Adult Classes

Our Teaching Method & Approach

“Basic Japanese for Singaporeans” is a course designed for Adults / Workers / Business people by Mrs. Masako ITO and enriched by Yuko over more than 10 years of teaching. The authors state:

“In order to make learning Japanese fun, we have incorporated many illustrations and dialogues into the textbook. Also, we have prepared a variety of picture cards and games for use in in-class activities. Our aim is to create a textbook that makes learning Japanese fun for students, and we hope that both teachers and students who use our textbook will look forward to their next Japanese lesson.”

The Beginner Module (80hrs) is divided in 4 levels: Beginner 1 (20hrs), 2 (20hrs), 3 (20hrs) and 4 (20 hrs). Each level is divided in 5 lessons, each lesson two sessions of 2 hours each. This course is designed to run 2 hours per session and once or twice a week. The class will be broken into 3 parts. 1 hour will be spend working on the theory (dialog, grammar, vocabulary) and 1 hour on the practical aspects including the culture (e.g. Japanese dining or working culture etiquette...)

This course focuses on learning how to communicate in everyday situations. Through the introduction of the grammatical structures of the spoken and written language and the culture of Japan, the students will be able to understand and communicate in everyday conversations aimed at the satisfaction of concrete needs. At the end of this course, the students will be able to present themselves and others, ask questions about others and answer questions about themselves. The Officer will also learn how to interact with others in the areas of their immediate need.

Due to the high standard of Agape School of Education’s (ASE’s) coaching approach, students who have completed this course are not only confident but successful in taking the JLPT 5 & 4. The JLPT is an internationally recognised qualification in Japanese as a Foreign Language.

Learning a language needs interaction and communication during lessons. We keep our classes small so the teacher can work effectively with each student. Using role play and other situations will help to communicate confidently in Japanese.

Our teaching experience has shown us that it is important to regularly provide a measure of students' progress. It is also a means to engage our students with their learning. We also aim to support active learning rather than an assessment of learning to ensure that our assessment process is an integral part of our students' education. We strongly believe in assessment for learning, focusing on the opportunities to develop students' ability to evaluate themselves, to make judgments about their own performance and improve on it.

Therefore, our assessments are three-fold as we administer a quiz, graded assessment and a proficiency level exam.

• Quiz: The quiz will be administered at the end of Week 2 or 3, at the discretion of the teacher. The purpose of this quiz is mainly revision. It also helps the teacher and the students identify and rectify concepts that have not been well-understood by the students.
• Graded examination: Module 2 (A1), consists of an introduction and topics 1-5. Module 3 (A2) consists of topics 1-5. At the end of topics 1-4 in Module 2 and 3, a graded examination will be held. This allows the teacher and ASE to monitor the standard across the level.
• Proficiency level exam: At the end of topic 5 of Module 2 and 3, a final proficiency exam will be held. This exam is in the format of the JLPT, which not only prepares students to take the examination but also gives them the confidence to do the exam successfully.

Because we use student-centered communicative approaches in our classroom which approach include process writing, process reading, communicative competence, and whole language we can also offer to our students who are workers, business people or CEOs.