Gaby Benthien is a professor at Shumei University and adjunct lecturer at Chuo University. She taught Japanese and PE at a secondary school in Australia from 1991 to 1999 as well as Japanese at a group of primary schools. She spent 1996 on a working holiday in Japan, and returned in 1999 to work as an ALT in Yamanashi for six years. While working as an ALT, Gaby completed a master degree in international education, and later on her doctorate degree focusing on L2 motivation during and after a study abroad program. She is currently teaching classes related to culture, general English, and L2 education in primary schools. Gaby’s research interests include intercultural understanding, L2 motivation and teacher development. She is currently the Tokyo Chapter TYL co-chair, and publications co-chair for the TYL SIG and ICLE SIG .

Fumiko Kurihara is a professor at Chuo University. She received MA from Georgetown University, and Ph.D from International Christian University. She has been teaching English at the Faculty of Commerce for more than 20 years. She also teaches intercultural communication in a freshman seminar and in an overseas internship program. Her research interests are intercultural communicative competence in language learning, the role of mediation in communicative tasks, and the use of portfolios in teacher education.

Yoichi Kiyota is Professor of Education at Meisei University Tokyo, Japan, where he has been involved in the management of English language education and the teacher training course of English language since 2008. His current research interests are language learning portfolios and foreign language learning in cooperation with museums. He has been involved in service-learning as an advisor of teacher training for English education of secondary schools, project-based learning programs and international educational projects at local schools.

Natsue Nakayama is a professor at Bunkyo University. She received an MSc from the University of Oxford. She has been involved in teaching EFL and pre-service teacher training for more than 15 years. Her research interests include language teacher education, intercultural approaches to language learning, and user research of dictionaries.

I have been involved in elementary school foreign language education since 1998. I am currently working as an ALT at four public schools in Hanamaki City, commissioned by the Hannamaki Board of Education in Iwate Prefecture.

I've lived in Japan for over 25 years. I like spending time with friends, having coffee and going to karaoke with them. I was an English teacher in the Philippines before coming to Japan. I worked at the city office before I landed my ALT job. I am currently working as an ALT at a municipal high school in Matsudo. I am also the VP of External Affairs of a teacher organization (FETJ-Global.)

Daniel Roy Pearce is a lecturer in the Department of Education at Shitennoji University, Osaka. He has taught for five years in Japanese public schools and has recently completed his doctorate on plurilingual and integrated approaches in elementary schools in Japan at the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, under the supervision of Nishiyama Noriyuki. His current research interests include collaborative action research with teachers, plurilingual education for elementary school learners, and plurilingualism and linguistic diversity in monolingual contexts.

Dr. Osterman has been teaching in Japan since 1993. Originally from a small Midwestern town in the United States, he earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education from the University of Maryland. After a short hiatus, he completed his doctorate degree from Northcentral University in educational leadership. Over his career, he has taught at elementary schools, junior high schools, universities, and is an administrator at a private international school in Okinawa. His volunteer works includes being the coordinator for JALT’s Teaching Younger Learners Special Interest Group, Okinawa Chapter Membership Chair, and the SIG Representative Liaison for JALT.