UDC 372.881.1
Guo Kangge
EI “Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno”
Scientific supervisor – N. S. Shershenevich, associate professor of the Department of tourism and cultural heritage, Yanka Kupala Grodno State University
MODERN APPROACHES TO TEACHING LINGUISTIC DISCIPLINES IN CHINA IN TERMS OF JAPANESE TEACHING
Abstract. Japanese teaching is very valuable in China since the importance of Sino-Japan relations, and Japanese is regarded as one of the subjects of the college entrance examination. In this context, the flipped classroom have been used in Japanese teaching in recent years and is widely discussed as an useful approach in academic research. The performance of the flipped classroom in China not only utilizes the network platform, but also adds the elements of group learning, thus enhancing the advantages of the flipped classroom. The students’ grades and willingness to study have been improved. However, the difference between the level of regional education and the level of learning ability of students makes it difficult to generalize the flipped classroom. Also, The teacher’s ability to use the computer also affects the quality of flipping the classroom.
Keywords: Flipped Classroom, Japanese teaching, modern approaches, linguistic disciplines
Introduction. The flipped classroom becomes popular because of Chemistry teachers Bergmann and Sams, and its definition is “passive learning activities such as unidirectional lectures are pushed to outside class hours in the form of videos, and precious class time is spent on active learning activities” [2, p. 7]. Since this approach is opposite to the traditional classroom, which is teachers teach first and students study later, the “flipped” is used to describe this kind of classroom [6, p. 39]. In China, Japanese teaching is always an important part of higher education as a minor language. Three years ago, the Chinese government even admitted that Japanese is one of the optional foreign language subjects in the college entrance examination. Under this circumstance, teachers and scholars start to discover the teaching approaches in Japanese teaching disciplines. Although for most senior high schools, traditional teaching approaches are used in their classroom, in universities, the new approach is gradually accepted. The most popular one is the flipped classroom, which is practiced by many teachers and schools, and received well results in terms of teaching outcomes.
In western countries, the reviews for this approach include “lower failure rates, greater flexibility, lesser stress, improved student attitudes, and even better test scores” [2, p. 7]. Chinese teachers also performed the flipped classroom. This paper will analyze the performance of flipped classroom in Japanese teaching in China, and argue that although this method has many advantages, the performance of the flipped classroom should be depended on the overall situation of districts and students. Moreover, this approach can not be easily popularized at present in China, depends on teachers’ application level of computer technology.
Japanese teaching by the Flipped Classroom. In China, the flipped classroom is performed in universities. Students will get a short introduction MOOC video of the teaching main content, generally for 5–10 minutes. The MOOC video in China means any type of teaching video, and it is usually refers to short video. If the main content of this class includes long and difficult content, the teacher will separate those content into several MOOC videos and provide them to students. After the students finish their self-leaning of the MOOC video, the teacher will briefly explain the knowledge points in class, and then answer the questions according to the students’ self-study level. Meanwhile, the teacher will give a targeted teaching by mastering the different understandings of different students on the knowledge points. Since online education has developed rapidly in China during the epidemic of COVID-19, the online platform plays an important role in the practice of the flipped classroom. According to the available academic research, the main platforms are Dingding and WeChat. The WeChat official account can better meet the flipped classroom. With the support of the official account, all the completed teaching resources can be viewed and studied without time and space restrictions, and students can watch MOOC videos smoothly without any restriction by the campus network [5, p. 19]. In addition, the bullet screen mode and the calling function in Dingding encourage students to participate more actively in the questions and answers part in the class and thus form an effective interaction with teachers [3, p. 65]. Teachers need to spend more time to analyze and decompose the language knowledge points, and record those explanations of knowledge points in appropriate ways. Hence, the combination of flipped classroom teaching and network platform enhances the teaching effectiveness and weakens the limitation of study time and space.
In addition, teachers in China developed the process of the flipped classroom in their Japanese teaching. Group study is used not only when students watch the short video, but also when students learning with the teacher in the class. For example, the teacher can divide students into groups before providing MOOC videos. Teachers will give several different questions to the groups, and ask them to watch the video and get their answers. During the class, the student groups will present their answers of the questions, and the teacher will review their presentation and teach the knowledge point again during the review part. Zheng Huina and Wang Lili practiced this approach in the class and measured it. In their research, through the flipped classroom with group study, students show a high rate of excellence and low rate of failure, and 78% and 91% of students of their classroom are willing to continue this mode [6, p. 40, 4, p. 186]. So, the flipped classroom earns well feedback in practice, and the combination of innovation has given a new vitality to this approach in Japanese language teaching in China.
Nevertheless, to popularize the flipped classroom in China’s Japanese teaching faces big challenges. Firstly, while students in different provinces in China have different learning abilities and self-control abilities, the use of the flipped classroom may cause problems in teaching environment and teaching quality. As writers’ teaching experiences, the student quality in northern China is lower than in southern China, that is, the ability of understanding and self-study is relatively lower in northern. And their ability of self-management is not enough to support the approach of the flipped classroom, because the students may not finish their self-study through watching MOOC videos. Also, group study for those students with lower study ability can cause teaching environment problems, especially for cheating. There may be only one or two students who do the task, and other group members will just read or use the result for presentation without their study. This can result in a negative influence on students’ learning. So, the use of the flipped classroom requires a well base of student quality and study ability, and the flipped classroom must be fixed during the practice process if one teacher wants to use it for students with low study abilities.
Moreover, guaranteeing the quality of MOOC videos is the most important part of the flipped classroom, which requires teachers to have not only sufficient Japanese professional teaching ability but also sufficient computer software operation ability [1, p. 73]. This becomes a huge barrier to wide spread the flipped classroom in Japanese teaching. Most universities in China prefer to recruit doctors, so most of the university teachers are over 30 years old. Besides their educational work, those professors need to make their effort in the research paper and title evaluations. They do not have enough time to work on recording MOOC videos. Meanwhile, it is not easy for high school teachers, even though their ages are younger than University professors. The younger generation of teachers need to strengthen their teaching ability and professional Japanese knowledge during the teaching process, so the immediate use of the flipped classroom can have negative influences on their video quality. Moreover, even young teachers can be weak in using computer software and analytical software, thus, it will affect the effect of the flipped classroom. According to the writer’s interviews with former colleagues, some young teachers expressed resistance to the teaching method of repeatedly recording MOOC videos for every lesson.
Conclusion. In conclusion, the flipped classroom as a major new approach in Japanese teaching in China results in a well feedback. However, due to the complexity of the situation of Chinese teachers and students, the overall popularization of this teaching approach still faces difficulties. Among teaching process, it is impossible to have only one approach that is sufficient for all teachers and students, so for Japanese teaching in China, teachers and scholars need to pay more attention to other practical approaches, such as multiple learning approach and so on, which is lack for discussion.
Bibliographic list
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