How to improve speaking? (1 Viewer)

[Masaken]

I am doing the HSC for Japanese Continuers this year (accelerated), and have completed the Preliminary year, and due to the lockdown formal examinations were cancelled.

I've been trying to do small chunks of Japanese during the holidays on a regular basis, however I have been avoiding trying to focus on speaking a lot -- despite it being the worst out of the other skills (writing, reading, listening, all three of which I feel I am doing very well at). What I've noticed is no matter how hard I try or prepare, when someone gives me a speaking question, the words never come out of my mouth because my mind instantly goes blank and doesn't know what to say, or I settle for simple sentences without the depth needed for the higher marks, despite doing rough plans on what details I could be including in my answers.

I've decided I'm going to actually put some improvement into my speaking, so at least when I get back to school, I'm a lot better than the bumbling mess I am at speaking (if my first assessment task had speaking on it, I would have been so screwed). I don't understand what I'm doing wrong, that whenever I answer a speaking question I end up being a mess. How would I improve my speaking skills, slowly and steadily? I've begun making dot points for different topics and trying to create different questions on certain topics for speaking, as well as trying to incorporate the feedback I received on an informal assessment for speaking I did half a year ago on Zoom. But I feel like it's making no difference, and I'm missing something. Help, please?

 

[Constantspy977]

idk if this will help, but maybe create some interview questions and try to memorise your answers. I did Japanese for yr 8 and we had this speaking task for an interview, I basically memorised a lot of general interview questions and used them in the interview, there were some questions I didn't expect but nonetheless, it helped. But that was in yr 8 idk how hard it is in yr 11 lol

 

[Masaken]

idk if this will help, but maybe create some interview questions and try to memorise your answers. I did Japanese for yr 8 and we had this speaking task for an interview, I basically memorised a lot of general interview questions and used them in the interview, there were some questions I didn't expect but nonetheless, it helped. But that was in yr 8 idk how hard it is in yr 11 lol

Memorising my answers was a consideration, but unfortunately I'm not the kind of student who has the motivation to remember the answers to a ton of questions and follow-ups with plenty of different variations to them. I am working on making interview questions for myself (and using questions from my class drive, there are tons of them), but my main aim is that I can answer questions on the fly and be ready to adapt for any variation or follow-up.

Man I wish it was still Year 8 level for speaking sometimes :')

 

[jimmysmith560]

Practice is essential when attempting to improve your speaking ability. It enables you to become more comfortable with using the Japanese language, leading to a greater ability to express a wide range of ideas by developing spoken responses that are more complex in nature. Of course, this applies to all HSC language subjects.

An approach I believe is useful for non-native speakers who are attempting to enhance their speaking ability would be to observe numerous questions and ensure that they fully understand what the questions are asking. Since this is regarding preparations, translating questions into English may assist in supporting this understanding. Subsequently, students can follow the following pattern/structure:

If applicable, begin your response with either yes or no.
↓
Clarify your perspective (in one sentence).
↓
State the reasons for your perspective.
↓
If applicable, provide examples supporting those reasons.
​

As part of your preparations, you may wish to start by following the above pattern/structure in order to first develop a response in English, then translate and practise its equivalent response in Japanese. This will assist you in ensuring that you have ideas ready, irrespective of the question. The more you practise, the larger the variety of ideas that you will retain with respect to each topic, and the higher your ability to deliver more complex spoken responses in Japanese will become.

I hope this helps!

 

[Masaken]

Practice is essential when attempting to improve your speaking ability. It enables you to become more comfortable with using the Japanese language, leading to a greater ability to express a wide range of ideas by developing spoken responses that are more complex in nature. Of course, this applies to all HSC language subjects.

An approach I believe is useful for non-native speakers who are attempting to enhance their speaking ability would be to observe numerous questions and ensure that they fully understand what the questions are asking. Since this is regarding preparations, translating questions into English may assist in supporting this understanding. Subsequently, students can follow the following pattern/structure:

If applicable, begin your response with either yes or no.
↓
Clarify your perspective (in one sentence).
↓
State the reasons for your perspective.
↓
If applicable, provide examples supporting those reasons.
​

As part of your preparations, you may wish to start by following the above pattern/structure in order to first develop a response in English, then translate and practise its equivalent response in Japanese. This will assist you in ensuring that you have ideas ready, irrespective of the question. The more you practise, the larger the variety of ideas that you will retain with respect to each topic, and the higher your ability to deliver more complex spoken responses in Japanese will become.

I hope this helps!

Alright, thank you! I'll try to incorporate that into my speaking practice.

Do you have any tips on how to get more confident in speaking? I also feel like lack of confidence may be a reason as to why I'm struggling to speak :')

 

[jimmysmith560]

Alright, thank you! I'll try to incorporate that into my speaking practice.

Do you have any tips on how to get more confident in speaking? I also feel like lack of confidence may be a reason as to why I'm struggling to speak :')

No worries!

A lack of confidence when attempting to provide a spoken response could be due to a range of reasons, such as:

• A link exists between a lack of ideas and a lack of confidence, i.e. the former can cause the latter. This seems to apply to your particular case since you mentioned that your mind instantly goes blank and doesn't know what to say.
• There may be a partial or complete lack of understanding of a particular question, which can possibly leave a student in a state of confusion (as they are not sure of what exactly to talk about). This can also impact a student's confidence when attempting to provide a spoken response in the target language.
• A lack of confidence may also be the result of a lack of sufficient exposure to the target language (in this case, the speaking component), which also seems to apply to your particular case since you mentioned that you have been avoiding trying to focus on speaking a lot.

Based on the above, here are some tips that can potentially assist you in becoming more confident as you develop spoken responses in Japanese:

• Work on enhancing your understanding of spoken Japanese - This constitutes a starting point in boosting your confidence. Trying to listen to a speaker while thinking of how to respond is an ineffective way of listening. A complete understanding of a question or statement would make it easier for you to respond in a more accurate manner. This understanding can be established and enhanced by listening to a range of Japanese speakers discussing topics similar to those assessed in Japanese Continuers. There may be several YouTube videos that can help you with this.
• Avoid using filler words - While the use of filler words (such as "um") can be either voluntary or involuntary and is not uncommon even among native speakers, avoiding their use can demonstrate to the examiner that you are confident when providing spoken responses in Japanese.
• Ensure that you are correcting yourself as you practise - There seems to be a misconception that when learning a foreign language, mistakes should be avoided. The notion here is that making mistakes is inevitable and is an important part of the learning process. What matters is your ability to identify said mistakes and make necessary corrections where required. Self-correction as you speak, say, in a speaking exam environment, is viewed positively by the examiner, because it indicates to them that you have a high level of self-awareness and can simultaneously assist you in becoming more confident.
• Practise speaking Japanese with someone else - This can address the potential lack of exposure to the Japanese language. This could be done with a friend, a fellow student/classmate or a tutor. Coupled with substantial practice, this also constitutes an effective way of becoming more confident when speaking Japanese.

 

[Masaken]

Keeping those in mind, let's hope my speaking skills get better after the grind haha. And I suppose avoiding speaking simply because I was bad at it and didn't want to make more mistakes was gonna bite me back in the end lol. Thank you!

 

[dan964]

Japanese Speaking Tips

 

[Masaken]

I do Japanese Continuers too (accelerating so I take the HSC for it this year). What I did in year 10 was the Preliminary Course, but what I did in Year 9 (had to learn two years' worth of Japanese in one because accelerated), where my school used the Obento series (Deluxe for Year 7-8, Supreme for Year 9 (and 10, if you were in a non accelerated Japanese stream). What we did then in Supreme was expanding on basics, but plain form was not introduced until the very end of the book (all the sentences were polite form for 95% of it). During the Preliminary Course, plain form was of course expanded on more, with the vocab verbs slowly transitioning from polite to plain, to completely plain by Unit 3. (If you want, I can dm you an Obento grammar list that covers Year 7-10 grammar, as that is assumed knowledge for the Preliminary Course.)

For self-studying Japanese, I highly recommend a textbook and the accompanying workbook, if you don't have them already. Even though it's old, my school uses Wakatta because the grammar and explanations are good, and there is an extensive list of vocab, phrases and good reading passages. Using flash cards on Quizlet or Anki for your vocab is also a recommendation.

Alongside getting yourself up to speed with Japanese, I advise you to go through the Japanese Beginners past papers (not Continuers, Beginners). Since you won't have access to the Wakatta listening, you should practise your listening with Beginners first (as well as ask your teacher for listening resources, for listening audios that are more towards Continuers level as you progress).

 

[jimmysmith560]

Regarding the orientation and your fellow students, Continuers language courses (including Japanese Continuers) are mainly targeted at students learning the target language as a second (or additional) language. Generally speaking, students taking a Continuers language course(s) have studied the target language(s) for 200 - 400 hours before the start of year 11. This possibly explains your reaction to the abilities of your peers at the NSW School of Languages. There seems to be a significant difference in the effectiveness of the structure of language courses prior to Stage 6 and Stage 6 language courses. Schools appear to exert more control on the content and delivery of language courses from Stage 1 to Stage 5, despite the fact that there is a clear syllabus for those academic years. On the other hand, schools generally have to closely follow the syllabus of each Stage 6 language course (for instance, Japanese Beginners, Japanese Continuers and Japanese Extension), and cannot exert significant control over the content and delivery of language courses, especially considering the fact that learning accomplished in the Preliminary Course and HSC Course of a language subject ultimately leads students to the HSC exam of a particular language course(s), which is an important thing to consider, making the structure of Stage 6 language courses considerably more effective.

In addition to the above advice, I would suggest making efficient use of resources that you will be provided with by NSL, as those are of good quality and, combined with the resources suggested above, will result in an array of resources for you to utilise throughout year 11 and year 12. Despite the fact that you are taking Japanese Continuers via distance education, NSL generally delivers the subjects that it offers to a good standard, meaning that, provided you will be regularly studying and putting in the required effort, you will hopefully face no problems with adjusting to learning a language via distance education. Your mum, being fluent in Japanese, is also a good thing since you will be able to seek her advice/assistance with potential questions relevant to Japanese Continuers when needed.

I hope this helps!

 

[Masaken]

The first photo is the Obento grammar. Second photo is a list of Continuers grammar from the syllabus (ticks are just for me, so ignore them whoops)