“Academic Paper-Writing Workshop for Cultural and Social Psychological Journals” was one of the classes offered for Hokkaido Summer Institute (HSI) 2017. The class lasted for 3 days from July 13th to July 15th.
This class began two years ago as a special program designed for the faculty of letters behavioral system sciences department and has now opened as a graduate student level summer institute class. The class supervisor was the University of Alberta’s Professor Takahiko Masuda, a leader in the field of cultural psychology. The program coordinator was Professor Masaki Yuki. Furthermore, 2 students working under Professor Sawa Senzaki of the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and Professor Masuda worked as teaching assistants.
In class, Professor Masuda, Professor Senzaki and students from the University of Alberta would correct and comment on English papers concerning cultural psychology or social psychology that had been turned in by students in advance. Using the correction process as class material, the lecturers conducted a workshop teaching students the mistakes that Japanese speakers often make and ways of forming an argument that are easy to understand for persons from North America.
The corrected version was projected onto a large-scale monitor, allowing for all participants to see.
Discussions about the corrected content become broader.
The University of Alberta’s Hajin Lee patiently explains comments about the corrections made.
After going back and forth with students, Professor Masuda makes a final comment.
Participants said that they “did not only learn English, but also learned about logic and attitudes towards research,” and also that they were able to “gain an opportunity to discuss their research with someone who had never heard of it before,” and finally that “being able to receive corrections from English speakers was a valuable experience.”