Keynote Speakers

First Annual NEAR Conference, May 30, 2009

N.E.A.R. is proud to have had Professor Kensaku Yoshida of Sophia University and Professor Tim Murphey of Kanda University of International Studies as our two plenary speakers.

Professor Kensaku Yoshida
New directions for English education in Japan - Implications from MEXT's new course of study
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports (MEXT) has announced its new course of study for primary and secondary school education. In this talk, Prof. Kensaku Yoshida went over the essential goals and objectives mentioned in these documents and argued for the importance of content-based instruction, by emphasizing the role of English as a 'tool' for learning rather than the object of learning. He further made suggestions about 'content' by referring to the results of high school debating contests held both at the national level and the international level. On the basis of arguments concerning the goals of primary and secondary English education, he finally suggested the need to clarify and assess the goals of university English education.
Kensaku Yoshida is Professor in the Faculty of Foreign Studies at Sophia University. He is also the Director of the Sophia Linguistics Institute for International Communication.He has worked on a number of committees for MEXT, including the Committee for the Revision of the Course of Studies, Panel to Promote Revisions in English Language Teaching, Super English Language High School Assessment Committee, Task Force to Educate Japanese with English abilities and the Central Council for Education?Foreign Language Sub-committee. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of The International Research Foundation (TIRF) for English Language Education and a former Executive Director of Asia TEFL. He has given plenary and featured talks at numerous domestic conferences, as well as several international conferences, including TESOL, JALT, KOTESOL, PAC 2, KAFLE, Asia.

Professor Tim Murphey
Near Peer Role Models: Individuals, Institutions, and Internationally
Research has shown that we more easily model and follow those who are similar to us, our near peer role models (NPRMs) than those who are not similar to us. Prof. Tim Murphey gave brief examples of how this is happening in our schools and how teachers can use this resource to the advantage of increased learning. He then turned to look at how such NPRMing can be done at an institutional level, nationally, and regionally or internationally. He suggested how this NEAR conference itself might become a tool for regional NPRMing. Finally,he looked at how we can help students and ourselves, open up to diversity to allow more different people, and organizations, become near NPRMs.
Tim Murphey, professor at Kanda University of International Studies, PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, has published books with CUP, OUP, Longman, TESOL, Macmillan LanguageHouse, Helbling Languages, and many book chapters and articles. He has been a plenary speaker in eight countries and guest teaches summers in various graduate schools. His most recent book “The Tale that Wags”, a novel about Japan's entrance exam system, just came out in Italian in Italy (a case of international NPRMing).