JAPN 400: Advanced Presentational Communication Pre-Capstone
Course Description:
This course aims to develop advanced proficiency in interpersonal communication through the formulation of research questions and conducting research utilizing appropriate technologies. Taught in Japanese.
Narrative:
JAPN 400 fulfills MLO 4. This class was the class that we laid our entire foundation of our capstone. This class taught us the basics of research, how to write meaningful research questions, and gave us the tools necessary to conduct our research, and analyze our findings. The first couple of weeks of this class was just us trying to come up with a research topic. The topic that I had originally settled on was a little overzealous and out of the scope of two semesters of work. I was going to survey Japanese university students in an attempt to find out about more about Japan’s shift from a collectivist philosophy to a more individualistic one, and whether or not the university students actually felt like it was. This was part of the learning process. I struggled the entire semester trying to come up with survey questions that would actually give me relevant and usable data. I eventually switched my topic towards the end of the semester to what it is now: perceptions of marriage among Japanese and American university students. During the course while we were working on our background research and research questions, we would meet in the library often with the librarian Sarah Dahlen. She taught us how to use the series of online library database search engines available through the school like WorldCat to find sources for our research. This class served as an amazing foundation for the actual capstone course in which we really applied everything that we learned.
For evidence of the completion of this class, please see Capstone Project.
This course aims to develop advanced proficiency in interpersonal communication through the formulation of research questions and conducting research utilizing appropriate technologies. Taught in Japanese.
Narrative:
JAPN 400 fulfills MLO 4. This class was the class that we laid our entire foundation of our capstone. This class taught us the basics of research, how to write meaningful research questions, and gave us the tools necessary to conduct our research, and analyze our findings. The first couple of weeks of this class was just us trying to come up with a research topic. The topic that I had originally settled on was a little overzealous and out of the scope of two semesters of work. I was going to survey Japanese university students in an attempt to find out about more about Japan’s shift from a collectivist philosophy to a more individualistic one, and whether or not the university students actually felt like it was. This was part of the learning process. I struggled the entire semester trying to come up with survey questions that would actually give me relevant and usable data. I eventually switched my topic towards the end of the semester to what it is now: perceptions of marriage among Japanese and American university students. During the course while we were working on our background research and research questions, we would meet in the library often with the librarian Sarah Dahlen. She taught us how to use the series of online library database search engines available through the school like WorldCat to find sources for our research. This class served as an amazing foundation for the actual capstone course in which we really applied everything that we learned.
For evidence of the completion of this class, please see Capstone Project.