Ken-Ichi Miura Director and Senior Teaching Professor of the Japanese Language Program

Biography

Professor Ken-ichi Miura has been the Director of the Japanese Program since 2006.

Prior to joining F&M, Professor Miura taught Japanese at Northwestern University, Harvard University and Temple University. He also instructed Japanese at Middlebury Summer School for over twenty years.

He is an OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) facilitator of the Japanese language for ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages), and regularly conducts workshops for prospective OPI testers. He also tests Japanese language proficiency for US government organizations.

Professor Miura also serves as the co-president of Proficiency Assessment Special Interest Group in ATJ (Association of Teachers of Japanese).

Professor Miura delivered the keynote speech at several conferences. Most recently in 2018, he presented the keynote speech entitled “A Room with a View: Japanese Language Education and Learners’ Proficiency through Connections” at the Conference of South East Association of Teachers of Japanese.

He co-edited and co-authored a publication entitled Evaluation of Oral Proficiency by OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview): For Testing, Instruction and Research (Bonjinsha, 2020). Another book, Japanese Language Education by PBI (Proficiency-Based Instruction): Improving the Learner’s Oral Proficiency, is expected to be published in November, 2022.

Courses Taught

  • JPN 201, 202  Intermediate Japanese I and II
  • JPN 301, 302 Upper Intermediate Japanese I and II
  • JPN 401, 402 Upper Intermediate Japanese III and IV
  • Tutorials at more advanced levels.