Undergraduate Course: Japanese Language 4 (ASST10133)

Course Outline
School	School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	The aim of the course is to promote sociocultural/sociolinguistic awareness and learning for advanced leaners of Japanese to use language beyond the academic classroom. Students are expected to develop their intercultural, interpersonal and linguistic competences for professional purposes upon entering the work force. Students as effective intercultural communicators use Japanese to engage in 'real life' situations, to understand and interpret spoken and written text on professional and daily life topics that may cause conflicting situations of comprehension and communication, and articulate thoughts and ideas effectively in a variety of forms and contexts in face-to-face interaction with professional Japanese native speakers. The course aims to help students to become effective communicators in 'real life' situations by developing skills that enable a near-native ability to judge cultural/linguistic appropriateness in a given situation. This will be done both through academic-led seminars and also through more dynamic and student-led exercises that are based on a Task-Based Learning (TBL) approach. All students will be given formative feedback exercises that will be helpful for the assessment of this course and students' general academic development.
Course description	Nine units in total: one unit (6 hours) typically consists of a seminar (2h), two tutorials (2h), and a workshop (2h) Each class covers: (1) Intercultural issues, (2) Advanced Japanese language skills, and (3) research and oral/written presentation skills in Japanese Semester 1 (5 units: 33 hours) on Living in Japan One 1 hour orientation class, one 2 hour presentation class, five 2 hour seminars, ten 1 hour tutorials, and five 2 hour workshops Semester 2 (4 units: 33 hours) on Working in Japan One 1 hour class test, one 2 hour presentation class, four 2 hour seminars, eight 1 hour tutorials, four 2 hour workshops, and one 6 hour independent work Suggested topics for each academic year (they are subject to change): How to break the ice in any situation Understanding Japanese customs/manners (e.g. kami-za & shimo-za) Listening to and/or making recorded messages Searching survival/safety information Useful speech formula (expressing/understanding one's formal appreciation, apology, congratulations, condolence, invitation, etc) Making a judgement on formality shifts during conversation How to solve/avoid conflicting situations (knowledge, judgement and negotiation)

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites	Students MUST have passed: ( Japanese Year Abroad 3 (Single) (ASST10127) OR Japanese Year Abroad 3 (Combined) (ASST10129)) AND Japanese Language 3 (ASST10128)	Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Full Year
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 20, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22, Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 22, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 34 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 % 1. Writing reflective course reports in Japanese (four pieces of written work: 500-800 Japanese characters per report) (40%) 2. Writing five short peer reviews in Japanese (20%) 3. Semester 1 presentation (15%) 4. Semester 2 presentation (10%) 5. A class test (10%) 6. Class participation/contribution (5%)
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
Students who have completed this course successfully will have: 1. Developed interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational communication skills for professional situations 2. Acquired insight into what they can do with language by solving real world tasks/project work 3. Read/watched/heard a range of authentic Japanese spoken and written materials and analysed them in order to enhance an overall interpretive competence 4. Worked in groups or individually to complete language tasks on a regular basis 5. Engaged in informed discussion about key issues in Japanese social practices, culture, and language 6. Collaborated on small project(s) - researched, produced, presented, and completed self/peer-review as part of formative exercises Students who have completed this course successfully should be able to: 1. Appraise patterns, make predictions, and analyse similarities and differences between two languages and cultures 2. Deal with one-way spoken language and written text with conflicting situations of comprehension and communication 3. Sustain meaningful two-way interaction with a near-native ability to judge cultural/linguistic appropriateness in a given situation 4. Present accomplished oral and written information to various audiences for a variety of purposes 5. Apply knowledge and skills gained on the course elsewhere