Professor Michael Handford , Andrew Vaughan, Professor Hiromasa Tanaka

The aim of this event is to throw light on the various ways that Business English is being learned, taught and used in workplaces in Japan. So we want to draw together corporate, academic and private business English teachers and researchers to discuss current teaching practices and how this field is evolving.
Michael Handford is a professor at Cardiff University’s School of English, Communication & Philosophy, and previously worked in Tokyo University’s Institute for Innovation in International Engineering Education. His research interests are professional communication, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, intercultural communication, and pragmatics. He also co-authored the much acclaimed Business Advantage textbook.
Andrew Vaughan has been working in corporate training programs in Japan for 25 years, as a teacher, materials developer and course designer. He’s currently the GM of a Japan-based company, which designs and delivers customized language/communication skills programs for Japanese and foreign-owned companies. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience about how the Japanese corporate language training field has evolved, and will bring his interests in testing and evaluation to show the return on investment in language programs.
Hiromasa Tanaka is a professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Meisei University in Tokyo. His research interest is in the area of business discourse and critical pedagogy with a special focus on human resource development in multi-national business corporations. He has published 78 books and articles in the field of business discourse and human resource development both in Japanese and English.