Term ................................................. WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER, or FALL
Class & Section ................................... READING JAPANESE ONLINE WE
Instructor ............................................ TBA
Meeting day & Time ................................ N/A

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Textbooks: Not required. (Prerequisites: 2 years college Japanese, equivalent, or instructor consent). This course will provide an opportunity for improving intermediate level Japanese reading skills without commuting. Students log on and do their course work (reading assignments) online any time of the day. They interact with the instructor via email and eBulletin boards to do assigned tasks. Students also learn cultural information via various web links. Online sound wave is also available for the development of listening skills. Minimum system requirements: must have computers with Java capabilities, Netscape 4.08 or later versions, or Internet Explorer 4.0 or later versions.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
After a few quarters of this course, you should be able to:
1. Use online dictionaries and translation programs.
2. Read and write intermediate level Japanese (demonstrate a basic control of both simple and complex sentence structures, distinguish informal and formal styles, connect sentences into paragraphs using basic connectives).
3. Appreciate Japan by visiting websites that represent different aspects of Japanese culture and society.
4. Summarize and discuss what you have read with direct references to text.

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
1. ONLINE READING MATERIALS (including young readers' newspaper articles).
2. LINKS
http://www.tiu.ac.jp/~kaneniwa,
http://www.rikai.com/perl/HomePage.pl?Language=Ja,
http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~tera,
http://www.japanesetutor.com/intermed.htm,
http://www.schei.com/cgi-bin/flash.cgi,
http://www.konan-wu.ac.jp/~kikuchi,
http://www.aozora.gr.jp,
http://kuzan.f-edu.fukui-u.ac.jp/bungaku.html,
http://www.stonebridge.com (books, dictionaries),

EVALUATION
1.  One final exam (2.5 hours).
2.  Your final exam scores will be kept in a digitized form @STUDENT GRADES AND INFORMATION REPOSITORY.
3.  A STUDENT PROGRESS REPORT may be written if requested at the time you take the final exam.
 

REQUIREMENTS
1.  Do weekly assignments online.
2.  Take 1 final exam at the end of the 11-week term at Soko Gakuen. Exceptions may be made if warranted by circumstances clearly beyond the student's control such as physical distance or time conflict with other obligations to show up on the exam day. A statement, with a signature of a third party, may be submitted to the instructor at least 2 weeks before the final exam date to rearrange the exam.
 

PROCEDURE
1.  Online, read short Japanese stories or conversations (language, culture, society, business, etc.) and answer the comprehension questions that follow the story.
2.  Two (2) reading assignments per week will be given online. Students email completed assignments to the instructor, or post them on the eBulletin board. The students then receive a reply via email or on the eBulletin board from the instructor.
3.  Additional work may be done by reading young readers' newspaper articles, and summarizing and writing your reactions to them.
4. D iscussion of items causing difficulty may be posted on eBulletin boards or emailed to instructor.

Suggested Reading Procedure
a)  Prereading (scanning and skimming reading material),
b) 1st reading (information gathering reading),
c)  Answering comprehension questions,
d)  2nd reading (thorough reading, focusing on understanding and interpreting the material),
e)  Analysis of ideas (if necessary),
f)  3rd reading.

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