Research interests on German language: Teaching conversation for beginners of German levels A1 and A2, improving fluency in speaking, effect of the use of translation software on the teaching goals, material writing for conversation classes - Research interest on German culture: Research on the traumatic effects of World War II - Affiliation: Center for Multilingual Education, Osaka University

Teaching German as a Foreign Language, interested in the CEFR, CEFR/CV, Language Portfolio and its use in Japan and beyond, applied linguistics, pragmatics, intercultural communication, plurilingualism, language and culture.

Eric Fortin is currently a professor at St. Mary's College, where he has been teaching for over 20 years. His interest include third language learning and beyond, complex systems theory in language education, and learner autonomy.

Monika Szirmai is a professor, who first taught at Kanda University of International Studies (1995-98) in Japan. She has been teaching at Hiroshima International Univerisity since 1998. She is an active member of the JALT Other Language Educators group. Her interests are manifold: teaching methodology, translation, humour, corpus linguistics, just to name some of them. In her free time, she likes to play the Japanese drums, participate in omikoshi, and watch kagura.