Department of English Studies faculty member, Professor Mitsuyo Sakamoto, has recently published her new co-edited book detailing the history of the TESOL programme at Sophia University. Last year marked the tenth anniversary of the programme and the book looks at the challenges involved in creating the individual courses and the success the program has had training teachers “devoted to Foreign Language Education.”
In publishing the book, Professor Sakamoto and the other professors involved, aim to share the core ideas of the TESOL programme at Sophia University with a larger community of educators.
For those interested in learning more about this important subject, please read Professor Sakamoto’s new book, available now from Sophia University Press.
The order form is available for download here: （注文書）応用言語学
Below is an excerpt from the Preface to the book:
“The TESOL programme at Sophia University was launched in April of 2006. We have come a long way since then, celebrating our tenth anniversary last year. During the past ten years we have seen approximately 100 in-service and pre-service teachers going through our programme, including Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs), international students from overseas and those who were trained as teachers as undergraduate students. Upon graduation, many gain teaching jobs in junior high and high schools and others work as part-time college instructors, go on to do doctorates at a university oveseas, and so on. What is common among them is that they are all devoted to foreign language education, wishing to improve their teaching skills. Likewise, professors are working to improve their theoretical and practical knowledge in language teaching. Unfortunately, however, it has been difficult to have more in-service teachers take part in the programme. A few have managed to gain long-term leave from the workplace, allowing them to concentrate on their studies, but they have been an exception. In publishing this book, we were hoping to widely share the endeavours we have been embarking on. Every July we offer an information session about our TESOL programme. Fortunately we receive 50 to 70 participants from the Kanto area and beyond. We briefly go over the programme in an hour or so, then take questions individually. However, despite their interest, we realize that not everyone can attend the session. For this reason we have decided to publish a book which would allow others to learn about the programme.”
