Student Engagement

The Over-Justification Effect

November 20, 2023 by Manten Resources

In December, many teachers are either rejoicing or lamenting the numbers in their elective cohort. Our teaching community is incredibly generous, and I have seen many extensive lists shared, promoting the numerous positive outcomes of studying a language.

I was thus horrified to learn of the “Over-justification effect” and whilst I do not suggest you abandon your current marketing campaign, you may want to declutter it somewhat in light of the following research.

In 1973 a study was conducted by psychologist Mark Lepper that discovered that having too many incentives actually decreases the effectiveness of the original incentive and can undermine or dilute the central reason we pursue an activity. (page 39, Get it done – surprising lessons from the science of motivation” by Dr Ayelet Fishbach)

This concept was developed further by research by Maimaran and Fishbach. The 2014 project encouraged preschoolers to eat healthy foods by telling them eating such foods had benefits including making you strong or helping you learn to count. This had the surprising effect of actually reducing the children’s consumption of the healthy snacks as they assumed that a snack that served multiple purposes (such as making you strong and helping you learn) was less likely to be meet the main reason they were originally interested in the snacks – because they tasted good. This is also supported by another concept called the “Dilution principle” that suggests that the more incentives there are the more a person is distracted from their original intrinsic motivation. (page 41, Fishbach)

This gave me cause to reflect on the mixed messages I may be sending my students.

If they are naturally motivated to study Japanese because they want to communicate in that language, want to visit Japan and are interested in Japanese culture, am I really helping the cause my mentioning it will improve their literacy skills and brain function.

I then became curious and googled the question “Why should you learn a second language, art or music?”.

The gist of the quote was that music would help bring balance and harmony into my life, art could make me better at whatever I do whilst languages would help me retain lists and concentrate for longer!

If I was a kid choosing an elective, it stands to reason that the more we tell them it is “good for them” the less it will seem to be a fun option.

Despite what we are told, people don’t hate learning languages and don’t find it boring – when it is not in the school context. My own teenage son and his mates have been learning random languages based purely on interest via Duolingo. Their language choices were not based on any cultural affiliation or actual desire to study that language for gains in the future, they just thought it would be fun.

Duolingo are obviously doing something right as they are quoted as having generated $250 million in revenue in 2021, a 55% year-on-year increase with over 500 million registered users and 37 million users active each month. By contrast, the HSC enrolments in Japanese for both Beginners and Continuers hover around 1200 per course each year – we could use some Duolingo 55% year-on-year increases!

If you look at the Duolingo website the benefits they list for learning a language are all about human connection. They sight examples of how it has helped a footballer connect with his teammates, others to connect with their spouse’s family or the local community, or as a fun activity to do with a partner. This fun perspective of language learning is not crowded out by any extraneous incentives.

Perhaps it is time we also begin to focus on these original reasons why people learn a language, predominately for human connection, and just maybe then our cohorts will remember too, why they loved us in the first place.

Time for some Christmas Cheer!

November 15, 2023 by Manten Resources

I was shocked to realize that there are only 5 weeks left until Christmas. This time of year is an enjoyable time for me as I love to hear from teachers who are setting up new programs and adding new resources to their tool kit for the following year.

I have also been inspired to launch a new resource for Stage 6 Beginners targeting scaffolding text types. This resource will be called The Kaeru Project, and the workbooks can be used parallel to classwork, so it does not matter if you are using Jblog 4 or a combination of your own materials. The booklets provide students with 3 short writing lessons (5-15 minutes each) working through scaffolds that unpack sample responses to HSC style questions. These will be launched for 2024 with the following booklets currently in the review stage:

Course 1: Diaries and Dialogues (plain form)

Course 2: Casual emails and letters (plain form)

Course 3: Transitioning from Casual to Polite texts (including speeches)

Although they specifically target Stage 6 Beginners, they would also be of use to Stage 5 and Stage 6 Continuers students or as a resource to use when compiling your own reading exams.

I currently have a work experience student who has been testing these out for me and they suggested we run a Christmas contest offering a free copy of Course 1 as a prize.

We will have 3 draws with two winners each week:

November 20^th, December 4^th and December 11^th.

All non-winners from Week 1 will be automatically entered into the following week’s draw.

To enter, please complete the survey via this link. (Don’t worry – it only has one real question!)

You just need to share with us a message of how Manten resources have helped you in your educational setting. Your kind messages and tales of how you incorporate our resources into your programs are so inspiring.

So spread a little Christmas cheer and enter today!

Lockdown lessons

August 21, 2021 by Manten Resources

“Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.”

Source: If Life Is a Game, These Are the Rules by Cherie Carter-Scott

As the lockdown period continues for many of us, there are no shortage of lessons to be learned about our current experience. Whilst there have been many disappointments and disruptions to the school calendar, there have been many opportunities for us to develop our skills as educators in the zoom environment. As a parent of a Year 8 boy, I am also aware of the students’ perspective of the online learning environment. Here are 3 quick reminders of Zoom lesson plans that students dislike.

1.The random generated group function for breakout rooms

My son was placed in a random group with just himself and a girl he didn’t know. They didn’t turn on their video or say anything the entire lesson. They are teenagers – of course this is bound to happen! Students would rather work alone than with people they don’t know or are not friends with. So would I for the most part …

2.“You can’t be trusted to work with your friends”.

Really? It is pandemic – if they go off task and talk to someone they like for part of the lesson, is that actually such a bad thing in the current climate? Instead, build in structures so that you can see how they are working together. Have them use a shared document that you observe in real time, or pop into the rooms of pairs you are concerned about using the “join” function.

3.Stick to the 5:2 rule as much as you can

My son is a fairly focused, conscientious student but nothing gives him anxiety more than the teacher who talks for the majority of the lesson and then gives them only a short amount of time to complete the actual work. Either be clear that the deadline for submission is by 8am the next day or stop talking after 10 minutes. The students should be active 5 parts to your 2 parts of the lesson.

How to make Zoom lessons more engaging and successful

I teach a year 11 Japanese Beginners class every week on Friday afternoon for 2 hours. In a conference setting, this is the graveyard spot where the speaker knows they have to work extra hard to keep the audience engaged and awake after the lunchtime slump. Here are a couple of quick techniques that are popular with my students.

1.The Lucky number warm-up

Begin the lesson by asking a student to pick a number from 1 to 10. I have a list of topics that corresponds to the number they choose. This week we did days of the week, months, verbs, adjectives, Japanese foods, zodiac animals, languages, transport words, hobbies and dates. If a student picked the number 4, for example, they had to tell me any 3 adjectives in Japanese. (You can do this in small groups too for larger classes and increase the number of words the group needs to tell you.) If they can not tell you 3 words, the class can help, and you write the 3 words in the chat. The student copies these three words down into their book for review. The student needs only list the words, they do not even need to know what they mean. The rest of the class can then be called upon to translate these words.

2.Focus phrases

For each chapter of Jblog 4 Express, I wrote two lists of 10 phrases or sample sentences for the unit. (These are part of the student workbook and have matching sound files.) As a listening warm-up, I regularly select a few of these phrases and have students jot down the translation. If a student does not know what the sentence means, they must write down at least one word they heard. They then add the translation for just that one word as we go through the answers. This can be done having the teacher read out the sentences, by playing the sound file to the group or by having a student leader read out the sentences on a rotational basis.

3.Group rotations

Online breakout rooms can work well if you survey the students in advance and establish set groups for a period of time eg 2 week cycles. When sent to work in a group, give the students specific roles and tasks to do and rotate after 5-10 minutes. For example you could have six groups of 5 students with Student A the Kanji master for rotation 1. They would have access to a stack of kanji cards that they test the group on. Then, in rotation 2, Student B might be the Speaking task leader and read out the speaking questions from a list supplied by the teacher. Another option is to keep the leaders where they are in those roles for one lesson, and move everyone else through the rotations. This is best used for review work. Student leaders could even nominate anonymously 3 excellent students each lesson to the teacher for merit award points.

Zoom lessons can be a challenge but they also provide us with many opportunities. Keep embracing the lessons to be learned and you will come out of this pandemic an even more incredible educator.

For questions about any of these ideas or resources, please feel free to email me at jblog1help@gmail.com

Stage 5 virtual excursion Assessment task

July 11, 2021 by Manten Resources

Inspired perhaps, by Greater Sydney’s return to a Covid lockdown, I have created a new assessment task for Stage 5 (Year 9 and 10). Although it is matched to NSW syllabus outcomes, it can be easily modified for any Curriculum.

It includes a class pre-task unpacking the phenomenon of リモートでしゅうがくりょこう (Virtual school excursions) before moving into an assessment that focuses on speaking and writing. There are three parts to the task but teachers can modify it to include all or some of the tasks as they deem appropriate.

The gist of the task is:

Your school has a Japanese sister school that visits annually. Due to Covid-19 they are unable to visit this year, so your Japanese teacher has been asked to prepare a virtual exchange visit. Your class is responsible for the virtual homestay component.

Each member of your class has been matched with a “visiting student”. You are to prepare an asynchronous homestay experience.

Although the task is designed as an assessment, teachers who have a sister school could use the task as a “real life” learning experience.

The task is $70 and includes a student handout, teacher marking guidelines and the pre-task activity.

Email me at jblog1help@gmail.com to order or for more information.

For those of us in lockdown and returning to school, good luck in the following weeks.

New support resources for Stage 6 Beginners

October 19, 2020 by Manten Resources

By now many of you have sampled the new Jblog 4 Express textbook specifically designed to support the teaching of the NSW Stage 6 Beginners course. Even if you are teaching the Stage 6 Continuers course you may like to have a copy as a teacher’s reference material. Last week I was working with a group of Continuers students and found it handy to share just a few pages on topics they needed further review in such as directions and note writing. We all know you can never have enough sample texts!

Some very organised teachers have contacted me already about the support resources for the Beginners course in 2021 and have even pre-ordered these now to spread the cost over the 2020 and 2021 budgets. If you also need to be invoiced prior to your budget cut-off date in 2020 do not hesitate to email me at jblog1help@gmail.com to discuss.

So, what is in store for the Beginners course?

Those of you who have used Manten resources for your junior classes will be familiar with our unique student workbook system. We don’t sell individual student workbooks but rather use a one-off payment pack that you can use with as many students as you like forever. We use this system for Jblog 1,2,3 and are creating a similar package for Jblog 4. We try to accommodate everyone’s budget limitations though, so we are offering a few options for Jblog 4 as listed below.

We will be releasing the Year 11 support options in the following forms:

The deluxe pack – all programmes, student workbook pdfs, teacher marking guidelines, sound files, google forms. Basically, your unit is ready to go. $100 per unit or $600 for the full year 11 course.
The budget pack – Program and teacher marking guidelines only – $50 each unit or $300 for the full year 11 course. You can see all the suggested activities and sample answers for the workbook tasks.
The overview pack – teacher marking guidelines only -$150 for the set of Year 11 course of teacher marking guidelines.

We aim to release the Year 11 resources as they are completed over the remainder of this year. We will release similar content for Year 12 in 2021. The Jblog 4 Express student workbooks will be released to you as PDFs and as a word document so you can edit it as you like. You can delete tasks you don’t like and add in your favourite current worksheets easily.

What other resources do you have for Beginners?

If you are teaching the Stage 6 Beginners course, you may find the following resources relevant for your school setting:

Teaching script – hiragana, katakana and kanji

Hiragana and katakana patch

The Beginners Patch for Kanji (Set A and B)

Year 11 Assessment task ideas

Listening and writing skills

Reading and speaking skills

Introduction to general language learning skills and motivational ideas

Base Camp

As always, if there is a resource you would love us to make, or you have an issue unique to your school that you would like some assistance with, please don’t hesitate to contact me at jblog1help@gmail.com . Nothing makes me happier than being able to help make your job a little easier.

Finding time for the 4 skills in the new syllabus

October 14, 2020 by Manten Resources

The new syllabus directions encourage us as teachers to help students develop knowledge across all the specific skills in a more fluid manner than we did in the past. Previously we may have planned our lessons around single skill-based tasks such as a listening drill, a speaking task, a reading comprehension and a writing task. The new syllabus goes as far as grouping skills such as reading and listening under terms such as Accessing and responding. In order to better prepare students to develop such a fluid mindset I have been reflecting on how we can structure activities in class to develop such skills simultaneously. Here are 3 ideas I have been enjoying this week.

1.The question word warm-up

Due to the structure of our exam system in Year 11 and 12, students tend to focus their language learning on being able to answer questions, rather than ask them of each other. As such, I find many of their speaking errors are actually due to not focusing on the specific question word used. They tend to predict rather than consider what is being ask of them. For example, a common error if you ask what grade are you in (何年生ですか。) is to tell me their age confusing the two common questions (何才ですか。). I know that they know the answers to both of these questions so the error is not an issue of ability but rather an issue of unfocused listening.

This warm-up activity begins by having students brainstorm all known question words in Japanese such as いつ、なに、どこ. I then selected the question they had remembered least well and had them jot down, if they could, 3 questions using this word. Each student then had to tell me one of their questions and I wrote it on the board helping them correct any errors that may have been in their original question. Once the questions were on the board, the students had to choose one, read out the question and respond to it. This allowed for natural differentiation as students self-selected the question they felt confident answering.

If you have a large class, you can have them do the task in pairs or threes, generating the initial questions and generating the answers together.

2.The uso/maji game.

I have a son in Year 7 so I know personally how hard it can be for teenagers to listen to others and process what the other person is actually saying! This game works on improving this weakness.

Students are asked to write 4 statements about themselves in Japanese. This could be as simple as 4 statements using すき・きらい or as sophisticated as describing experiences they may or may not have had using たことがあります. Three of the statements are true and one is false (or you could do the opposite.)

The rest of the class then listens to the student read out their statements and they have to decide which is the うそ(lie). They write down in their books the statement in the following way : うそは「へびが好きです」。The teacher calls on 3 people to read their guesses and the student who wrote the statements answers with either 「はい、うそです。」or 「いいえ、まじです。」. I found the students loved to use the slang まじ (for real) and it gave the game more a more “edgy feel”.

Again, in larger classes, you can do the task in pairs or small groups. For younger students you may want to focus on particular scaffolds for grammar structures you are studying. For older students I would correct on the spot if they had any errors and write the changed sentence on the board if needed.

3.The writing stimulus

For Senior students encouraging them to write more frequently is always a challenge. I find boys in particular struggle in writing tasks because they try to stick to the truth, rather than write well within the confines of their vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. This task works on improving the students ability to be imaginative and flexible when answering in the writing task space.

We began this task by looking at 4 stimulus questions from their textbook which happened to be about travel in the future tense. The questions focused on where the person was going, by what mode of transport, how long it would take and what they would do there. I then paired the students up and had them answer those question in the past tense reflecting on the recent school holidays. The answers could be as bland as “I went to the local shops by train and went shopping.” Student A then took that information and had to write a recount of Student B’s day. They were allowed to be imaginative within appropriate boundaries. I found by writing about another, based on very scant details they were better able to move beyond the truth and tap into a creative response within the confines of their language ability. We did the speaking aspect of the task during class and the writing task at home.

All three tasks aim to move from one skill to another fluidly, combining listening and speaking with reading and writing as much as possible.