Particle Passport: A Collection-Based Incentive for Learning Japanese

Overview

Learning Japanese grammar can be particularly difficult for native English speakers. The particles, which indicate grammatical relationships between the components of a sentence, are a common learning bottleneck for students. The Particle Passport is designed to help motivate students to learn the particles in elementary and intermediate Japanese language courses. It uses the collection-game mechanism to incentivize students to master this challenging aspect of Japanese grammar, while also introducing them to the local regions of Japan, known as prefectures. By successfully completing in-person and online activities, students earn stickers or “passport stamps” for their passport. Each page of the passport contains six empty boxes and the learning objectives that need to be mastered to earn a stamp. On each page, students earn stickers representing the target prefectures, as well as additional stickers for extra practice. A variety of materials (in-person and online) are prepared to accommodate different learning styles and facilitate various types of language practice to help retention. During the sudden shift to remote learning in Spring 2020, all activities were moved online, so the Digital Particle Passport was created using the widely available Google Slides. Since I introduced the Particle Passport in my courses in Fall 2018, there have been increases in student performance in mastering grammar, especially the Japanese particles, and in knowledge about the regions of Japan.

Learning Objectives

• Apply Japanese grammar successfully, specifically the particles.
• Learn the various strategies for practicing individual language learning.
• Recognize the cultural uniqueness of the various regions and prefectures of Japan.

Remote Instruction

During the shift to remote learning in 2020, a Digital Particle Passport was created in order to allow students to earn digital stickers. The digital passport was created in Google Slides, which was readily available and relatively simple to adapt for this purpose. One of the benefits of the Digital Particle Passport is that it allows the inclusion of more detailed explanations and images of famous attractions, food, and cultural interests in the various prefectures.

Activity Description

At the start of the semester of in-person instruction, students receive their physical Particle Passport, which includes empty boxes, information about the prefectures, and learning objectives. The passport focuses specifically on the particles, as they are grammatical elements of the Japanese language that are both important and difficult to learn. As an incentive, students earn passport stickers representing each prefecture by successfully completing various activities, as well as bonus stickers for extra practice. The passport uses the set collection game mechanic, which draws upon the learner’s desire to complete patterns by earning all the components in a particular set (Engelstein and Shalev 2019, 421). The intention is that, once students begin earning stickers for their passport, their desire to complete the sticker collection will help motivate them to learn the particles and do additional practice.

In the example pictured below in Figure 2, students receive two stickers for completing the in-class activities and two more for completing the required digital practice. However, after completing the required activities, the passport page will have two blank rectangles in need of stickers. In order to earn the extra stickers and complete the page, students need to complete two more practice activities. Based on student response, many learners are motivated by the desire to add stickers to the remaining spaces, which has the added benefit of more Japanese grammar practice.

Since the goal of the passport is to motivate students to participate in in-class and online activities, students need to complete various activities to earn stickers throughout the semester. These activities include:

Online modules

Students complete the digital particle practice modules on the Brightspace course site before class. These low-stakes modules and practice quizzes were created using Articulate Storyline and allow students to apply the particles in various social situations, while learning about the regions of Japan. These modules provide detailed data reports, which help the instructor understand the students’ comprehension level before the upcoming class meeting and adjust the classroom activities accordingly. The module completion data is used to award students stickers for participation.

Flashcards

During the class meeting, students work in pairs using flashcards. This allows them to practice using Japanese grammar in a low-stakes social setting. As with the online modules, students earn stickers for the flashcard practice. During the pandemic the flashcards were recreated using Quizlet’s digital flashcard tool. After returning to in-person instruction, students now use the paper flashcards in class and the digital flashcards for extra practice at home.

In-class polling activities

Polling activities allow the class to practice in a competitive yet low-stakes manner. Kahoot is an educational polling tool that allows everyone in class or online to participate in polls, as long as students have their own device. It includes a competition setting, which the students appear to enjoy greatly. While these activities were originally created for in-person instruction, they were easily adapted to the synchronous online format. Kahoot and other polling tools provide analytics, which the instructor used to allocate passport stamps for participation.

In-class worksheets

Students regularly complete traditional worksheets in class, which include fill-in-the-blank questions, writing activities, and conversation practice. During remote learning, this activity was done in Zoom breakout rooms and the students uploaded digital handouts to the Brightspace course site as an assignment, receiving feedback and stickers.

Outcomes

Based on instructor observations and student performance on assessments, the Particle Passport has some positive effect. On the final exam of Fall 2019, students who participated in the Particle Passport scored an 8.7/10, whereas students who did not participate scored a 7.6/10. This increase motivated the instructor to use the passport in all classes in subsequent semesters. Anecdotal reports from students indicate that they enjoy tracking their learning through the passport and are motivated to do extra practice to complete each page. At the end of each semester, students appear more interested in visiting regions of Japan beyond Tokyo and Kyoto and have specific ideas of what they want to do there.

Lessons Learned

As students’ learning styles are different, preparing a variety of materials (in-person and online) is important to effective language instruction. Switching all the materials online gives students access to the activities 24/7. The sudden shift to remote learning forced faculty and students to adapt their pedagogy and use different kinds of digital learning materials. Since practicing a language in various ways helps retention, Particle Passport incentivizes students to try various forms of practice in and outside the classroom. Additionally, distributing surveys to students at various points in the semester, and adjusting the materials based on their feedback, allows an instructor to adapt their teaching and learning materials to their students’ needs. As this project was well received by students, planning is underway to apply this method to other areas such as vocabulary, Chinese characters, and grammar learning.