Language Courses

Language Courses

Literature/Culture Courses

AALL 121

Self-Placement Guidelines for Japanese Language Courses

ACES

Language instruction in the Japanese Program aims at development of proficiency focused on communication. It offers a four-year program. 1st and 2nd-year classes are taught by two instructors and are divided into lectures and smaller size drill sessions to provide more effective classroom interactions.

The goal of the program is to enable students to achieve an advanced level of proficiency in conversation and to develop the reading and writing skills needed in a business or academic environment.

Note: Students with prior knowledge of Japanese are recommended to take a placement test. The self-placement decision must be approved by the course instructor or the Japanese Language Coordinator, Prof. Hitomi Endo, before the semester begins or on the first day of classes.

JPN 001 Elementary Japanese (first half, offered in fall semester only)
Endo and Kurokawa

This course is for students who have no prior knowledge of Japanese or have minimal proficiency in Japanese. The course focuses on:

1. developing oral and aural proficiency for survival communication;
2. mastery of Japanese writing systems (hiragana, katakana, kanji) for rudimentary reading and writing;
3. foundational grammar for simple sentence building.

JPN 002 Elementary Japanese (second half, offered in spring semester only)

This course is for students who have successfully finished Japanese 001 or have some prior knowledge of Japanese and can produce simple sentences. This course focuses on:

1. attaining oral and aural fluency to function in daily communication situations;
2. developing reading and writing skills for functional literacy;
3. learning foundational grammar for complex sentence building.

JPN 063 Intermediate Japanese (first half, offered in fall semester only)
Endo and Saito

This course is for students who have successfully finished Elementary Japanese or can converse on topics of daily concerns and can read in Japanese. The course focuses on developing and enriching literacy experience in Japanese. It aims to enhance abilities for:

1. reading narrative and descriptive texts;
2. writing narrative and descriptive texts of one-to-two page lengths;
3. conversing appropriately on personal topics in uncomplicated situations.

JPN 064 Intermediate Japanese (second half, offered in spring semester only)

This course is for students who have successfully finished Japanese 063 or can converse on everyday topics and have some reading and writing experience in Japanese. The course focuses on improving skills for:

1. reading expository texts and extended narratives;
2. writing descriptive informative texts;
3. conversing appropriately on personal topics in different situations;
4. gaining analytical knowledge of the structure of Japanese language.

JPN 125 Advanced Japanese (first half, offered in fall semester only)
Kurokawa

This course is for students who have successfully finished Intermediate Japanese or can converse on a range of personal topics and read texts of some length and narrative with familiar topics. The goal of this course is to develop skills in these areas:

1. advancing reading and writing skills;
2. communicating with accuracy and grammatical complexity;
3. expanding analytical knowledge of the structure of Japanese language.

JPN 126 Advanced Japanese (second half, offered in spring semester only)

This course is for students who have successfully finished Japanese 125 or can read and write a long paragraph on a range of topics. The course focuses on:

1. introduction to authentic texts written for mature audience;
2. writing expository or argumentative essays;
3. participating in public discourse;
4. communicating with greater accuracy and grammatical complexity;
5. learning the social and cultural background necessary to understand contemporary Japan.

JPN 183S (fall semester)/184S (spring semester) Topics in Japanese Saito

These upper level courses integrate reading/listening comprehension and written oral production activities in order to guide students to be independent learners of advanced level Japanese. Course activities include:

1. Discussions and exercises of reading strategies, using authentic texts
2. Clarification and expansion of thoughts about various topics discussed in class
3. Presentation of opinions in various presentation modes
4. Cooperative works, including discussions, peer corrections/feedbacks, and student projects
5. Observation and analysis of communication styles of Japanese and student's first language, using video materials

JPN 291 Research Methods in Japanese

This course introduces various research approaches to literary, sociological, and historical studies of Japan. Emphasis on bibliographical sources that best serve needs in chosen area of specialization.

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