Japanese: 7–10 Sequence / Levels 7 and 8 / Understanding / Systems of language
Content description
Develop understanding of the systematic nature of grammatical structures and features of Japanese used to perform particular functions, such as describing people, objects and places, and indicating quantity
Elaborations
developing metalanguage for communicating about language, using terms such as ‘noun’, ‘pronoun’, ‘verb’, ‘adjective’ and ‘conjunction’, and cross-referencing with knowledge of English-language syntax and parts of speech
understanding the rule that Japanese sentences end with a predicate and that there are three types of predicates, noun plus copula, adjective plus copula, and verb:
subject は noun です。
subjectは adjective です。
subject は objectを verb ます。
understanding that pronouns are used far less frequently in Japanese than in English
understanding and using a range of particles to perform different functions, for example:
は (subject, topic marker)
が (subject, topic marker: ～が好きです、 ～がいます/あります)
を (object)
に (time, destination)
へ (direction)
で (transport)
の (possession)
と (and, with)
も (also)
understanding the role of sentence-ending particles such as かand ね
understanding that the word order of noun phrases is not important as long as they appear before the verb and are accompanied by correct particles
understanding how to use いand な adjectives in the present tense in basic sentences such as たのしい、 たのしくない、 ゆうめいな、 ゆうめいじゃない
understanding the rules of verb conjugation, for example, ～ます、 ～ましょう、 ～ました、 ～ません、 ～ませんでした
understanding different question words such as 何, どこ、 何よう日、 どんな、 いつ、 いくら、 だれ
describing locations of homes, people and things using basic structures such as noun は place に あります。 noun は place に います。
using a range of verbs related to daily activities, for example, 行きます、 見ます、 たべます、 かきます、 よみます、 ききます、 はなします、 します
understanding and responding to formulaic expressions that use て form, such as 見て ください。 トイレに 行っても いい ですか 。
creating cohesion and flow using conjunctions, for example, そして、 それから、 でも
knowing how to count 一～千
using common counters and classifiers such as ～人、 ～さい、 ～がつ、 ～時
understanding the use of こそあどseries in concrete contexts, for example, これ、 それ、 あれ、 どれ
using basic time expressions such as days of the week and months, for example, まい日、 ときどき
building vocabulary that relates to familiar environments such as the classroom, family and personal world and that can be used for cross-curricular content learning
understanding the use of the prefixes お and ご before some words to indicate respect, for example, おなまえは？、ごかぞく
understanding that the words for family members are different for one’s own family and for other people’s families, for example, お母さん、母
identifying similarities and differences in Japanese and English grammatical rules relating to word order or the use of elements such as pronouns
