Associate Professor J. Kevin Varden
Ph.D. Linguistics

last updated: Thursday, September 29, 2011

Contact information

Address
J. Kevin Varden, Associate Professor
Center for Liberal Arts; Meiji Gakuin University
1518 Kamikurata-cho; Totsuka-ku, Yokohama; 244-8539; JAPAN

Email
(requires Javascript)

Office
Building 1, Rm. 1418, Yokohama campus

2011 Teaching Schedule

M/F Lunch: Special Studies in English (iBT TOEFL reading/listening class)
M3: Academic Literacy 2 (CALL software reading class)
M4: Academic Literacy 2 (CALL software reading class)

T3: Multilingualism & Multiculturalism 1, 2: "A Linguistic History of Japan" (class for foreign exchange students)
T4: Topics in Linguistics (adjunct to Dept. of English)
T5: Thesis Writing 2 (adjunct to Graduate School)

Th3: Seminar on English Phonetics (Master's Program in Education, Tsukuba University)

F3: Studies in English 2: "Introduction to American Culture" (Content-based EFL class)
F5: Multilingualism & Multiculturalism 3, 4: "A Linguistic History of Japan" (class for foreign exchange students)

2011 Office hours
Yokohama campus: Mondays by appointment
Shirokane campus: Tuesdays by appointment

Please email in advance.

Publications

1998 Ph. D. dissertation: On High Vowel Devoicing in Standard Modern Japanese: Implications for Modern Phonological Theory. University of Washington Dept. of Linguistics. - html (pdf files)

1992 MA thesis: Laryngeal/Labial Alternations in Japanese. University of Washington.

Books & Texts

Sano, M., T. Yamaoka, A. Matsumoto, Y. Sato Gen. Eds. (2006). Sunshine English Course 3 Jr. High textbook. Tokyo: Kairyudo.

Sato, Yasushi, J. Kevin Varden & Hiromi Sato (2001). Improving Your Writing (Gendairyoku wo Tsukeru Eisakubun). Tokyo: Nan'un-do.

Varden, J. Kevin (2000) Let Us Remember, Lest We Forget: The WWII Naval Experiences of Edward James Varden. Self-published book presented to father; also available as a web publication - html

Book chapters

Varden, J. Kevin (2007). Visualizing English Speech Reductions Using the Free Phonetic Software Package WASP. In Perspectives on Teaching Connected Speech to Second Language Speakers, JD Brown & Kimi Kondo-Brown (Eds.). NFLRC, University of Hawaii Press. pp.127-165.

Papers

Varden, J. Kevin (2011). Adaptation of a year-long CALL reading course to the Japanese university semester. The MGU Journal of Liberal Arts Studies: Karuchuru vol. 5 no. 1, pp. 213-226. - pdf file (1.3M)

Varden, J. Kevin (2010). On vowel devoicing in Japanese. The MGU Journal of Liberal Arts Studies: Karuchuru vol. 4 no. 1, pp. 223-235. - pdf file (170k)

Varden, J. Kevin (2010). Acoustic correlates of devoiced Japanese vowels: Velar context. Meiji Gakuin University The Journal of English & American Literature and Linguistics No. 125, pp. 35-49. - pdf file (580k)

Varden, J. Kevin (2005). Multimedia Materials Project Update. Karuchuru 2:106-124.

Varden, J. Kevin (2004). Current Events in English. Karuchuru 1:57-73.

Varden, J. Kevin (2002) On features. Report of the Special Research Project of the Typological Investigation into Languages & Cultures of the East and West 2002 Vol. 2 pp. 871-900. - pdf file (80k)

Varden, J. Kevin (2001) cogPrime: A database of semantic features for investigations into word compositionality. Report of the Special Research Project of the Typological Investigation into Languages & Cultures of the East and West 2001 Vol. 2 pp. 809-843. - pdf file (80k)

Varden, J. Kevin (2001). Phonetic font images for the web. ms., Tsukuba University. - pdf file (60k)

Varden, J. Kevin (1999) Overlap at the interface: High Vowel Devoicing in Japanese. Journal of the American Society of Acoustics 106.4: 2153. Abstract of poster presentation at ASA 138.

Varden, J. Kevin (1998) Acoustic correlates of "devoiced" vowels in Japanese. Journal of the American Society of Acoustics 103.5: 3088. Abstract of poster accepted but not presented at ASA 135.

Varden, J. Kevin (1997) High Vowel Devoicing in Standard Modern Japanese: A 'slow-speech' rule in the making? Meiji Gakuin Review 98: 53-80.

Sato, Tsutomu & J. Kevin Varden (1997) Taiwanjin ryuugakusei ni yoru nihongo bouin museika no shuutoku ni tsuite (On the acquisition of Japanese vowel devoicing by Taiwanese exchange students.) Meiji Gakuin Review 98: 41-51.

Varden, J. Kevin & Tsutomu Sato (1996) Devoicing of Japanese Vowels by Taiwanese learners of Japanese. In Proceedings of the IVth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP 96) Vol. 2: 618-621.

Varden, Kevin (1995) VOT of non-monolingual speakers. Meiji Gakuin Review 93:41-58.

Varden, Kevin (1995) Teaching 'fast speech' reductions in the classroom: Initial results of a study in progress. Meiji Gakuin Review 92: 33-57.

Varden, Kevin (1995) On Two-morpheme Sino-Japanese words: Are they really two—yes, two—two morphemes in one? Working Papers in Linguistics—UW 12: 147-154.

Varden, Kevin (1992) On Japanese verbal morphology: A templatic approach. Working Papers in Linguistics—UW 10: 306-323.

Presentations

"Acoustic Correlates of devoiced Japanese vowels." Poster presented at ASA 158, San Antonio, Texas, October 26-30, 2009.

"The Right Tools for the Job: Giving your Students a Voice with Voice Tools. Wimba Voice Tools by Interlect." 47th All-Japan Research Meeting of the Japan Association for Language Education and Technology (LET), Nagoya Gakuin University, Nagoya, Japan, August 7-9, 2007.

"Modeling Phonetics & Phonology: Of what nature a Gestural Geometry?" Poster presented at Sound to Sense: 50+ Years in Speech Communication, MIT, Cambridge, MA, June 11-13, 2004.

"Overlap at the interface: High Vowel Devoicing in Japanese." Poster presented at ASA 138, Columbus, OH, Nov. 2, 1999.

"Devoicing of Japanese Vowels by Taiwanese learners of Japanese." Paper presented at ICSLP 96; Philadelphia, PA, USA, Sept. 1996.

"Labial as a default place of articulation for Japanese." Paper presented at NWLC 8, UW, Seattle, WA, USA, April 1992.

"/i/-final irregular verbal stems in Japanese." Paper presented at NWLC 8, UW, Seattle, WA, USA, April 1992.

Reviews

Denison, David (1993) English Historical Syntax. Essex, England: Longman. JALT Journal 16.2: 250-253, Dec. 1994.

Tuck, Allene, Ed. (1993) Oxford Dictionary of Business English for Learners of English. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. The Language Teacher 18.10: 67, Oct. 1994.

Murphy, Raymond (1993) Basic Grammar in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The Language Teacher 18.5: 36, May 1994.

Other

Nomura, Keizo, Chief Ed. (2008). O-LEX Japanese-English Dictionary. Tokyo: Oobunsha. Proofreader.

Yagishita, Seishi, Ed. (2007). Sunny Views of the Thatched Roof Houses—Japan's Original Landscapes Found in Ibaraki (Hidamari no Kayabuki minka—Ibaraki ni miru Nihon no Genfuukei). Hitachinaka, Ibaraki, Japan: Yamizo Bunkasha. Proofreader.

Hanamoto, K., Nomura, K., Hayashi, Y, Eds. (2002). Lexis English-Japanese Dictionary. Tokyo: Oobunsha. Proofreader.

Roca, Iggy & Wyn Johnson (1999) A Course in Phonology. Blackwell Publishers. Draft proofreading & jacket blurb.

Stimulus Plus™ (1998). Hypercard-based stimuli presentation software title. here

(1997) Signalyze Ei-Wa Goihyoo (Signalyze English-Japanese Glossary). Signalyze™ software manual addendum, with the kind assistance of Kikuo Maekawa.

Maruta, Kenjiro (1994) Daigaku nyushi "derujun" hatsuon•akusento 400 (400-word pronunciation/accent practice for university exams). Proofreading and native-English speaker voice recording.