Jiko Hyoka or Self Assessment on Chukyu Sakubun

Rima Devi

and Idrus

Japanese Department, Universitas Andalas, Padang, Indonesia

Keywords: Self-Assessment, Jiko hyoka, Chukyu Sakubun and Composition.

Abstract: Chukyu Sakubun II is a compulsory subject at Japanese Department Andalas University. Chukyu Sakubun

II focuses on Japanese writing practice of the student in the sixth semester. Even though the student has

learned Japanese grammar to intermediate level, they could not yet grasp the use of grammar in composition

or sakubun. Later we as teachers improved our teaching method and assessment. We used a jiko hyoka or

self-assessment method to assess the student comprehension of sakubun. Students file the weekly task, peer

responds comments, and revised task and self-assessment result in a portfolio and conduct jiko hyoka in the

midterm test and final test. We have used this method for one semester and as a result, we found that the

students improved in their ability to use sakubun. Almost all of the students commented that they enjoyed

the lectures, understood their own abilities in grammar, sakubun, and kanji. Furthermore, students could

reflect on how they could improve their Japanese language skills.

1 INTRODUCTION

Chukyu Sakubun II is a compulsory subject in the

Japanese Department of the Humanities Faculty of

Universitas Andalas. Chukyu Sakubun II focuses on

Japanese writing practice of the student in the sixth

semester (Idrus and Devi, 2017). This subject aims to

drill the student to make a sakubun or composition

using the Japanese grammar, vocabulary, and kanji

that they have learned in Nihongo Kiso or Japanese

grammar class. A student’s ability to apply Japanese

grammar can sharpen by the sakubun drills in Chukyu

Sakubun class. After learning in this class students

are expected to have the ability to write a composition

in Japanese and apply what they have learned to

writing a thesis, speech, memo, email and other

written texts. A student should also gain soft skills

including the intrapersonal skills of independence,

critical and analytical thinking, and the interpersonal

skills of teamwork and oral communication (Hyland,

2003).

References or teaching materials used include the

textbooks used in the grammar class Minna No

Nihongo Chukyu or Japanese Intermediate Grammar

and Writing in Japanese is Fun. In addition, this

semester the book Nihongo Raitinggu (writing in

Japanese) was used.

Research that was conducted last year showed that

one output of learning Chukyu Sakubun II was that

the student’s comprehension of composition

increased significantly after appling a peer response

method. Distribution of student grades also showed

an improvement in learning. Before the use of the

peer response method, no students obtained an A

grade, but after the students had received responses

from a peer about their composition, 50% of students

gained an A.

The next question that arises is about how to

assess the student’s progress. Up to now, assessment

relied on the learning process of a weekly task, the

midterm test, final test, and attendance. The students'

self-assessment or jiko hyoka of their learning

achievement was not used. However, the JF Standard

or Japanese language proficiency standards issued by

The Japan Foundation states that jiko hyoka or self-

assessment of of the learning process is important in

achieving the goals of learning the Japanese language

(The Japan Foundation, 2010). Learners who

understand the material being taught clearly,

understand the standard of assessment and assess the

learning process independently will be more

motivated to improve the ability. Through this jiko

hyoka method the material that has been studied every

week is filed in one portfolio and during the semester

and the end of the semester the students can look back

at the portfolio and provide an assessment of the

learning process. In this case, the student assessment

Devi, R. and Idrus, .

Jiko Hyoka or Self Assessment on Chukyu Sakubun II.

DOI: 10.5220/0008680000820085

In Improving Educational Quality Toward International Standard (ICED-QA 2018), pages 82-85

ISBN: 978-989-758-392-6

not only refers to the results but also the jiko hyoka or

self-assessment process.

2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Learning Plans

The learning plans were arranged in Rencana

Pembelajaran Semester (RPS), which is the learning

plan for one semester. The Chukyu Sakubun class was

based on last year's RPS that was the result of

improvement after conducting classroom action

research conducted over one previous semester. The

teaching method continued to include peer response.

Teachers and students in the learning process used the

RPS from last year's classroom action research result

as a reference. So in this research, the RPS revisions

were focussed on the student assessment section.

2.2 Development of Students

Assessment

1) Jiko hyoka Subsequent to Do Weekly Task: The

lectures were divided into two sections; odd and

even meetings. Lectures at even meetings

included peer response activities, and the student

received comments from their peers in the group.

After the student revised their sakubun according

to the suggestions and input from their peers, the

student conducted a jiko hyoka of their own

sakubun before and after revision.

2) Filing in Portfolio: The weekly task, comments

from peers, revised tasks based on peer's

comments and jiko hyoka were collected in one

folder as a portfolio and submitted to the teacher.

The teacher checked the student's task whether the

student had followed directions and then returned

it to the student to be kept in their portfolio folder.

Each weekly task that had been assessed by the

students themselves were put in the portfolio.

These task files were arranged sequentially based

on the meeting date.

3) Jiko hyoka in the Mid Semester Test (MST):

Students brought their portfolio to the MST and

then re-read the jiko hyoka comments from their

peers and their own comments . Then the students

conducted jiko hyoka again on their writing skills

progress over the half semester. The student's own

assessment of learning over the period became

the teacher's reference in the grading of the MST.c

4) Jiko hyoka at the End of the Semester Test (EST):

As at MST, Students brought all their portfolios to

the EST. The task files were separated according

to date. Weekly tasks done in the middle of the

second half of the semester were re-read by the

students then given an assessment. Assessment of

students in the beginning and end of the semester

were then combined to obtain the final

assessment. Students were given a final grade

refecting their development of learning during the

semester as a reference for teacher when

determining the final grade.

5) Questionnaire: Jiko Hyoka includes a

questionnaire at the end of the semester. After

submitting the portfolio and jiko hyoka results, the

students then filled out a questionnaire about their

satisfaction regarding the jiko hyoka process and

results. An open question for student comments

and suggestions to develop the learning on

Chukyu Sakubun II was included.

2.3 Classroom Action Research

Parameters

1) Learning Outcomes: Research can be considered

successful when the learning objectives are

achieved. How students provided assessment and

responded to their own sakubun is paramount.

How well students know and understand the

targets that need to be achieved in learning

Chukyu Sakubun are also important. This learning

achievement is seen from the students'

understanding and jiko hyoka result.

2) The Distribution of Final Grades: This Action

research can be considered successful if the

students attended the class regularly according to

the learning plan and obtain grades of B and

above.

3) Student Response to the Jiko hyoka: Student

response is obtained from the questionnaire.

Questionnaires are a part of assessments so that

the result of jiko hyoka is also an action research

parameter.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Learning Achievement

63 students attended the Chukyu Sakubun II classes:

38 in class A and 25 in class B. Learning was

conducted using the semester plan that had been

based on the results of a previous classrom action

research. Because students who took part in the

Chukyu Sakubun II class were students who did not

know about the peer response method, the first lecture

session explained this method and how it worked.

Jiko Hyoka or Self Assessment on Chukyu Sakubun II

The steps taken were the same as last year, which

guided students to carry out peer responses and

explained the rules and how to respond to a peer

sakubun.

3.2 Student Assessment

When using Jiko hyoka in the Chukyu Sakubun II

class, the student revises the sakubun based on the

responses received from a peer and the student

conducts a jiko hyoka of his own sakubun. The first

time students assess their own sakubun, they focus

more on improving grammar, vocabulary, and kanji.

Students were not been able to assess their own

sakubun as a whole. Assessment of the sakubun itself

and the response of peers helped students to pay

attention to matters beyond grammar to the coherence

between sentences and paragraph structure.

The questions used in the student assessment of

the sakubun as follows,

6) Write down interesting points from the

sakubun.

7) Write down points that need to be revised or

added.

8) Write down the aspects of language that need

improvements such as grammar suitability of

vocabulary and kanji.

The answers to these questions were written in

Japanese and students responded to their peer

writings and assessed their own sakubun using

Japanese. This was performed so that students could

be trained to give responses in Japanese, and this is

also a writing exercise in Japanese.

The collected sakubun in the portfolio for half a

semester consisted of three sets of sakubun. Students

read and re-assessed the three sets of sakubun in the

midterm exam. The student's assessment of the

sakubun itself is a reference to provide the mid term

grade. At this stage, students begin to recognise the

strengths and weaknesses of sakubun beyond

grammar, vocabulary or kanji alone. Students also

found that their Japanese language skills were starting

to improve. This could also be seen from the increase

in vocabulary and kanji used in their sakubun.

Jiko hyoka in the Final Semester Examination not

only assessed three sets of sakubun collected after the

mid term assessment but also included the three sets

of sakubun before so that the number of sakubun to

be assessed was six sets. Students now had a portfolio

containing six sets of sakubun, each of which consists

of sakubun according to the theme given by the

teacher, the response of the peer, the sakubun that has

been revised, and the results of the weekly jiko hyoka.

The assessment aspects that are used remained the

same in each jiko hyoka process that is assessing

points of interest from sakubun, points that needed

improvement and grammar aspects. In addition a

question was added, which was the opinion of

students about the learning process using the method

of jiko hyoka. This one question forms a questionnaire

with an open question that asks what the student

thought about the learning process using with the

method of jiko hyoka.

After analysing the results of the questionnaire, it

was found that students did not only respond to the

jiko hyoka method but also about the peer response

method. This was because students had never

participated in learning using these two methods and

there was no questionnaire provided for peer response

learning methods from last year's research. So, The

questionnaire results also included the application of

these two methods.

The students' responses were divided into two

parts according to the points that were considered

when implementing jiko hyoka namely points of

interest, points that need improvement, and aspects of

language. Interesting points and points that need

improvement were in the form of student responses

that were appreciative of the learning process so that

these two points were combined into one, namely

1) Students are pleasant and enjoy attending class

because they understand good sakubun but not

after reading peer sakubun.

2) Students know their own strengths and

weaknesses and avoid repeating the same

mistakes by making a personal note about

what needs attention.

3) Students become more active in learning and

enthusiastic and feel motivated by seeing the

development of their sakubun so that a sense

of responsibility for the study being

undertaken arises.

4) Students feel grateful to peers who have

responded to their sakubun.

5) Students feel more excited about practicing

making good to advanced sakubun.

6) Students use peer responses as references to

improve their own sakubun.

As for grammar aspects, students responded as

follows,

1) Students realize that their knowledge of

Japanese is still lacking in grammar,

vocabulary, and kanji.

2) Students feel trained to read and assess

sakubun so that knowledge of grammar,

vocabulary, and kanji increases.

ICED-QA 2018 - International Conference On Education Development And Quality Assurance

3) Students become excited about repeating

lessons that have been forgotten or not

properly understood.

Regarding the distribution of student grades, these

surpassed the expected target. Students obtained A,

A-, B +, grades only. No student obtained a B grade.

From this result it can be said that the application of

the jiko hyoka method is very effective. This method,

in addition to training and improving understanding

of Japanese, is also effective in increasing student

grades. The effectiveness of this method is also seen

from the responses of students who assessed this

teaching method positively.

3.3 Action Research Parameters

Learning achievements of Chukyu Sakubun II class

using jiko hyoka method showed very satisfactory

results. This can be explained as follows,

4) Students are more adept at assessing and

responding to both their peers and their own

sakubun.

5) Students are trained to respond in Japanese.

6) Students can see more objectively the

advantages and disadvantages of the peer

sakubun and self sakubun themselves.

7) Students understand by themselves, the points

or parts of their Japanese comprehension that

need to be improved without it being

explained one on one by the teacher.

Students are more eager to simultaneously learn to

use the peer response method of jiko hyoka.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Sakubun or composition exercises can work well and

produce the desired student outcomes if the correct

method is applied. The jiko hyoka or self-assessment

method is very suitable for Chukyu Sakubun II

classes. This method produced very satisfactory

results for both teachers and students. The jiko hyoka

method encouraged active student learning and

fostered a sense of responsibility for their studies.

REFERENCES

Hyland, K. 2003. Second Language Writing. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press

Idrus and Devi, Penggunaan Metode Peer Respond pada

Perkuliahan Chukyu Sakubun II. Prosiding Seminar

Nasional Pengembangan Pendidikan Tinggi ke-III

LP3M Universitas Andalas. Padang: Erka, 2017.

The Japan Foundation. 2010. Kaku Koto O Oshieru. Tokyo:

HitsujiShoten.

Jiko Hyoka or Self Assessment on Chukyu Sakubun II