MLO 1: Language and Communication
- Students are able to communicate effectively in Japanese in three modes: interpersonal, interpretive and presentational; and in a culturally appropriate manner in a variety of social and professional settings and circumstances at the Intermediate-High level of language proficiency, according to the ACTFL Guidelines.
- Students gain competency in the Japanese language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and discourse, and compare and analyze the structural differences between Japanese and English.
This MLO was satisfied in the JPN 300, JPN 401, and WLC 400 courses, as well as a language course taken at Okayama University.
- JPN 300: Introduction to Intermediate Japanese
This course continued to build on previous Japanese language knowledge and had students use newly learned grammar points in presentations and interviews with our teacher. This class introduced commonly used phrases in conversational Japanese, and introduced honorific language, a necessity in Japanese academic and business culture (MLO 1.1). - JPN 401: Structure of Japanese Language
This class discussed the phonetics and syntax of Japanese language, and introduced "shadowing", or quickly repeating spoken (or recorded) Japanese in order to mimic proper pitch and accent. This course also instructed us in observing pitch and intonation in the spoken language of native Japanese speakers and our own, which greatly improved the phonetic quality of my spoken Japanese. This class focused on acquiring knowledge about proper Japanese intonation and helped me apply those concepts to my own spoken Japanese (MLO1.2) - WLC 400: Capstone Presentation
Over the course of this Capstone course, we worked on a number of tasks that involved translating English into professional or presentational Japanese, such as the formation of research questions and surveys in both English and Japanese. After forming questions and collecting responses, the data had to be presented in highly academic Japanese and presented fluently in a twenty minute presentation as part of the department's Capstone Festival. Further evidence can be seen on my "Capstone Project" tab (MLO1.1).