instruction with ten European and American students who had already learned Kanji. At the end of the semester, we conducted a voluntary questionnaire survey and received six responses. Five students positively evaluated K-code as “simplifying characters” and useful for “recognizing differences in characters.” The participants previously used their katakana knowledge to identify parts of Kanji characters. The teacher’s evaluation demonstrated that the learners could write well, indicating the K-code’s usefulness for line identification. As learners gain confidence, the K-code is expected to lower their resistance to learning Kanji characters and contribute to improving their satisfaction with learning.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper reports on a method for teaching students how to write request emails to a senior or higher social status person in Japanese. A series of lessons was designed by the authors to improve the writing skills of students on the intermediate Japanese language course at the University of Leeds.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to report on the teaching of writing request emails in Japanese to a senior or a person of higher social status. A series of lessons was designed to improve students' writing skills in an intermediate Japanese language course at the university where the authors work in the autumn semester of 2022/23.

Previously, the language curriculum at the authors' university had focused primarily on the correct use of keigo, or honorifics, and had not provided enough opportunities for students to notice and understand for themselves the appropriate politeness for request emails depending on the purpose and relationship with the person they were writing to.

Based on Brown and Levinson's (1987) Politeness Strategies (PS), a series of lessons were provided to enable students to reflect on how to write effective request emails, both individually and with peers in small groups. First, after a brief explanation of the concept of PS by one of the authors, students discussed the positive and negative points of a sample email written by a former student and posted it on Padlet to share with other groups. Students then corrected the sample email individually and added comments in English to explain the aspects they focused on for their correction. Finally, they wrote a request email for a similar task in class to consolidate their email writing skills. Immediately after the final task, an anonymous online survey was conducted to collect students' feedback.

The group discussions showed how the students critically examined the sample request email from various aspects such as organisation, content and conventions, and the emails they revised from the sample email showed their awareness and consideration of the use of negative politeness strategies. Furthermore, the results of the online survey revealed the students' positive responses to the new curriculum and their sense of improved understanding of Japanese politeness.

Reference

Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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Paper short abstract:

This research examined how Japanese language proficiency affects the assessment of narrative writings by university students in Hungary. The result revealed that there was no significant effect and implied that learners with low Japanese proficiency may get their writing evaluated highly.

Paper long abstract:

Research that examines how Japanese language proficiency affects assessment of Japanese writing has not been targeted at European learners, although there is some research regarding Asian learners such as Tsubone and Kageyama (2020). This research examined the effect on assessment by analyzing narrative writings written by university students in Hungary (finished beginner level or higher).

The research procedure is as follows. First, we asked 95 university students in Hungary to write an essay (600-800 words) on the topic of "Unforgettable Experiences" and chose the top fifteen and bottom fifteen essays based on the scores of the Simple Performance-Oriented Test (hereafter, SPOT). Three researchers then evaluated these essays using flowcharts for narrative writing assessment consisting of three traits: content, organization, and Japanese language. Next, we calculated the median scores and conducted t-tests on the SPOT scores of the top and bottom groups and the mean scores of each trait to examine how Japanese language proficiency affects essay assessment. As a result, although a significant difference was found in the SPOT scores, no significant difference was found in the essay assessments for the three traits.

Based on speculation that there could be essays with low scores in the top group and essays with high scores in the bottom group, we selected an essay with a low score (Essay A) from the top five and an essay with a high score (Essay B) from the bottom five and analyzed their features in detail. We found that Essay A had problems in the introduction and conclusion, and that the main point was unclear. On the other hand, Essay B had careful descriptions to help the readers’ understanding, even though it was written in simple Japanese and had some errors.

These features suggest that even learners with low Japanese proficiency may get their writing evaluated highly when they are aware of what they should be careful about for each trait.

(Reference)

Tsubone, Y., & Kageyama, Y. (2020). Exploratory Study on the Evaluation of Narrative Writing: Focusing on Thai Learners of Japanese. Journal of Research Papers： Network for Thai-Japan Studies in Thailand Vol.1, 46-55.