Beginner-level Japanese Digital and Interac
(Japanin edistyneen tason e-oppimateriaali)
Main funder
Funder's project number: 2023J0186
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 4 200,00
Funding program
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/04/2023
Project end date: 15/05/2024
Summary
Upper-level Japanese digital and interactive material for Finnish speaking learners
The digital material for upper-level Japanese learners introduces communication skills needed in interaction between Finnish and Japanese studying and working life and situations. In spring 2021 we started working on the unpublished raw material produced by lecturer emeritus Junichiro Okura. There is no teaching material in Finnish for upper-level Japanese learners, and also upper-level digital material has not been published. Our material aims high pedagogically, technically and linguistically. The importance of this kind of material will be obvious in the future, and it would have been needed already, especially during the pandemic remote teaching period. This material can be used for on-site teaching, hybrid teaching or remote teaching, or for independent study. As this kind of material does not yet exist in Finland, the material will be first of its kind.
We want to produce materials for Finnish speaking learners from the Finnish cultural surroundings, so that the cultural understanding for the Japanese language usage and ways of thinking would be easier through explanations in the learners’ mother tongue. There are even linguistic similarities between Japanese and Finnish: for example, they are both agglutinative languages.
We offer our knowledge and materials for students, whose number increases every year in all levels of study in Finland. Just in the University of Jyväskylä the number of students starting the beginner course every year is about 100. The number of those who continue to the middle level Japanese course is about 50. Japanese courses are very popular in every university in Finland, as well as in culture centres, and other educational institutions. The need for upper-level material has been known for a long time, but until now the needs have not been met.
We want to publish materials that are easily available to anyone who wants to use them. If we will get a grant, we would be able to share it free of charge to anyone. Instead of commercial material, we aim at offering good quality and easy access for learners.
Our team has four members. We have a lecturer emeritus with 32 years of experience teaching Japanese for Finnish students, a language teacher with a recent Finnish teacher training background, a professional education technologist, two native speakers of Japanese. As a team we believe we have all the skills needed for producing good materials.
Our team members are Junichiro Okura (Lecturer emeritus, Aalto University) Pauliina Takala (university teacher, Jyväskylä University Centre for Multilingual Academic Communication), Risa Shimmi (Master of Arts, Tartu University) ja Jussi Jussila (teacher, Jyväskylä University Centre for Multilingual Academic Communication, lecturer, Centria University of Applied Sciences). Our teaching material themes and linguistically vast content as well as the technical implementation is modern and successful because of the team members’ extensive and varied experience. Here is a short description of the team members’ background.
The digital material for upper-level Japanese learners introduces communication skills needed in interaction between Finnish and Japanese studying and working life and situations. In spring 2021 we started working on the unpublished raw material produced by lecturer emeritus Junichiro Okura. There is no teaching material in Finnish for upper-level Japanese learners, and also upper-level digital material has not been published. Our material aims high pedagogically, technically and linguistically. The importance of this kind of material will be obvious in the future, and it would have been needed already, especially during the pandemic remote teaching period. This material can be used for on-site teaching, hybrid teaching or remote teaching, or for independent study. As this kind of material does not yet exist in Finland, the material will be first of its kind.
We want to produce materials for Finnish speaking learners from the Finnish cultural surroundings, so that the cultural understanding for the Japanese language usage and ways of thinking would be easier through explanations in the learners’ mother tongue. There are even linguistic similarities between Japanese and Finnish: for example, they are both agglutinative languages.
We offer our knowledge and materials for students, whose number increases every year in all levels of study in Finland. Just in the University of Jyväskylä the number of students starting the beginner course every year is about 100. The number of those who continue to the middle level Japanese course is about 50. Japanese courses are very popular in every university in Finland, as well as in culture centres, and other educational institutions. The need for upper-level material has been known for a long time, but until now the needs have not been met.
We want to publish materials that are easily available to anyone who wants to use them. If we will get a grant, we would be able to share it free of charge to anyone. Instead of commercial material, we aim at offering good quality and easy access for learners.
Our team has four members. We have a lecturer emeritus with 32 years of experience teaching Japanese for Finnish students, a language teacher with a recent Finnish teacher training background, a professional education technologist, two native speakers of Japanese. As a team we believe we have all the skills needed for producing good materials.
Our team members are Junichiro Okura (Lecturer emeritus, Aalto University) Pauliina Takala (university teacher, Jyväskylä University Centre for Multilingual Academic Communication), Risa Shimmi (Master of Arts, Tartu University) ja Jussi Jussila (teacher, Jyväskylä University Centre for Multilingual Academic Communication, lecturer, Centria University of Applied Sciences). Our teaching material themes and linguistically vast content as well as the technical implementation is modern and successful because of the team members’ extensive and varied experience. Here is a short description of the team members’ background.
