Chaplin Memorial Award for Excellence in Japanese Language Teaching

The Hamako Ito Chaplin Award for Excellence in Japanese Language Teaching is made possible through the generous donation of Professor George Chaplin, whose wife, Hamako Ito Chaplin, was a devoted, experienced, and well-respected professor of the Japanese language at Yale University for many years. Each year, a prize of $1,000 is awarded to either a current graduate student or a full-time instructor of Japanese for excellence in Japanese language teaching at the college-level.

2022 Award

The Hamako Ito Chaplin Memorial Award Committee is pleased to announce that Dr. Jeff Peterson (Visiting Assistant Professor of Japanese, Brigham Young University) is the recipient of the 2022 Hamako Ito Chaplin Memorial Award for Excellence in Japanese Language Teaching. Dr. Peterson has a background in Japanese language pedagogy and linguistics. He has taught Japanese classes at all levels, and they are described as student-centered, effective, and engaging. Dr. Peterson helps students develop functional communication skills through culturally and contextually rich learning experiences. He has an extensive record of developing educational materials, including co-authoring an elementary-level Japanese language textbook series and curating new reading materials for the BYU library’s Japanese extensive reading area. The selection committee would like to congratulate Dr. Peterson for his accomplishments and look forward to his continued contribution to Japanese language education. 

Past Awards