Guided Inductive/ Higher Order Approach Sample
You will first be presented with some sample dialogues that introduce new grammar patterns. You
will be asked to answer a few questions about what you observe. From here, you will be presented with
detailed information regarding the new patterns, and lastly there will be a few brief exercises.
The following three mini-dialogues might be heard among two friends:
Kore wa, atarashii hon?
N (yes), atarashii hon da yo.
Sore wa, omoshiroi?
N (yes), omoshiroi yo.
Nishida-san wa sensei?
N (yes), sensei da yo.
What do you think each sentence is saying?
1. ____These would appear as boxes in the program__________
“Check your answer” box here
1b. __________________________________________________________ Check
2. _____________________________________________________________ Check
2b. ______________________________________________________________ Check
3. __The program will detect if they’ve typed in random letters in quickly and force the student to
pause before checking – this feature will operate throughout._______________________ Check
3b. ______________________________________________________________ Check
The sentences above are in the direct, or plain, style of speech. This style is used among close friends and
family. What differences do you notice in the way these sentences are structured versus the polite
sentences you are more familiar with?
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Take another quick look at the three mini-dialogues among friends:
Kore wa, atarashii hon?
N (yes), atarashii hon da yo.
Sore wa, omoshiroi?
N (yes), omoshiroi yo.
Nishida-san wa sensei?
N (yes), sensei da yo.
What do you think the da found in the first and third dialogues does? __________________________
_______________________________________________________________________ Check
What would you guess is the polite partial-equivalent of da? _________________________________
________________________________________________________________________ Check
You’ll notice that there is no da in the second example sentence. Why do you think that is? How is the
second sentence different from the first and third?
__________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________ Check
Upon completion (the checking along the way is optional by the way), the student is then
taken to another series of screens to read an explicit grammar instruction. The one I have
included is a modified version of what is found in the Japanese 101 textbook at BYU. I
have replaced most of the metalinguistic terms with more familiar words to be more in
line with Krashen’s i+1. I want the 1 part of that equation to be the concepts and not the
terms, lest it becomes i+5.
Verify patterns
Da is the direct-style of the copula desu “to be.” Unlike desu, da only functions as a
copula/verb. Da occurs immediately following a noun, a na-adjective, or a phrase-particle,
but never following an adjectival. Thus we see:
kore da
direct-style equivalent of kore desu
dame da
direct-style equivalent of dame desu
soo da
direct-style equivalent of soo desu
san-ji kara* da
direct-style equivalent of san-ji kara desu
*kara = from/starting at/since
Da is not needed when following direct-style verbs and i-adjectives, as we saw in the
second mini-dialogue.
tigau
“it’s different”
ookii
“it’s big”
I don’t want to have too many points included on each page, but I also don’t want to have
too many of these mini pages. You can expect to see no more than 3 of these mini pages
with no more than 4 rules/patterns/exceptions per page.
Verify Patterns (continued)
While verbs are made distal/polite by using the –masu ending, adjectivals and nominals
require you to add the distal/polite-style marker desu.
tigau
>
tigaimasu
takai
>
takai desu
onaji da
>
onaji desu
Note also that direct-syle verbals and adjectivals form questions simply by adding
question intonation. Nominal-ending questions will do the same, even though the
predicate (in this case da) is lost. For this reason, the first sentences of each of the minidialogues on the previous page ended as follows:
…hon?
…omoshiroi?
…sensei?
You may also choose to drop da when it is either at the end of the sentence or is followed
by a sentence-final particle. Thus,
soo desu
>
soo da, or just soo
soo desu ne >
soo da ne, or just soo ne
However, sou desu kedo can only go to soo da kedo, since kedo is not a sentencefinal particle.
After verifying the patterns the student is lead to a mini quiz to test their understanding of
what has been covered. The quiz is not for grading purposes, but merely to help the
learner discover which patterns, rules, or exceptions they are still struggling with.
The quizzes would include matching and fill in the blank, but not grammaticality tests
because recent literature frowns on their use.
The student will be able to see their results. Each result will include a link back to the
verify patterns section that includes that pattern. The related sections will be highlighted.
There will be a new button available, however, that says “see more examples?” which
will give the student the opportunity to view the grammar pattern in new contexts.