Knowledge Bank

Contextualized script rehearsals and drills play a core part in classroom teaching using Performed Culture Approach (PCA) (Noda and Walker 2009, Christensen and Warnick 2006). These activities are meant to be the starting point in preparation for more open-ended activities that are contextualized and culturally appropriate, but emphasis is often placed more on structured activities. The purpose of this paper is to share ways to implement open-ended tasks that can stem from structured classroom activities in PCA curricula. The implementation of structured pair work, variation, expansion, open conversation, and open-ended tasks for oral interviews will be shared using sample scripts from NihonGO NOW! (Noda, Wetzel, Marcus, Luft, Tsuchiya and Itomitsu 2020). Suggestions are made to provide guidance in a daily grading rubric for contextualized language experimentation and more teacher training and resources to help teachers create and conduct open-ended activities in PCA teaching.