What kind of reading selections and writing activities do your students engage in? What are their goals?
Some of them may practice reading long selections because their goal is to understand as many vocabulary and kanji as possible and pass the JLPT exam. Some may say their goal is to read Japanese manga and difficult novels. For writing, some may aim for memorizing the kanji strokes or becoming masters at 書道(しょど)*. However, if your students are learning Nihongo to live and work in Japan, the same type of activities may not be as efficient for them.
Just like Japanese locals, trainees and migrant workers often encounter situations where they have to quickly read and understand information with lots of kanji and/or quickly type a response to a friend or a co-worker. Just like Japanese locals, they don’t have to understand every kanji and every vocabulary to understand the main idea of a content. They also don’t need to be a 書道(しょど) or kanji master to be able to send a message through chat or email. This is real-life communication.
In the same way we developed our language skills growing up, communication skills are best developed through actual use in daily life. For many learners, however, opportunities to use Japanese outside the classroom are limited. In such cases, the Japanese language classroom can serve as a bridge to real-life communication.
「Nihongo Teacher: What does it mean for a Nihongo class to be a bridge towards real-life communication?」
It means providing as many opportunities for reading and writing practice in settings close to real-life situations in Japan. Does it sound too challenging? Don’t worry! You don’t have to create everything from scratch. Our official coursebook, IRODORI, was created to build communication skills in real-life situations in Japan, with over 65 Reading and Writing Can-do’s.
If you wish to provide your students more opportunities for reading and writing practice close to real-life situations, try using IRODORI in your own Nihongo class!
Link: TOP | IRODORI Japanese for Life in Japan
CF: Reading & Writing Skills | Japan Foundation, Manila
★If you would like to learn how to support your students’ reading and writing skills despite the challenges of kanji and vocabulary, join the IRODORI Marathon with other fellow Nihongo teachers! Through the Marathon, you will experience an IRODORI class and learn more about its features, key points, and applied strategies.
Link: IRODORI Marathon (Online)
★Do some of your students worry about their reading skills and vocabulary and kanji recall? We have a lot of self-paced online materials to help supplement their learning!
Link: E⁻learning
*書道(しょど) – Calligraphy
