Details of the Researcher

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Makiko Kato
Section
Graduate School of Arts and Letters
Job title
Assistant Professor
Degree

  • 博士（言語学）（上智大学）

  • 修士（文学）（東北大学）

e-Rad No.
70943447
Profile

Makiko Kato is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Department of Linguistics, Tohoku University, Japan.

She is examining the cognitive load physiologically experienced by raters when using the analytic rubric she developed for evaluating English summaries by conducting an eye-tracking experiment.

She is also developing an AI model to diagnose overall English summarization performance while providing predictive assessments of summarization skills and metacognitive abilities.

Research History 10

  • 2022/04 - Present
    Waseda University　Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences

  • 2021/10 - Present
    Tohoku University　Graduate School of Arts and Letters　Assistant Professor

  • 2019/10 - Present
    Chiba University　Institute for Excellence in Educational Innovation　Part-time Lecturer

  • 2017/04 - 2022/03
    Sophia School of Social Welfare

  • 2017/04 - 2021/03
    Sophia Linguistic Institute for International Communication　Research Assistant

  • 2017/04 - 2020/03
    Meisei University　Part-time Lecturer (English)

  • 2016/04 - 2019/03
    Sophia University　Faculty of Foreign Studies　Teaching Assistant

  • 2015/09 - 2016/03
    聖ウルスラ学院英智高等学校　非常勤講師

  • 2009/04 - 2012/03
    愛知県県立高等学校　講師

  • 2003/05 - 2009/03
    愛知県 公立中学校　講師

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Committee Memberships 3

  • Japan Language Testing Association　研究会運営委員

    2024/04 - Present

  • Japan Language Testing Association (JLTA)　the 26th Annual Conference of the Japan Language Testing Association, Committee Chair

    2023/04 - 2023/09

  • Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC) 2022 Committee Member

    2021/03 - 2022/03

Professional Memberships 5

  • 言語処理学会

  • 日本テスト学会

  • International Language Testing Association

  • Japan Language Testing Association

  • Sophia University Linguistic Society

Research Interests 4

  • Applied linguistics

  • Language testing

  • English education

  • Foreign language education

Research Areas 1

  • Humanities & social sciences / Foreign language education /

Awards 2

  1. 上智大学若手研究者育成奨学金

    2017/12

  2. 上智大学若手研究者育成奨学金

    2016/12

Papers 9

  1. Can LLMs Replace Human Raters? Evaluating EFL Learners’ English Summaries Peer-reviewed

    Makiko Kato

    International Education Studies　19　(3)　2026/06

  2. Scoring Difficulty in Summary Writing Assessment: Toward the Reconstruction of Analytic Rubric Peer-reviewed

    Makiko Kato

    Journal of Education and Learning　14　(2)　74-88　2025/04

    DOI： 10.5539/jel.v14n2p74 　

  3. Developing an Analytic Rubric for Japanese EFL Learners’ Summary Writing Peer-reviewed

    Makiko Kato

    English Language Teaching　17　(12)　1-12　2024/12

    DOI： 10.5539/elt.v17n12p1 　

  4. Examining the Dependability and Practicality of Analytic Rubric of Summary Writing Using Multivariate Generalizability Theory: Focusing on Japanese University Students with Lower-Intermediate Proficiency in English Peer-reviewed

    Makiko Kato

    English Language Teaching　15　(9)　82-94　2022/09

    Publisher: Canadian Center of Science and Education

    DOI： 10.5539/elt.v15n9p82 　

    ISSN： 1916-4742

    eISSN： 1916-4750

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    English teachers, especially those who teach summary writing to students with relatively lower proficiency in English face difficulty in teaching summary writing and while assessing their students’ performances. In the classroom context, an analytic rubric is pedagogically more helpful than a holistic rubric because the teacher can confirm the strengths and weaknesses of their students’ summary performance and the students can receive constructive feedback (Yamanishi et al., 2019). This study examined the practicality of the analytic rubric which consisted of four rating scales, including language use, by investigating seven in-service English teachers’ honest assessment of 160 summaries of Japanese private university students who are inexperienced in writing English summaries and have lower-intermediate proficiency of English. Furthermore, this study examined the dependability of the analytic rubric using multivariate generalizability theory (Brennan, 2001). The results showed that assessing language use and judging summaries, copied, to a lesser or greater extent, from the source text was difficult because of diverse linguistic errors and the use of paraphrasing was lacking. Therefore, it is necessary to define the gravity of language errors and that of copying in more detail to develop a rubric that suits to assess the summaries written by English learners with lower-intermediate level of English.

  5. Summarization in English as a Foreign Language: A Study Comparing Summary Performances to Summarizers’ Vocabulary Size Peer-reviewed

    Makiko Kato

    English Language Teaching　14　(5)　77-88　2021/04

    DOI： 10.5539/elt.v14n5p77 　

  6. Good and Poor Summary Writers' Strategies: The Case of Japanese High School EFL Learners Peer-reviewed

    Makiko Kato

    Journal of Language Teaching and Research　9　(6)　1199-1208　2018/11

    Publisher: Academy Publication

    DOI： 10.17507/jltr.0906.09 　

    ISSN： 1798-4769

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    Despite general belief about the importance of summary writing in foreign language education, and in the field of teaching Language for Academic Purposes (LAP) (e.g., Swales, 1981; 2000), it is shown that the development of this skill is one of the most difficult skills for learners (e.g., Brown and Day, 1980; Hirvela & Du, 2013; Shi, 2012). This study is part of a larger project and its main purpose is to open the black box by exploring the relationship between performances of summary writing in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and the strategies used for summary writing in EFL. A total of 74 Japanese high school EFL learners were asked to write a summary of one-third of approximately 230 word-long English passage and were subsequently asked to respond to the summary strategy inventory adapted partly from Li (2014). The data analysis showed that there was indeed a relationship between the quality of the students' summaries and the frequency of their implemented strategies. In this study, along with the results of in-depth analyses, various implications are offered to EFL education as well as future research studies.

  7. Providing Comprehension Clues in L1 to Japanese EFL Summary Writers: Do they help? Peer-reviewed

    Makiko Kato

    International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature　7　(5)　12-21　2018/09

    Publisher: Australian International Academic Centre

    DOI： 10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.7n.5p.12 　

    ISSN： 2200-3592

    eISSN： 2200-3452

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    The present paper reports part of a larger project investigating the effectiveness of explicit instruction of writing a summary to Japanese learners learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Given that the process of producing a written summary involves both understanding the source text and producing its gist succinctly, the present study examined if helping learners to understand the text would help them to improve the quality of the summary they produce. A total of 25 Japanese high school EFL students who took part in the study were divided into three groups. The first group (n = 8) and the second group (n = 9) were experimental groups, where the first group was given L1 translation, and the second group was provided the L1 glossary. The third group (n = 8) was served as a control group, who did not have any support material. To examine the longitudinal nature of the effect of writing a summary with L1 clues, they were asked to write a summary once a week for five weeks, using different texts each time. The summaries were assessed by three different raters. The results showed that three groups were different in the quality of the summaries they produced. Overall, the summaries of the students who were given L1 glossary improved more compared with the other two groups. The paper concludes with several suggestions for EFL teachers teaching summary and for the researcher who is interested in the current topic.

  8. Exploring the Transfer Relationship of Summarizing Skills in L1 and L2 Peer-reviewed

    Makiko Kato

    English Language Teaching　11　(10)　75-87　2018/09

    Publisher: Canadian Center of Science and Education

    DOI： 10.5539/elt.v11n10p75 　

    ISSN： 1916-4742

    eISSN： 1916-4750

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    The purpose of the present study is to examine whether the summarizing skills in the first language (L1) of learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) affect their summary performances in a second language (L2). To examine the transferring of L1 summarizing skills to L2 summary performance it is necessary to figure out which L1 knowledge and skills EFL learners already possess. A total of 47 Japanese university students with low intermediate English proficiency were asked to write a summary in their L2 (i.e., English) and L1 (i.e., Japanese) of a text written in each of the same languages after they received a quick lecture on how to write a summary. The relationship between their L1 and L2 summarizing skills was examined by using the scores from their L1 and L2 summary performances. The results showed that a small variance of L1 summarizing skill affected the overall summary performances in L2, which supports the Cummins’s (1976) Linguistics Threshold Hypothesis. This study concludes by offering several suggestions for teachers of summary writing, and implications for future research.

  9. Japanese plural marker tachi and associativity Peer-reviewed

    Makiko Kato

    Proceedings of Logic and Engineering of Natural Language Semantics (LENLS 11)　82-95　2014/11

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Misc. 1

  1. Examining the Effects of Explicit and Implicit Instructions on Summary Writing for Japanese University Students Learning English as a Foreign Language with Low English Language Proficiency.

    Makiko Kato

    Sophia University (unpublished PhD thesis)　2021/03

Presentations 15

  1. The Impact of Rubric Differences on the Automated Evaluation of Summaries by EFL Learners International-presentation

    Makiko Kato

    2025 KOTESOL International Conference　2025/05/10

  2. A Proposal for Rater Training to Ensure Inter-Rater Reliability in Assessing English Summaries by Japanese EFL Learners International-presentation

    Makiko Kato

    The 11th Asian Conference on Education & International Development　2025/03/29

  3. Exploring an Assessment of Japanese EFL Learner’s Summary Writing International-presentation

    Makiko Kato

    10th Annual Spring Research Conference 2024 Advances in Multilingual Learning and Teaching (Barcelona. UIC Barcelona Campus)　2025/03/14

  4. Reconstructing Descriptors in Analytic Scales of Summary Writing International-presentation

    Makiko Kato

    The 9th IAFOR International Conference on Education（Hawaii）　2024/01/06

  5. Influence of Cognitive Load on Raters' Decision Making in Scoring English Summaries: Toward an Examining Psychometric Evidence Using Eye Tracker Invited

    Makiko Kato

    The 37th Annual Meeting of Sophia University Linguistic Society　2023/07/15

  6. Investigation of Diverse Raters' Awareness and Strategy Use in Assessing Summary. International-presentation

    Makiko Kato

    2023 Korea TESOL International Conference　2023/04

  7. A Survey of Japanese Learners of English with Diverse Proficiencies: What Makes Summary Assessment Difficult? International-presentation

    Makiko Kato

    The 3rd Southeast Asian Conference on Education　2023/02/13

  8. On the Expected Improvement of Evaluation Categories through Repeated Practice in English Summarization: A Case Study of Japanese University Students with Primary Level of English International-presentation

    Makiko Kato

    5th International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning and Education　2022/10/23

  9. On Practicality and Dependability of Analytic Rubric for EFL Learners’ Summary Writing: Using Multivariate Generalizability Theory.

    加藤万紀子

    日本言語テスト学会 2021年度全国研究大会　2021/09/05

  10. On Practicality and Dependability of Analytic Rubric for EFL Learners’ Summary Writing: Using Multivariate Generalizability Theory. Invited

    Makiko Kato

    Sophia University Linguistic Society　2021/07/17

  11. The Role of L1 Summarizing Skill in L2 Summary Performance. International-presentation

    Makiko Kato

    The 11th International Conference on Language, Education, and Innovation (ICLEI 2018)　2018/08/12

  12. Summary Writing Strategies Japanese EFL Learners Employ: Are They Effective? International-presentation

    Makiko Kato

    2017 7th International Conference on Languages, Literature and Linguistics (ICLLL 2017)　2017/12/10

  13. Assessment of Native Language Translation Effects in Japanese High School Students’ English Summary Writing. International-presentation

    Makiko Kato

    Georgetown University Round Table 2016 (GURT 2016)　2016/03/11

  14. Japanese plural marker tachi and associativity.

    Makiko Kato

    Logic and Engineering of Natural Language Semantics 11 (LENLS 11)　2014/11/23

  15. 英語要約の指導と評価 ーこれまでの実践報告と今後の課題ー Invited

    加藤万紀子

    津田塾大学・成田科研グループ オンライン・シンポジウムー英語ライティング指導の過去・現在・未来　2022/02/19

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Research Projects 3

  1. 英語聴解読解からの英語要約における要約スキルとメタ認知能力のAI診断モデルの開発

    Offer Organization: 日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業

    2025/04 - 2029/03

  2. 日本人英語学習者を対象にした英語要約分析的評価尺度の開発

    加藤万紀子

    Offer Organization: 日本学術振興会

    System: 科学研究費助成事業 若手研究

    Category: 若手研究

    Institution: 東北大学

    2022/04 - 2026/03

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    初年度に行った既存の分析的評価尺度の妥当性と実用性の検証結果より、Main Idea Coverage（適切なメイン・アイディアの選別の有無）とIntegration（論理的な情報凝縮の有無）の２項目はほぼ同じ概念を測定する項目であることが明らかとなった。そのため、INTとLanguage Use（文法・語彙の誤用の有無）、Source Use（パラフレーズの有無・内容の正確性）の３項目からなる尺度を用いて、母語や教授経験が異なる7名の評価者が初級から中上級英語学習者が作成した２種類の英文テキストの要約評価を行った。評価者からは要約評価に関する定量的データの他、インタビューと質問紙を用いて評価の際の使用方略、評価が困難な点、評価尺度の改良に向けた意見などの定量的および定性的データを収集した。2023年度は、上記の定量的および定性的データを用いて、下記の課題を遂行した。 1)「評価者の属性と評価の信頼性には関係があるのか」「評価者の属性と評価の厳しさには関係があるのか」を検証するために、評価の信頼性、評価の厳しさについて測定・調査を行い、それらの関係性について報告した。 2) 評価者の使用方略と評価が困難に感じた点や項目について調査した結果、 母語や教授経験により使用方略に違いは見られなかったが、教授経験により項目毎の採点時の意思決定要因に差があることが分かった。また、特にSUの評価が困難であるとの報告があった。 3) 評価尺度の記述子改良に向け、複数の評価者よりLUとSUにおいて改良が必要であるとの意見が出た。さらに、テキストの長さによりメイン・アイディアの選別・決定に評価者間で差異が生じることも報告されたため、メイン・アイディアに関する評価項目の記述子の改良が必要であるとの意見も多く集まった。これらの調査報告と評価の信頼性結果をもとに改良した暫定的な評価尺度の記述子を報告した。

  3. Field-based Cognitive Neuroscientific Study of Word Order in Language and Order of Thinking from the OS Language Perspective

    Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

    System: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

    Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)

    Institution: Tohoku University

    2019/06/26 - 2024/03/31

Teaching Experience 15

  1. 言語学研究法 Ⅰ　Tohoku University

  2. Empirical Research Methods in Foreign Language Education　Tohoku University

  3. TOEIC (Intermediate)　Waseda University

  4. Critical thinking in English　Chiba University

  5. Presentation　Chiba University

  6. CALL　Chiba University

  7. Language Testing and Assessment　Tohoku University

  8. 言語学研究法 Ⅱ　Tohoku University

  9. Language Testing and Assessment in Foreign Language Education　Tohoku University

  10. English for Specific Fields　Chiba University

  11. Practical English for Nurses　Sophia School of Social Welfare

  12. English Ⅲ (English composition)　Chiba University

  13. Writing　Chiba University

  14. English reading　Chiba University

  15. English Ⅰ, Ⅱ　Meisei University

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Social Activities 4

  1. 複言語へのアプローチ ー 社会生活で大切になる力 ー

    国際理解週間 講演会

    2022/11/09 - 2022/11/09

  2. 科研費などの助成金講習会

    2024/11/09 -

  3. ジャーナル投稿講習会

    上智大学言語学会 年間イベント企画

    2023/11/25 -

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    上智大学言語学会会員

  4. ジャーナル投稿講習会

    上智大学言語学会 年間イベント企画

    2021/10/23 -

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    上智大学言語学会会員

Academic Activities 2

  1. Language Testing in Asia

    2023/11 - Present

    Activity type: Peer review

  2. Sophia Linguistic Society

    2021/05 - 2021/06

    Activity type: Academic society, research group, etc.