Hiroko Hino joined the Japanese Department at the School of International Languages and Cultures in 2016 as a Faculty Associate and rejoined in 2020 as an Instructor. She has a long teaching career in Japanese in various institutions and universities with different educational settings in Japan, Australia, and the U.S. Prior to returning to teach in ASU, she worked for CET Academic Programs based in Washington DC. She was an Academic Director for the Japanese Program in Osaka, Japan. She innovated the program based on a communicative approach for Japanese teachers and taught students from the US. Her teaching methodology varies depending on the learning purposes, but she always emphasizes on learner-centered teaching focusing on verbal communication. She is always interested in how languages are learned from the perspective of foreign language acquisition. Through her own foreign language learning experience in English, Russian and Spanish, she strives to develop the most effective teaching strategy for any and all students of Japanese. In addition to teaching Japanese to foreign students, she has contributed to the field of Japanese pedagogy. She has fostered many prospective students and teachers and guided and encouraged their possible future careers in the Japanese language and linguistics. Her research interest is in Japanese pedagogy, Second Language Acquisition and Systemic Functional Linguistics. The theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) through her Ph.D. study has significantly impacted and changed her view of language and linguistics. Her current teaching method and curriculum are based on its principles and methodology. She strives to disseminate the SFL theory to language teachers, in particular, English language teachers in Japan, through online workshops and seminars. SFL principles aim to promote changes in consciousness in foreign language teaching by focusing on how languages are used in our society.
