Through the intercultural experiences of high school students, depicted in authentic Manga (Japanese comic strips), Tsumiki 2 introduces a variety of logically sequenced structures and cultural information to the intermediate learner of Japanese. Tsumiki 2 lays the foundation for structurally sound communication in a practical and creative way. With concise explanations, accessible vocabulary lists and current cultural information, the text endeavors to build an in-depth understanding of Japanese language and society that is appealing to students and functional in the skills in promotes. It is learner-centred and recognises that all learners are different; they display different strengths, interests and skills. The combined methods and activities of the Student Book, the Workbook, the Audio CD, Blackline Masters and Tsumiki website attend to those different learning needs.

Tsumiki 2 is designed for Year 9 and 10 learners of Japanese.

Academic rigour has been cited as an integral part of any successful middle years of schooling initiative. Tsumiki 2 provides a rigorous yet realistic program that values learning and the learner.

• Is clearly structured and easy to follow
• Uses a logical sequence of sentence patterns that build knowledge from previous “building blocks”, with activities that prepare students for the next “block”
• Allows for additional teacher-developed activities to be superimposed on its structure
• Presents its core vocabulary in compact, accessible and clearly identified units
• Has a student workbook providing listening, speaking, reading and writing exercises to complement each unit of the text
• Includes 3 Audio CDs (over 3 hours) that present dialogues from the student text & listening activities for the workbook
• Settings about which students have prior knowledge (such as farms, theme parks, schools) so that they have a sense of confidence as they use Japanese on “familiar turf”.
• The website will provide the students with access either at home or at school to extra activities to further reinforce their language skills and to hear dialogues at their own pace.

Specifications:

• 192 pages, two-colour Student book covering 14 units
• Comprehensive Grammar Supplement which contains a reproduction of all Sentence Patterns and a meaning marker guide.
• Japanese-English and English-Japanese word lists
• 144 page 1 colour Workbook
• Online Teacher Notes
• 3 Audio CDs
• Companion Website (in development)

Margaret Lee has spent many years teaching Japanese, taking students to Japan and writing the Isshoni series of Japanese texts.

She is a passionate believer in the need for high-quality teaching-learning resources in secondary schools, and in the need to pursue high academic standards. It is her dream that young students develop a real love of learning, that they take control of their own learning by understanding their learning styles, and that – with perseverance, passion and pleasure – they become successful life-long learners.

It is Margaret’s hope that the building blocks provided in the Tsumiki series will lay a solid foundation for the beginning student’s language skills and will engage the learner actively in the culture of the Japanese people.

Margaret is currently Principal of St. Saviour’s College in Toowoomba, QLD.

Yuka Ito lectures in English and Japanese language at Kinjo Gakuin University, Aichi Prefectural University, and Nanzan University in Nagoya Japan. She holds an M.A. in Psycholinguistics and is currently pursuing a PhD. Her particular area of interest is grammatical development in first language acquisition.

Through her teaching and study experience she has realized the importance of an incremental approach to language teaching and learning.

Units of work

1. Thanks
2. Shopping
3. Visitors
4. Eating out
5. A day trip
6. Souvenirs
7. A tour of the school
8. A country experience
9. Sayonara party
10. Upon reflection
11. Planning a trip to Japan
12. How Japanese do things
13. Visiting our sister schools
14. Let’s go travelling!

Also available:

• Tsumiki 2 Student Book – 017010642X
• Tsumiki 2 Workbook – 0170106438
• Tsumiki 2 Audio CDs (x2) – 0170106446
• Tsumiki 2 Blackline Masters – 0170106411