Overview Fall and Spring Curriculum Summer Curriculum Language Courses OGU Courses Field Placement Course Continuers Credits and Transcripts Advisory Board Overview
CET Japan targets the efficient and thorough improvement of language
skills. In each term, students cover at least one year of
university-level Japanese. Intensive language classes highlight
communicative competence and CET's belief that simply amassing large
numbers of kanji is not enough. Students need to learn how to use those
kanji, and use them accurately, naturally and appropriately. To that
end, the language curriculum involves a high degree of integration with
the local community. Students complete projects that rely on signs,
menus and websites instead of a textbook, and converse with regular
Osakans instead of just language teachers.
The summer term
focuses exclusively on this language training. In the fall and spring
terms, this training is flanked by a Field Placement course and other
courses at Osaka Gakuin University (OGU), CET's partner. At OGU, students may take area studies courses taught in English (like Japanese Business Past and Present or Japan's Performing Arts), area studies courses taught in Japanese (like Issues in Contemporary Japanese Society, Culture and Language), Japanese language electives (like Japan in the Media), or a direct-enroll course along with Japanese students. OGU course options vary from term to term.
Summer Curriculum The summer
semester focuses on language only. The pace of instruction is intensive
so that students achieve one year of university-level Japanese
instruction within 8 weeks. As such, students should expect a demanding
but highly productive summer semester. Students take:
Japanese Language. This includes a Japanese in Daily Life
component and a final Language
Project. 160 hours & 9 recommended credits.
Japanese in Daily Life
component, fall and spring only (20 hours)
Scheduled in the first week of the program, this module aims to allow
students the opportunity to refresh previously learned Japanese and to
build language patterns needed to meet their immediate needs in Japan.
Real life materials such as menus, supermarket advertisements,
neighborhood maps, newspapers, and websites are used.
Language Project,
all terms (20 hours)
Each class level completes an out-of-classroom project over the course
of the term. Classes merge at the end of the semester to present their
projects in a lively Open House event on the OGU campus.
Osaka Gakuin
University Courses Fall and spring students take an
array of courses at OGU. Track 1 students take 2 area studies courses
taught in English or Japanese. Track 2 students take one Japanese
language elective. They also have the option to substitute an area
studies course in Japanese or direct enroll in OGU (dependent on student
ability and schedule). OGU's courses can be found here:
http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/english/international/jsp/index02.html
Field Placement Course Participants in Track 2 participate
in a Field Placement Program. This qualitative methods course focuses
heavily on principles of ethnographic inquiry and research. Students
learn basic approaches to qualitative research, such as conducting
interviews, document analysis, participant-observation and taking and
organizing field notes for ethnographic purposes.
As part of
the course and as the principal venue for data collection, each student
carries out a field placement assignment within a Japanese social
organization. As participant-observers, students spend 8 to 12 hours per
week at the field placement site over the course of the semester.
Placements are based on language proficiency, student background and
research interests. Organizations include a wide array of local
businesses and non-profit organizations, schools, religious and
political institutions, museums, media, etc.
Each student is
responsible for developing a partially bilingual portfolio of the
experience/research that includes field notes, transcriptions of
interviews, document analysis, etc. Central to the student portfolio is a
preliminary qualitative research proposal on a key topic or phenomenon
emerging from the student's field placement experiences.
Back to top Continuers CET
welcomes students to spend more than one semester at CET Osaka.
Continuing for multiple terms is a great way to maximize your academic
and cultural experiences. After receiving a solid foundation in the
first semester (fall, spring, or summer), students can easily transition
to an additional semester for added language learning and maximized
cultural exposure. For those students wishing to take direct-enroll
courses at OGU, continuing for multiple semesters is necessary in most
cases to improve Japanese to the required level and match schedules.
Back to top Credits and Transcripts Upon written
request, CET and the OGU issue official transcripts listing each course
taken and the number of hours attended. Credit for the program must be
requested from the student's home institution and is granted at the
institution's discretion. CET students generally receive a full
semester's worth of credit for their semester abroad. For more
information about CET's transcripts and credit recommendation system,
click here. Back to top Advisory Board The CET Japan Advisory Board plays a
significant role in helping us develop our programs in Japan. Current
members include:
Anthony Ogden, CET Academic Programs Interim
Academic Director
Mike
Matsuno, Osaka Gakuin University Director of International
Center
John Treat, Yale University Professor of East Asian
Languages and Literature
Dan
Dewey, Brigham Young University Assistant Professor,
Linguistics
Reiko Tachibana,
The Pennsylvania State University Associate Professor of
Japanese and Comparative Literature
1920 N Street, NW, Suite 200 - Washington, DC 20036 - (800) 225-4262 - cet@academic-travel.com
