TopicsTeacher Interview

Creating a learning environment where diversity is valued and practical Japanese skills are fostered: PandA/ Distance learning/ Samidori

Professor Ruchira Palihawadana (Linguistics), Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, Education Center for Japanese Language and Culture, Kyoto University 

The Education Center for Japanese Language and Culture was established under the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (ILAS) in April 2016. The missions of the Center includes providing international students with Japanese language and culture courses, facilitating the income of international students taking or intensive programs in Japanese language and culture, as well as assisting domestic students with studying abroad.

The placement test (class placement) administered at the beginning of each semester has important implications for teaching the Japanese language. In this exclusive interview, Professor Palihawadana talks about the Center's unique placement test performed on the PandA platform for Japanese courses, and other ICT-based educational resources offered at the Center.

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Professor of The Education Center for Japanese Language and Culture, Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Ph.D. from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies;
Associate Professor of Kanazawa University (1998-2010); Professor of The International Center, Kyoto University (2010-2016); Current position held since 2016.

Holding the placement test on PandA - a practical tool to measure students' Japanese skills prior to their arrival in Japan

What inspired you to use PandA when holding the placement test?

The Japanese language placement test was used to be held in a paper-based form, so we had to wait until fresh international students arrived in Japan. It resulted in the delay of succeeding procedures like scoring and class placement, no matter how efficiently all these procedures were carried out. In some cases, students remained unassigned to a class of their level even at the end of Week 2. Therefore there was an imminent need to carry out the placement test smoothly.

In high hopes that delay in class placement should be prevented and that international students could start the new semester in classes suitable for their individual levels, PandA platform was thus introduced from the second semester of the academic year 2017. Placement tests on the PandA platform can be taken abroad, even before students' physical arrival in Japan, which permits us to evaluate their Japanese language proficiencies accurately and to place them into appropriate class levels at an early point.

During the preparation phase of using PandA to hold the placement test, a pilot study was undertaken with students enrolled in the KUINEP* Program for one semester. No major hurdles occurred during this pilot study, helping us to introduce the placement test on PandA to all prospective Japanese course takers.

* KUINEP Program: A program registered by undergraduate students from overseas partner universities. KUINEP students mainly take English-based courses offered at ILAS.
The official name of the program is "Kyoto University International Education Program". For further details, please see here.

Was PandA in your plan from the beginning?

Initially, we considered outsourcing the testing function, but after due consideration, we thought it would not be a feasible plan due to its high costs and inflexibility with updates on the tests and other specifications. We were concerned that eventually these issues might trigger bigger problems.

I should also acknowledge that the professional support from the Institute for Information Management and Communication has guided us this far since the time we decided to hold the test using PandA. Even faculty members of other universities give credit to our support team's generous help and we feel fortunate to be working with them.
PandA is a platform built within Kyoto University's network so we are free from concerns like leakage of private and confidential information. That is one of the advantages of using this system.

How do you make tests on PandA?

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Instructions on "Test and Quizzes Tools" (Cited from "PandA Instructor's Manual" issued by Kyoto University Institute for Information Management and Communication). To access the manual, click here.

Sections of the placement test include vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension, composition, collocations, and Kanji, and each of these sections is constructed with the "Test and Quizzes Tools" on PandA.

First, faculty members prepare the test questions in Word or other formats, which are then transferred to PandA with the help of graduate students.

So far, we update questions in every academic year and every semester except for some parts. We are planning to create a question pool, from where questions could be randomly chosen for each test.

You make various types of questions in the placement test, like multiple-choice questions, short passages, and crossword puzzles, don't you?

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An example of a crossword puzzle used in one of the past placement tests (image blurred)

That's right. Besides those question types, there are composition questions where students can input letters using the keyboard. The number of input letters can be adjusted per question. For example, the limit of number of letters for one question could be 7, whereas another would be 60.

This is an example of a crossword puzzle. As characters are input from the keyboard, typical typing questions where test takers can simply input kanji characters are not valid for placement tests. Instead, we create comprehensive crossword puzzles that can assess students' understanding of on-yomi (Chinese reading) and kun-yomi (Japanese reading) and the formation of idioms at the same time.

Has it ever occurred that more students cheat on their online tests?

As far as students' test results are concerned, we haven't seen or felt an actual increase in cheating after the introduction of PandA. To complete the placement test, test takers should understand the full contexts of the questions. Eventually, no one benefits from cheating and receiving a high score for a placement test.

How do you register students to a PandA site before the start of a new semester?

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Registration instructions on PandA (Cited from "PandA Instructor's Manual" issued by Kyoto University Institute for Information Management and Communication). To access the manual, click here.

A "Project Site" has been created exclusively for the placement test, to which we add test takers' names and e-mail addresses directly. Once registration is completed, registered students receive a confirmation message by e-mail, granting their access to the site for a specified period.

We communicate with the registered students by e-mail and inform them of the upcoming placement test, important deadlines, and that the whole procedures will be done on PandA. An instruction manual in Japanese and English is also sent to them beforehand.

How many students take the placement test every semester?

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Registration flow chart by student status at Kyoto University (Image from AY 2019 Second Semester. Only in Japanese. Click to enlarge.)

Roughly 500 students per semester, excluding those continuing from the previous semester whose placement test is exempted. Furthermore, complete beginners who are enrolling for the "Elementary Japanese I" are also excluded.
There are many useful functions in PandA, such as auto-scoring of multiple questions, or generating score reports in Excel format. These functions save a lot of our efforts to score the tests. Since the test score has to be returned to the students within a short period of time these time-saving functions are very useful for us. PandA can also score short compositions automatically to some extent by referring to model answers that we prepare.

The placement test consumed a lot of our time before PandA was incorporated into the process. Right after a new semester kicked off, we had to devote a lot of our time in holding the test several times, scoring each time, and then deciding the class placement all manually. This had to be done during the first week of the semester when lot of events such as orientation for new students and opening ceremonies take place in addition to giving lectures. Since some students arrive late we had to hold extra tests for them. Therefore placing the students in their appropriate level consumed a lot of our time and making it difficult for us to concentrate in our lectures. Luckily enough, the introduction of PandA has been a solution to these problems. The new system allows students to complete the placement test before arriving in Japan, which in turn gives us more time for the whole class placement procedure.

I see that you have been putting so much effort into the whole process. Is this because appropriate class placement counts in teaching Japanese?

That's true. This could be a universal issue in teaching, but students should be placed in the class that matches their current level. Particularly in our Japanese classes, we teach Japanese to international students coming from more than 100 countries, whose learning experiences as well as backgrounds vary a lot.

Some students may acquire a better command of Japanese within a half year of studying in Japan than spending one full year in their home country. Living in Japan itself offers a real-life learning environment as students are exposed to Japanese for 24 hours a day. Since the length of study is not always parallel with the level of proficiency, it is difficult for students to assess their own proficiency. So discrepancies may occur between self-assessment and actual skills which may discourage students, and make classroom management inefficient.

Students are able to establish a concrete base of the Japanese language if placed in an appropriate class at the beginning. That way, they could learn vocabulary and grammar in a systematic manner. Likewise, here at Kyoto University, a new Japanese educational curriculum was introduced in 2017 with a focus on learning systematically.

Japanese language education where diversity meets with ICT support

Browsing through the list of courses, I can see that quite a variety of courses on different topics are offered at the Center.

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A full list of ILAS Japanese language courses offered at The Education Center for Japanese Language and Culture (Image provided by Prof. Palihawadana. Only in Japanese. Click to enlarge.)

We offer Japanese language classes in the Liberal Arts and Sciences curriculum, as well as extra-curricular Japanese language support classes.

The former ones are subcategorized into five levels: Elementary I and II, Intermediate I and II, and Advanced. The goal of these classes is to train students with Japanese skills required for academic purposes. The classes are designed for degree-seeking international students, exchange students, preparatory course students under Kyoto iUP (Kyoto University International Undergraduate Program)*, and research students affiliated with respective departments or graduate schools.

The latter classes are offered primarily as a learning aid to those learners who have limited time to study Japanese out of their busy schedule with their studies and research. These classes are open to research students, researchers, special research students, and special exchange students, in addition to the students mentioned in the former class category.

*Kyoto iUP: Kyoto University International Undergraduate Program (Kyoto iUP) is a 4.5-year program comprising a six-month preparatory course followed by four years of undergraduate studies. For further details, please see here.

Can students attend the "extra-curricular Japanese language support classes", from remote campuses via the "distance learning system"?

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A full list of extra-curricular Japanese language support classes. The ones with the "via distance learning" label are offered remotely (Image provided by Prof. Palihawadana. Only in Japanese. Click to enlarge.)

Exactly. Some of the classes are offered via "distance learning system", virtually connecting Yoshida, Katsura, Uji campuses and Inuyama. As for one of the lectures I offer, I am based in Yoshida Campus and my students can join the class anywhere from Yoshida, Katsura campuses, or Inuyama, according to their convenience.

Technically speaking, lecturers and students should speak through a microphone that picks up their voices, but other than this requirement, there haven't been any significant issues so far. It doesn't take long for students to get used to the learning environment either. In order to make use of the characteristics of the class, I have tried several class activities such as having discussions across the three campuses and forming campus-based groups for presentation sessions.

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A class of distance learning that Prof. Palihawadana teaches (Image provided by Prof. Palihawadana)

Japanese classes were offered using the "distance learning system" from 2011. At first, the remote classrooms were limited to Katsura and Uji campuses, but from the spring semester of 2019 we extended them to Inuyama, providing the opportunity to study Japanese to researchers and graduate students who had longed for such an opportunity.

It was not realistic for them to come to Yoshida or Katsura Campus in Kyoto City, considering the long distance from Inuyama. Nevertheless, demands for learning Japanese is prevalent.

It's really rewarding to teach so many highly motivated students taking this learning opportunity.

In the context of ICT-aided Japanese teaching, you provide a Japanese learning system named "Samidori", as well?

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Home screen of "Samidori" (Click to visit the website)

Yes, we do. The system was constructed with an aim to assist Japanese language learning for learners of any needs and any locations: before or after arriving in Japan, students in remote campuses and at home. The current system is an updated version of the former one with the same name and started in 2017. The site is open basically to Kyoto University students, but public users can also access the site and use the functions.

The system is available in four languages: Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean, and offers courses of different levels, even ones for elementary-level learners starting with hiragana and katakana drills. Users can start learning Japanese immediately with any PC settings; and the system can be accessed with smartphones and tablet devices, without installation of a Japanese typing software.

Recently, we ask students of Kyoto iUP Program to start studying Japanese with "Samidori" as soon as their admission to the program is granted. They need to reach a Japanese level sufficient for taking undergraduate level courses in a short period of time.

What else do you do to support students with their learning?

A study session named "Japanese Study Room" is held twice a week as one of the Japanese learning support programs provided by the Center.

International students can casually drop by and ask teaching assistants questions about Japanese and other related topics. The room is equipped with tablets and DVDs as aids for Japanese study. The session primarily aims to facilitate self-study of Japanese learners, but it also intends to create a space for collaborative learning.

Your effort extends to offering a variety of courses and learning opportunities, which is quite impressive. Last but not least, could you share with us what you care the most about teaching Japanese?

I always value learners' diverse backgrounds in learning Japanese, and try to provide a better learning experience for them, using this rich diversity.

As I mentioned earlier, Kyoto University is home to students and researchers from diverse countries and regions. I think Japanese classes are where students are exposed to diversity and learn from each other. So I try to design my class activities in such a way that students with diverse backgrounds can stimulate each other. I want them to acknowledge and appreciate their unique values and views, so each one of them can benefit through the learning process.

For international students who live apart from their home grounds, it is always stressful to accustom themselves to a new culture. I hear that getting used to the culture of Japanese laboratories is a major hurdle for international students. For such students, I think attending Japanese classes, provides a "safe shelter" inside the campus. I really wish that our Japanese classes would create an environment where international students feel at home, achieve their goals, and recognize that they are steadily moving forward.

Besides, it is always pleasing to see students voluntarily build communities and networks through Japanese language classes. In addition, I hope that Japanese students will also get involved with the international students and develop interests in teaching Japanese language and culture. One of the Japanese graduate students who worked as a Teaching Assistant became attracted to teaching Japanese, and decided to change her career path to become a Japanese teacher.

Japanese classes are where talented international students from the world share their diverse views. Expressing themselves in this special setting should guide them to gain broader perspectives and deepen mutual understanding. In-class studies may be just a first step, but I want my students to inspire each other and encourage each other to attain a better self.

Thank you very much for your time with us today.

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A group photo with the interview crew: From left: Prof. Hajime Kita, Director of Institute for Information Management and Communication; Mr. Suzuki Takeo, Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education; Prof. Ruchira Palihawadana; Dr. Mana Taguchi, Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education; Ms. Liang Linjuan, 2nd-year Master Course Student, Graduate School of Education; Mr. Koichiro Tonomura, Chief, Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies; Prof. Shoji Kajita, Institute for Information Management and Communication.

Questions asked by: Mana Taguchi and Takeo Suzuki
Article composition: Takeo Suzuki
Photography: Wataru Kono

Published online: February 25, 2020