1. CRICOS #00212K THE EFFECT OF REDUCING TEACHING HOURS ON TERTIARY BEGINNERS’ JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDIES Judith Ascione and Nicolette Bramley University of Canberra

2. CRICOS #00212K University of Canberra

3. CRICOS #00212K DEFAT Language training requirements. Languages categorised by level of difficulty Level 1 Survival Level 2 Level 3 Professional Group 1 Bislama, Tok Pisin 3 weeks (90 hrs) 5 weeks (150 hrs) 6 weeks (180 hrs) Group 2 French, German, Indonesian, Malay, Greek, Portugese, Spanish 10 wks (300 hrs) 22 wks (660 hrs) 40 wks (1200 hrs) Group 3 Khmer, Burmese, Laotion, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese 14 wks (420 hrs) 36 wks (1080 hrs) 56 wks (1680 hrs) Group 4 Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese 16 wks (480 hrs) 44 wks (1320hrs) 88 wks (2640 hrs)

4. CRICOS #00212K LOTE at Australian Universities Tertiary LOTE courses face budgetary constraints Japanese suffers higher attrition than other LOTE languages (Nettlebeck, Byron, Clyne, Elder, Hajek, Levy, McLaren, Möllering and Wigglesworth 2009) Causal link between the reduction in contact hours and language proficiency (Nettlebeck, Byron, Clyne, Hajek, Levy, Lo Bianco, McLaren and Wigglesworth 2007)

5. CRICOS #00212K UC Beginners’Japanese content and assessment Content –Survival conversation –Introduction to writing system Assessment –Workbook – self study –Written tests (including listening) x 3 –Oral tests x 2 –Written exam

6. CRICOS #00212K Research questions Question 1: Were there a higher proportion of students who discontinued either before or after the census date, thus not completing the unit in 2009?

7. CRICOS #00212K Question 2: Did the mean total mark reduce in 2009?

8. CRICOS #00212K Question 3: Were the overall grades lower in 2009?

9. CRICOS #00212K Figure 1: Male and Female Students

10. Figure 2: Domestic vs International students

11. Question 1 results YearDiscontinued Percentage Discontinued Total of all Students 20072129%72 20082230%73 20095547%118

12. CRICOS #00212K Significant difference between 2009 and 2007/2008 The p-value for this test was 0.04.

13. Question 2 results: Boxplots of the Total Marks for each Year

14. CRICOS #00212K Question 2 results The mean total mark significantly reduced in 2009. ANOVA test that showed that the mean total mark for 2009 was significantly lower than 2007 and 2008. (F = 6.312, p <.005)

15. Question 3 results: Percentage of Grades for each Year

16. CRICOS #00212K Question 3 results The overall grades were significantly lower in 2009. Chi-Squared test (  2 = 16.768, df =8, p ≤.033) High Distinction (HD) (85-100%) in 2009 decreased to 50% of the 2007 and 2008 Pass marks (50-64%) in 2009 more than four times as much as the average number of the 2007 and 2008 Pass marks.

17. CRICOS #00212K Conclusion Lower overall proficiency in 2009 Higher attrition rate Flow on effects for higher year levels