Integrating Japanese teaching, public engagement and outreach

NEWS |

On Friday 24th January 2020, Pembroke College hosted 50 Year 10 & 12 students from Dartford Grammar School (DGS) for a Japanese Studies at Oxford taster day. Following the success of this initiative’s first iteration in November 2018 that welcomed 15 Year 12 students from DGS, both sides agreed to continue and expand the programme.

DGS is an ideal partner due to its unique approach to language education. All students take either Japanese or Mandarin from Year 7 meaning that the school boasts one of the highest numbers of Japanese learners in the UK. In 2017, DGS introduced a new Japanese Excellence Programme, a highly intensive language course designed to prepare 35 selected students for an early GCSE entry in Year 10. The first cohort of Year 10s all joined the Japanese Studies taster day at Pembroke.

The students participated in lectures and tutorials delivered by volunteering faculty members on an array of engaging subjects including robots and Japanese society, classical Japanese and hip hop, and post 3.11 trauma literature. In addition to an ‘Oxford hall’ lunch experience, there was also an Oxford-style networking ‘soft drinks reception’ where 15 current Oxford undergraduate and postgraduate students mingled with the DGS teenagers to informally discuss Japanese language learning, Japan-related opportunities and life at the university.

DGS Japanese Teachers Katy Simpson and Lucy Tasker, and Deputy Head Teacher Stuart Harrington, commented that the event would have a large and lasting impact on their pupils at key points in their secondary school careers.

The Oxford student and researcher volunteers equally found the day’s outreach activities inspiring, challenging and mutually beneficial. The event gave the Oxford participants valuable opportunities to develop skills in communicating their work to diverse audiences. For example, Kaori Nishizawa, instructor in Japanese at Oxford, incorporated her postgraduate level Japanese language teaching into a session for the DGS Year 10s.

One Oxford Master’s student had the chance to present their research area in Japanese literature and then work together with the Year 10s to practice translating a set passage from the text. Pembroke PhD History candidate Warren Stanislaus, who organised and led the day, commented: “Such examples of collaborative learning can provide exciting new case studies for ways in which to integrate outreach and public engagement into the curriculum.”

For a list of acknowledgements for people who helped to organise the day, please click here.

To view the full itinery of the day, please click here.