4TH YEAR DISCUSSION CLASS
Aims
1: To continue to improve skills
in four areas (speaking, listening, reading and writing) which
may be important for future careers. There is special emphasis
on improving confidence in speaking.
2: The fourth (final) year is
a time for deciding future plans for life and a career which can
be difficult, so mutual support is provided by helping each other
through sharing ideas, opinions and skills. The first semester
particularly focuses on topics related to jobs.
3: Although each student has their own tutor for the important graduation paper (sotsugyo ronbun), there will also be activities to support writing a successful paper, particularly in the second semester. Click for advice from last year's students.
Topics
Topics in the first semester (Spring and Summer 2001) have focussed on these aspects of jobs:
The challenge of a new job
with material from Frank McCourt's biographical novel ''Tis' about emigrating in search of a new life in the US and a TV programme on the experiences of a newly graduated Scottish designer.
Recruiting people
looking at how recruiting and promotion is changing in Japan.
Working abroad
with material on teachers from abroad working in Britain which has a teacher shortage, Filipino nurses and Romanian computer programmers working in Britain, and multicultural working lives at the 'Hotel Babel' in Washington DC.
Equal opportunities?
Many women face 'a glass ceiling' if they want to progress in employment. Other issues to face include the difficulty for women (and men) of combining family and work.