Developing Sakura - an interactive website for Japanese language learners

Abstract

A series of over 160 Web-based interactive exercises were developed from 1999 to 2002 for use by beginning-level students of Japanese language at Monash University. Designed to supplement and extend the in-class components of the course as well as provide new forms of out-of-class learning, these exercises have been made available for remote access by students and others via a website called Sakura. These online exercises fall into twelve general types, the design, and implementation of which is discussed in this article. Comparisons are made between each type of online exercise and their more conventional paper-based analogues that can be found in exercise and drill books. The advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed. Due to the ability of online exercises to provide immediate feedback, the electronic exercises demonstrate a general advantage over the paper-based. This is most evident when sound or random presentation is also incorporated since these online exercises can provide forms of practice not practicable by other means.