中條, 清美

カトウ, クリス

Chujo, Kiyomi

Kato, Chris

daily life vocabulary

英語カルタ

English 'karuta' cards

語彙選定

vocabulary selection

English textbooks used in Japanese junior and senior high schools lack sufficient daily life vocabulary; words such as faucet, thermometer and crosswalk. In this study 'karuta', a traditional Japanese card game, was developed to teach daily life vocabulary to Japanese junior high school and senior high school students. The target words for our karuta were statistically selected based on corpus linguistics techniques. The karuta cards are made up of two types: picture cards (e-fuda) and reading cards (yomi-fuda). Both cards produced in this study are different from ordinary ones. The 'reading cards' include hints about the target word such as its shape, color, size, usage, environment, habitat, etc. Students listen to these hints read one after another by their instructor and quickly choose the corresponding picture card from an array of cards in front of them. Thanks to the large number and extensive variety of hints listed on the reading cards, the karuta can be used with students of different English levels and different cognitive abilities. In addition, the picture cards provide beautiful photos taken by professional photographers. The photos clearly indicate the objects and ideas that a target word refers to. It was expected that these cards would help students understand the meaning of the words and motivate them to learn more vocabulary. The karuta developed was used at high school and its efficacy was measured. The result of a word test showed that the students learned a significant amount of daily life vocabulary. The result of a questionnaire revealed that they had enjoyed the activities using karuta cards. Based on these results we concluded that students benefited from the karuta activity that provided an opportunity for exposure to English while lowering their affective filter.