English as a Foreign Language in Japan. A Case Study of Factors Affecting Second Language Acquisition

I am an English-speaking Canadian, who has been teaching for the past 20 years, 16 of which have been in Japan. After receiving a B.A. from the University of Toronto (1994), I obtained a TESL certificate (1995) and a Masters in Applied Linguistics (2005). I have taught at a wide variety of businesses, jr. and sr. high schools, vocational colleges and universities in the Tokyo area. I have extensive experience teaching conversation; from absolute beginners to advanced levels, as well as listening and academic writing. I also have experience teaching Business English as well as TOEFL, TOEIC and SAT. My teaching style is based on the communicative approach to L2 instruction.