Chika Shibahara has more than 25 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 interest includes teaching language and developing students' symbolic competence through films and literature. Her publications include Elementary Japanese Volume 1, 2, Teacher's Guide (with Y. Hasegawa et al.), and she co-authored "Film as Source Material in Advanced Foreign Language Classes" (L2 Journal, vol 6.1). She served as the Coordinator for Academic Outreach at the Berkeley Language Center from 2013 to 2016.
