INSIDE... ANNUAL PROGRAMMES • TOBU REVIEWEDA LEVEL KANJI RESOURCE

MADOVOLUME 20 • SEPTEMBER 2004

THE JAPAN FOUNDATIONLONDON LANGUAGE CENTRE NEWSLETTER

Pupils from schools around the UK spokeabout their hopes and dreams in Japanese atthe finals of the JLC Japanese SpeechContest for Secondary Schools (Nihongo Cup)held on Saturday June 26th at the Embassyof Japan.

Over 120 people attended the event, whichwas organised by the Japanese LanguageCommittee (JLC) in partnership with theEmbassy of Japan and the Japan Foundation.Everyone was impressed by the standard ofspoken Japanese demonstrated by thefinalists, aged 11 to 16, who came from tendifferent schools to present speeches on thetopic My Dream, in front of an audience offellow pupils, teachers, families and membersof the UK-Japan community, as well as apanel of five judges, chaired by Lydia Morey.

First prize in the Key Stage 3 category wasawarded to Emma Goring from WolverhamptonGirls’ High School, who received the JapanFoundation Cup, and the Key Stage 4 categorywas won by Harriet Russell from South WoldsSchool in Nottinghamshire, who received theJapanese Ambassador’s Cup.

Both winners also received gold medals,palm-top computers donated by Toshiba, andrestaurant vouchers from Soho Japan. MiriamStarling from Hendon School and NathaliaChomel-Doe from Millfield School camesecond in Key Stages 3 and 4 respectively,winning digital cameras donated by RicohUK and silver medals. In third place, winningelectronic dictionaries donated by JP Booksand bronze medals, were Kimberley Macekefrom Katharine Lady Berkeley’s School inGloucestershire and Jasdeep Gill from TileHill Wood School in Coventry. All finalistsand reserves also received goody bags.

The programme for Finals Day included aseries of language and cultural activities,which provided an opportunity for finalistsand supporters to use their Japanese in arelaxed environment. Club Taishikan gave ahands-on demonstration of calligraphy, whileJLC had pupils singing in Japanese torousing disco classics. Rakugo performerKakushow taught participants a range ofstory-telling and paper-cutting skills, and allpupils and teachers were treated to atraditional Japanese bento lunch, courtesyof JRI Europe. Hiroko Sue delighted theaudience with a performance of koto music,while Tatsuya and Sho Nakagome presentedan energetic demonstration of karate.

In his concluding remarks, JLC Chair DavidFarrell expressed his heartfelt admiration forthe achievements of all the participants andtheir teachers, and said he hoped that theNihongo Cup would continue to inspire younglearners of Japanese for years to come.

Proud Nihongo Cup winners with Japan Foundation Director General Kohki Kanno, Ambassador Orita, and JLC Chair David Farrell

Daring to Dream in Japanese

It is time to say goodbye tothe JFLLC. My six years hereas Advisor for HigherEducation overlap exactlywith the early history of theBATJ, set up in 1998. We

now have many valuablenetworks and activities for

university teachers that did not exist severalyears ago. I really appreciate the voluntaryefforts and enthusiasm of teachers, and hopethat this energy continues. Osewa ni narimashita. Etsuko Yamada

I am delighted to be the newJapanese Language Advisor atthe JFLLC. It is an excitingtime to be involved insupporting the teaching ofJapanese language and

culture in this country. I amoriginally from Melbourne,

Australia, and I have also lived and worked inJapan. I have taught at both secondary andprimary levels. I look forward to meeting many ofyou at upcoming events and Stepping Out/In visits. Rochelle Matthews

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EW Konnichiwa. I started workingas Library/Resource CentreOfficer at the JFLLCLibrary from mid June.Before joining the Centre,I worked at KPMG’s Tokyo

Office as a DatabaseAdministrator. I am looking

forward to meeting you in the library and, inthe meantime, if you have any enquiries aboutour resources, please don’t hesitate to contactme. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. Rie Hayashi

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STEPPING IN & OUT

Stepping Out, our structured programme ofschool visits, continues to provide supportto teachers of Japanese in the classroom,while our advisors are also on hand forteachers who come into the Centre. Over thesummer months, JFLLC staff made speciallytailored visits to Scarcroft Primary School inYork, Greenford High School in Ealing andErnest Bevin College in Tooting.

Building on the success of partnershipprojects described in the last issue, we alsoparticipated in events at Maesgwyn SpecialSchool in Wales and Dereham Neatherd HighSchool in Norfolk, together with Japan 21and JICC.

To request a Stepping Out visit or to make anappointment to see our Teaching Advisors atthe Centre, call Kornelia Achrafie on 020 7436 6698.

Recent Japanesevisitors toMeadlandsPrimary School inRichmond were

most surprisedwhen pupils as young

as seven greeted themin their own language.

This was the result of a taster coursedelivered by Japan 21 and the JFLLC as partof the pre-pilot phase of their primarylanguage course, developed to follow onfrom the Primary Japanese Project, ReadySteady NihonGO! Japan 21 Education Officer,Katherine Donaghy and JFLLC Chief AdvisorTatsuya Nakagome, spent four days atMeadlands, working with pupils from Years 3to 5. The course was delivered with theactive participation of class teachers, wholearnt Japanese greetings, numbers andexpressions alongside their pupils with theaid of visuals, songs, games and culturalactivities such as origami.

Rob Meakin, Headteacher at Meadlands,comments: “We were keen to be involvedwith this project because we believe thatcultural diversity is very important and weare always looking for ways to widen theexperience of our pupils. The benefits ofteaching languages from an early age areenormous – children have great enthusiasmand few inhibitions about trying out newthings. They also absorb language muchmore quickly. Our pupils’ response to thiscourse has been fabulous – they are simplybursting to show what they have learnt.”

From this term, a flexible ten-unit coursewill be piloted at one Brighton and fourLondon primary schools, with up to fiveadditional schools taking part from January.Class teachers and Japanese teachers willattend an INSET day to learn how to deliverthe course, using the resources which havebeen jointly developed by Japan 21 and theJFLLC. In addition to an explanation ofcourse content, teachers will be briefed onlesson plans and the evaluation process.

Ongoing support and guidance will beoffered when the course is under way.

Once the pilot phase has been completed, itis hoped to make the course available toother interested schools. For further details,contact Japan 21 on 020 7630 8696 or byemail: katherine@japan21.org.uk.

The JFLLC welcomed 16 teachers to itsseventh summer Refresher Course fromJuly 19 to 21.

The main aim of the intensive immersioncourse was to give non-native speakingsecondary teachers of Japanese anopportunity to brush up their languageskills. Participants were divided into threegroups according to ability, and teachingwas delivered by a team of five, led by theCentre’s Chief Advisor, Tatsuya Nakagome.The main focus was on speaking andclasses were mainly topic-based, under theoverarching theme of ‘Japan Now’. Thisyear, for the first time, optional sessionswere provided to introduce two resourcesspecifically designed for the UK context:the web-based Tobu (see pages 3 & 7),and the CD ROM ‘Communicating inJapanese’ (see page 6). Participants weregiven a chance to test their new skillsduring an interactive session withvolunteers from the Japan in YourClassroom scheme, organised by Japan 21.Conversations continued during the buffetlunch, to which guests from the UK-Japancommunity were invited.

Several teachers commented that thecourse had not only refreshed theirlanguage skills, but had also renewedtheir enthusiasm for Japanese. Zoe Jestico

from Dartford Grammar School wasparticularly impressed with the quality ofteaching and also appreciated theresources provided, which she felt wouldbe easy to adapt for use with her pupils.Adam Jackson from Cowes High Schoolsaid, “We are introducing a two-year GCSEcourse from this September and theRefresher has been extremely usefulpreparation for that. The best thing aboutthe course was the amount of speakinginvolved – you can always study grammarand kanji by yourself but there is nosubstitute for being able to use thespoken language in a real context.”

Ready Steady NihonGO!

TEACHERS ENJOY A RETURN TO THE CLASSROOM

Ernest Bevin pupils enjoy a taste of Japan

A conversation challenge for Refresher participants

JAPANESE LANGUAGE EDUCATION PAGE 3

Application forms are now available for theJapan Foundation Annual SupportProgrammes. The main language-relatedprogrammes are listed on the right. Non-language programmes are handled bythe Japan Foundation London Office, tel:020 7436 6695; email info@jpf.org.uk.

We encourage all of you to apply for oursupport programmes, which the JapanFoundation is endeavouring to maintain inthe face of budgetary pressures. Manyteachers have found the intensive trainingcourses in Japan useful for boosting theirskills and confidence in Japanese. Recentparticipants from the UK include DelphineBrongniart, Teacher of Japanese at Tile HillWood School and Language College, whodescribed the Urawa Short Course (supportedby the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundationand Japan Airlines) as “an ideal opportunityto practise and improve my Japanese inJapan”. Philip Smith, Head of Japanese atGoffs School and Language College, whojoined the two-month training course this

summer, said: “ You cannot beat theopportunity of a hands-on experience inJapan. This unique course has given megreater confidence to deliver Japaneseteaching in many areas including language,culture and real day-to-day experiences.” A new advanced training course catering forboth native and non-native speakingteachers was introduced last year (see right).

We would also like to draw your attention totwo specialist Japanese language programmes– one for Librarians and the other forResearchers and Postgraduate Students. Youcan appy for these if you need Japanese fora particular vocational or academic purpose(see right for details). Finally, don’t forgetthe Materials Donation Programme, which isan ideal way to boost funds for newJapanese resources at your school.

All these programmes exist to supportteachers of Japanese, so do make sure thatyou take full advantage of them!

Tobu – Learn Japanese, a unique web-basedresource created by the BBC and DiverseProductions with support from the JFLLC andfunding from DfES, has finally been openedup to a wider audience.

After a successful pilot programme in which20 schools and five independent learnerstrialled the site over a 15-month period,Tobu is now being given a widerrelease, enabling anyone interestedto access it through a password,available from the JFLLC.

Improvements to the site areplanned by the BBC and JFLLC overthe coming months; these include editorialrevisions to Units 1 and 2, the updating ofcultural references throughout the site, andthe publication of two new Teacher’s Guides,for specialists and non-specialists, which willbe available both online and in printedformat.

Steven Fawkes from BBC Learning, who ledthe original project, said: “We have beenhoping to make Tobu more widely availablefor some time so I am delighted that we arenow able to do so. I hope that bothteachers and pupils will enjoy using it.”

Tobu, which won a BIMA Award in 2002 (theBT Award for best broadband content), isone of the most sophisticated Japanese ICTpackages currently available and has theadvantage of being tailor-made for the UK

syllabus, with links to thenational curriculum. Originally

designed as a Key Stage 3resource for pupils new to thestudy of Japanese, it can alsobe used to support learners at

many different levels.With its array ofinteractive features

including graphics,animation, quiz activities,extensive sound (and videoon CD-ROM), it stands topropel the teaching ofJapanese into the 21st

century.

To obtain a password for the Tobuwebsite, contact RochelleMatthews at the JFLLC on 0207436 6698.You can also find areview of the site on the Library& Resources page in this issueof Mado (see page 7).

BRIDGING THE GAP: TRANSITION DISCUSSEDOn May 15, the JFLLC and BATJ held a one-day seminar focusing on the issue of transition,which is increasingly relevant for teachers in both the secondary and higher educationsectors. Under the theme ‘Practical Issues of Teaching Students with Secondary Japanesewithin a Japanese Degree Course’, the event provided an opportunity for participants tolearn from the US experience, thanks to a keynote speech from Dr Yasuko Ito-Watt fromIndiana University. Representatives from Oxford Brookes, SOAS and Sheffield Universitypresented reports about various issues they had encountered when teaching pupils whohad begun their study of Japanese at school, and gave constructive suggestions on how totackle them. Valuable insights into the actual learning context of secondary pupils wereprovided by Keith Saunders, who teaches Japanese at St Bernard’s Convent School.Participants agreed that the event had provided a useful opportunity to discuss the verytopical issue of transition from a range of different perspectives and that it was importantfor the secondary and tertiary sectors to work together to bridge the gap between them.

Annual Support Programmes Training Programmes in Japan forTeachers of JapaneseA unique opportunity to improve your Japaneselanguage skills and teaching methodology at theJapan Foundation’s Japanese Language Institutein Urawa. There are three programmes for non-native speaking teachers – six-month courses(once a year); two-month courses (three times ayear), and a three-week summer course. There isalso a one-month course for native-speakingteachers. A two-month advanced course,catering for both native and non-nativespeaking teachers with advanced Japanese andteaching skills, was introduced in 2003.

Japanese Language Programmes forSpecialistsThese programmes are designed for people whoneed Japanese language skills for vocational oracademic purposes. Intensive language training isprovided in Japan with curricula tailor-made foreach different vocational or academic speciality.The Programme for Librarians is for 6 months,while researchers and postgraduate students havea choice of 2, 4 and 8-month courses.

Materials Donation Programme This scheme enables educational institutionsteaching Japanese to apply for a wide variety ofteaching resources including textbooks,dictionaries, cassettes and flashcards.

Salary Assistance ProgrammeDesigned to help create new full-time teachingpositions at universities and other HigherEducation institutions teaching the Japaneselanguage, this programme provides salaryassistance for up to three years.

Japanese Language Education FellowshipProgramme Open to educational institutions and publisherswho wish to develop Japanese languagematerials, this scheme enables one author tostay at Urawa for up to 8 months, or a team oftwo writers to stay for up to 3 months. Returnairfare and monthly stipend included.

Assistance Programme for JapaneseLanguage Teaching Materials Open to publishers and educational institutions,this programme supports the production ofresource materials in various media by coveringup to a quarter of the total publishing costs.Materials must already be written at the time ofapplication.

Support Programme for DevelopingNetworks of Japanese-LanguageTeachers and InstitutionsProvides partial aid for seminars, workshops,training courses and academic meetings relatingto Japanese-language education carried out byoverseas teachers’ associations, academicsocieties, and higher educational and researchinstitutions for the purpose of developingnetworks of Japanese-language teachers andinstitutions outside Japan.

Japanese Speech Contest SupportProgrammeLocal non-profit groups can apply for grants tocover part of the cost of hall rental and prizes(other than cash) for Japanese-language speechcontests.

The application deadline for all theprogrammes listed above is the beginningof December, 2004. Application forms canbe downloaded from www.jpf.go.jp/e/about/program/list.html, where you will also findupdated information on deadlines. Pleasecontact us to confirm your eligibility beforesending in your application form.

Tobu – now accessible at a computer near you!

PAGE 4 TEACHER’S PAGE

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I hope you all had a restfulsummer holiday. To start the newschool year, I have designed aKanji activity which you can usewith your pupils. One of the mostimportant factors when studyingkanji is to learn the meaning ofeach individual character. Onceyou know this, you can guess themeaning of Kanji compounds(jukugo) to some extent, even ifyou may not know their precisereadings. I have selected someAS/A level Kanji and used them tocreate compounds, most of whichwill be unfamiliar to your pupils.Encourage them to guess themeaning of the compounds byapplying their knowledge of theindividual Kanji. This activity is afun way of aiding Kanji learningand makes a change frommemorising lists of characters.

Aimsto study and revise Kanji required for AS/A levelto encourage pupils to guess the meaning of unfamiliar Kanji compoundsto increase pupils’ confidence in reading Japanese

LevelAS/A2 level, Adult

ProcedureAs a warm-up activity, choose some of the individual kanji from the worksheet on page 5 andwrite them on the board, revising their meanings with your class.

To introduce the idea behind the activity, provide a few examples of compounds made up ofkanji which pupils are already familiar with to demonstrate that even if pupils do notrecognise the compounds, they can still make educated guesses about what they mean.

Example : You can make compounds such as and from GCSElevel kanji. and mean ‘person’ and ‘fish,’ respectively. In combination,the characters mean ‘mermaid’. Similarly can be broken down into‘meat’ ‘eat’ and ‘animals’, and in fact this compound means ‘meat-eatinganimals’ or in other words, carnivores.

Hand out copies of the worksheet on page 5 and ask pupils to guess the meaning of thecompounds written in bold, using the method described above. The first section is for ASlevel, the second two sections for A2 level, with the third being the most difficult. Thecontext provided by the sentences should also help pupils to understand the meaning of thecompounds. Although I have provided a vocabulary list (below) for reference purposes, thisshould not be shown to pupils before they tackle the worksheet.

Vocabulary

Kanji Mix & Match

speed of sound

one way

Lake District

midnight sun

reading aloud

honeymoon

in a meeting

heated pool

World Kendo Tournament

first love

rental bicycle

mental arithmetic

zebra crossing

dagger

airship

maximum temperature

underwater city

phoenix

deep-sea fish

desert island

silent film

merry-go-round

fig*

* Figs being fruit without flowers.

TEACHER’S PAGE PAGE 5

As usual at this time of year, there is aconsiderable amount of activity to report inthe Japanese language teaching world. Tokeep you up to date, here are just some ofthe changes and developments that we haveheard about.

Victoria Folkard has moved to TavistockCollege to join a five-strong Japanesedepartment. Japanese continues to boom atTavistock, which plans to enter as many as170 students for GCSE this year. In May,Tavistock’s Head of Japanese CrispinChambers launched a taster course forPrimary Japanese, visiting as many as 20feeder primaries in one week. As part of hisAST work, Crispin is also hoping to helpother schools, in particular LanguageColleges in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, toset up Japanese and also to provide supportin the early stages.

Michelle Tate has taken over from Victoria asHead of Oriental Languages at KatharineLady Berkeley’s School and NQT DavidThompson also joins the school this term as

a teacher ofJapanese.MeanwhileJosephine Winwoodhas moved fromSudbury UpperSchool to StEdmund’s College,while DanThomson,previously atAlderman WhiteSchool, will beteachingJapanese andICT at Tile HillWood inCoventry.

Japanese isgatheringmomentum atJack Hunt Schoolin Peterborough, which introduced thesubject into the KS3 curriculum for Year 8students in 2003. From this term there willbe two groups in both Years 8 and 9 and theschool has now introduced the WJEC coursefor high-flying linguists in Year 10. Beforethe school became a Language College in2002, no Japanese was taught in curriculumtime and so significant progress has beenmade in a short space of time. In July, theschool held a Japanese day as part of theirGifted and Talented Summer School forprimary pupils.

Tomlinscote School and Sixth FormCollege in Surrey held a two-week intensiveJapanese course in June, described by oneYear 10 pupil as “an unforgettableexperience!” This annual summer course wasinitiated in 2002 and since then, 60 Year 10pupils have obtained the ABC PreliminaryJapanese Certificate. Japanese has provedvery popular at Tomlinscote since it startedin 1997, with over 300 studying thelanguage in 2003/4.

BATJ UpdateThe British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language(BATJ) supports Japanese language teaching in the UK, particularly athigher education level. The association organises a wide range ofactivities for teachers of Japanese, many of which are presentedjointly with the JFLLC – see page 3 for a report on the TransitionSeminar held in May.

An important event in the Association’s calendar is the AnnualConference, which took place at Oxford Brookes University onSeptember 3 and 4. The keynote speech, on the theme of TeachingJapanese Conversation, was delivered by Professor Akito Ozaki fromNagoya University, while Atsuyuki Asano from the Japanese Embassygave a talk on Higher Education Policy in the UK and the Future ofJapanese Language Education. Professor Joy Hendry from OxfordBrookes, who specialises in the Social Anthropology of Japan,presented a guest lecture entitled ‘Unwrapping the Wrapping,’ in whichshe described the many intricate layers present in the Japaneseculture and language. For the first time, the conference programmeincluded a Special Interest Group focus, which enabled a wide range ofissues relating to the teaching and learning of Japanese as a foreignlanguage - such as teaching conversational skills, materialdevelopment and second language acquisition - to be discussed inshared interest groups.

Another area of activity for BATJ members is the development ofresources for teaching Japanese. At the recent Refresher Course, BATJChair Kazuko Sorensen gave a presentation on a CD-ROM Japanesecourse for Upper Intermediate students (or those with Level 2 of theJapanese Language Proficiency Test) which she has developed withToshiko Ishizaki from the University of Leeds. We hope that a reviewof the course will be featured in a future issue of Mado.

To find out more about BATJ’s activities please visit www.batj.org.ukor contact the Chair: Kazuko Sorensen, Japanese Studies, LanguageCentre, Royal Holloway, on 01784 443812 or by email:K.Sorensen@rhul.ac.uk.

JLC NewsThe Japanese Language Committee (JLC)was delighted to see so many pupils andteachers at the Nihongo Cup Finals Dayon June 26th. The Committee would like

to reiterate its thanks to the JapaneseEmbassy and the JFLLC for their support of

the contest, which hopefully will become anannual event in schools’ calendars. Please see

the front cover for a full report.

This term, JLC will be holding a twilight workshop for primary schoolteachers at three regional venues. The workshop content is dividedinto two strands: class teachers can learn some Japanese to helpdevelop a more multilingual and multicultural approach to the primarycurriculum; or primary/secondary teachers with knowledge ofJapanese can focus on methodology and techniques for teachingJapanese at primary level. Participants will be introduced to a rangeof practical ideas, resources and support available, by speakersincluding Jayne Maidment, Anne Rajakumar, and Tatsuya Nakagomeand Rochelle Matthews from the JFLLC. The workshops will take placein November and December at St Bernard Lovell Language College inBristol, at the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe and at theTrinity and All Saints Comenius Centre in Leeds. See the enclosedinsert for more details and information on booking. JLC is verygrateful for the generous funding from the Great Britain SasakawaFoundation and support from the JFLLC for this initiative.

JLC is very pleased to welcome the following new members: JayneMaidment from Dartford Grammar School and Anne Rajakumar fromSouth Wolds School.

JLC, as part of the Association for Language Learning, aims torepresent the views of Japanese language teachers at schools andcolleges in the UK. To find out more, log on to the website atwww.jlcweb.org.uk or contact the Chair David Farrell(farrellrd@hotmail.com; tel: 028 9332 2610).

Pupils get into the spirit of the intensive Japanese course at Tomlinscote School

LIBRARY PAGE PAGE 7

As Tobu has now been made more widely available, we felt it would be anopportune moment to provide further details about this exciting resource.Rochelle Matthews has therefore reviewed the website and accompanyingvideo CD to give teachers an idea of what it contains and how it can beused in the classroom. We hope Tobu will become an important newaddition to your teaching resources for Japanese.

This term, the library will be closed on October 11 and from December24 to January 3. As these dates are subject to change, please contact

the librarian for the latest information as well as for general enquiries(tel: 020 7436 6698; email: library@jpf.org.uk).

The BasicsTobu was originally designed as a Key Stage 3 resource for pupils newto the study of Japanese. However, feedback from the pilot suggeststhat it can be a useful tool for Japanese learners up to Year 11. Inthe upper levels it can be a superb way to revise grammar andvocabulary for GCSE.

Tobu provides a year’s worth of Year 7 study over 12 units of work,with provision for two hours of interactive online work per week, for40 weeks. It is a practical programme, catering to the ever-changingneeds of the classroom, allowing flexibility for sequential learning ora less prescribed course outline.

Tobu delivers activities that develop all four language skills. Forinstance, supplementary downloadable worksheets cater to the needfor students to actively develop their writing skills. From interactivegames to ‘Look/Listen and Respond’ tasks, language is presented andrecycled in different contexts to ensure progression and developlanguage learning skills.

By far the biggest drawback is the time needed to load eachcomponent. However current revisions, due to be completed by theautumn, are looking at a way to improve both this and the soundquality of some of the digitalised character sound files. Access tobroadband is not a prerequisite for utilising the site.

Made in the UKOne of the most compelling reasons to use Tobu is that it is auniquely British produced resource, specifically linked to the UKcurriculum. With the National Qualification Framework criteria’sincreased focus on ICT being a key feature of the study of GCSEJapanese, Tobu introduces a wide range of structures and vocabularyappropriate to this level through online learning in a range ofcontexts to develop students’ understanding of the spoken andwritten forms. No matter what Key Stage 3 textbook you areintending to use this school year, the main topics - Myself andFriends, Home Life, School Life and Free Time – will tie in well.

Designed to enablesmooth progressionon to KS4, therelated subtopicareas provide asuitable foundationto continue on toGSCE Japanese anddirectly relate to thetopic-based syllabustaken from theNational Curriculumareas of experience.

Tobu leads the wayPerhaps inspired by a new millennium robot like ASIMO, Tobu thepsychedelic site navigator and main character, does its best to directthe flight of discovery. Sidekicks Shinji, Mari and Emi – morereminiscent of typical Japanese manga characters – provide a fun,character-driven approach to the introduction of Key Stage 3Japanese, that is very appealing to students. Ben Ben, Tobu’selectronic companion, fulfils a multi-functional role of explaining newwords, grammar, culture and providing all-important encouragement.

Info CentreAs a stand-alone resource Info Centre, Tobu’s reference tool, is apowerhouse of information. A comprehensive introduction tohiragana, katakana and the first 35 kanji is provided to supportindependent learning, along with Unit Summaries and a Glossary.While Tobu introduces hiragana from the outset in Unit 1, in line withcurrent pedagogy and the requirements of the UK curriculum, if ateacher wants to teach either kana or kanji at a faster rate, thefacility is there to do so. Both syllabaries and the kanji section aresupported by audio to teach pronunciation, animated stroke order andpictorial mnemonics. The kanji section also has the added feature ofits mnemonics being supported by animation.

Tobu the Teaching AssistantWith the continuing shortage of MFL teachers, Tobu will be ofparticular benefit to those schools employing a teacher on a part-time basis as it can be utilised by specialist and non-specialistteachers or by students independently. However, as the pilot studyhas shown, online learning works best when students have at leastoccasional access to a teacher. Tobu is best seen as a teachingassistant rather than a replacement.

Used independently in the classroom, Tobu allows the teacher toprovide the support that weaker students often need, while alsoenabling more capable students to move ahead at their own pace. As a whole class motivator, Tobu also works well when used inconjunction with an interactive board and data projector. Classvocabulary and grammar quizzes can become a fun, interactiveactivity that students strive to do well at in front of their peers.

Cultural Context through CD-ROMVideo segments, provided by means of the CD-ROM, give students ofJapanese an insight into modern day Japan. The snippets of Japaneselife were specially recorded for the website and broach topics ofparticular interest to young adolescents. These lively, interactivevideo clips promote students’ understanding of the culture that isinterwoven with the language they are learning. Students are askedto complete tasks such as listening out for a piece of information oranswering questions out loud. Clips are linked to the topics andlanguage learned in each Unit, and can be watched independently oras prompted by the site. Through the interaction that is providedwith everyday Japanese people, students gain knowledge about thecountry and its people, hopefully stimulating a desire to becomeeffective communicators in the language.

Rochelle sensei assists a student on a recent Stepping

Out visit

Tobu: Key Stage 3 Japanese Online Learning

Tobu receives the thumbs up at Greenford High School

Feel inspired to use Tobu in your classroom this year? Contact Rochelle Matthews at the JFLLC on 020 7436 6698 toregister and obtain a password for the site, which can be foundat www.bbc.co.uk/ks3japanese.

Welcome to the 20thissue of Mado and thebeginning of a newschool year. It wastruly impressiveto hear younglearners ofJapanese making confident and inspiringspeeches at the finals of the Nihongo Cup inJune, described in detail on the front cover.We hope the contest will become a regularevent that provides an incentive for youngpeople to strive for excellence in the spokenlanguage. At a time of economic constraintsfor many Japan-related organisations, theJFLLC is doing its best to maintain its rangeof services for teachers of Japanese in theUK and we hope that you will take fulladvantage of what we can offer. Weencourage you to apply for our annualsupport programmes (see page 3), and tomake use of our resource and advisoryservices. We are delighted that Tobu is nowmore widely available (see page 3 and thereview on the Library & Resources Page), aswe are sure that the site will be a fun andeffective resource in the Japanese classroom.

MADOEditor: Caroline Lewis • Design: François Hall

Published byTHE JAPAN FOUNDATION

LONDON LANGUAGE CENTRERussell Square House

10-12 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EHTelephone: 020 7436 6698

Fax: 020 7323 4888Website: www.jpf.org.uk

PAGE 8 EVENTS & NOTICEBOARD

WJEC DAYTuesday 21 September

A one day course exploring the syllabus andassessment scheme. For more information

contact Kornelia Achrafie on 020 7436 6698or at kornelia.achrafie@jpf.org.uk.

MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR INTERACTIVEWHITEBOARD

Thursday 7 OctoberTwilight Session organised by CILT in

association with the JFLLC.To be held at CILT from 5 to 7pm.

EDEXCEL A LEVEL DAYWednesday 13 October

AS and Advanced GCE Japanese - Feedbackand Guidance on the AS and A2 Units. For

more info and to book call Edexcel on 0870240 9800 or visit www.edexcel.org.uk.

EDEXCEL GCSE DAYMonday 8 November

GCSE Japanese - Feedback and GuidanceMeeting. For more info and to book call

Edexcel on 0870 240 9800 or visitwww.edexcel.org.uk.

LANGUAGE SHOWNovember 5, 6 and 7Kensington Olympia

Visit www.thelanguageshow.co.uk for more information.

EXPLORING JAPANSaturday 13 NovemberGroby College Leicester

Friday 19 NovemberUniversity of Central Lancashire, Preston

Workshops for primary and secondaryteachers, including sessions on geography,art, language, food technology and haiku.

Organised by Japan 21 Education, inassociation with the JFLLC. For more

information contact Japan 21 on 020 7630 8696.

GETTING STARTED WITH ICT IN JAPANESEAND MANDARIN CHINESE

Tuesday 23 NovemberOrganised by CILT and held at Kingwood City

Learning Centre, LondonContact Philip Harding at CILT for more info:

philip.harding@cilt.org.uk 020 7379 5101 ext 232

Please visit our website for more up-to-dateinformation on courses and events:

www.jpf.org.uk/language.

Unless otherwise stated, all events take placeat the Japan Foundation London Language

Centre in Russell Square House. Please call uson 020 7436 6698 for further details.

The JFLLC reserves the right to cancel courses inthe event of insufficient take-up.

Dear Mado ReadersIn preparation for the introduction of theLanguages Ladder, UCLES is looking for ItemWriters for the Breakthrough, Preliminaryand Intermediate stages of the LanguagesLadder Assessment Scheme (LLAS).Developed by the DfES in response to theNational Languages Strategy, the schemewill be piloted with primary, secondary andadult education learners of French, German,

Spanish from September 2004, and is dueto be rolled out nationally in Autumn 2005in eight languages, including Japanese.You can request an application form fromLLAS at OCR (tel: 01223 553617) or bysending an e-mail to llas@ucles.org.uk. UCLES is also seeking centres to assist inpre-testing Japanese assessment materialsfrom November 2004. If your centre isinterested in pre-testing you can obtainfurther details from llas@ucles.org.uk.For further information on the LanguagesLadder, see the DfES website at www.dfes.gov.uk/languages/languagesladder.cfm Barrie HuntProgramme Director, LLAS

Test your Proficiency!

The Japan Foundation’s Japanese

Language Proficiency Test will be held

this year at SOAS, on Sunday, December

5. The deadline for completed

application forms is Friday, September

24. Requests for application forms

should be made in writing or by email

to: SOAS Language Centre, University of

London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell

Square, London WC1H 0XG; email:

jlpt@soas.ac.uk; fax: 020 7898 4889.

For further details, visit the website at

www.soas.ac.uk/languagecentre/

japanese/jlpt/home.html.

New logo for The Japan Foundation

Established in 1972 to promote cultural

exchange between Japan and other countries,

the Japan Foundation became an Independent

Administrative Institution in October 2003.

This change in status gave the organisation an

opportunity to redefine its purpose, and a new

logo (see below) was created to reflect the

Japan Foundation’s developing role. Composed

of the letters ‘j’ and ‘f’ in the shape of a

butterfly, the logo suggests the

responsive and accessible way in

which the organisation aims to

promote Japan, its language and

culture, as well as to facilitate a

dynamic flow of

exchange.

NOTICE TO OUR READERSDue to a reduction in our operating budget for thisfinancial year, it has been decided to produce thenext issue of Mado (January 2005) in electronicform only, as a pdf which can be downloaded fromour website. Publication of the newsletter inprinted form will be resumed in April, and we willkeep you informed of any future developments.