Tokyo Gakugei University Centre for International Education

PEOPLE

LAB DIRECTOR

Professor Tomoko Matsui, Director of the Communication & Learning Lab, Center for Research in International Education, Tokyo Gakugei University

Prof. Matsui graduated from Waseda University, Tokyo, and earned her PhD in Linguistics from University College London. She subsequently taught at International Christian University, Tokyo, and The Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University, before the current position at Tokyo Gakugei University. She has also conducted research on sabbatical at the Max Plank Institute in Leipzig and Stanford University.

Prof. Matsui’s primary research interest is in the development and disorders of pragmatic ability, i.e. the ability to understand the communicator’s intentions, attitudes and emotions in verbal communication. Her current research investigates young children’s understanding of speaker’s degree of confidence and its relation to development of theory of mind and epistemic vigilance. In addition, her joint project at the Japanese National Institute for Physiological Sciences explores the role of prosody in sarcasm comprehension.

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW

Yufuko Takashima, PhD

GRADUATE STUDENT

Kaoru Shinozawa

LAB COORDINATOR

Rie Matsuda

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

Saeko Higashi
Junko Ido
Mari Ukai
Yume Takano
Shiori Mitomo

LAB ALUMNI Graduate Students

Yukiko Tanaka
Shiwori Kondo