Job Discussion Forums

[SolitaryThrush]

Hello,
A little off-topic for this forum, maybe, but my Japanese girlfriend is looking at programs that offer a Master's degree in teaching Japanese as a foreign language. There are plenty of programs in Japan, we know, but she's looking at ones in the US. There are a few universities in the US that offer this, according to her online research, but I'd like to check them out myself. Does anyone know of universities in the US that have this type of program, and could you pass any English-language links along? Thanks.

[wintersweet]

http://www.sfsu.edu/~japanese/Apply/maapp.html
San Francisco State is one of the few universities with this program. I've taken Japanese classes from teachers educated at a variety of universities, and let me tell you, the one I took from a teacher who got her MA here was FAR AND AWAY the best class. She was the ONLY Japanese teacher I've ever had who knew ANYTHING about modern communicative methods (or even things like TPR). I learned more in that class than in all the other classes put together. Based on that experience, I'm guessing it's a good program.

They also have a highly respected TESOL program. California state universities have a unit cap system, which means that after you've registered for a certain number of course hours, you can add more classes for free (as long as you can handle the work load or are auditing or taking them pass/fail). So she could take relevant applied linguistics courses from that department as extra classes, too.

SFSU's tuition for state residents (must live in the state for 1 year) is fairly reasonable, although it's been increasing nearly every year due to the budget crisis; it's pretty steep for out of state/international students. According to my friend who went there, you don't have to live on campus because it's accessible by BART + a short bus ride, but I have no idea about that.

Good luck to her! The world could certainly use more educated and qualified language teachers of all kinds...

[SolitaryThrush]

Wow, that's wonderful, thanks!

It looks doable, too . . . we were worried about her having to take the GRE (as required at other universities), and about impossibly high TOEFL scores. But maybe, just maybe, this could work.

Of course as a Pennsylvania boy it might kill me to spend a couple years in California, but I'll try to endure.

[natsume]

Wintersweet, did you take that one class at Soko Gakuen in SF? I took 7 classes at this wonderful and economical institution in San Francisco's Japantown, and as you can see, almost all of their faculty are SFSU graduates. I was consistently impressed by the very high value of instruction, methodologically, but also the dedication of the faculty.

http://sokogakuen.org/sensei.html

[SolitaryThrush]

Thanks! Any other schools?

[SolitaryThrush]

Oh, just curious, at Master's degree programs in Japanese---offered at a few different universities I see---will they also cover such things like teaching methodology? For a Japanese person specifically interested in teaching the language, perhaps enrolling in a Japanese university would be better?

I see some of these programs in the US look geared toward non-Japanese, with courses on culture, literature, and so forth, and with requirements for relatively low levels of Japanese. Not that culture and literature aren't important, but they're a little off-topic for her purposes.

Thanks.

[SolitaryThrush]

Well, my girlfriend got a list of about a dozen mid-sized schools that offer certificate programs in Japanese teaching (and some Master's programs as well), including ones that give an option for actually teaching at the university. One such school is Eastern Michigan University; there are several community colleges on the west coast that offer this as well, but right now we're not looking at the cc route.

[wintersweet]

Natsume, no, it was at CSUEB. I was always a bit leery of Soko Gakuen...
(EDIT: I've been politely informed that my information about Soko Gakuen was was off, so never mind--they are probably worth looking into!)

[wintersweet]

SolitaryThrush, the SFSU program specifically addresses how to teach, and the teachers I've met who've graduated from it were all native Japanese people. I don't know, but she may be exempted from some classes...