NSJLE 2016 Proceedings: Visible and Valuable

Contributor Biographies
Liberty Campbell is the Catholic Education Commission’s representative on theLanguages Advisory Panel, the project officer for Languages in the Broken Bay diocese(NSW) and teaches Japanese at a Catholic boys’ high school in Sydney. Her particulararea of interest is in supporting teachers to meet the various demands on them to embednumeracy, literacy, differentiation, cross-curricular content and interculturalcompetencies in more coherent and considered ways. She is also the author of the Jblog
textbook series and a closet Crayon-Shinchan fan.
Kathleen Duquemin holds an MA in Applied Linguistics, and Graduate Degrees in both
Japanese Language and Primary Education. She has been involved in curriculum
development for second language education, and as a writer and curator in thedevelopment of digital resources for Japanese language learning.
Shingo Gibson-Suzuki teaches Japanese at Taylors Lakes Secondary College (Vic)
where he is also the eLearning Leader and Coordinator of LEAP accelerated learning
program years 7 to 9. He was a part of the Language Learning Spaces project of Education
Services Australia, and has presented at JLTAV conferences and The National
Symposium in Japanese Language Education. He was a finalist in the Victorian Education
Excellence Awards in 2014 and 2015 and in the Polycom Teaching Excellence Awards
in 2013. Shingo founded and moderates the Japanese Language Teachers of Australia
Facebook Group, with over 2000 members from around Australia.
John Hajek is Professor of Italian Studies and director of the Research Unit forMultilingualism and Cross-cultural Communication (RUMACCC) at the University ofMelbourne, as well as founding President of the Languages and Cultures Network forAustralian Universities (LCNAU). An experienced linguist, and teacher of European andAsian languages, he is a passionate advocate of high-quality languages education and alsoof new ways of motivating multilingualism and language study in Australia.
Kelly Harrison has been teaching Japanese for seven years in Queensland and has beenteaching CLIL for two years. Kelly studied Japanese at high school, then at the Universityof Queensland and also for one year at the Kitakyushu City University. Her interest in
CLIL programs stems from a desire to see students improve their speaking proficiency
and confidence.
Taku Hashimoto was a foundation teacher in the Japanese Bilingual Program at Wellers
Hill State School (Qld). The program began in 2014 and today encompasses around four
hundred students from Years 1 through to 4. Taku has played an instrumental role in the
program’s ongoing success, and is believed to be the first Japanese administrator in an
Australian public school.
Cathy Jonak was formerly a Language Consultant at the Japan Foundation, Sydney.
Cathy taught Japanese in high schools in Sydney before joining the Japan Foundation,NSJLE 2016 Proceedings: Visible and Valuable

where her work included teacher professional development around Australia and New
Zealand, and resources development.
Nathan Lane has been teaching Japanese in Victorian Government and Catholic
secondary schools for the past 17 years. He is the Director of Pedagogy and Innovation
at Presentation College Windsor (Vic). Nathan has presented at state, national andinternational conferences and has been involved in resource development and external
assessment for students studying Japanese at secondary level. He is President of theJapanese Language Teachers’ Association of Victoria Inc. (JLTAV).
Mayumi Mitsuya is a Language Consultant at the Japan Foundation, Sydney. Mayumitaught Japanese in language schools and universities in various countries before joining
the Japan Foundation, where she has been involved in teacher professional development
around Australia and New Zealand, and resources development.
Susan Palmer has been employed for the past ten years as a part time teacher of Japanese
language and culture at Balgowlah Heights PS (NSW), where she has developed a uniqueintegrative Japanese program with a collaborative and intercultural learning focus. She
has over 30 years of Japan-related experience and a deep affection for a country she refers
to as her second home. Susan first lived in Japan as an exchange student and subsequently
returned to Japan for several years to teach in a Japanese high school after completing aBA in Asian Studies (ANU) and a Grad Dip Ed at University of Canberra. Susan attributes
her success in the primary classroom to these rich experiences.
Natalie Pearce is an experienced and passionate primary school Japanese teacher. She
has also worked as a Curriculum Consultant in Western Australia and taught Language
Teaching Methodology at Curtin University in 2015 and 2016.
Robyn Spence-Brown is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Languages, Literatures,Cultures and linguistics, Monash University (Vic). Robyn has a long-standing interest in
the teaching of Japanese at both school and tertiary levels, and has been a joint author of
two major reports on Japanese language education.
Andrea Truckenbrodt lectures in Language and Literacy Education at the Melbourne
Graduate School of Education. Her research interests focus broadly on improving
pedagogy, programs and participation in Languages Education. She is particularlyinterested in literacy-based approaches to Languages teaching and CLIL. Andrea wasinvolved in writing the Australian Curriculum Languages for German. She has had a longterm involvement with a group of practising Japanese teachers creating units of workaround Japanese picture story books.
John Webster has been a teacher for 31 years, 29 of them as a Principal. John
commenced his principalship in small schools in Western Queensland. His current school
is Wellers Hill State School in central Brisbane.