Profile
I started my career teaching English as a foreign language in schools, colleges and universities in East Asia and the United Kingdom. I have lived and worked in Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan for extended periods. Over the years my professional interests have cycled through various roles, such as teacher trainer, assessor, and materials developer.
I am a senior associate professor in the Center for Language Research within the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Aizu. I am also a faculty member of the Graduate School of Computer Science and Engineering.
I am a corpus-computational linguist who coordinates, designs and delivers both computer science and language courses. I strive to deliver classes that are evidence-based, learner-centered and harness the latest technological developments. My elective courses adopt a content and language-integrated learning approach in which I develop both content knowledge and language. My current portfolio of courses includes: authorship analysis using Python, expert system with Python, information ethics and thesis writing.
I enjoy applying my knowledge and experience to lead research teams to develop language analysis and learning tools which harness cutting-edge technologies. My current research interests include:
- Forensic linguistics: authorship verification, profiling and attribution
- Computational linguistics: developing bespoke tools for language analysis
- Corpus linguistics: analyzing texts using corpus tools and statistical analysis
- Technology-enhanced learning: developing tailormade tools for learning
- Artificial intelligence: generative AI, explainable AI, expert systems
I am fascinated by the complexity and patterns witin research communications, e.g. theses, articles and abstracts. I view academic and scientific writing as combination of knowledge, skills and behaviours that draws upon a range of literacies, e.g. critical, logical and statistic; and requires mastery of range of language features, e.g. coherence and cohesion.
When teaching language, I use corpus linguistics and discourse analysis to develop research-based materials to deliver learner-centered EAP or ESP classes that are enjoyable, challenging and relevant. I am an avid grammarian, and enjoy discussing any aspect of any grammar from anaphora to zeugma.
When teaching computer science and other content-focus subjects, I adopt a hands-on, interactive approach with students engaged in problem-solving and learning by doing. I tailor my materials, lectures, exercises and jokes (at least my attempts) to the learner needs, interests and abilities while covering the required content dictated by the syllabus and ensuring students are sufficiently prepared to excel in the assignments and assessments. I am believer in criterion-based assessment and do not use norm-referenced assessment (unless mandated).
Awareness and defense
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3150-4995