Leigh McDowell is based in Nara, Japan where he works for a national graduate university, the Nara Institute of Science and Technology. At NAIST, Leigh teaches research writing, research presentation, academic discussion, and professional communication and as such, his primary professional interest is in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Leigh has been a member of JALT for over ten years, in which time he has volunteered for various roles. He is currently the President of the Nara Chapter.

I am a PhD candidate at Macquarie University investigating global competence in Japan. I am based in Japan, where I teach intercultural competence and English writing courses at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. As well as global competence, I am interested in teacher development, materials development and pedagogies for intercultural competence- oriented FL learning.

I am a PhD candidate at Macquarie University. My research has been exploring the influence of study abroad on the L2 motivation, study goals and learning behaviours of Japanese university students.

I have just completed my PhD study in Applied Linguistics (AppL) at Macquarie University. I did both my MRes and MA degrees in AppL in Australia, and BA in ELT in Vietnam. Having worked as an English lecturer and English Training Coordinator in Vietnam, I have been concerned about EFL learners' abilities to communicate effectively in the target language. This motivates me to study about L2 pragmatics, pragmatic content in textbooks, pragmatics in teacher education and development.