KONAN UNIVERSITY

The curriculum is divided into three main fields: British literature and cultural studies, American literature and cultural studies and English linguistics. Competence in the English language is the foundation of all these studies. Believing that the department has a responsibility to society to produce graduates with a clearly measurable level of English ability, a minimum TOEIC score is necessary for graduation, and an intensive program of workshop classes is offered to ensure students reach the required level. Students appreciate the value of this program when they start job-hunting as employers increasingly require applicants to have a TOEIC qualification.
Studying abroad is a sure way for a student to improve his or her mastery of English. Konan University has an extensive international exchange network, and every year this department is well represented among the group of students who choose to study abroad for a year during their time at Konan.
The curriculum requires freshmen to strengthen their English ability while taking introductory courses and seminars in all the department's areas of study. Subsequently, students can concentrate upon cultural history, literature or the English language. Our aim is the help students experience the rich cultural areas which are hidden behind the barrier of language. A high value is placed upon developing self-expression skills. Students are expected to give presentations in their seminars and those with sufficient ability are encouraged to write their graduation theses in English.
Our department endeavors to produce graduates who are computer literate and can contribute to the information society. Internet-based courses are offered and a computer language-learning program has been introduced in which students can study in their own time and monitor their own progress. Studies in this department can be continued right through until the final year of the Graduate School, and qualifications can be acquired in teaching and librarianship. We aim to create a challenging yet caring department in which students are encouraged to study hard which being given a high degree of personal attention and help with their problems.

Faculty member

Name	Title	Field of Research	Subject of Research
ARIMURA, Kaneaki	Professor	English Linguistics (English Grammar, Syntax)	Studies of formal properties of English (in the synchronic and diachronic perspective).
NAKASHIMA, Nobuo	Professor	Linguistics	Research on the central issues in pragmatics, focusing on Gricean principles and the discourse functions of syntactic structures.
NAKAJIMA, Toshiro	Professor	Analysis of Literary and Cultural Texts in English	Reading the Representations in Literary and Cultural Texts in English.
AOYAMA, Yoshitaka	Professor	American Literature	Research of the 19th-century American culture from interdisciplinary viewpoint.
OMORI, Yoshihiko	Professor	American Literature	Research on the literature produced in the border states in the Southwest.
RYCROFT, David W.	Professor	British Literature; Theatre Studies	Shakespeare; the reception of Shakespeare in Meiji Japan; Kawakami Otojiro and Meiji Theatre Reform.
INOSE, Kumie	Professor	Modern British History & Cultural History of the British Empire	Rethinking of the Modern British Society, paying attention to the colonial impacts on the Metropole and its cultures.
YASUTAKE, Rumi	Professor	American Studies, Women$B!G(Bs History	Development of Pan-Pacific Women$B!G(Bs Networks during the Inter-War Years.
FUKUSHIMA, Akitoshi	Professor	English Phonetics	Acoustic differences between verse and prose. Function of pause.
AKIMOTO, Takafumi	Professor	American Literature, American Studies	Interrelationship between the changing of American Paper Currency System and Imagination in Contemporary American Fiction.
NAKATANI, Kentaro	Professor	Linguistics, Psycholinguistics	Lexical semantics and its interaction with syntax. Human processing of English and Japanese sentences.