Takiko Morimoto

Professor Takiko Morimoto was born and raised in Japan. She was educated in both Japan and the United States where she was awarded the B.A. Degree in Philosophy from Tokyo University and Master’s and Doctoral Degrees in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles. Before joining the Humanities Division at ECC in 1990, she taught Japanese language and culture at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Pomona College, Claremont; and Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey.

In addition to her teaching, Dr. Morimoto publishes research articles in professional and academic journals: Resources in Education (1981); Educational Leadership(1982) ; and Japanese Language Education Around the Globe (1994).  Also she has been a frequent reporter to Japan upon American social and cultural issues through her featured articles in Japanese periodicals such as Seiron, Tokyo.  Dr. Morimoto has presented  research papers at annual conferences at ASPAC (Asian Studies of the Pacific Coast) held at Stanford University; ATJ (Association of Teachers of Japanese);and MACLASC (Modern and Classical Language Association in Southern California). In Fall 2005, she was granted the honor of being visiting Scholar at the International Student Exchange Center at Tokyo Gakugei University.

At ECC, Dr. Morimoto teaches Elementary Japanese I and II every semester.  She is interested in encouraging students to speak the target language by engaging them in creative activities such as skit presentations; interviews with Japanese native speakers; and paired role playing.  As the senior full-time professor in Japanese, she coordinates all Japanese language and cultural courses and administrative decisions (textbooks, teaching materials, exams by credits and cultural events such as ECC’s Annual Spring Cherry Tree Festival where students have presented their original  Haiku poetry.)