Analysis of the Application of Experiential Teachi

Analysis of the Application of Experiential

Teaching Model in Japanese Language Teaching

in Universities

Xinyi MA

School of Foreign Languages, Hunan Normal University

Abstract: With the progress of the times and the continuous development of

economic globalization, the interaction between China and Japan is getting closer

and closer, and at the same time the demand for talents with high quality foreign

languages is gradually rising, so the role of professional teaching of Japanese

is becoming more and more important. However, most places today still use

traditional teaching methods in Japanese language teaching, which are relatively old

and boring in form and cannot attract students’ interest and engagement in learning.

Therefore, colleges and universities should learn to introduce new Japanese

teaching methods to help improve the current Japanese learning environment and

improve the level and quality of Japanese language teaching.

Keywords: Experiential teaching; Japanese language; Teaching methods

DOI: 10.47297/wspciWSP2516-252702.20200409

1. Introduction

I

n the current Japanese language classroom environment, the traditional teaching

method of teacher lecture and student memorization is still the main method.

However, with the change of the times, the quality of foreign language talents

is gradually rising, and the traditional method can no longer meet the current

environment. The unchanging way of classroom teaching makes some students

with low self-control and low achievement unable to concentrate on the class.

The dullness of Japanese language teaching can greatly discourage students from

learning Japanese and make them lose interest in learning Japanese. I have found

some typical problems in my own teaching process, and I would like to propose some

solutions to these problems in the following, hoping to help Japanese language

educators.

About the author: Xinyi MA, Female

,

Birthplace:Shandong, Hunan,China, Working units:

Japanese Department, School of foreign languages,Hunan Normal University

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Creativity and Innovation Vol.4 No.9 2020

2. Some Problems in the Process of Learning Japanese

(1) Monotonous Teaching Method of Japanese Classroom

Most teachers still use the “lecture and teaching” method for Japanese

language learning, ignoring the students’ initiative to a certain extent. For example,

teachers help students learn Japanese from point to point by analyzing the words,

sentences, and paragraphs of a Japanese text. This approach is certainly beneficial

to students’ understanding of Japanese texts as a whole, but it also tends to make

students’ thinking patterns rigid and unable to experience the profound meaning of

a text. In a real Japanese classroom, the teacher’s teaching is often “excessive”, that

is, the teacher dominates the students’ Japanese learning. Whether it is the analysis

of the text or the understanding of words and sentences, students’ understanding

follows the teacher’s ideas and their understanding of the topic is made after the

teacher’s understanding, which stifles students’ initiative to a certain extent and

replaces students’ understanding with the teacher’s understanding. No matter

which language is being learned, the learners’ own perception and understanding

is crucial. If students are too rigid in their language thinking and cannot offer their

own thoughts and opinions on language learning, they will lose interest in learning

Japanese over time.

(2) Single Way of Reading Japanese, Low Subjective Initiative

In the course of my teaching practice, I found that students did not resist

reading Japanese articles, but showed great interest to a certain extent. However,

due to the lack of good reading habits, there are also problems such as unclear

reading purposes and reading methods based on “viewing”. Some students who are

careful and conscientious may choose to try to annotate and copy good phrases and

analyze and understand them word by word, but most of them just stay at the level

of “skimming”. Japanese reading is essential for learning Japanese, but due to the

lack of subjective initiative, such texts are usually completed under the teacher’s

task requirements, and the content is mostly hollow compared to the students’ own

perceptions, and they are prone to large copying. Even though some individual

students may give their own opinions to the teacher about the incomprehensible

passages that appear in the Japanese reading study, and communicate with the

teacher about the difficulties they encounter in the learning process. However, most

of the students still ignore their own problems. Most of them just finish the written

assignments and some of the reading and memorizing assignments assigned by the

teachers in the process of learning Japanese, and choose to pass over or ignore the

problems they have.

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Analysis of the Application of

Experiential Teaching Model in Japanese Language Teaching in Universities

3. The Concrete Practice of Experiential Teaching Model in Japanese

Language Learning

(1) Using Modern Technology to Promote Experiential Teaching Application

With the rapid development of contemporary multimedia information

technology, the role of multimedia in teaching can no longer be ignored. Therefore,

Japanese language teachers should try to explore the application of modern

technology in Japanese language teaching to better motivate students to learn.

At the same time, teachers should pay attention to the application of multimedia

Japanese teaching process, should be relatively rich in the teaching process to

express. For example, teachers can use modern multimedia technology to find

materials, videos and pictures on the Internet to make students understand the

specific customs and situations of Japan and to promote the enhancement of

students’ interest in learning Japanese. At the same time, the concept of experiential

teaching is integrated into the teaching classroom, allowing students to experience

the local flavor of Japan through modern Internet media, thus achieving the purpose

of making students have a better understanding of Japanese culture and applying

experiential teaching in their teaching. The modern developed Internet can also be

used as an effective means for teachers to absorb teaching resources. The teachers

can try to analyze the cases of experiential teaching through the Internet, strengthen

the communication with students through the Internet, and discuss the specific

application of experiential teaching in teaching work with students, so that teachers

and students can make progress together.

(2) Conducting Enriching Japanese Language Learning Activities

One way to apply experiential teaching is to use a variety of activities that

allow students to learn and use Japanese. This requires teachers to first change their

teaching philosophy to make the classroom rich and interesting to attract students to

participate in Japanese language learning activities, and then to teach them through

a variety of activities. For example, a Japanese speech contest is one of the many

possible ways in which teachers can motivate students to participate in Japanese

language learning by having them collect materials, prepare a speech, and deliver it

off the cuff. In this process, students learn to study on their own and strengthen their

ability to solve Japanese problems independently. In the process of the competition,

teachers can let students choose their favorite Japanese speech materials according

to their own preferences, which can not only improve students’ participation, but

also let them gain something in the process of speech. Through this “experience”

process, the teacher can accomplish the purpose of “experiential teaching mode”.

Alternatively, teachers can conduct a Japanese idiom slang sharing session where

students can share authentic Japanese sentences or various short stories they have

learned in books, movies and dramas, so that the class can be conducted in a fun

and relaxed atmosphere and students can participate in the class, thus improving the

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Creativity and Innovation Vol.4 No.9 2020

quality of Japanese language teaching.

(3) Integrating Experiential Teaching into the Classroom

In the Japanese language classroom, teachers can use a real-life approach to

teaching. For example, in the classroom, students can pretend to be in a real-life

situation and use Japanese dialogue through action. By cleverly designing various

scenarios, teachers can integrate the teaching contents into students’ conversations,

so that students can feel the fun of learning and learn new vocabulary, new sentence

patterns and new grammar in a relaxed and interesting classroom conversation, thus

improving the quality of teachers’ Japanese teaching. In addition, teachers can also

demonstrate objects and pictures, ask students to think about the corresponding

Japanese pronunciation, make full use of common objects in daily life, learn

their names, and guide students to describe their quantity, color, nature, purpose,

location, and so on in Japanese. In this experiential learning process, the use of

objects or pictures for language teaching is intuitive, which not only helps students

to understand what they are learning, but also helps students to deepen their

impressions and strengthen their memories by combining audio and visual. It can

attract students’ attention and motivate them to learn Japanese through things that

are closely related to their lives.

(4) Encourage Students to Actively Practice Using Japanese

To accomplish the ultimate experiential teaching, it is essential to actively

guide students to use Japanese in life practice. Most of the current Japanese

language teaching in colleges and universities focuses on the classroom, and

students have fewer opportunities to use Japanese after they leave the classroom,

so teachers should promote more opportunities for students to apply Japanese in

different situations and improve their speaking skills. Outside of the classroom,

teachers can organize Japanese language clubs to give students interested in

learning Japanese a platform to communicate with each other, and teachers can

also collect information about some problems students encounter in the process

of Japanese language practice based on this platform. In addition, teachers can

also organize students to create Japanese corner activities, so that students can

experience the application of Japanese in the process of real conversation, and

constantly exercise and improve their Japanese speaking skills. In this process,

teachers should also pay attention to the development of students’ self-feedback

ability, that is, to help students find their own problems and correct them in a timely

manner, to improve students’ self-summary ability, to help the future of Japanese

learning better.

4. Conclusion

To sum up, there are indeed considerable problems in the teaching process

of Japanese language in colleges and universities at present, but there are

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Analysis of the Application of

Experiential Teaching Model in Japanese Language Teaching in Universities

relatively solutions. Teachers should actively explore new teaching methods and

teaching modes in the teaching process, improve students’ professional quality

comprehensively, use experiential teaching methods to help students master

Japanese knowledge better, and cultivate high-quality Japanese professionals

needed by the times.

Works Cited

[1] CHU Yongjuan. “The application of experiential teaching mode in Japanese

language teaching in colleges and universities” [J].

Educational explora-

tion

,2012(1):29-31.

[2] YAO Jing. “An analysis of the application of experiential teaching mode in Jap-

anese language teaching in colleges and universities”[J].

New Education Times

Electronic Journal

,2016.

[3] HUANG Tao. “Exploring the reform of Japanese language teaching in colleges and

universities and the cultivation of intercultural communication skills” [J].

Educa-

tion Teaching Forum

, 2015.

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