Re-Envisioning EFL Education in Asia

Disi Ai (Adis) is a PhD researcher at the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED), The University of Manchester in the UK. Her research interest mainly focuses on multilingualism, identity, translanguaging, ethnic minority language practice and education. This paper is a part of her PhD project of Multilingual Lived Experience and Identity Construction in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. 

Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa is a learning advisor, lecturer, and graduate school instructor at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba, Japan. She holds a PhD in applied linguistics from Victoria University of Wellington and a Master of Education in TESOL from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a co-managing editor of the Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education’s Relay Journal. Her research interests include learner autonomy, advising in language learning, and positive psychology in education. 

Gavan Gray is a Professor in the College of Policy Studies at Tsuda University, Japan. He holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. His research interests include the application of critical thinking skills in language acquisition, responses to gender-based violence, and political communication.

Barry Kavanagh is an associate professor at Tohoku University, Japan where he also received his PhD. His research interests include CLIL, intercultural communication, bilingualism, and computer mediated communication. He is the Vice President of the J-CLIL pedagogy association and chair of the J-CLIL Tohoku chapter.

Philip McCarthy is currently an Associate Professor at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. He has been a teacher for over 30 years, working in locations such as Turkey, Japan, Britain, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. McCarthy’s research focuses on applied natural language processing and discourse science.

Mark A. McGuire is a doctoral candidate at The Ohio State University. He has been teaching university EFL and ESL courses for more than ten years, in China and in the United States. His interests include the identity and pragmatic development of English users according to usage-based theories of language.

Theron Muller is an Associate Professor at the University of Toyama, Japan. His doctorate is from The Open University, UK, research exploring the publication practices of Japan-based language teachers. He has published and presented widely on writing for academic publication, English language teaching and learning, and teacher development.

Tim Murphey has studied and taught 15 years in Europe and 30 in Asia. He most recently has retired to an Oregon farm for horses, River Quest, to study equine therapy and our reconnections with nature.

Akiko Nagao (Ph.D.) is a lecturer at Ryukoku University in Japan who is interested in investigating the genre-based approach (GBA) within a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) framework to assess the development of English learners’ understanding of target-genre essays. She is also interested in how novice EFL learners in Japan become experienced learners/EFL writers through SFL-GBA writing lessons.

Masumi Narita is a Professor in the College of Policy Studies at Tsuda University, Japan. She received her PhD from Nagoya University, Japan. Her research interests include learner corpus-based studies and as such she has been exploring linguistic features that characterize academic writing produced by second language learners. 

Natsumi Okuwaki is a Professor in the College of Policy Studies at Tsuda University, Japan. She received her PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Essex, England. Her research interests encompass the use of formulaic language by second language learners, second language acquisition of tense and aspect, and vocabulary learning and teaching. 

Kyoko Otsuki is an associate professor at Nara Prefectural University in Japan. She received a PhD in applied linguistics. Her research interests lie in extensive reading, English grammar, pragmatics and discourse analysis. She has practiced extensive reading for more than ten years at universities. 

Caleb Prichard is also an associate professor at Okayama University in Japan. He has also taught English as a second or foreign language in South Korea and the United States. He co-edited Bridging the Humor Barrier with John Rucynski and has published several articles on humor in second language education. He has researched reading strategy competency among other areas.

John Rucynski is an associate professor at Okayama University, Japan. His main research interest is the role of humor in foreign language acquisition and intercultural communicative competence. He has edited two volumes on this topic and his articles have been published in journals such as English Teaching Forum, System, and TESOL Journal. His latest project was editing A Passion for Japan, a collection of personal narratives by long-term residents of Japan. 

Danya Shaalan is an Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics who is currently serving as the Vice Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Languages at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Her current research interests include Saudi higher education students’ motivation and second language acquisition (SLA), the connection between SLA and identity, sociolinguistic methods, SLA motivation, the second-language learning environment, and the influence of integrativeness on SLA. 

Satoko Watkins is a Principal Learning Advisor and Associate Professor in the Self-Access Learning Centre at Kanda University of International Studies, Japan. Her research focuses on learner autonomy, advising, self-directed language learning, learning communities, and inclusive practice. In her center, she has developed several student-led prosocial learning communities and programs. 

Lijie Shao is the international language tutor at Dublin City University, Ireland.  Her research focuses on English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education in the context of internationalization and globalization, multilingualism in China from the sociolinguistic aspect, and teaching Chinese as an international language in higher education. In 2019, she obtained her PhD in Applied Linguistics from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Her doctoral project, comparing EMI across contexts, was supported by the Trinity Postgraduate Studentship. She is an early-stage researcher with EMI-related publications in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development and Routledge Focus on English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education. Prior to her academic career, she had six years’ full time industry experience in international higher education consultancy in Beijing, China.

Colin Skeates is an adjunct professor at various universities in Japan. He has a master’s in teaching English and a bachelor’s in marketing research. He is currently exploring the uses of panoramic technology through a company he co-founded, limex360.com.  

Atsuko Takase is a teacher at Iwano Private English School in Japan. She received an Ed.D. in TESOL from Temple University. Her research interests are extensive reading /listening (ER/EL), motivation to ER/EL, and language acquisition, including grammar and vocabulary through ER/EL. After having practiced ER/EL at high schools and universities for 30 years, she is now practicing ER/EL on students at various age groups such as children 9 to 11 years of age, high school students, and adults. She is currently a board member of Extensive Reading Foundation and Japan Extensive Reading Association.

Laura Taylor works as an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM). As part of the Institute for University Pedagogy (ISUP), Laura focuses her work on the academic needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) across UTM. Her attention is mainly directed toward academic writing, with an emphasis on foundational skills required at the tertiary level. The wider mission of ISUP is to provide interdisciplinary support to faculty, staff, and students, and so Laura works closely with colleagues across UTM to foster the development of innovative, inclusive and accessible pedagogy.

Anuja M. Thomas is completing her M.S. in Psychology at Arizona State University, after which, she will join Florida State University as a Ph.D. student in Cognitive Psychology. Her research focus lies at the intersection of language, cognition, and learning, with an emerging interest in computational methods. 

Zhenjie Weng is an Assistant Professor of English Language at the Language and Culture Center at Duke Kunshan University, China. Her specialization is in second, foreign, and multilingual language education, and her research mainly focuses on language teacher education. She has published articles in leading journals in the field, such as TESOL Journal, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, and Teaching in Higher Education on language teacher identity, emotions, agency, and expertise.

Kie Yamamoto is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Communication, Faculty of Global Studies at Wayo Women’s University in Japan. Her research interests lie mainly in teletandem learning, student engagement and learner agency. She is an Ed.D candidate at the University of Bath, UK.

Kiyomi Yoshizawa is a professor at Faculty of Foreign Language Studies and Graduate School of Foreign Language Education and Research, Kansai University, in Japan. She received an Ed.D. in TESOL. Her research interests include language testing, reading in a foreign language, and extensive reading. She has incorporated extensive reading in her reading classes for more than ten years. second language education. He has researched reading strategy competency among other areas.