Teacher Profiles

Research Interests

I have long been interested in issues relating to culture and identity, particularly how language contributes to group affiliation and how it can colour our views of the Other. These interests are carried over into the realm of language education. My doctoral work focused on how teachers conceptualize culture and how these understandings influence the way culture is approached in the classroom. Concepts related to this are social essentialism, Othering, native-speakerism and nationalism, among others. In addition to issues of culture and identity, I am also interested in professional development and teacher training. I welcome opportunities for collaboration in any of the above fields.

 

Educational philosophy

I believe that generating, encouraging and maintaining intellectual curiosity are fundamental goals of education. The teacher’s role is to facilitate this by guiding students, and assisting them in discovering answers to questions, and helping students to set further questions and targets themselves. By doing this, not only do students gain fulfilment and encouragement by playing an active role in their own academic development, but the students also develop a mind-set and tools with which to grow and learn throughout their lives.  

Research Interests

My research interests include language learner beliefs, collaborative/cooperative language learning and second language writing, with a particular focus on anxiety in writing, peer review and corrective feedback. My Ph.D. thesis explored second language learners’ evolving beliefs about academic group work and peer review, employing a contextual approach which views beliefs as socially constructed, dynamic, and emerging. More recently, I have developed an interest in willingness to communicate (WTC), a construct that plays a significant role in second language teaching and learning since learners with high levels of WTC are more likely to use the L2 outside the classroom which leads to successful L2 acquisition. I enjoy discussions and collaboration in any of these areas of research.

 

Educational philosophy

I believe it is essential in language classes to establish a safe, comfortable student-centered environment as well as a stimulating atmosphere to motivate students to actively participate and to reach their language learning goals. I think it is also important to understand that students have different prior language learning experiences, levels of English proficiency and learning styles and I therefore like to include a variety of approaches and activities for students in my classes. I like to encourage students to become independent, self-directed learners and to help them to develop their collaboration and problem-solving skills.

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Research Interests

My research interests lie primarily in the areas of learner autonomy and agency, spanning self-access education, social role modeling, anxiety reduction, and positive psychology research. I have theorized and conducted research on potential effects of “native speaker-ism” in EFL education as they relate to self-efficacy beliefs in Japanese language learners, and as a result, promote the development of activities that allow learners to visualize their own potential through peer and near-peer role modeling. My current research plans focus on the adaptation of coaching and counseling techniques into classroom settings to foster learners’ metacognitive awareness with the aim of transforming that awareness into meaningful, self-directed action.

 

Educational Philosophy

I believe strongly that as learning happens everywhere, that the task of the educator is not simply to teach, but to facilitate learning. To this end, my primary goal is to help students become aware of resources and strategies they may need to seek out and make use of the education inherent in every experience, both inside and outside the classroom. I feel strongly that our students’ most valuable role models in language learning are people who look like them and with whom they most readily identify—other successful Japanese learners. I am committed to ensuring that all of my students, regardless of learning style or perceived ability, are provided with a classroom environment that encourages peer support and interaction, creating social resources for them to draw upon as they seek out their own language learning opportunities.

Research Interests

Over the last eight years or so, my research has touched on several topics while not being overly specific. However, the predominant theme seems to be on student motivation. I am particularly interested in how to help students be more active in classes and buy into the methods I use to help them develop as learners. Recently, I have been focusing on extensive reading, cooperative learning, critical thinking, and building a community of learners. This connection to motivation in these areas has led me to using various CALL applications in the classroom. In addition, I am interested in researching long-term study abroad with the hopes of developing more informed and better designed study abroad programs.

 

Educational Philosophy

I see learning as a journey which takes place in all aspects of life, not only the school.  As a teacher, I join the students on their journeys, where we learn from each other and we work together to accomplish our learning goals. To help students become more autonomous learners, I use multimodal and differentiated approaches to learning which value the various experience, knowledge, and opinions that they bring to class. The goal is that students will have the tools and confidence to better themselves through learning once they leave my classes.

When it comes to second language acquisition, my views often parallel that of socio-cultural theory and social linguistics. However, strong theories are often restrictive in approaches to learning and interpretation of data. As a result, I try to avoid identifying with specific labels.

Research Interests

My primary areas of interest include ELF (more specifically intercultural communication and language attitudes), as well as nationalism. With regards to nationalism, my interest lie in the effects of language learning on national identity. In addition to this, I am interested in any opportunities for professional development and welcome opportunities for collaboration.

 

Educational Philosophy

In my role as a teacher I hope to motivate students to develop their communicative and critical thinking skills, as well as take an active role in the learning process. I believe in inspiring curiosity among learners, and therefore choose content and activities that are both significant and challenging for students, so that they are stimulated to think beyond their comfort zone. For this reason, collaborative learning is central to my teaching philosophy.

Research Interests

My research interests include learner identity and motivation. As an immigrant from Taiwan to the US and then to Japan, I have found myself struggling with my identity in different countries and cultures, which later help position myself in a complex environment yet create more meaningful communication opportunities. I always believe that languages are solely tools to explain who we are, what our values and conceptions are, where we are in life, and how we construct ourselves. By constructing and explaining these in a foreign language, one can be empowered to communicate more boldly and to claim their existence wherever they are. I am especially interested in how identity construction influences learner motivation and investment and the correlation to language proficiency.

 

 

Educational Philosophy

In a language classroom, where willingness to communicate should be promoted, it is critical for language teachers to create an environment where all students are comfortable sharing their ideas. Therefore, I try to create a safe environment where there is no “seikai”, so students can always open up to different opinions. Having curiosity towards their classmates and towards the unit topics is the first step, so I encourage students to question what we are studying, to think critically, and thus to elicit profound responses. Sometimes I do feel that language classrooms can be a place of counseling when all members are willing to open themselves up in the target language (especially when they are reluctant to do so in their first language).

Research Interests

My main area of interest is Corpus Linguistics. Specifically, I am in the process of investigating the effectiveness of utilising corpora in the language classroom. I have already done some research on this and intend to do more. In addition, I want to better understand the impact of various factors (especially educational background) on a candidate’s IELTS score, since I am an IELTS examiner and also regularly teach IELTS courses.

 

 

Educational Philosophy

The following three factors define my approach to teaching: motivation, variation and innovation. Motivation includes helping the students to enjoy the class, being approachable as a teacher, and ultimately inspiring the students to do their best. Variation covers the idea that a variety of skills need to be learned in order for a language to be mastered, and thus the activities in the classroom should be suitably diverse. Finally, innovation refers to my own desire to constantly improve and learn as an educator. A teacher should never be content to stay still, and should always be trying to develop their skills. 

Research Interests

With the background of sociology, my academic interests are widely in the region of gender, race, immigration and language learning / acquisition. Currently, my research is exploring into the area of second language learning / bilingualism and multicultural children’s identity development, in particular in the multicultural background Australia and homogeneous / monolingual society Japan. As of 2016, 1 in 50 babies born in Japan is born to at least one non-Japanese parent, and I believe Japan is certainly becoming much more multicultural society whether or not it is shown obviously. In the dynamics of changing multicultural society, I would keep my research eyes in children’s identity development in relation to their linguistic ability.

 

Educational Philosophy

As a lecturer of university, particularly with responsibility of teaching-in-English, I fully emphasise content-based learning and communicative approach in all classes. Simply interpreted, I teach in English rather than merely teach English language.  In those sociological courses, this case is rather obvious as I teach sociological and cross-cultural contents in English. For students treatment, fairness comes first priority. In addition, I value student-teacher professional as well as friendly relationship to support best learning environment. As I believe attitude of learners in university should be independent and proactive, while my course must provide all they need, I also encourage them to be self-motivated for learning without being forced. Every semester is action research practice for me, and I fully engage in case-by-case practice as well as theoretical pedagogies.

Research Interests 

My main research interests include communication and culture, and social psychology. I have always been interested in how people interact with each other, in particular when communication involves using a second language, since I have learned quite a few languages myself. For my MA thesis, I researched how intercultural communication can be developed in the EFL classroom. In other words, how to help learners develop skills and attitudes to effectively communicate with others in a foreign language. One of the techniques I am most interested in focuses on the development of critical thinking, and how that in turn can help increase one’s intercultural competence. Moreover, recently I have been interested in social psychology, expanding my interest in human interaction to its core principles. 

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Educational Philosophy

I believe the role of a teacher is to help learners develop their identity. I think the best way to help students develop who they are, and understand who they want to be, what they can do, is to challenge them to question more. I always encourage students to ask “why”, whether they are questioning me, peers, or themselves. I believe curiosity is the key to becoming a good learner in life, and I encourage that philosophy in my own classes. In order to do so, I believe teachers should create a positive environment where students don’t feel afraid to ask questions and express their opinions. As such, I always start my first class by telling students that there is no wrong answer, just different opinions. I hope that through my educational philosophy I can encourage students to become active learners in life.

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Research Interests

There are mainly three research areas that I’ve been interested in: scaffolding, intercultural communication, and developing professional identity. For my MA thesis, I researched about peer scaffolding, collective scaffolding (assistance that occurs in a group), and also scaffolding from teacher to learners. I’ve also researched about two short-term study abroad programs to explore the experiences of Japanese and local students in terms of intercultural communication. Recently, I’m interested in developing teachers’ professional identity through using  Korthagen's (2004) onion model. Through research, I’d like to explore how can I be a better teacher who can contribute to creating a good learning community where learners can enjoy and explore the joy of learning. 

 

Educational Philosophy

My educational philosophy has three key points: “appreciating learners’ well-being”, “creating effective learning community”, and “stimulating learning that can connect to learners’ life”.

Firstly, it is essential to me as a lecturer to show learners that I appreciate their well-being. I try to carefully look at each learner’s motivation, interests, and personality in addition to level in performance. Also, I try to create a safe atmosphere and a good learning community where learners can express their ideas freely in English without being judged or compared. In addition, I design lessons where learners can find a connection between topics and their daily lives. Then, through assignments, I encourage them to take small steps to change their lifestyle based on their own findings from the lessons. By doing so, I wish learners to explore their own answers to the question that I asked myself a thousand times: “Why do I learn English?”

Research Interests

Currently I have several plans for my research projects: teaching collocations to EFL students and semantic changes in the English language. I have an interest in how culture and society influence English language learning because language and culture/society are interwoven and can be described as two sides of the same coin. Also I wish to discover not only how to improve students` motivation but teachers` motivation too. The higher motivation the more likely higher achievement will occur. Ultimately, I would like to present and to publish my research findings.

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Educational Philosophy

I believe that teaching should not only be a one-way communication system. It should be a dialogue between teacher and students. It is important that the students are continually a part of their own learning process; they need to think, and they need to express what they are thinking. Therefore I try to make my classroom a positive environment where all the students feel safe to give a response, make a comment, or ask a question. I am a believer in active learning, and I try to keep an energetic, interactive and positive classroom. To me, teaching is not about lecturing to students; it is about communicating with them. I bring a lot of positive energy to my classes. If I can't get excited about my subject, why should my students?

Research Interests

I have researched in communication strategies and more recently on learner autonomy in self-access centres. If possible, I would like to continue researching communication strategies in speaking classes (or other settings where it could be used). In the past I have implemented communication strategies in recursive conversations with young learners but I will switch up to university students with the new role. I suspect that communication strategy research will be easier to research, but if anyone thinks of opportunities that I may have to continue research in learner autonomy, such as how students are taking control of their own studies or using tools that NUFS provide in their own L2 journeys than I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

Educational philosophy

I have always tried to use the classroom for communication (communicative language teaching approach) between students, whether that's writing, speaking, listening or reading. I tend to save reading or writing for homework. With this in mind, it is fair to say I have set up the classroom utilizing small groups or pair work whenever I get opportunity to do so. Acting as a facilitator allows me to provide choices for the students and hopefully create a classroom where they show their own initiative and have choices in what they want to do. This is of course a balance with explicit instruction for textbook or test requirement tasks or activities.

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Research Interests

My main interests for research lie in intercultural communication and English education. I have conducted research on perceptions of effective communication between Japan and the U.S. and found that there are some areas that should be considered for future research. One such area is how culture, gender, age and status affect perceptions of satisfaction. I would like to develop a study of the perceptions of satisfaction in a classroom setting.

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Educational Philosophy

 I believe there are two important phases in learning: input and output phases. I employ both input and output phases in class to integrate student learning with real life application. I view my role as a mentor to guide students through this process and help students achieve their goals to become better communicators in English.

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Research Interests

As I want to maximize my students’ language learning experience, my areas of interest are largely dictated by my specific teaching context. However, two constant interests that I have are materials development and literature in language teaching. I believe that each class has its own unique dynamic and identity and that the materials provided to the students has a large influence on their motivation and subsequent language learning. I am also active in researching the pedagogical benefits of literature in a language classroom by combining both functional and aesthetic perspectives. Other areas that I have covered are childhood bilingualism in Japan. One study focused on how much access children from international marriages have to different platforms of English exposure in their daily lives. It also highlighted any discrepancies between the opinions of the children’s’ parents on these access points with that of what language professionals and researchers believe. A future project that I am planning to investigate is the role written corrective feedback plays in developing students’ English writing ability.

 

Educational Philosophy

I believe that as a teacher my main role is to guide the students along their language learning journey. I am not there to dominate the class in a traditional sense. While being flexible to the needs of a class, my goal is to maximize student involvement and language output. My favoured approaches are communicative language teaching and task-based learning. Of course, there are times when input from the teacher is necessary, but my goal is to provide students with a large degree of autonomy and responsibility for their own language learning. I believe that through greater ownership of their language, students will develop a sense of responsibility and at many times, the best teachers or caretakers of a student’s language, are their peers in the classroom.

Research Interests

Throughout my academic career spanning a BA and MA in TESL as well as nearly a decade of university EFL/ESL teaching experience (in the US and Japan), I have developed interests in both the social aspects of language as well as praxis focused methodology and pedagogy in language education. My interest in social topics (i.e., national identity, nation building and literacy, deliberative democracy and discourse, social models of motivation) come from various life experiences such as being a third generation American with English L2 family members and facing failed funding policies and education reforms. My interest in methodology and pedagogy (i.e., L1-L2 interference and intervention, TBLT, learning principles in game design, journals and communicative competence, corpus and collocation building) come directly from my classroom teaching experiences and the work I have done to practically develop my teaching pedagogy over the years. Currently I am interested in understanding how design-based and systems-based perspectives can inform pedagogy in novel ways.

 

Educational Philosophy

My main goal for a class is always to provide learners with a positive learning opportunity. This requires an understanding of not only a class as a whole but also the individual differences inherent among learners (i.e., language learning experiences and motivational factors) – building a social understanding of their interest in language learning. With this understanding I approach a class with a “tool-kit” mentality (as opposed to “one-size-fits-all”) requiring particularity on a class scale as well as individually. This particular approach helps build rapport and create a positive learning environment (i.e., a situated and active learning context rich with interaction and negotiation). In short, although I adamantly require learners go through the cognitive work required to develop new language skills, I deeply appreciate and encourage creativity, positivity, fun, and laughter.

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Research Interests

My research interests are literacy development in EFL speakers. My background has been literacy in young learners, but now I am focused on broadening my experience with older students. I have worked in literacy classrooms in the US, focusing on students with intervention plans. I am now interested in working with students learning English as their second and even third languages. I am focusing on teaching skills such as summarizing, real-world connections, and critical thinking skills to help students analyze information presented to them.

 

Educational Philosophy

Students need to have critical thinking skills in order to process information and share their thoughts, rather than be given all the answers. I think it is very important for EFL students to "Think in English."  I also believe that connecting information to student's lives and the world provide valuable opportunities and further increase critical thinking skills. It is my hope that students will carry these skills with them to broaden their thinking and perspectives.

Research Interests

During my MA degree, the two areas of research I focused on were word associations and Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT). For my dissertation, I created a program of lessons to teach word associations to 30 high frequency words and also a word association test to measure how quickly and easily learners could reproduce them. The data collected showed a small improvement in test scores as a result of the lessons. The ability to produce word associations for common words quickly and easily may be of more benefit to some learners than learning large numbers of low frequency vocabulary items, and this is an idea that I would like to investigate further in the future. I have also been interested in Task Based Language Teaching for a long time and have experimented with task based lessons at various teaching positions in the past, and hope to continue doing so at NUFS. I welcome any advice, questions or collaboration in these two areas of research. 

 

Educational Philosophy

I am especially interested in lesson planning and creating materials and tasks which will hopefully engage, inspire and challenge learners. Key features of my lesson planning strategy include; the " i+1" theory (i.e. tasks should be slightly harder than what the learners are used to- a difficult challenge when groups have mixed abilities); clear instructions and gradual increases in the difficulty of activities to assist the learners;  the use of "authentic" materials where possible; activities which push learners to communicate their ideas and negotiate with others.

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Research Interests

I’ve always been interested in using technology as an educational tool to improve and develop oneself. Whether it be in the classroom, at home, with others or self-education technology has the potential to level the playing field. Therefore I’ve been focusing my attention on blended learning and CALL. I am always trying to find new technological tools that are available and to find new and innovative ways to use them in the language learning environment.

 

Educational Philosophy

I strive to show students the importance of self-learning and helping them to develop that skill using English. I feel that once they understand the potential for using English as a tool to improve and make themselves better, and not just to pass the next test, the limits are endless. During that process, I do my best to mentor and guide them toward self-learning enlightenment.