Areas of Expertise

Yamaguchi's expertise includes teaching Japanese language at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels; Japanese pedagogy; and Japanese culture and society (Nihon Jijoo).

Teaching Interests

Yamaguchi focuses on two academic areas within her specialty. One concerns teaching Japanese "in context." She brings social and situational settings into her Japanese classes in the belief that providing context while practicing Japanese helps students acquire better communication skills. The other concerns teaching advanced level Japanese, especially for academic purposes. With her background in political science, she has experience in developing materials for Japanese in social science at the Inter-University Center for Japanese in Yokohama. Since she began teaching at TUJ in 1996, she has worked to meet the needs and demands of TUJ students with a variety of learning experiences.

Research

Yamaguchi's research interests include Japanese for academic purposes, communication strategy, and the usage of formal Japanese.

Representative Publications

  • Yamaguchi, Asako. March 2002. The role of Japanese language teacher for teaching Japanese for academic purposes in the field of politics and economics. JALT Journal of Japanese Language Education, No. 6
  • Yamaguchi, Asako (written in collaboration with Takashi Matsumoto and Masahiro Takano). 1998. Teaching Japanese for specific purposes in the field of economics: Cooperation of Japanese teachers and professionals. The Bulletin of Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, No. 21
  • Yamaguchi, Asako. 1998. Principles and practice of 'Japanese society & culture' via hands-on experiences. The Bulletin of Yokohama City University, Vol. XLVIII Social Science No. 2,3

Education

  • M.A. in Japanese pedagogy, The Ohio State University
  • M.A. in political science, Central Michigan University
  • B.A. in international relations, Yokohama City University

Professional Associations

  • The Society for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (Nihongo Kyoiku Gakkai)
  • Japan Association for Language Teachers (JALT)