Spoken Japanese 4 is a higher intermediate Japanese language course which continues on from Spoken Japanese 3 aiming to continue to improve student command of modern spoken Japanese, and to encouraging them to step beyond the intermediate levels to a more advanced stage as we begin to explore how best to engage with ‘real’ Japanese media—even when you cannot understand everything—taken from TV and film. 

The textbook themes studied are ‘Life and Career’, ‘Communication and Media’ and ‘Nature and Culture’. During the last five weeks of term we progress beyond the textbook and explore a number of issues confronting contemporary Japan. The issues include ‘Whaling’, ‘Environmental Issues’, ‘Youth culture in Japan: education, bullying’, ‘Digital Japan’ and ‘Family in contemporary Japan’.  The course requires five hours of classes per week: two hours of lectures, two hours of tutorials and one hour of Language Lab.

a) develop the linguistic skills—both grammatical and communicative—to move from an intermediate level of Japanese towards an advanced level of understanding.

b)  develop the listening and oral skills you need to understand and participate in everyday conversation in Japanese and will also progress to more sophisticated discussion involving opinions and abstract ideas. 

c)  develop the language learning strategies needed to engage with ‘real’ media

d)  learn and reflect on a variety of socio-cultural information useful to intermediate/advanced learners of Japanese.

Mid-Semester Exam (Written + LL) 20%

Final Exam (Written + LL) 35%

Group Oral Presentation Abstract & Report  5%

Group Oral Presentation 15%

Homework Assignments 10%

Digital Story Telling Project 10%

Workbook Worksheet Completion/Attendance 5%  

Five hours per week

Tohsaku Yasu-Hiko, Yookoso: Continuing with Contemporary Japanese, Third Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.

Tohsaku, Yasu-Hiko, Workbook / Laboratory Manual to accompany Yookoso : Continuing with Contemporary Japanese, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006

NHK News & Documentary Video material (Provided)