Japanese - Seattle Public Schools

Summary of World Language Adoption Committee Decision for Japanese 03/11/2010
Members & Textbooks Piloted:
Joe McColskey (Obento Senior), Lori Streicher (Obento Deluxe), Joshua Hansell (Adventures in
Japanese 3, 4 & 5), Kurt Thompson (Obento Deluxe/Beginning Japanese), Kaoru Wang (Obento
Senior), Gwen Johnston (Obento Deluxe/Beginning Japanese), Taeko Tashibu (Obento Deluxe),
Jennifer Smiley (Beginning Japanese), Chris Cronas (N/A), Wakae Maclean (Obento Supreme)
Name of Book:
Adventures in Japanese
Publisher:
Cheng & Tsui
Strengths:
We advocate for the adoption of Adventures in Japanese for the following reasons:
Adventures in Japanese has a clear scope and sequence, specifically related to the introduction
and focus on Kanji throughout the entire five book series. Clear grammatical teaching points
are presented at the beginning of each chapter, supported by unit-based suggested activities.
Students report that the organization of the materials increases accessibility because the text
does not get bogged down in “grammar speak”. The series eases students into the language
more gradually than in other series and offers a linear approach which instructors and students
find logical.
Based on our collective experience, Adventures in Japanese has improved due to revisions over
the years and achieves greater culturally competency as a result. The text is supported by an
ever increasing array of gender and race neutral illustrations. A supplemental picture CD is
included allowing teachers to incorporate photos and illustrations into PowerPoint
presentations for teaching. Finally, the illustrations provided avoid references to pop culture
and, therefore, remain current.
Adventures in Japanese 4 & 5 also include some discussion of diversity within the cultural
context of Japan and the Japanese language. Examples include references to Ainu and
Kankokujin (Koreans in Japan). Also, the textbook never assumes that the learner using it is a
native English speaker. One of the prompting questions to begin a conversation in a unit that
focuses on “Getting to Know You” asks the student what language is spoken at home.
The upper level Adventures in Japanese text begins each chapter with extensive culture notes.
Despite these notes being in English, they provide good hooks to engage students’ prior
knowledge. Instructors typically supplement with materials in Japanese to bring the cultural
subjects to life in the appropriate context.
Textbook durability is another appealing aspect of Adventures in Japanese because it is hard
cover. Another text the adoption committee reviewed is paperback and not expected to hold
up over time.
Student surveys express a preference for Adventures in Japanese because it is organized similar
to traditional textbooks with an index and glossary at the back of the book. Although

committee members agreed that students may use the index and glossary as a crutch at times,
the value of having it outweighs the challenge of teaching students how to use the resources
responsibly, which increases language accessibility.
Because the Adventures in Japanese series has been used for a long time in a number of other
districts, a web-based community of users exists that have developed additional materials
specifically for the series. Of all the texts reviewed, Adventures in Japanese has a core of
mature users that have developed their own supplementary materials over the years. The
committee feels that the online community-based resources are invaluable in moving forward
with Adventures in Japanese. In particular, the committee referenced Punahou School in
Honolulu, HI, as having published online resources available to anyone who chooses to access
them. The publishers are also offering professional development to teachers in the form of
Webinars. Finally, the publisher offers teacher manuals that can be purchased separately from
the textbooks.
Concerns:
The primary weakness of Adventures in Japanese is the audio CDs that accompany the
curriculum. Few, if any, changes have been made to the audio recordings over the years.
A major student complaint and concern among community members surveyed relates to the
overall “look” of the text book. The publisher has done little over the last twenty years to
improve the series’ visual appearance. The entire series generally lacks color or use of other
graphic techniques such as font changes, tables, focus boxes, drawings, pictures, etc. The other
two texts reviewed effectively employ these presentation techniques to engage students, show
visual organization cues, appeal to multiple intelligences, provide authentic pictures of culture
and life in Japan and use text features to highlight key information.
Though the Adventures in Japanese textbooks are generally considered durable, quality control
issues are present. One committee member reported that some books fell apart over the
course of a school year from regular day-to-day use, as well as the occasional missing a chapter
or two e.g. Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9; Chapters 5 & 6 were not included.
Another challenge that committee members identified is that the series focuses on student
output. Students are not given enough listening and reading opportunities before being
expected to produce writing or speak in Japanese. The series provides many opportunities for
students to interact with one another or the group around a teaching point, but fewer
opportunities to access authentic readings or listening sections – especially in comparison to
the other textbooks we reviewed. The teacher manuals are also lacking in this area and offer
little information or supplementary activities for practice.
Overall, the series is lacking the richness that other texts offer and require supplementation
with activities, reading, and listening sections found in the other materials we reviewed but
cannot recommend for final adoption due to other issues.
Conclusion:

Adventures in Japanese captures the breadth and depth of a curriculum that suits the needs of
all learners we aim to reach. It is excellent for its scope, sequence and preparation for the AP/IB
exams. And, despite its limitations, Adventures in Japanese presents the content of language
that is needed for students in our highest level classes to perform well on the AP & IB exams,
which, in turn, correspond to the expectations outlined by ACTFL intermediate low or middle
level proficiency. The limitations can be addressed with supplementary materials – specifically
in the areas of listening, authentic readings and native text and a greater variety of activities.
Decision Based On:
- Selection Criteria
- Public Review Sheets
- Survey – Community/Families (website)
- Student Surveys (pilot)
- Other input
Name of Books:
Obento Deluxe, Obento Supreme and Obento Senior
Publisher: Nelson Pty Ltd. (a Cengage Company)
Strengths:
The Obento series is a visually appealing, somewhat engaging series of 3 textbooks that offers
students culturally based manga, video and grammar explanations that are appropriate for
middle school and lower level high school students. The series uses cultural examples that are
current and in many cases interesting to students and presents Japanese culture as trendy and
intriguing.
Overall, students at the Middle School level preferred the Obento series to the Adventures in
Japanese series. Many teachers also enjoyed teaching with the series, found the resources
available helpful, and students found the listening comprehension activities easier to
understand.
Obento Deluxe is the first book in the series of 3 books and offers students an introduction into
Japanese language and culture. Each lesson begins with a manga, includes new vocabulary,
grammar explanations, cultural explanations and pair work activities. It provides easy to
understand listening activities and a carefully sequenced program for teachers to follow. Each
student workbook includes a CD-ROM with the videos (including skits and cultural clips),
listening activities, and a frame-by-frame presentation of the manga for each chapter for
students to listen to as they watch.
Obento Supreme continues with the basic format of Obento Deluxe and offers manga,
wordlists, activities, some kanji and grammar explanations with a higher level of difficulty. It is
designed to look like a magazine and be appealing to students with interesting current pictures
and a colorful layout. The workbook was also a helpful compliment to the text and the CD-
ROM provided was once again a helpful component.

Obento Senior is the 3 rd and last book in the Obento series and is also very colorful and visually
appealing. Obento Senior offers more difficult readings, more kanji (225 total by the end of the
3 books) and is geared towards a slightly more mature Japanese language learner than the first
2 Obento books. The workbook also includes a helpful grammar booklet.
Concerns:
The main concerns the adoption committee had with the Obento series focused around how it
fit in with a rigorous AP/IB Japanese curriculum. In most cases teachers felt that each book did
not offer enough material for a year’s worth of challenging curriculum and that the books would
have to be supplemented substantially to accommodate for their lack of rigor. As a 3 year
textbook series in a district with a Japanese program going through the 4 th and 5 th years, the
material was insufficient and would clearly be inadequate to prepare students for the AP and IB
exams. (The 225 kanji included in the series for example wouldn’t come close to the 410
required for the AP exam.)
The organization of the Obento series also had some issues. The organization was somewhat
counterintuitive unless you carefully taught the material in the suggested way and because of
this, made the incorporation of differing teaching methods (such as TPRS) more challenging.
For independent study the books were also, in our opinion, harder to use because the glossaries
and review sections were much less substantial than those found in Adventures in Japanese.
It should also be noted that although the series was visually stimulating, some students felt the
drawings were childish, and the visuals distracting because they were too busy. Another
concern with having current cultural examples and photos provided in the textbook is that
within a few years these would quickly become outdated and students are quick to notice this.
Some other practical concerns committee members had were with the durability of the Obento
books (all in the series are only available as soft-bound texts) and the cost. It is not realistic for
soft-bound books to last more than a year in most cases and the $31 cost of each workbook that
students would be expected to pay would not be feasible in many cases and would bring up
equity issues.
In addition, although it was helpful that the series offered a video component on the CD-ROM
provided with each workbook , there were some glaring problems with the video. In particular
the quality of the production was low, the heavy non-native accents of the actors were often
difficult to understand, and in one case a video could be seen as homophobic.
Another concern the committee had with the series was the introduction of both hiragana and
katakana syllables at the same time and non-sequentially from the beginning of Obento
Deluxe. In our experience students already have troubles confusing hiragana and katakana
(because they have the same sounds) even when they are taught with a buffer of a few months,
and teaching them at the same time could potentially exacerbate the problem.
Proposal:

Although the Obento series does not fit the needs of a rigorous AP/IB Japanese program, as a
committee we did feel that it could enhance the Japanese language curriculum if we could
incorporate the best aspects of the series into our curriculum by purchasing a set for each
school. In particular, we felt that the series would be especially helpful in our middle schools
where the books were better received.
Decision Based On:
- Selection Criteria
- Public Review Sheets
- Survey – Community/Families (website)
- Student Surveys (pilot)
- Other input
Name of Book: Beginning Japanese
Publisher: Tuttle
Volume One of this 3 volume textbook series was first published in February 2010. Volumes 2
and 3 are under development but are not expected to be available during this Textbook
Adoption cycle. This fact alone was judged to be a “fatal” weakness that precluded the
Japanese Adoption Committee from selecting the Tuttle textbook series as the finalist for
adoption in 2010.
Beginning Japanese was used in trial teaching at Washington and Eckstein Middle Schools and
at Garfield and Roosevelt High Schools for 3-6 days. Student survey responses after these trials
reflected observations from parent feedback (Eckstein families provided feedback on the
textbooks)
Strengths:
- Written in accordance to National Standards for Japanese under ACTLF guidelines.
- Designed to prepare students for the tasks they are expected to accomplish in the AP
Japanese Exam from the beginning levels.
- Designed for incorporation of technology use of Japanese.
o
o
Early introduction to typing in Japanese.
Assignments are included which require email writing, texting, and use of voice
files sent by telephone or internet to teacher.
- Colorful shading and text features on pages are used to highlight different types of
content.
- Manga presentation of key conversation patterns which fit into a continuing story
involving the characters throughout the text.
- Each unit has excellent index and glossary of the vocabulary introduced. Also material
also presented again in the back of the text.
- Vocabulary introduced is greater than in Adventures in Japanese Vol 1.
- FURIGANA is printed below KANA and KANJI in horizontal text presentations in order
to de-emphasize it role as the eye focus more on superscript than on subscript.

- KANJI is introduced earlier than in Adventures in Japanese or Obento and in greater
numbers. The design is to introduce all AP (targets KANJI within the three text series).
- KANJI is introduced for reading recognition first and later for writing production. As in
Japan, use of FURIGANA follows the principle of more use when new terms are
introduced, or terms are not part of key learning targets, and then use is reduced and
eliminated as terms are cycled in following sections
- Text reading segments are closer to what native speakers would be exposed to than
found in either Obento or Adventures in Japanese.
- Listening files have all native speakers even when the speaker is a non-native Japanese
in the script. Speaking speed is native like but struck students as too fast since there
were no built in pauses.
- Kiara’s Journal is written in a mix of Japanese and English that increasingly uses
Japanese script as her stay in Japan extends. This illustrates a growing ability to use the
language in writing about her experiences and discoveries while living in Japan over
time. Rich in Cultural content and explanations from American perspective.
- Cultural Box sections have richer explanations of culture of Japan relevant to the 21s
Century Japan while Adventures in Japanese are often locked into cultural elements
that were more prominent 10-25 years ago.
- The activities included for practice with the language has greater variety and
application than in other texts.
- Textbook comes with a CD which has audio files for all dialogues and listening activities
and tests for each unit.
Concerns:
- Grammar explanations used more “meta-language” and organization seemed more
confusing than that in Adventures in Japanese for many students.
- Listening CD files were limited to two or three per unit.
- Listening files could not be stopped or paused when they started. There was no way to
build in “pauses” for students to process what they heard.
- Textbook had largest volume of content presented which seemed intimidating to first
year students
- All three major scripts of Japanese are presented for reading from the first page. This is
overwhelming for most students in 1st level classes.
- It seems that a working ability to read at least HIRAGANA is needed before students
can begin working with the texts presented.
- Website for supplemental materials for students and teachers is still under
development.
- Teacher supplemental materials are under development.
Decision Based On:
- Selection Criteria
- Public Review Sheets
- Survey – Community/Families (website)
- Student Surveys (pilot)
- Other input

Request for Adoption:
The committee believes that the Adventures in Japanese series offers a more solid foundation
for a 4 to 5 year Japanese language program than any of the other textbooks we examined.
Although the other textbooks were initially appealing to both teachers and students, upon a
closer examination, we found them to be lacking in essential areas. In particular, there simply
was not enough material to support a program striving for excellence at all levels and guiding
students towards success on the AP and IB exams and, ultimately, fluency in Japanese.
However, with the committee recommendation to adopt Adventures in Japanese, there is no
perfect textbook series and, as such, we request the adoption of additional curricula to support
the use of Adventures in Japanese. Because the quality of the CDs for Adventures in Japanese
are poor, it is not as visually appealing to students and access to authentic readings or listening
sections are lacking - especially in comparison to the other textbooks we reviewed - the
committee would like teacher copies of the Obento Series and the Beginning Japanese series.
That would include teacher manuals and workbooks (which include CDs) for each Japanese
teacher in the district to go along with the adoption of Adventures in Japanese.
District Resource Library:
- Obento Deluxe Teacher’s Resource with CD’s $235.95
- Obento Supreme Teacher’s Resource with CD’s $235.95
- Obento Senior Teacher’s Resource with CD’s $235.95
- Adventures in Japanese’s teachers edition for each level (vol. 1 – 4) $351.80
* Each manual is $87.95 each
It is requested that each high school Japanese program will be provided with
- Further Adventures in Japanese $45.00
- Strive for a 5 $26.99
- Adventures in Japanese Vol. 1 & 2 Image CD $43.95
- Adventures in Japanese Vol. 1 Multimedia CD $24.95
- Adventures in Japanese Vol. 2 Multimedia CD $32.95
- Obento Deluxe Student Book (w/2CD’s) and Workbook (w/2CD’s) $80.90
- Obento Supreme Student Book (w/2CD’s) and Workbook (w/2CD’s) $80.90
- Obento Senior Student Book (w/2CD’s) and Workbook (w/CD’s) $82.90
- Beginning Japanese student book (w/CD) and Workbook $100.00
It is requested that each Middle school program be provided with:
- Adventures in Japanese Vol. 1 Teachers edition $87.95
- Adventures in Japanese Vol. 1 & 2 Image CD $43.95
- Adventures in Japanese Vol. 1 Multimedia CD $24.95
- Adventures in Japanese Vol. 2 Multimedia CD $32.95
- Obento Deluxe Student Book (w/2CD’s) and Workbook (w/2CD’s) $80.90
- Beginning Japanese student book (w/CD) and Workbook $100.00