On May 21-22, the Japanese program hosted the 2nd Northwest Conference on Japanese Pedagogy, which attracted approximately 45 college-level and secondary school teachers from the NW region, as well as different parts of the nation. The conference’s theme was “How Can We Motivate Students?: The Present and Future of Japanese Language Education in North America”. The conference opened with the first keynote speech by Professor Junko Mori from the University of Wisconsin-Madison titled, “Liberal Arts Education in the Era of Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities for Japanese Language Programs”, and ended with a second keynote address by Michio Tsutsui, Professor Emeritus from the UW’s Technical Japanese Program, titled, “これまでの日本語教育と今後の方策・方向” (“The Japanese Education, the Past and the Future”). There were also eight presentations whose topics ranged from the use of pop culture and TV commercials to content-based instruction using Japanese literature. The conference provided a great opportunity for the participants to reexamine the trend in the Japanese language education in North America, and what we can do to motivate and encourage students to promote the study of the Japanese language.
This event was made possible with financial support provided by the East Asia Center and the UW Japan Studies Program.
People involved: Izumi Matsuda-Kiami, Itsuko Nishikawa & Akiko Iwata.