t woul as first NOTES ON THE REVISED EDITION erience 0 with of nearly ten years claps, A period of nearly ten years elapsed between the publication of NIHONGO NO KISO / ed the and NIHONGO NO KISO I, and this led to some inconsistency in the contents, Work on “study the present revised edition was started in 1985, with the aim of harmonizing the contents of NIHONGO NO KISO Iand I and reflecting our review of our teaching methods. In sinees*) carrying out the revision, we took the following steps: Re 1, First, we revised the text contents by re-examining the basic, most frequently-used Japanese sentence patterns, vocabulary and expressions. We also restructured the entire textbook inclucing sentence patterns, example sentences, conversations and exercises, n, and ee We added a new set of exercises, ‘Renshil C’, designed to improve learners’ practical conversation ability, while retaining the strong points of NIHONGO NO KISO, such as better comprehension of sentence patterns and vocabulary through repetition of sentence tern drills. 1989 We investigated the linguistic life of technical trainees, from their arrival in Japan to ship their departure, with the kind cooperation of the trainees’ sponsor companies and train ng factories. We used the result of this survey to identify the most common situations in ‘which trainees need to speak in Japanese, and reflected these in the textbook’s ‘Conversa tion’ patterns. These ‘Conversations’ have been carefully written to provide examples of concise but highly practical and natural Japanese. 4, We tried to make the textbook easy to use for both learners and instructors, with the addition of a review page for each lesson, a grammar summary and a list of related voca bulary. 5. We emphasized the nurturing of listening comprehension at an early stage, with ‘drills! providing ample listening practice. Short stories are also provided as an aid to better reading comprehension, cary Japanese textbook SHIN NIHONGO NO KISO / is therefore an excellent element of one hundred Prepared with the above considerations in mind. It is designed for a total after extensive correction and revision during (wo hours’ study, and has been completed Years of actual use in the classroom. In spite of this, however, the Editors are afraid th criticisms and comments will be most welcome and will hell Sequent editions, Jere may still be some deficiencies. Your Ip us to continue to improve sub:EXPLANATORY NOTES 1. Structure text, ase The basic Tesi matrals fo Sin Nitongo no Kiso [consist °° 408 ext, a separate trans tion into various languages, ‘and a box set of cassette tapes/CDs. ‘The main text is available in versions--Romanized and Kanji-kana. The version Yo! choose depends on your learning ‘The translation is availabe in eleven languages, inclnding English, Chinese, Indonesian, Korean ish and Thai. The materials have been prepat and listening. They do not provide instruction 1 red with the main emphasis on conversational skills—speaking 1 reading or writing hiragana, Katakana or Kanji acters). (Chines II. Content and Method of Use 4, Main Text 4) Japanese pronunciation This section gives examples of the main points t ghoul concentrate on the major differences between Japanese and his/her mother tongue. .o which attention should be paid. The leamer: 2) Classroom expressions, greetings, and numerals ‘The learner should practice these thoroughly, since they are useful for understanding class= room instructions and daily greetings. They appear frequently in the lessons. 3) Lessons There are 25 lessons, all with the following contents: @ Sentence patterns These are the basic grammatical structures you will study in the lesson. They are given in the order they appear in the rest of the lesson. @ Example sentences ‘The basic sentence patterns are presented in the form of a mini question and answer dialogue. ‘As many as possible of the adverbs and conjunctions dealt with in the lesson are also included in the dialogue. @ Conversation These are typical conversations that trainees staying at an AOTS Training Center for a six eee orientation course have, covering the kind of topics that might come up from the begin- ning of the course to their departure for technical training at their sponsoring companies. They include everyday expressions and greetings, and are written in a plain ae They should be memorized. If time allows, the learner should also refer to the “Related vocabulary” section of the translation and use idio-visual aids to enhance his/her conve! 5 he audio: i 1 aids @ Drills The dri Bis Ee pis y divided into three levels—A, B, and C. Drill A is arranged for easy understand- grammatical structure and is laid out so as to aid visual memory. It helps the Jearnerto establish an understanding of the basic sentey nce pattern : practice inthe use of different forms and conjunctions en Mo seston, and gives junctions, then the learner's prasp of the basic sentence forms, Numbers with a §F sign indicate drills that use illustrations. Drill C is a short conversational-style dri the basic sentence patterns through working thro the sentence patterns function in actual situatio a ms as well as to enhance the learner's conversa- tional abilities These drills should not simply be read aloud as written or merely repeated. It is desirabl that they be practiced in a variety of ways, se : including using substitutions suitable to the learner's level © Exercises There are two types of exercises—listening ( §) ) and grammar. The listening exercises on the cassette tapes/CDs are further divided into question and answer exercises, and questions about the key poi ints o: the conversations. The listening exercises are designed to strengthen the leamer's aural ability, while the grammar exercises check comprehension of vocabulary and the grammar points of the lesson studied. The reading comprehension exercises mostly require the leamer to give a true/false response after reading a short passage made up of previously studied words and sentence patterns. ® Review This is provided to enable the learner to go over the essential points of each lesson. ® Summary At the end of the main text a summary of all the particles, verb forms, adverbs, and conjunc tions appearing in the lessons is given. Some example sentences are also given @ Index This includes classroom expressions, greetings, numerals, and the new vocabulary and expres- sions introduced in each lesson of the main text. 2. Translation The translation is divided into four parts. Part I: Essential Vocabulary bei This lists and gives the translation of the words introduced in each lesson. A set of picture cards of the vocabulary is also available separately as a teaching aid. 2 Part II: Related Vocabulary In 13 sections, this part contains useful but not Part I11: Translation This is the English translation of the following Classroom expressions, greetings, sentence patterns, & Summary at the end of the book. absolutely essential vocabulary. ;onuanciation guide, in the main text: the Pr ee rsations and the ample sentences, Cone