Professor William McClure
Department Chair
King Hall 113A/203
Tel: (718) 997-5570
E:mail: wmcclure@qc.cuny.edu

Associate Professor of Japanese (Queens College) and Linguistics (Graduate Center). Ph.D., Cornell University; Department Chair 2005-

Prof. McClure is responsible for the Japanese language program, and teaches language and culture at Queens, and semantics and Japanese linguistics at the Graduate Center; he is also expert on the uses of technology in teaching. Prof. McClure is a recipient of the College Teaching Award.

I am a formal linguist working principally on the syntax/semantics interface, and most of my work is about Japanese. I have looked at such topics as the progressive and unaccusativity, and I am focusing now on the syntax and semantics of Japanese classifying expressions. In addition, I teach Japanese language and have more than a passing interest in language pedagogy, teacher training, and second language acquisition.

Ongoing projects at Queens include curriculum articulation between high school and college as well as the usage of technology to teach language and linguistics.  The web page for the Japanese language program is housed in the department computer lab.  It includes ongoing course information and schedules, links to Japan, a page for high school students, as well as web pages designed by Queens College students as part of their language study. 

My joint appointment between Queens College and the Linguistics department at the CUNY Graduate Center allow me to pursue research in the context of concrete pedagogical issues.

Recent publications include Using Japanese (Cambridge University Press 2000) and Japanese/Korean Linguistics 12 (Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford 2003).

Japanese/Korean Linguistics 12 (Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford 2003).

Using Japanese is a guide to Japanese usage for students who have acquired the basics of the language and wish to extend their knowledge. Unlike conventional grammars, it gives special attention to those areas of vocabulary and grammar that cause the most difficulty to English speakers. Careful consideration is given throughout to questions of style, register, and politeness, and there are sections on social rituals such as greetings, introductions and apologies.