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THE EFFECT OF REDUCING TEACHING HOURS ON TERTIARY BEGINNERS’

JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDIES

Judith Ascione and Nicolette Bramley

University of Canberra

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University of Canberra

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DEFAT Language training requirements.

Languages categorised by level of difficulty Level 1

Survival

Level 2 Level 3

Professional

Group 1

Bislama, Tok Pisin

3 weeks

(90 hrs)

5 weeks

(150 hrs)

6 weeks

(180 hrs)

Group 2

French, German, Indonesian, Malay, Greek,

Portugese, Spanish

10 wks

(300 hrs)

22 wks

(660 hrs)

40 wks

(1200 hrs)

Group 3

Khmer, Burmese, Laotion, Russian, Polish,

Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese

14 wks

(420 hrs)

36 wks

(1080 hrs)

56 wks

(1680 hrs)

Group 4

Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese

16 wks

(480 hrs)

44 wks

(1320hrs)

88 wks

(2640 hrs)

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LOTE at Australian Universities

• Tertiary LOTE courses face budgetary constraints

• Japanese suffers higher attrition than other LOTE languages (Nettlebeck, Byron, Clyne, Elder, Hajek, Levy, McLaren, Möllering and Wigglesworth 2009)

• Causal link between the reduction in contact hours and language proficiency (Nettlebeck, Byron, Clyne, Hajek, Levy, Lo Bianco, McLaren and Wigglesworth 2007)

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UC Beginners’Japanese content and assessment

• Content– Survival conversation  – Introduction to writing system

• Assessment– Workbook – self study– Written tests (including listening) x 3– Oral tests x 2 – Written exam

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Research questions

• Question 1: Were there a higher proportion of students who discontinued either before or after the census date, thus not completing the unit in 2009?

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• Question 2: Did the mean total mark reduce in 2009?

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•  Question 3: Were the overall grades lower in 2009?

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Figure 1: Male and Female Students

Figure 2: Domestic vs International students

Question 1 results

Year Discontinued Percentage

Discontinued

Total of all

Students

2007 21 29% 72

2008 22 30% 73

2009 55 47% 118

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Significant difference between 2009 and 2007/2008

The p-value for this test was 0.04.

Question 2 results: Boxplots of the Total Marks for each Year

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Question 2 results

•The mean total mark significantly reduced in 2009.

•ANOVA test that showed that the mean total mark for 2009 was significantly lower than 2007 and 2008. (F = 6.312, p < .005)

Question 3 results: Percentage of Grades for each Year

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Question 3 results

The overall grades were significantly lower in 2009.

•Chi-Squared test (2 = 16.768, df =8, p ≤.033)

•High Distinction (HD) (85-100%) in 2009 decreased to 50% of the 2007 and 2008 •Pass marks (50-64%) in 2009 more than four times as much as the average number of the 2007 and 2008 Pass marks.

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Conclusion

• Lower overall proficiency in 2009

• Higher attrition rate

• Flow on effects for higher year levels