WLC 400: WLC Major Capstone
Course Description:
Students work with the instructor(s) and WLC faculty advisors to research, synthesize, write and present their Capstone projects. Students will also assemble a Graduation ePortfolio reflecting how each MLO was met. This course is required for all Japanese Language and Culture majors and Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures majors.
Course Narrative:
The WLC 400 course was the primary course where I worked on my capstone project and this class was a useful bridge between what a formal English senior project looks like as well as what a formal Japanese senior project looks like. Both of these were part of the process that allowed for me to look back over the course of my college education and bring together what all I had learned in order to develop a well thought out project. This class helped me to connect all of the different areas of study that I had covered during the last four years and develop the Japanese language skills to be able to articulate complex ideas in a way that is similar to where my English language skills are. I was able to better explore women's issues in Japan and do independent research that gave me a deeper understanding of how all of the issues that I have learned about during my classes connect together and form a full picture. In doing so, I was able to better understand how all of these issues connect to civil action in Japan. The language skills and critical reading skills developed during this course will help me in the future with writing academic papers in both English and Japanese and be able to properly present them. I also was able to learn about the differing ways that English and Japanese essay are formatted and how the citations for each type of essay is different. A prime example of my use of my Japanese language skills was being able to write the essay in Japanese using the correct dictionary form for the endings of the sentences. I worked closely with the Japanese exchange students to ensure that I was accurately conveying my knowledge and being mindful of the cultural differences when discussing an issue such as women's rights. This continual interaction and awareness gave me the ability to immerse myself in Japanese culture and language for the duration of the project. I also had to use my technical skills in order to do research in Japanese, which often occurred on different online catalogs than my research in English did. This course was very helpful in ensuring that I connected all of my previous courses and skills into one project that showed my growth in MLO 1, MLO 2, MLO 4, and MLO 5.
Students work with the instructor(s) and WLC faculty advisors to research, synthesize, write and present their Capstone projects. Students will also assemble a Graduation ePortfolio reflecting how each MLO was met. This course is required for all Japanese Language and Culture majors and Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures majors.
Course Narrative:
The WLC 400 course was the primary course where I worked on my capstone project and this class was a useful bridge between what a formal English senior project looks like as well as what a formal Japanese senior project looks like. Both of these were part of the process that allowed for me to look back over the course of my college education and bring together what all I had learned in order to develop a well thought out project. This class helped me to connect all of the different areas of study that I had covered during the last four years and develop the Japanese language skills to be able to articulate complex ideas in a way that is similar to where my English language skills are. I was able to better explore women's issues in Japan and do independent research that gave me a deeper understanding of how all of the issues that I have learned about during my classes connect together and form a full picture. In doing so, I was able to better understand how all of these issues connect to civil action in Japan. The language skills and critical reading skills developed during this course will help me in the future with writing academic papers in both English and Japanese and be able to properly present them. I also was able to learn about the differing ways that English and Japanese essay are formatted and how the citations for each type of essay is different. A prime example of my use of my Japanese language skills was being able to write the essay in Japanese using the correct dictionary form for the endings of the sentences. I worked closely with the Japanese exchange students to ensure that I was accurately conveying my knowledge and being mindful of the cultural differences when discussing an issue such as women's rights. This continual interaction and awareness gave me the ability to immerse myself in Japanese culture and language for the duration of the project. I also had to use my technical skills in order to do research in Japanese, which often occurred on different online catalogs than my research in English did. This course was very helpful in ensuring that I connected all of my previous courses and skills into one project that showed my growth in MLO 1, MLO 2, MLO 4, and MLO 5.