Michael Stout was born in Toronto, Canada, the most multicultural city in the world. Growing up in Toronto, he was exposed to many languages. Finally when he was 11 years old he was given the opportunity to fail at learning another language - French. His experience as a learner of French would come in handy later in life.
Michael has been in Japan since 1997. He began as an inexperienced and mostly untrained teacher at Nova's branch in Ageo City, Saitama. One day, his trainer asked him if he'd like to go to a JALT Omiya chapter meeting and since then his life has never been the same.
He attended his first conference in Maebashi in 1999. After that Michael enrolled in Temple University's Master of Education in TESOL programme, and he began teaching in secondary schools.
Eventually, he managed to get work in a university through a connection he'd made in JALT. Now, Michael teaches at Toyo Gakuen University and Shibaura Institute of Technology. His research interests are CALL, Project-based language learning and assessment.
His JALT Background includes:

• The Language Teacher Additional Reader, 2010 to present
• Teachers Helping Teachers Delegate; Laos 2008, Philippines 2009, Bangladesh 2009
• Domestic Affairs Committee Chair, 2007, 2008
• JALT Conference abstract vetting committee 2005, 2006
• JALT Conference Proceedings Editorial Advisory Committee Member, 2005, 2008, 2009
• Omiya Chapter Programme Chair, 2004-2005
• JALT National Conference Handbook Proofreader, 2004
• Omiya Chapter President, 2002-2004
• Omiya Chapter Recording Secretary, 2001-2002