After several months an offline JALSTA workshop was held at Blue bells international School, New Delhi, on Japanese language games and Japanese as a medium of instruction in the classroom.
The three-hour workshop was conducted by JALSTA and Japan Foundation, New Delhi. Togami Jun Sensei (JICA volunteer at Blue bells international School) and Chiaki Suzuki sensei (Japanese language advisor at Japan Foundation) conducted the sessions.
The session started with a few games.
伝言ゲーム(telephone game) ：This game is a Japanese version of Chinese whisper. Jun sensei divided the teachers into two groups, showed a photo on the screen and gave a phrase japanese people use at the time when you meet someone (人に会う時), at the time of shopping (買い物をしている時),etc.
Phrases were whispered from one person to another and then the original and final phrases were compared. This game can help students to learn different phrases and vocabulary. This game also enables assessments.
Musical chairs (いすとり): We played musical chairs. But instead of playing music, Japanese grammar patterns were used so it is easier for the students to learn different grammar patterns easily.
Drawing game (おえかき): Teachers were divided into two groups and were given some vegetable names & animal names in Japanese. Teachers were asked to draw it on the board within 10 seconds. This game will help students with their vocabulary.
Another session was taken by Suzuki sensei. The session was on the topic “benefits of using Japanese language in classrooms”, where she threw light on how to use Japanese language in the classroom. Using different phrases to instruct them and explaining the phrases through actions is the most important thing. This will encourage students to speak Japanese language and also give teachers confidence to conduct more than 80 percent of their classes in the native language.
The session came to an end with the discussion on what phrases every teacher uses in the class when giving them a positive or negative feedback, greeting the class before starting and after ending the class and phrases used while taking attendance.
Thankyou
JALSTA
Japanese Workshop for Japanese Language Teachers