JAPN403: pre-capstone
Course Description: This course aims to develop an advanced level of academic communication through the formulation of research questions on linguistic and cultural topics, using appropriate research methods and critical thinking skills. Students utilize a variety of information sources to investigate, organize, and analyze the information. Taught in Japanese.
course reflective description
This pre-capstone course was essential to my overall learning experience, as it taught me so much more about the importance of having a research mindset and how this can benefit my future career or life in general.
This course meets MLO 1, 2, and 4. I got the most benefits of MLO 4: Research and Technology out of this course. However, I also improved in MLO 1: Language and Communication as well as MLO 2: Culture as I learned new Japanese vocabulary and new facts about how Japanese culture is intertwined with food and food waste, which is what my partner and I's topic surrounds.
I learned how to properly utilize the library's resources, create research questions, and create a review of literature.
In terms of the research questions, the challenges I approached included practicality and needing to think about perspectives other than my own. The audience for my partner and I's topic is Japanese and American college students, and although the two of us are American college students ourselves, not all college students are the same age, ethnicity, or have the same knowledge as us, so it was really important to narrow down or sometimes even broaden our research topic and questions.
I faced some challenges with the review of literature as it is very research-heavy. Finding credible sources for my topic as well as making sure that not only I understand those sources, but the audience can also understand was difficult. However, I overcame this by utilizing graphics and visuals such as arrows that made my text more clear and succinct. Please view my review of literature presentation here (slides 6-9).
I continued to improve with time management and keeping my words concise, but I do still struggle with that. Therefore, my goal moving into the final capstone course is to work on time management and taking a step away from my work to analyze how my audience may perceive my information.
This course meets MLO 1, 2, and 4. I got the most benefits of MLO 4: Research and Technology out of this course. However, I also improved in MLO 1: Language and Communication as well as MLO 2: Culture as I learned new Japanese vocabulary and new facts about how Japanese culture is intertwined with food and food waste, which is what my partner and I's topic surrounds.
I learned how to properly utilize the library's resources, create research questions, and create a review of literature.
In terms of the research questions, the challenges I approached included practicality and needing to think about perspectives other than my own. The audience for my partner and I's topic is Japanese and American college students, and although the two of us are American college students ourselves, not all college students are the same age, ethnicity, or have the same knowledge as us, so it was really important to narrow down or sometimes even broaden our research topic and questions.
I faced some challenges with the review of literature as it is very research-heavy. Finding credible sources for my topic as well as making sure that not only I understand those sources, but the audience can also understand was difficult. However, I overcame this by utilizing graphics and visuals such as arrows that made my text more clear and succinct. Please view my review of literature presentation here (slides 6-9).
I continued to improve with time management and keeping my words concise, but I do still struggle with that. Therefore, my goal moving into the final capstone course is to work on time management and taking a step away from my work to analyze how my audience may perceive my information.