| 9.1 | Objectives |
Practice of asking simple questions relating to travel and listening out for times and platform numbers. |
Materials |
Timetable. | |
Preparation |
Make two photocopies of the timetable. Keeping the original as the master copy, blank out some of the information from the other two, making sure that you don’t blank out the same information in both. Label them A and B. |
1 Organise the class into pairs. Set the scene by asking everyone to imagine they have spilt coffee over their timetables and there is now information missing from both versions. Their aim is to obtain the missing information by asking each other questions, e.g.
Tsugi no Hiroshima yuki wa nan-ji desu ka
Nan-ji ni tsukimasu ka
Nan-ban sen desu ka
2 When all the gaps are filled, A and B compare timetables which should be identical - or you conduct a whole class question and answer session.
The completed timetable can be retained as portfolio evidence.
This activity can also be carried out as a whole group information gap activity by giving everyone a timetable with only a small amount of selected information on it – so that everyone has different information to give out.
9.2 |
Objectives |
Practice of transactional language relating to travel. |
Materials
|
Board game, die and 4 counters
per group. Sets of cue cards per group. |
|
Preparation |
Photocopy and enlarge the board onto A3 paper. If at
all possible, laminate the copies as this makes them look better and last much longer. Make a set of cue cards, each with a different phrase in both Japanese and English (see examples). These should be a mixture of questions and statements, of varying length and complexity. |
1 Give each group of four a board, a die, four counters and a pack of cards face down on the board.
2 Explain that each player in a group starts from a different corner of the board and the objective is to be the first to complete one circuit of the board and arrive in Tokyo in the middle.
3 Each player in turn throws the die and advances that number of places on the board in a clockwise direction.
4 The person on the player’s right then picks up a card from the top of the pile and reads out in English what is written on it.
5 The player translates it into Japanese and it is checked by the person holding the card. The translation must be absolutely accurate otherwise the player forfeits his/her next turn.
You can devise your own variations of this game to suit your learners’ needs, e.g. the statements can be read out in Japanese for translation into English – particularly phrases they are more likely to need to understand rather than use themselves. And, of course, the cards can be used independently of the board for either revision or assessment.
Examples of cards:
Unit 8 activities | What is Talk Japanese? | Unit 10 activities