Developing Critical Analytical Reasoning for Language Analysis: The Evaluation of 'Japanese Discourse Analysis' Course in the Japanese Studies Program, Universitas Indonesia

Higher education students, including ones in the undergraduate level, are expected to possess characteristics of critical analytical reasoning and carry them throughout their studies. Therefore, for learners of foreign language studies in these levels, once they be proficinet in linguistic analysis aspects. To produce graduate of foreign language studies with qualities of critical analytical reasoning, education institutions have provided courses related to linguistic theories such as phonology, phonetics, morphology, syntax and semantics. These theories are fundamental to help students analyze various language phenomena in their resected fields. However, in many cases, linguistic theory in undergraduate level courses seem to be limited to very basic theories that have not yet covered more contextual aspects. The result then, is that linguistic theories become vague and distance to new learners, and it becomes difficult to prove that learning them is significant in achieving graduates with qualities of critical analytical reasoning. As a response to these problems, the Japanese Studies Program of the Faculty of Humanities University of Indonesia (FIB-UI) felt the need to plan a new course that allow students to apply theoritical knowledge in a more approachable context. Therefore, since the second semester of the 2012 academic year, the Japanese Studies Program of FIB-UI introduced a new course on Japanese Discourse. This course is aimed to develop students’ ability to analyze various linguistic phenomena in Japanese society. At the start of this course, discussion topics were limited to discourse theories implemented in Japanese written text. Along the years, the course has developed to equip students with critical discourse analysis and socialinguistic researches. The aim is to foster the sharpness of thinking and the ability to propose critical analysis. By using the final assignment of the Japanese Language Discourse Study course in the second semester of the 2016/2017 academic year, this paper intends to show how far Japanese Language Discourse has succeeded in increasing students’ critical analytical reasoning.