Ethnographic Case Study

Overall, I really enjoyed doing the case study and narrative with my students of the Japanese language. In the case of university level class, relationship between a teacher and a student tends to be distant, compared to that in elementary and secondary. University teachers usually do not have a lot of personal information of their students. Through this case study, I could see many aspects of my students, such as how my students have grown up, how they feel, and what they like. Even though the student I chose to observe was the same student that I talked to for the previous interview, there were still many to be learned about the student. I always enjoy observing class and communicate with students.

The student who I observed for case study and had an interview for my ethnographic narrative was the same student I talked to for previous interview. She is a very studious student who is always willing to help me with assisting my other students. I have almost 30 students in my Japanese 1010 class, which can be considered too many for elementary level language class. It is very hard to correct all errors students made all by myself during class activity. I have never asked her to help other classmates while they are working on an activity, but she provides a cue and corrects pronunciation of other students. It may be because she likes learning languages. She has been studying French, German, and Japanese, and wants to be a translator for those languages. Her brothers are also learning languages. Because of her environment, she is very motivated to learn and helpful.

Case study was very helpful for me to get to know more about specific environment and people. If I did not conduct case study for this assignment, I would not know much about her, such as what she likes, who she likes in a family, where she lives, and so on. I could learn about her strengths and taught me how I can foster them. Another reason why case study is applicable is that teachers or/and observer can see students who are behaving as usual. They do not need to let those students know about observation undertaking. Of course, teachers should watch each student all the time in class, but observation can allow teachers to focus on what they are looking for through the observation. You cannot take action to improve your practice or resolve problems unless you know what is wrong with it.

I also conducted an interview for ethnographic narrative with the student after the case study on the same day. I really enjoyed talking with her, because she seemed she was having fun with talking to me about herself. It is very important for teachers to know what kind of environment students are living in, so that they can understand the students more. The student I talked with has a mother who has physical disability who always needs a help. She loves spending time with her because her mother is very interesting for her. Her twin younger brothers also motivate her to learn languages. All of them are learning Japanese at college. (Yes, I was so happy when I heard that!! :))

It is always hard to deal with a student who has better comprehension and proficiency of the target language than other students. The student I observed had a higher level of understanding of the Japanese language. During my observation, grammatical mistakes were rarely seen while she was speaking, but because of her higher Japanese proficiency, the tasks provided seemed to be too easy and not challenging enough for her. In order to keep the student from boredom or becoming unmotivated in class, I should consider how I can utilize her Japanese ability at the same time as helping other students. The tasks we currently do in class seem to be too easy and boring for her. I always have a conflict inside me to meet her needs over other students’ Japanese proficiency. As a language teacher, I need to take other students Japanese proficiency into consideration of what kinds of and how activities should be done. In order to utilize her Japanese proficiency, I can ask her to correct other students with me during activities, and/or provide her extra work to complete after her classroom activities have been completed. These actions will make her a stronger Japanese speaker, as well as aid the students in my class with someone who understands the difficulties of learning a language for the first time.