On November 3, 2018, Yang Linghuang, a student from the Japanese Department of the College of Foreign Languages, participated in the 31st Shanghai University Students' Japanese Language Talent Presentation Competition and won the Encouragement Award. The competition is co-organized by Shanghai Education Association for International Exchange and Kyoto University of Foreign Studies in Japan, and has been held since 1987, and this year is the 31st. This year is the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan, and from this year, the contest was changed from a Japanese speech contest to a Japanese talent presentation contest, consisting of two parts: an essay in the morning and a PowerPoint presentation in the afternoon. The topics of the proposed essay were distributed before the start of the competition on the day of the competition, and were scored in terms of both essay content and Japanese grammar, accounting for 30% of the total score. This year's topic was to write a research plan for a professor, assuming that you were applying to a Japanese university for a master's degree. In the afternoon, the contestants gave a PowerPoint presentation for 7 minutes on one of the topics I think about Japanese education (what I think about Japanese education) and I think about Chinese education (what I think about Chinese education). Points will be awarded in terms of persuasiveness, investigative and analytical ability, presentation/uniqueness, language ability, and appearance, and will account for 70% of the total score. Eighteen contestants selected from various universities in Shanghai competed on the same stage.
In the afternoon presentation session, the contestants investigated the current situation of teaching Chinese as a foreign language from their own feelings in learning Japanese and communicating with Japanese friends, and gave informative and persuasive presentations to explain their opinions on Japanese language education or Chinese language education. Yang Linghuang focused on the problem that teachers' perceived learning objectives do not match the actual interests of young students in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and suggested that buzzwords can be used as an entry point to arouse students' interest in learning, improve the effectiveness of Chinese teaching, and enable learners to communicate better. The presentation content was fresh, the PPT was beautifully produced, the Japanese pronunciation was beautiful, the on-stage performance was natural, and the students showed good Japanese usage skills. Through the instructors' careful guidance and the contestants' own hard practice in the past few months, the Japanese composition idea, investigation and analysis ability, and expression ability have all been greatly improved. Through the fierce competition with the contestants from other institutions, not only did they practice their Japanese speaking skills and broaden their horizons, but they also sharpened their personalities to become more mature and stronger. Through the observation, teachers also got a good opportunity to learn, which will play a good role in promoting the teaching in the future.
(Reported by the College of Foreign Languages office; Written by Xu Xiuzi; Translated by Li Huixian)
