Chika Shibahara
Japanese Language Program Senior Lecturer
Chika Shibahara has more than 30 years of classroom experience teaching languages. She was born in Osaka, and graduated from Kyoto Women's University with a B.A. and Master's degree in English. She also holds a Master's degree in the teaching of Japanese as a foreign language from San Francisco State University. Ms. Shibahara's early language-related experience includes translating and writing for magazines. She has been a lecturer at UC Berkeley since 1993. Previously, she taught at colleges in the Bay Area as well as in Hawaii and Washington. Her research interests include language pedagogy and developing students' symbolic competence through film and literature. Her publications include Elementary Japanese Volume 1, 2, Teacher's Guide (with Y. Hasegawa et al.), Tuttle, Boston; "Film as Source Material in Advanced Foreign Language Classes" (with M. Kaiser), L2 Journal, vol 6.1; 「教室で日本を体験する:映画を活用した授業デザイン」(“Experiencing Japan in the Japanese Classroom – A Lesson Plan Using Film”) (with C. Kramsch) in 『日本語教育の新しい地図:専門知識を書き換える』 (State-of-the-Art in Language Education: Rewriting Expert Knowledge), Hitsuji Shobo, Tokyo, pp.165-183, 2021; “Teaching the Conflicts in American Foreign Language Education” in Translanguaging and Decentring Epistemologies in Higher Education and Research, (with Adler et al), Multilingual Matters, Bristol, UK, 2023. She served as the Coordinator for Academic Outreach at the Berkeley Language Center from 2013 to 2016.