People

Introduction

As an EFL student, I have been fascinated with English grammar and the etymology of English words since I began learning English at the age of 13. Interested in explaining various phenomena of English grammar and vocabulary—the hows and whys of English—I decided to go back in time to the history of the English language and learn languages close to it. In the process of studying ME, OE, and German, I learned that historical comparative studies of languages were established and fostered mainly in 19^th-century Germany and from there I became interested in the history of German and Western linguistics and its neighboring disciplines. The study of language was once called “philology,” meaning “love of leaning/letters,” and dealing with the history of conceptual change from “philology” to “linguistics” in the study of language was the starting point of my academic life. Later, I learned that language was being scrutinized in Japan using the identical method as the German “Philologie,” and I became interested in the East-West comparison of theories of language study, which has continued to be as one of my primary areas of research to this day. As an English teacher, I have also researched language teaching methods based on these historical findings, and learning methods that incorporate the latest technologies as well. In addition, for the past 20 years, I have been deeply involved in teaching English academic writing in depth through the translation and publication of the Japanese edition of The Publication Manual of American Psychological Association, and as an extension of this research, I have conducted field research on EFL/ESL education (especially extracurricular learning support systems) in East and Southeast Asian countries in order to improve English education at the college level in Japan.