Japanese 1B

This is the second course in a two-course sequence. While it continues focusing on practical everyday communication skills and contemporary Japanese cultures, the course introduces the second widely used Japanese syllabic writing system, katakana. Lessons are built upon familiar topics such as self, family, school, and friends to provide meaningful contexts to develop everyday conversation skills. Each lesson is designed to help students learn katakana gradually as students work to master the first syllabic system hiragana through decoding words and reading to speak conversational expressions. With increased focus on the Hiragana and Katakana writing systems, this coures minimizes reliance upon the Romaji (English script) in course materials. The course includes audio and video learning objects to demonstrate native Japanese speaker’s pronunciation, which supports students in building their interpersonal and interpretive fluency in Japanese. It is also designed for students to experience and appreciate the third writing system, kanji. Students will be asked to use various media tools including online resources, online dictionaries, a web cam, and the web-based Video Notes tool in Brightspace in order to record their performance in assignment submissions throughout the course. This course targets the Novice Level of the Michigan World Language Standards and Benchmarks.