EFL
EFL stands for English as a Foreign Language and it has been my primary area of interest since I started teaching English in Japan in about 1992. Areas that I am interested include ESP, materials development, the use of songs in EFL, conversation flow, and the teaching of culture in the classroom.
ESP stands for English for Specific Purposes. In my own case, I have primarily been interested in English for science and technology since engineering was my own first degree and the majority of my students are engineering students in Japan. I have also done extensive research on particular genres such as songwriting for L2 writers.
Right from the beginning of my teaching career, I was always interested in tweaking the textbook to make the learning activities more useful for my own personal situation. Over time, I began to develop more and more of my own materials and to write many textbooks, as well as edit many more for other authors. Most of these are published through Perceptia Press. I have edited various columns about materials writing for journals including the My Share column of The Language Teacher and the Writer’s Point column of the JALT Material Writers’ Sig.
My own interest in songs led me to use them widely in my classes, and my students’ enthusiastic response encouraged me to continue. I believe strongly that songs are a powerful learning resource that can act as a rich source of input as well as a strong motivator. I often get asked for references about the use of songs in EFL, so I have put together a list of relevant books, papers, and textbooks that I have found useful. This includes some of my own papers in this area. If you would you like to suggest any more, please get in touch.
L2 creativity
As a songwriter and writer myself, I have always been interested in the L2 creative process – how non-native speakers of a language can express their creativity most effectively through a foreign or second language. I carried out my doctoral research into the creative processes of L2 songwriters in Japan.