FAQ -- Adventures in Japanese 4th Edition

1. What is new in the Fourth Edition?

➢ Textbook

• Color design and photos
• Reduced number of lessons from 16 to 12 for a more manageable curriculum
• More Kanji in Volume 1 (60+) to better prepare students for AP^®* exams
• Revised Culture Notes with Common Core and 21st Century Skills-based activities
• Text chat exercises to prepare students for AP format text chats
• Grammar exercises after each grammar note for immediate practices

➢ Workbook

• Regular lesson exercises and hiragana/katakana exercises combined into ONE workbook
• New kanji reading and writing activities
• Reformatted Listening Exercises to better prepare students for standardized tests

➢ Audio

• New audio recorded by native speakers in Tokyo

➢ Teacher’s Guide

• All teacher materials on a convenient USB flash drive—easy to carry and customize
• Tons more support for teachers! Pacing Guides, lesson organizers, standards correlations, professional development articles, and more!

➢ Companion Website

• Provides all supplementary resources for both students and teachers

2. How will the change in the number of lessons affect my curriculum? Has lots of content been deleted?

Teachers of the Third Edition should be able to adapt to the Fourth Edition without much difficulty. The major changes to the scope and sequence include:

• Basic introduction to time and dates moved to Lesson 2
• Prepositions Kara and Made introduced earlier in Lesson 7
• Some vocabulary and grammar from Lesson 15 (Third Edition) moved to Lessons 7 and 9
• Key grammar points from Lesson 15 (giving and taking verbs) moved to Volume 2
• Review Lessons 7, 8, and 16 moved to the companion website
• Japanese writing systems and pronunciation now covered in an introductory lesson for flexible instruction

3. How is Adventures in Japanese Fourth Edition aligned with national standards?

We provide you with the complete correlations to the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages on the Teacher’s Guide to Go. We are also building up a list of state correlations. For example, the California correlation is included on our Teacher’s Guide to Go, too. As we go on, you may find correlations to the Common Core and other states standards on the Teachers’ Resources section of the Adventures in Japanese Companion Website.

4. Will Adventures in Japanese Fourth Edition be available as an eBook? When will the ebooks be available?

Yes. The digital version of the textbook will be available approximately one year after the printed textbook is available. For example, Volume 1 textbook was published in 2014; we plan to have the digital edition for Volume 1 textbook ready in the 2015 school year.

5. When will Volumes 2 and 3 be available?

Volume 2 will be available in summer 2015 and Volume 3 will be out sequentially in summer 2016.

6. When will Volume 4 be available?

We are still conceptualizing the content to provide the best support to advanced students’ needs in the fourth year. According to our research, many schools move on to AP^® prep materials after finishing Volume 3. Once we’ve determined what we will offer, the book will probably be published in 2017 or 2018 at the earliest.

7. Which volume applies to AP^®*?

We have added Text Chat questions, redesigned the listening exercises in the workbook, and added more kanji and cultural information so that each volume is helping to prepare students for the AP^® exam. For more advanced learners looking for specialized practice for the AP^® Exam, Further Adventures in Japanese and Strive for a 5: AP^® Japanese Practice Tests are still available.

8. Will the audio recordings be available on the website and on CDs?

For the Fourth Edition of Adventures in Japanese, all audio files are included with the textbooks as downloads on the Adventures in Japanese Companion Website.

9. Can students leave their books in the classroom and still be able to study at home using the Companion Website?

Not at this point. The website is intended to be supplemental. In winter 2015, we plan to launch our Adventures in Japanese Digital Bookbag, a combination of the eTextbook and online workbook that allows students study at home through a unique login. We encourage you to sign up Cheng & Tsui’s mailing list for future product updates.

10. My district has adopted the Third Edition textbooks, can I have access to the online resources?

Yes, we would like to make sure all our Adventures in Japanese users get as much support as possible. Please contact marketing@cheng-tsui.com to request login assistance.

11. How do I access the Teachers-only resources on the Companion Website?

It is easy – You need to create a new account here, and enter the Teacher Access Code provided on the Teacher’s Guide to Go in the file AIJ1_Accessing_Compainon_Website.pdf.

12. Can I access the Companion Website if I don’t purchase the Teacher’s Guide to Go?

If you are using the textbook but not the Teacher’s Guide to Go you can still access the website, but you will only have access to the student resources. Just create a Student Account here and answer a simple question about the textbook. If you later purchase the Teacher’s Guide to Go, you can change your account to a Teacher Account by going to My Account, clicking the Voucher tab, and entering the Teacher Access Code provided on the Teacher’s Guide to Go.

13. Do the digital components through the website provide as much as the Teacher’s Guide to Go?

No. The materials on the Companion Website are intended to be supplemental. The materials you purchased on the Teacher’s Guide to Go provides significantly more content for teaching. For example, the assessment program is only provided on the Teacher’s Guide to Go, not on the Companion Website.