1CONTRIBUTOR
BIOGRAPHIES
Kent Anderson is an international lawyer who specialises in comparing Asian legal systems. He joined the University ofWestern Australia as Deputy Vice Chancellor (Community & Engagement) in 2014. He has an eclectic background, having
completed tertiary studies in US, Japan, and the UK in Law, Politics, Economics and Asian Studies. He also worked as amarketing manager with a US regional airline in Alaska and as a commercial lawyer in Hawaii. Before joining UWA, Kent
was Pro Vice Chancellor (International) at University of Adelaide and before that Dean of the then Faculty of Asian Studies
at the Australian National University. He started his academic career as associate professor at Hokkaido University Law
School in Japan. Kent is on the National Library of Australia Council, New Colombo Plan Advisory Board, Board of Canberra
Grammar School, and a variety of academic and community boards including the International Education Association ofAustralia (IEAA).
Kathleen Duquemin is a passionate learner and teacher of languages and has taught Japanese from Early years to Year 12,
utilising technology as a tool for teaching as well as learning. She has presented extensively on ICT in Language Educationboth nationally and internationally, and has worked as a writer and curator in the development of digital resources forlanguage learning. Kathleen holds an MA in Applied Linguistics and degrees in both Japanese Language and Education. As
Secretary of the JLTAV (and now Vice-President), she is involved in planning and presenting learning courses for teachersof languages, and she is active within the language learning networks in both Victoria and Australia.
Mariel Howard has thirteen years of experience teaching languages across all year levels in Australia and in Japan. She haspresented extensively in Perth as well as at the AFMLTA National Conference 2013 and NZALT National Conference 2014.
In 2012 she was awarded the JLTAWA Language Teacher Award. In 2013 she started a CLIL support hub in Perth and ran
her first CLIL program teaching art to Year 6 students in Japanese. At the time of the symposium she was the Languages
Consultant across Swan Christian Education Association schools in Western Australia as well as a Teacher of Japaneseat Kalamunda Christian School. She is currently Languages Consultant at Catholic Education Office of Western Australia.
Hiroki Kurihara is a teacher at Elwood College in Victoria. He has completed Dip.Ed. (Languages/EAL), Master of Applied
Linguistics and Professional Certificate in Education (CLIL) at the University of Melbourne. He has taught more than tenyears at Victorian Government and Catholic schools. He has been involved in several innovative projects of the Departmentof Education and Early Childhood Development. He has also worked extensively for the Victoria Curriculum and Assessment
Authority and the Australian Council for Education Research. Hiroki’s current interests include developing and implementing
CLIL units and sharing his experiences. At the time of the symposium he was undertaking the Leading Languages Moduleat Bastow Institute of Educational Leadership.
Nathan Lane has been teaching Japanese in Victorian Government and Catholic secondary schools for the past fourteenyears. Currently he is the Languages Domain Leader and Japanese teacher at St Columba’s College. Nathan has presented
at state, national and international language conferences and has been involved in resource development and external
assessment for students studying Japanese at secondary level. He is the current President of the JLTAV.
Caitlin Lee was accepted into the JET Program in 2010 after studying Japanese and Film at Curtin University, WesternAustralia. She was placed in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, where she taught English at six elementary schools. It was while
she was at one of these schools that the 2011 earthquake struck. She remained in Japan until 2012, when she returned
to Australia and completed a Graduate Diploma in Primary Education. Caitlin fell in love with Fukushima whilst living there,
and is a passionate supporter of projects that help increase public awareness of the ongoing situation or provide support
to affected communities.

2Shoko McInerney began teaching Japanese in 1988, at The Hills Montessori School in Adelaide. In 1989 she established
Immanuel Primary School’s Japanese program, one of the first compulsory R to 7 Japanese programs in South Australia.
She has given support, and numerous professional development sessions, to teachers and schools throughout South
Australia, Victoria, the Asia/Pacific Region and USA. In 2009 she became an authorized workshop leader in the International
Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme. In 2012 Shoko received the Noel Volk Excellence Award from the Associationof Independent Schools of South Australia. In 2013, she was awarded Japanese Language Teachers Association of SouthAustralia Life Membership.
David Nunan, Honorary Professor of School of Education at UNSW, is a globally acclaimed linguist, former Presidentof the TESOL International Association (1999-2000), the world's largest language teaching organization, and the world's
leading textbook series author. Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Anaheim University, David is the founding Dean ofthe Anaheim University Graduate School of Education and served as President of Anaheim University from 2006 to 2008.
David Nunan has been involved in the teaching of graduate programs for such prestigious institutions as the University ofHong Kong, Columbia University, the University of Hawaii, Monterey Institute for International Studies, and many more. Dr.
Nunan is a best-selling author of English Language Teaching textbooks for Cambridge University Press, Oxford UniversityPress, and Thomson Learning. His ELT textbook series "Go For It" is the largest selling textbook series in the world withtotal sales exceeding 2.5 billion books. In 2002 Dr. Nunan received a congressional citation from the United States House ofRepresentatives for his services to English language education through his pioneering work in online education at Anaheim
University. In 2003 he was ranked the 7th most influential Australian in Asia by Business Review Weekly, and in 2005 hewas named one of the top "50 Australians who Matter". David Nunan was invited by the Australian Prime Minister to attend
a summit in Sydney Australia in December 1996 as one of the Leading 100 Global Australians.
Robyn Spence-Brown is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University andteaches, supervises postgraduate students and conducts research in the areas of Japanese language learning and applied
linguistics more generally. She teaches postgraduate units relating to Second Language Acquisition and undergraduate
Japanese language. Robyn is currently Deputy Director of the Japanese Studies Centre and Chair of the Management andAdvisory Committees of the Melbourne Centre for Japanese Language Education. Robyn has a long-standing interest in theteaching of Japanese at the school level, has been a joint author of two major reports on Japanese Language Educationand has served on various examination and curriculum development committees.
Chihiro Kinoshita Thomson is Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of New South Wales. She represents theJapanese Studies Association of Australia in the Global Network on Japanese Language Education and is a past Presidentof the Association. Her research interests include learner agency and autonomy in Japanese language learning, andCommunity of Practice of learners and speakers of Japanese. She is the editor of this publication.
Wendy Venning recently retired from many years teaching Junior Primary Japanese at St Francis de Sales College in
SA. She had previously taught Italian to Year 12, taught in Japan, and lectured in Language Teacher Education. She was a2014 recipient of an Endeavour Language Teaching Fellowship, and her success in language teaching has been recognisedin an Outstanding Teacher Award presented by the Premier of Victoria. Dr Venning has presented scholarly papers atinternational conferences in Brisbane, Canberra, and Melbourne, and her research has been published in numerous papers,
book chapters, and newspaper features.
Rowena Ward is a Senior Lecturer in Japanese in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Law, Humanities
and the Arts, at the University of Wollongong. Dr Ward’s research interests include the structure of the Japanese nation,
gender and language education and the internment of Japanese civilians from across the Pacific in Australia between 1942
and 1946.