Grade 9 - Communicating

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will:

ask for and give simple information and assistance
initiate and maintain short conversations about personal interests
express basic information using hiragana and some katakana
participate in a variety of familiar situations drawn from real life

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Communicating in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

The focus of learning is on students' abilities to use Japanese as a tool for communicating about topics they enjoy discussing, such as themselves, their friends, and favourite activities. To experience success, students must have many opportunities to practise and develop the necessary language in new and interesting contexts and groupings (individually, in pairs, and in small and large groups).

Organize students to role-play situations such as shopping for school supplies. Have them ask for and collect objects from their classmates. After the role plays, have students hold up the objects one at a time and ask for their owners, until all the objects are returned. Then collect these items again and use them in a simulated game show in which participants are asked to name and price the items.
Form pairs and ask each pair to plan a vacation, explaining the details of their plans to a travel agent in a role play. The partner playing the travel agent assists by suggesting destinations, dates, and prices.
Suggest that students write short passages or phrases in their journals using newly learned patterns in hiragana and katakana . Invite each student to select a favourite piece to be published in a class magazine or newspaper.
Demonstrate the use and importance of surveys. Then assign students in groups to design and conduct surveys relating to their classmates' interests and hobbies. Ask students to compile the information on Hobby Mania charts and display them in class.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

The focus of assessment at this level is on students' abilities to apply the language they are learning to identify known words in new contexts, use simple sentence patterns to communicate basic information, identify and write loan words using romaji, and increase their use of hiragana and katakana to communicate in written form. Errors are a natural and predictable part of language development; they provide valuable information to both learner and teacher.

As students interact with one another in simple and predictable exchanges, use a class list to record observations about the extent to which they:
- use Japanese words and vocabulary to communicate basic personal information (e.g., name, age, interests)
- sustain interactions beyond the first question or response
- communicate new information in learned patterns
- interact with some beginning fluency and spontaneity
- work toward appropriate intonation, rhythm, and pronunciation
- listen actively and focus on key information
- tolerate ambiguity when unable to understand
Have students demonstrate their abilities to use Japanese in role plays in which they assume a variety of social roles to illustrate terms of address, non-verbal cues, polite expressions, greetings, and leave-takings. Provide a list of key features or criteria for student self- and peer assessment. For example, to what extent do students use appropriate:
- phrases and sentences for greetings, terms of address, and leave-takings for particular social roles
- intonation, rhythm, and pronunciation
- pronunciation patterns within basic sentences
- vocabulary in familiar phrases and patterns
- non-verbal cues according to role