Submitted by Mike Smart

Objectives:

Content:
Students will...

• demonstrate an understanding of popular movie genres in the US and Japan.

Cultural:
Students will...

• demonstrate knowledge through a cross-cultural comparison of the popularity of various genres of films in the US and Japan.

Language: Content Obligatory
Students will...

• accurately use the correct counter in the following pattern to accurately describe the numbers of people that like certain genres. (number of people) wa Y ga suki desu. ((number of people) like Y)
• use the following structure in asking questions to classify different movies. (movie name) wa donna eiga desu ka. (What kind of movie is (movie name)?).
• use the following structure in expressing opinions on movie classifications. (movie name) wa (movie type) no eiga to omoimasu/omoimasen. (I think/don’t think that (movie name) is a (movie type).
• will use correct Japanese movie vocabulary in discussing movie genres.

Language: Content Compatible
Students will...

• accurately soften disagreement by inserting the following phrase before making statements that disagree with other students. Sore wa sou kamoshirenain desu ga... (That may be so, but…)
• accurately use aizuchi (support language) in reacting to student answers.

Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will...

• work cooperatively in groups. Each member will carry out his/her role as assigned.

Time Frame:

One 50-minute class

Materials Needed:

Top-movie lists (see Attachments)

Description of Assessment (Performance Project):

Pre-task:
The teacher asks the students to take out their homework assignment, the survey of favorite movie genres that they asked ten classmates. The teacher then creates on the board a number of columns for the different movie genres, and then presents his/her own survey results using the form (Number of people) ga Y ga suki desu. ((number of people) like Y).

Next, the teacher explains that the class is going to tabulate the results from the survey homework assignment in groups of three to four. First, one sample group is formed, and a questioner is chosen. The teacher then models for the questioner the question Nannin ga Y ga suki desu ka (How many people like Y?), and reviews the counters for people. At this point, the teacher also can model some aizuchi expressions such as Hontou?, Sou desu ka?, etc. to show students the importance of verbal support in Japanese conversations. Groups are assigned, with each group having one questioner, one tabulator, one reporter, and one focus facilitator (to keep the group on task and encourage aizuchi). The teacher models and explains each task.

During-task:
Students tabulate results in groups of four. The teacher monitors the activity.

Post-task:
The groups report their results to the instructor. The instructor (or a volunteer) adds the results to the tallies on the board. At the end, the teacher leads a discussion comparing the results. Students should also make note of the class totals on the bottom of their survey sheets.

** PART II - Presentation of US and Japanese Popular Movie Data. **

Pre-task:
The teacher explains that that the class will now look at some of the most popular movies of all-time, and compare their genres to the survey results to see if high school students are typical of the US population as a whole. The teacher then either passes out the US Top Movies handout to the students or displays the PowerPoint slides for the US Top Movies listings (these are in Japanese), and then asks students to identify as many movies as they can.

During-task:
The teacher then asks the groups to work together to classify the different movies using the question (movie name) wa donna eiga desu ka. The teacher monitors and facilitates where necessary.

After the students have finished, the teacher asks groups for answers and records the various answers. There will probably be some disagreement over the classifications, which can be encouraged to facilitate further discussion.

Next, the teacher asks some questions about what students think will be the most popular movies and movie types in Japan. Following this, the teacher either hands out or displays the movie list ranking all-time top-ten movies in Japan (most are US movies), and helps the students classify them.

Once both lists are up, the teacher leads a discussion on any differences and similarities. Lastly, the class can compare their school’s preferences (based on the student surveys) to the two lists. This should facilitate more complex usage of the comparison structure (e.g., Nihonjin yori Mineaporis no koukousei no hou ga romansu no eiga ga suki desu. (Minneapolis high school students like romance movies more than Japanese people do.)

Post-task:
The teacher concludes the instruction for the lesson and mentions that in the next lesson, the class will discuss what is expected of them for the unit assessment. This will be introduced early in order to allows students to get started early on the project.

Assessment:

During this class, students should be producing a significant amount of speech. The instructor can informally assess student performance while monitoring the activity and while leading the ensuing discussions. Further instruction can be given if students are struggling with certain objectives.

References and Resources:

Well-maintained webpage of all-time US box office receipts:
http://us.imdb.com/Charts/usatopmovies

Well-maintained webpage of all-time Japanese box office receipts:
http://www.generalworks.com/databank/movie/rank03.html

Attachments:

NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)

L2 Top Movies List (note: both the US & Japanese lists are on this sheet; cut in half if for class use)

L2 Top Movie List in PowerPoint slide format (2 slides)

A Lesson from the CoBaLTT Project
/cobaltt
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
University of Minnesota