"Two hamburgers and two colas please." This is definitely not the English lesson their parents took. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=16328 Try to imagine a classroom of 32 giggly seventh grade Japanese students at Tokyo's Joshi Gakuen all-girls junior high school. They chant together loudly: "Two hamburgers and two colas please." It's not your typical English lesson; these Japanese students are learning to speak English with the Nintendo DS.
Breaking from traditional Japanese academic methods, the portable gaming device has become a unique teaching tool. The students use the pen-like stylus to write words like "hamburger" and "cola" on the handheld's lower touch screen. This activity is followed by an electronic voice repeating the word and corresponding animated sequences.
"It's fun," says Chigusa Matsumoto, a 12 year-old student at the school. She whizzes through the drills in the electronic English lesson to be rewarded with a sticker. "You can study while you have fun," she said. And while Chigusa has a DS and games like "Mario Kart" and "Animal Crossing" at home, she insists her favorite game is her English class software.
The learning software was developed by Paon, recent Smash Bros. development collaborator. "This is quite revolutionary for a Japanese schoolroom," said Yasuhiro Yamamoto, manager at software maker Paon Corp. The DS English language program is the first to be linked to a widely used Japanese public-school textbook series.
Japanese education in the English language is well-known for failing to develop conversation skills and instead tends to focus on rote memorization and grammar. The DS program's heavy use of dialogue and interaction, linked to traditional study material, could prove to be a mighty combination.
The school's community seems split on how they feel about video game systems in the classroom. Principal Tsuneo Saneyoshi said cautiously, "Some teachers aren't quite convinced this is good." While vice Principal, Junko Tatsumi said, "There was no opposition from the parents. It wasn't that difficult a decision for us. We thought it was a great idea."
The school received 40 DS systems and free software for agreeing to be part of a test in a real classroom.
Topic: Nintendo DS Used in Japanese School to Teach English (Read 2701 times)
