Work

Teaching Materials

Throughout the years, I have compiled many pieces of educational material for coursework and actual teaching.

This section contains some samples of these materials. Although they are not all my best pieces of work, the pieces selected here are intended to form a timeline of my work throughout my career.

Chart of English Conditionals Download
English conditionals are difficult, but surprisingly systematic. This chart outlines them in detail.

Recommended Readings Download
Vocabulary is incredibly important in language learning and a lot of research suggests that reading can significantly aid vocabulary development. Although it is generally agreed to be a gradual process, it is also extremely effective. This applies not only to second, but also first language acquisition.
I devised this recommended reading list for a former student who was preparing for the Eiken Grade 1 (英検１級) exam, which is the highest level of a Japanese English proficiency test. On top of her own list-based vocabulary studies, she wanted to do another type of longer-term studying through reading. However, I have often found that students try to read in English as to kill two birds with one stone - they want to learn, but they also want to take a break - but do not entirely enjoy the books that are available to them.
As a book lover, yet extremely slow and easily bored reader, I find that choosing the right book is possibly the most important part of the reading process. In order to assure an interesting read, I have selected some of the best books (in my opinion) from an array of lists for readings that are helpful for second language English vocabulary development.

Short Presentation/Speech Guide Download
Presentations and speeches tend to daunt people, but they are actually incredibly simple. While delivery is of course a large part of any presentation or speech, I find that careful planning and logical organization can take any speaker very far. Here, I have created a very simple outliner for presentations/speeches, aimed towards Elementary-level learners who are interested in or required to do presentations. However, the guideline basically works for anyone and I have adapted it to use with Advanced-level learners.

Short and Sweet Psychology (video series)
In 2018, I was asked to create six short videos on interesting topics in Psychology. They were to be shown to high school to university-aged students and were intended to give them a glimpse of some interesting topics in psychology that were easy enough to understand and were relateable to daily life. As a Psychology B.A., I looked back on my university experiences studying the subject and picked the most memorable and fascinating topics I could remember.

For this project, I designed, developed and edited six brief videos on hindisght bias, diffusion of responsibility, attention and memory, cognitive dissonance, linguistic determinism and relativity, and topics in studying/learning.

Research & Publications

The ‘new normal’ pedagogy: Teaching second language writing during COVID-19

Abstract

Distance learning has existed for many years, but it has almost always been an option available to those for whom face-to-face classes were not feasible or convenient. Universities have offered online versions of their face-to-face courses, and the market for full distance learning degree and certification courses seems to be growing. In 2020, however, many institutions, teachers and students found themselves forcibly thrust into emergency remote teaching by the COVID-19 pandemic. I was one of these instructors, teaching my first university academic writing course to a group of first-year students fresh out of high school. While this was a highly educational and stimulating experience, it was not without its challenges. All of the parties involved had been underprepared for such a situation, but not inevitably so. Although no one could have anticipated the outbreak of a global pandemic, the switch to emergency remote teaching could have been smoother. In this article, I will briefly summarise my experiences teaching a second language (L2) academic writing course to first-year students at a Japanese university and discuss the opportunities and challenges that I had encountered along the way. I will end with several suggestions for institutions that I think may help improve the remote teaching situation during this ongoing pandemic as well as better prepare people for a more technology-dependent future.

Words to explain words: How teachers explain second language vocabulary

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Abstract

Vocabulary plays one of the most crucial roles in language competence and learning, and has gained considerable attention in second language acquisition research and education. However, the largely learner-centered research has focused directly on learner thoughts, behaviors and development, paying little attention to the role of teachers' vocabulary explanations and their effects on learner outcome. In this case study of two English Medium Instruction (EMI) professors at a Japanese university, teacher explanations and elaborations of vocabulary were investigated. Three consecutive lectures and interviews with each professor were recorded and transcribed for analysis. This study described the what, when, why, and how of teacher vocabulary explanations. The primary focus of the EMI classes was teaching content through English, making vocabulary explanations doubly important, as they potentially played two roles: clarifying word meaning and teaching content.The results seemed to indicate a tight relationship between various contextual factors (i.e., student proficiencies and experiences, course aims, course content, teaching style) and approaches to vocabulary explanation. The EMI format in particular seemed to influence the explanatory behaviors, both linguistically and typologically. Vocabulary was most often explained in definitions or paraphrases in the second language English and treated as concepts directly related to the course content. The findings suggested the need for more research on teacher lexical explanation sensitive to teaching and learning contexts. The reflections presented in the interviews and the variety shown in teacher behavior supported the need for attention to vocabulary explanation in teacher training and curriculum-building.

Explaining words: How EMI teachers conceptualize and deliver explanations of unfamiliar vocabulary

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Abstract

Vocabulary has come to be regarded as one of the most vital elements of language and language learning (Cook, 2016; Nation, 2013). In recent years, it has gained more attention in research and is being stressed more in the second language acquisition (SLA) field (Cook, 2016). In 2015, Macaro and Tian conducted an exploratory study of Chinese university professors’ vocabulary explanations in the English language classroom in an attempt to provide preliminary insight into what types of vocabulary explanation were used. This study investigates how vocabulary is explained and elaborated through a case study of two university professors at a Japanese university. Using observations of three lectures and a brief interview with each professor, this study aimed to describe the what, when, why, and how of teacher vocabulary explanation. The two observed classes were English Medium Instruction (EMI) classes, which were primarily focused on teaching content in the English language. The results seemed to indicate a tight relationship between contextual factors and how vocabulary teaching was approached (i.e., student experiences, course aims, course content, and teaching style preferences). Taken together with Macaro and Tian’s (2015) findings, this study has not only supported the need for more research on lexical explanation, but has also introduced other factors to be considered in future.

Master's Dissertation

Abstract

Vocabulary has come to be regarded as one of the most vital elements of language and language learning (Cook, 2016; Nation, 2013). In recent years, it has gained more attention in research and is being stressed more in the second language acquisition (SLA) field (Cook, 2016). In 2015, Macaro and Tian conducted an exploratory study of Chinese university professors’ vocabulary explanations in the English language classroom in an attempt to provide preliminary insight into what types of vocabulary explanation were used.

This study investigates how vocabulary is explained and elaborated through a case study of two university professors at a Japanese university. Using observations of three lectures and a brief interview with each professor, this study aimed to describe the what, when, why, and how of teacher vocabulary explanation. The two observed classes were English Medium Instruction (EMI) classes, which were primarily focused on teaching content in the English language.

The results seemed to indicate a tight relationship between contextual factors and how vocabulary teaching was approached (i.e., student experiences, course aims, course content, and teaching style preferences). Taken together with Macaro and Tian’s (2015) findings, this study has not only supported the need for more research on lexical explanation, but has also introduced other factors to be considered in future.

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

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Abstract

Language immersion has long been considered the best way to learn a second language (L2). However, it is possible that while the L2 is enhanced by immersion, the first language (L1) suffers some costs. In the present study, two groups of Japanese-English bilinguals – one in the U.S. and one in Japan – named pictures in each language. In one condition, the pictures in a given block were named in one language alone, either Japanese or English. In the other condition, picture naming language was cued by a colored frame surrounding the picture, indicating whether the picture was to be named in Japanese or in English. Although both bilingual groups were dominant in Japanese as the L1 and also highly proficient in English as the L2, they revealed significant costs to the L1 when naming in the L1 following the L2 and when naming in the mixed language block. The group immersed in the L2 suffered greater costs to their L1 and were generally slower to name pictures in both languages. These results suggest a contribution of both local and global inhibitory processes in bilingual speech production. Most critically, they demonstrate that it is possible for bilinguals to lose the advantage in spoken fluency of the native language if the L2 was recently used actively.

Art & Design

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