Creating a Self-Introduction Sheet for Learners of Japanese

An attempt to make use of online tools

Abstract

This paper proposed the advantages of using online tools in Japanese language classes through a report on a practical class using Google Jamboard, followed by an analysis of the results of a survey. First, we asked 32 intermediate- to advanced-level learners of Japanese to write a self-introduction on Google Jamboard called “Self-introduction using the SWOT analysis” (a written sheet). After one week, we requested that they present their self-introduction in class. Following this, we conducted a survey on a 6-point Likert scale to use two analyses methods. One was a t-test conducted on the six questions asked in the survey, and the other was an F-test, for each question, based on the learners’ attributes of two native languages, Chinese and Korean. The results of these analyses indicated that the sheets provided proved to be more useful for understanding the presentations of others than for understanding one’s own since the mean evaluation value was higher for all questions and the variance in the responses was relatively small. Finally, we maintained that adopting online tools was helpful for supporting learning processes and improving mutual understanding of each other because those learners who had difficulty listening to the self-introduction presentations (auditory information) made use of the sheets provided (visual information) to supplement what they did not understand well when listening.