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Have
you used skits in your Japanese class?
Skits are an effective teaching tool, as it is not always easy
to create a natural setting for students to interact with each
other in Japanese. Not only can skits provide an opportunity
for students to interact in a variety of situations in Japanese;
they can also enable students to meaningfully use the language
they have learnt in the classroom. Moreover, through skits,
students of various levels can learn cooperatively in an enjoyable,
non-threatening environment, and can showcase their learning
to a wide audience. In recent years, we have produced two kinds
of skit collections, one based on Japanese stories and one on
Western stories.
Activity Resources :
- Special Edition
1-Skits (stories included the Big Turnip, Cinderella)
- Special Edition
5-Japanese Skits 2 (stories included The Story of the Zodiac,
Ninja)
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These
Activity Resources are now available on line at http://www.jpf.org.au/slc/index.html.
You may decide which type of skit to use depending on your
purpose. If your intention is to introduce Japanese culture,
you may choose a Japanese story; but if you would like to
use a skit as a presentation for a school event, you may choose
to use a well-known non-Japanese children's story which can
easily be understood by an audience with or without knowledge
of Japanese.
However, only a limited number of stories is available in
skit form, and ready-made skits are not all suited to every
class situation (numbers of students, language levels, etc).
Moreover, some of the skits are too long or involve too much
preparation, and you may want something short and simple to
fit into a lesson. In those cases, it is better for you to
write your own skits to suit your students' needs. You may
think writing skits is time consuming, but in fact it can
be done quite quickly and easily. In this issue, I would like
to show you a simple way to write your own skits.
Having decided to make your own skit, you will need to ask
yourself the following questions. The answers to these questions
will be the basis for deciding what story to use, how many
characters to create, and what sentence structure and vocabulary
to use.
- Is there any
story related to the topic/theme you are teaching? eg. たなばた
- How many students
are in the class? eg. 20 students
- Which functions,
vocabulary and sentence patterns have you taught? eg. greetings,
likes/dislikes, weather, months...
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Below are 4 simple
steps to creating skits. I will apply them to the story of たなばた.
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Step
1: Write a summary of the story in English
Step 2: Divide the English story into sections
Step 3: Write a conversation in Japanese for each
section
Step 4: Write the acting instructions in English.
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 For
the first step, I have written the たなばた story
in English as shown below. This will become the narrator's script.
There are two reasons for writing the narrator's script in English:
it is easier for the performing students to grasp the whole
story in a limited time frame, and it helps an audience with
no Japanese knowledge to understand the plot. However, you may
choose to have bilingual narration for the presentation. For
the second step, I have divided the story into different sections,
as marked with //. |
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| This
story comes from a Chinese folk legend about two
stars, the Weaver Star, Vega, and the Cowherd Star,
Altair. Once upon a time, there was a weaver girl,
Orihime, whose job it was to weave kimono for the
gods. One day, Orihime met the cowherd, Hikoboshi,
and they fell in love. Orihime saw Hikoboshi every
day. // The gods became angry when they saw that
Orihime was not working. They ordered Orihime and
Hikoboshi to live separately on opposite sides of
the Milky Way, allowing them to meet only once a
year on 7th July. // If it rains on 7th July they
cannot meet, so Orihime cries, and it rains even
harder with Orihime's tears. // It is said that
if the night sky on the 7th July is clear and you
can see the Milky Way in the sky, Orihime can meet
her beloved Hikoboshi. // |
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From
the story, you will decide on the characters (who and how many)
and create dialogues in Japanese for each situation. The numbers
of characters depend on how many students you have in your class.
In this example, I have 20 students in the class so I have created
the following characters:
Narrator (2), Orihime (1), Hikoboshi (1), Gods (2), January
~December (12), Sun (1), Rain (1)
The example dialogue is very basic, but you can create/extend
the dialogue to suit your students' language level. This example
can be extended by Hikoboshi and Orihime introducing themselves
more fully (age, birthdays, likes/dislikes). However, the dialogue
should not be too long or complicated. It is actually better
to make it short and simple, so that students can say the lines
by heart when acting. It is also a good idea to repeat the same
words or patterns if possible. |
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| [Section
1] |
| Narrator: |
This
story comes from a Chinese folk legend about
two stars, the Weaver Star, Vega, and the
Cowherd Star, Altair. Once upon a time, there
was a weaver girl, Orihime, whose job it was
to weave kimono for the gods. One day, Orihime
met Hikoboshi and they fell in love. |
| Hikoboshi: |
こんにちは、ひこぼしです。 |
| Orihime:
|
こんにちは、おりひめです。 |
| Hikoboshi: |
すきです。 |
| Orihime: |
すきです。 |
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The
last step is to write the acting instructions in English. When
you are writing the instructions for Japanese skits, it is important
to include body language appropriate to Japanese culture. For
example, bowing, not hugging, and so on. The acting instructions
are highlighted below. |
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| [Section
1] |
| Orihime
is weaving |
| Narrator:
|
This
story comes from a Chinese folk legend.................
............. saw
Hikoboshi everyday. |
| Hikoboshi
meets Orihime. |
| Hikoboshi: |
こんにちは、ひこぼしです。Bows
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| Orihime:
|
こんにちは、おりひめです。Bows |
| Hikoboshi: |
すきです。 Holds
Orihime's hands |
| Orihime:
|
すきです。
Orihime smiles |
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| Cast:
Orihime / Hikoboshi / Gods / 12 months / Sun / Rain
/ Narrator |
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| Orihime
is weaving |
Narrator:
|
This
story comes from a Chinese folk legend about two stars,
the Weaver Star, Vega, and the Cowherd Star, Altair. Once
upon a time, there was a weaver girl, Orihime, whose job
it was to weave kimono for the gods. One day Orihime met
the cowherd, Hikoboshi, and they fell in love. Orihime
saw Hikoboshi every day. |
| Hikoboshi
meets Orihime |
| Hikoboshi: |
こんにちは、ひこぼしです。Bows |
 |
| Orihime: |
こんにちは、おりひめです。Bows |
| Hikoboshi: |
すきです。 Holds
Orihime's hands |
| Orihime: |
すきです。 Orihime
smiles |
Narrator:
|
The gods became angry when they saw that Orihime was not
working. They ordered Orihime and Hikoboshi to live separately
on opposite sides of Amanogawa (the Milky Way), allowing
them to meet only once a year on 7th July. |
| Gods: |
だめです。God
separates Hikoboshi and Orihime |
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| Orihime: |
さようなら。Waves
hand |
| Hikoboshi: |
さようなら。Waves
hand |
| Narrator: |
If it rains on 7th July they cannot meet, so it is said
that Orihime cries and it rains even harder with Orihime's
tears |
| July
and Rain hold up flashcards and announce themselves |
| July: |
７がつです。 |
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| Rain: |
あめです。 |
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| Narrator: |
It is said that if the night sky on the 7th July is clear
and you can see the Milky Way in the sky, Orihime can
meet her beloved Hikoboshi. |
| The
12 months (August - July) and Sun hold up flashcards and
announce themselves |
| August: |
８がつです。 |
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| September: |
９がつです。 |
| October: |
１０がつです。 |
| November: |
１１がつです。 |
| December: |
１２がつです。 |
| January: |
１がつです。 |
| February:
|
２がつです。 |
| March: |
３がつです。 |
| April: |
４がつです。 |
| May: |
５がつです。 |
| June: |
６がつです。 |
| July: |
７がつです。 |
| Sun: |
はれです。 |
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Orihime
and Hikoboshi approach each other and hold hands. |
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This
section co-ordinated by HimikoNegishi-Wood
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