Name: Ronald P. Loftus

Institution: Willamette University

Language: Japanese

Status: Full-time, tenure track

Type: Summer Fellowship

Type1: Student Assistant

Title: Advanced Japanee Guided Readings

Duration: Summer-Fall 1999

Description: This is a continuation of a project begun last summer: Between the Lines: Sata Ineko's Nenpu no gyokan. My goals last summer included:

1. Scan in appropriate section of the text and organize appropriately.

2. Provide slide and map references to the city of Nagasaki.

3. Provide vocabulary glosses.

4. Provide analysis of complex sentence structures.

5. Provide audio of some or all of selections by having a native speaker of Japanese read to be compensated by Student Assistant funds.

6. Provide biographical information on the author herself as well as many of her contemporaries she describes such as Muro Saisei, Nakano Shigeharu and Akutagawa Ryunosuke.

7. Provide Background information on the Proletarian Movement and the small journal, Roba (Donkey).

8. Provide WWW links to appropriate sites.

Most of these objectives were met last summer. I scanned in materials for 10 units of graduated length; I annotated, provided background information in PreReading notes, and ana;yzed some difficult sentences. However, I am still looking for more photographs, links to the WWW and other relevant collateral materials. I did not complete the travel to Japan which I plan to do this summer to collect such materials.

What remains to be completed are some Post Reading Exercises. These I need to design and implement in the Summer of 1999. The purpose of this travel is to visit sites relevant to the life of the author, to visit collections and take digital photographs of old journals from the 1920s and any other relevant materials that may come to light.

Outcome: The purpose of this project remains to prepare some advanced reading materials for students of Japanese at the 3rd and 4th year level. I want to create a series of short units which will not only teach students vocabulary and complex sentence structures, but will also interesting social and historical context for integrating the material in the target language.

The OUTCOME will be a stand-alone unit or series of units for advanced students of Japanese language which could be used outside of class, but which also could be brought into class with a projection system and effectively used with a larger group. March 30 I will travel to Middlebury to work on converting my project from Classic xMedia to the new XP version. As part of this effort, I will explore concverting it to a web format.

Timeline:

1. Late May-early June Travel to Japan with Digital Camera, visit relevant sites and materials collection locations.

2. June-July 1999 design and create Post Reading Exercises.

3. Continue use testing in fall-Spring of 1999-2000. A beta version has already been tested with 2 tudents working on independent study.

Amount: $3500

Breakdown:

1. Summer Fellowship $3,000

2. Student Assistant $500 to provide audio recording to support PostReading Exercises.