gunmajet.net

This isn't really so much a plan, but something that seems to be working well, and is enjoyable for students and teachers alike. Essentially students pick new names for themselves and make name cards, from that point on they'll be referred to as that in class. Teachers may also pick names (I currently teach with Scarlett-sensei and Xavior-sensei). It might also be fun to pick out a new Japanese name for yourself (I'm 'Akira').

I grabbed a list of the top 100 baby names from last year in the US and 'translated' them into katakana. I had a couple Japanese teachers go over it, but they may have missed a few... so some of the names might not be 100% accurate. In any case I suggest reading the list out loud so the students can hear the names.

I also made tried to make it clear that this was optional, and I knew lots of people with Japanese names in the US. If they didn't want a new name that was okay. In addition they were free to pick names not on the list. I was expecting to get a few kids to want to be named "Spiderman" or "Jack Bauer", but only one student picked an odd name: "Pork" (he was clear he wanted it to mean 'pig-meat').

As a fun side-activity I've begun researching the meanings of the names they've chosen. Xavior-sensei (for the record, he chose that spelling) was disappointed to find out that his name actually means "New House". I think he was expecting something more sinister.

The object of this is to practice the English style of romaji.

The kids are generally taught the Kunrei-shiki or Nihon-shiki style of romaji at elementary school. Unfortunately, while useful to Japanese speakers, these stlyes are not very intuative to English speakers who have never learned Japanese. Thus, most words that have come into use in English use the Hepburn style of romanization. The kids have to learn to use this at the jr. high level.

There is a table of the different styles here on Wikipedia.

After explaining this to the kids and getting them to practice with their own names, this is a quick follow up. All of the words can be used in English, though some of them are not popular words depending on where you live. Feel free to adjust the words to your own region.

The explanation at the top of the page is about how there are some words that have their roots in other languages and then asks what the meaning of each of the English words below is.

After getting all the answers sorted out, it's a good idea to go over how the words are pronounced in English, and how the meaining is sometimes slightly different.

The first thing that you need to do is to explain to the students that reading Japanese and reading English are a bit different. The characters in Japanese have the same sound as their name. In English, the names of the letters are NOT how the letters are read in words. Therefore, knowing just the names of the English letters will not mean that you'll be able to read English. You have to know the sounds that they represent.

Then, go through each of the letters of the alphabet and say their names and teach the normal sound that each of the letters represents. The vowels tend to be pronounced differently by people with different accents, but some basic examples can be given. Note also that the normal pronunciation of the qu combination is not k but kw, (queen, quiet, etc.) though sometimes it is pronounced as k (quiche). Many of the phonics CDs out there only teach the k sound, though.

X as the first letter of a word has also been left off entirely as the words are so rare, and not of particular use to Japanese school kids. There may one or two kids in a class that know of words like xylophone or xerox.

The explainations for how to form all of the basic consonant sounds are given in Japanese on the worksheet. The vowels have been left with asterisks next to them and an explaination at the bottom saying there are lots of ways to pronounce these letters, so to please listen carefully to the ALT.

This is only the most basic set of phonics for English, but it can be a helpful start.

*You will need this font to print the worksheet correctly.

This is a very quick little worksheet. It shouldn't take most of the students more than five minutes.

Give each of the kids a copy of the attached worksheet. The object is to draw a line from the uppercase letter to its corresponding lowercase letter.

*You will need this font to properly print out the worksheets.

Alphabet bingo is a good warm-up game to play with Sho 4,5,6 and Chu 1 students. Hand out one of the attached worksheets. Have the kids fill in their sheets with letters. Play bingo.

Having a deck of cards with the alphabet letters on them and letting the kids draw a card and call out the letter to the class is a good way to get the kids more involved.

There are two bingo grids on each of the attached sheets. One sheet is for CAPITAL LETTERS and one is for lower case letters.

*You will need this font to properly print out the worksheets.