Peko Peko Textbook

Peko Peko is a new course for Years 7 and 8 Japanese, fully aligned to V9.0 of the Australian Curriculum.
Peko Peko brings Japanese language and culture to life, through a fully integrated ecosystem of two textbooks, two workbooks and an interactive e-platform.

Peko Peko and Peko Peko 2 have been designed for flexible implementation, with each book having more than enough content for a full year program.
This innovative approach to delivering a beginners’ Japanese program includes everything teachers and students need to foster a love of Japanese language, ranging from fun, up-to-date cultural content through to differentiated reading and assessment tasks and self- paced, self-marking online activities for students.

Peko Peko will leave teachers and students feeling まんぞく and is designed to be ちょうどいい for your students and your Japanese program.

The student textbook

The course book is beautifully designed, uniquely illustrated, colourful and compelling. There are six chapters in each book, covering a range of beginner- level topics, such as Japan and Japanese food, self- introduction, the classroom, family, hobbies, holidays and celebrations and many more.

Each chapter begins with a lively manga story, featuring a cast of げんきPeko Peko characters. In each chapter there are also grammar explanations, learning hints, vocab lists, cultural points and a range of activities for students to practise and integrate their language through listening, reading, writing and speaking activities. Each chapter also begins with clearly worded, carefully sequenced learning intentions and concludes with corresponding success criteria.

There is a strong focus on recycling language across the chapters and an abundance of opportunities for students to use Japanese in ways that is meaningful to them.

The e-platform

The Peko Peko e-platform is fully aligned to the textbook and complements the workbook. It has a range of interactive, self-correcting activities, with a teacher dashboard to monitor student progress.

Key features of the online platform include:
– animated versions of the manga from each chapter
– manga with and without romaji
– a suite of songs
– a wide range of listening tasks and grammar and vocabulary activities.
This web-based platform will allow students to engage with their Japanese studies both at home and in class.

Our approach to hiragana

There is romaji support provided until the end of Chapter 3 in Peko Peko book 1. After this, there is romaji provided on the grammar explanations and vocabulary lists in each chapter. This is to support and include students who for whatever reason have not yet mastered their hiragana.
There is no gradual introduction to the hiragana, where only certain characters are used at the start of the book. Instead, teachers can decide on their own approach to teaching hiragana, with romaji support provided early on to ease students into their Japanese learning. The workbook does, however, provide a hiragana chapter so students can practise writing their hiragana.
The differentiated reading activities on the e-platform will include both kana and romaji versions, to save teachers time and to support students at whatever level they are at.