Michael Lessard-Clouston

Dr. Lessard-Clouston is fascinated by language and its use in educational and other contexts, and he aims to help equip students for a variety of careers and ministries which address language-related issues. Before coming to Biola in 2005, he was a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Canada for 10 and a half years. In that role he served as a professor of English and Language Education at Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya, Japan, where he was a founding faculty member of the Graduate School of Language, Communication, and Culture, and taught a number of the required courses in its M.A. program. His doctoral work was on second language education and literacy, and he has served as a referee for several applied linguistics journals in North America and Asia, and as co-editor of the CETC Newsletter, and is co-editor of CELEA News, published by the Christian English Language Educators Association.

Affiliations

• American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL)
• Asian Association of Teachers of English as a foreign Language (Asia TEFL)
• California TESOL (CATESOL)
• Christian English Language Educators Association (CELEA)
• International Reading Association (IRA)
• Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Publications

Book, Chapters

• “Japan: Perspectives on language learning and teaching (Editor).” Clevedon, U.K.: Multilingual Matters, 1998.
• “Language learning strategies: An overview for L2 teachers.” In Defense Language Institute (Ed.), Teaching ESP – Using the AMEC, 2003.
• “Definitions in academic lectures: A preliminary report.” In M. Kline and G. Anderson (Eds.), Proceedings of the CATESOL State Conference, 2006.
• “SLA: What it offers ESL/EFL teachers.” In G. Anderson & M Kline (Eds.), Proceedings of the CATESOL State Conference, 2007.
• “Specialized vocabulary learning in theology: Native and non-native English-speaking students in a graduate school.” Koln, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2009.

Select Articles/Reviews

• “[Review of D. B. Snow's Teaching English as Christian mission: An applied theology].” Christian Scholar's Review, 31(2), 235-237, 2001.
• “[Review of G. Braine's Teaching English to the world: History, curriculum, and practice].” JALT Journal, 28(2), 207-209, 2006.
• “Breadth and depth specialized vocabulary learning in theology among native and non-native English speakers.” Canadian Modern Language Review, 63(2), 175-198, 2006.
• “[Review of A. Davies and C. Elder's The Handbook of Applied Linguistics].” LINGUIST List, 18.893, 2007.
• “Strategies and success in technical vocabulary learning: Students' approaches in one academic context.” Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 34(1-2), 31-63, 2008.
• “Revisiting the influence of Christianity on English.” CETC Newsletter, 12(2), 2008. (A PDF version is available)
• “Review of P. Nation & P. Y. Gu's Focus on vocabulary skills”TESL Canada Journal,26(1), 108-110.
• “Definitions in theology lectures: Implications for vocabulary learning.” Asian ESP Journal, 5(1), 7-22.