大学院 外国語教育系領域システム論コース
Systems of Second Language Education
The graduate program in the Systems of Second Language Education is committed to analyzing a diversity of linguistic phenomena through different mode of inquiry. We examine language through its phonetic systems, acquisition, use in context, and via psycholinguistic models. By valuing the legitimacy and relevance of research at every level of analysis, we aim to help students to build a foundation for language studies. Specifically, we focus on:
- researching language pedagogy by applying knowledge in linguistics, psychology, and related fields;
- exploring learners’ second language developmental process from the SLA perspectives;
- investigating the psycholinguistic and cognitive processes involved in language learning;
- researching a range of methods and approaches for teaching literary works; and
- exploring the environment for language teaching and learning with ICT.
Graduate students’ research themes
- language comprehension / production
- cognitive mechanisms of language processing
- alignment
- explicit / implicit learning
- syntactic / semantic processing
- mental lexicon
- working memory
- motivation & L2 learning
- L2 writing development
- academic literacy in foreign language
- scientific discourse
- interaction
- feedback
- task
- task-based language teaching
- American literatures
Faculty
Atsuhisa SHIMAZU, Professor
Courses taught: Language and Cultural Representation
Areas of specialization: Modern American literature. I am particularly interested in Jewish American literature, and am attempting to decipher Bernard Malamud’s novels and short stories from the perspective of expression.
Yasunori TAKAHASHI, Associate Professor
Courses taught: Contrastive Linguistics and Cognition
Areas of specialization: Chinese dialects from both phonetic and phonological viewpoints.
Mayu HAMADA, Assistant Professor
Courses taught: Psycholinguistics, Foreign Language Education
Areas of specialization: My area of research is psycholinguistics, and I am trying to explore the cognitive mechanisms of L2 comprehension and production especially focusing on syntactic processing in terms of the learners’ input and output. I would like to use and adopt findings to classroom teaching.
Daichi HIROTA, Associate Professor
Courses taught: Language and Culture I
Areas of specialization: French literature. My object of study is modern French poetry represented by Baudelaire, and I am trying to describe his poetics from a linguistic viewpoint. In addition, I am interested in literary criticism and language teaching through the use of computers and the Internet.
Rei YASUDA, Lecturer
Courses taught: Language and Culture II
Areas of specialization: Foreign language phonetics. I am interested in teaching German pronunciation and currently working on experimental studies regarding how Japanese learners pronounce German.
Sachiko YASUDA, Professor
Courses taught: Second Language Acquisition, Qualitative Research Methods
Areas of specialization: My main area of research is in second language writing, particularly longitudinal development of academic literacy of EFL learners. My research interests also include genre pedagogy, systemic functional linguistics (SFL), and interfaces between L2 writing and L2 development.
Hirokazu YOKOKAWA, Professor
Courses taught: Psycholinguistics and Language Teaching
Areas of specialization: English education studies and psycholinguistics. My main research themes are L2 reading, writing, speaking and listening as well as the cognitive mechanisms for vocabulary, and how all of this might be adapted for practical applications in classes.
