Welcome to the July/August edition of TLT Interviews! In this issue, we feature an interview with Dr. Momoko Nakamura, Professor of English at Kanto Gakuin University and winner of the 2007 Yamakawa Kiue award. Dr. Nakamura presented an analysis of the features of the gendered language used to translate non-Japanese speech into Japanese at the 2018 JALT plenary. Her fascinating 2014 book, Gender, Language and Ideology: A Genealogy of Japanese Women’s Language, denaturalises the assumed common sense relationship between language and gender. By taking a historical approach, she explains the role taken by educators, the media and government in forming the Japanese women’s language and gendered norms of today. Before her plenary presentation at JALT2018, she was interviewed by Joanna Hosoya and Quenby Hoffman Aoki. Ms. Hosoya teaches at Seijo University and Tokyo Women’s Medical University. She has a Masters of Education in Applied Linguistics and has many years of experience teaching English in Japan. She is interested in the various ways gender and language intersect, such as the adaptation and resistance to Japanese language acquisition in foreign women married to Japanese men. She is a long-term GALE member and former editor of the GALE newsletter and journal. Ms. Hoffman Aoki holds degrees from Georgetown University (Japanese Language) and California State University (Education/TESOL). She has taught at universities in Japan since the 1990s, and currently works at Seikei University in Tokyo. Her research interests include intersectional gender, race and social class issues, CLIL/Content-based Instruction, fluency, and the writing process. She is Coordinator of the GALE SIG. So, without further ado, to the interview!
