Amy Snyder Ohta (she/her/hers)

Professor
Photo of Amy Ohta

Contact Information

GWN 247
Office Hours
No office hours AU24

Biography

Ph.D. Applied Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles
M.A. Teaching English as a Second Language, University of California, Los Angeles
B.A. Psychology (with High Honors), Wheaton College
Hori Award for Exemplary Japanese Faculty (2021)

 

Current Research Projects:

I have a new research project on Individual Networks of Practice (INoPs) in Japanese language learning of people working in Japan. Meanwhile, I am continuing my research on teaching Japanese via Concept-Based Language Instruction (C-BLI), an application of Sociocultural Theory and Usage-Based Linguistics to foreign language pedagogy. I am particularly interested in SCOBA development for teaching Japanese language-in-culture, pragmatics, and grammar. I am also interested in teacher development, research interviewing, and Japanese pragmatics. Here are my most recent research articles (updated 1/2023). See the CV link (above) for a complete publication list:

  • Masuda, Kyoko, Ohta, Amy Snyder and Tsujihara, Rie (Under contract, to appear in 2024) Concept-Based Language Instruction: Usage-based Linguistics and Sociocultural Theory in Teaching Japanese. Routledge.
  • Ohta, Amy Snyder (in progress). Sociocultural theory and zone of proximal development activity. In Julia Herschensohn and Ana Fernández Dobao and Alex Ho-Cheong Leung (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge University Press.
  • Ohta, Amy Snyder (to appear, 2023). Sociocultural theory and L2 discourse: From descriptive to interventionist research in SLA. In Brian Paltridge and Matthew T. Prior (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Discourse. New York: Routledge.
  • Ohta, Amy Snyder (2023). “Casual Friday”: Organizational change, TA development, and languaculture learning in an advanced-beginning multi-section Japanese language course. Language & Sociocultural Theory, 10(1), 21-49.
  • Masuda, Kyoko, & Ohta, Amy Snyder (2021). Teaching subjective construal and related constructions with SCOBAs: Concept learning as a foundation for Japanese language development. Language & Sociocultural Theory, 8(1), 35-67.(Equal co-authors: names in alpha order)
  • Ohta, Amy Snyder (2020). Increasing Diversity of Japanese Language Teachers: Approaches to Teaching-Related Professional Development for College Students in North America.  Japanese Language and Literature, 54(2), 399-414
  • Ohta, Amy Snyder & Prior, Matthew (2019) “That’s a Stupid Question!”: Managing Competing Perspectives and Language Choice in a Japanese-English Bilingual Research Interview. In Kathy Roulston (ed), Social Studies of Qualitative Interviewing: Unpacking Research Methods (pp. 147-179). John Benjamins. (Ohta is first author).
  • Ohta, Amy Snyder & Masuda, Kyoko (2018). Future directions for informed language pedagogy from cognitive linguistics. In Kyoko Masuda (Ed). Cognitive Linguistics and Japanese Pedagogy Usage-Based Approaches to Language Learning and Instruction (pp. 305-321). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
  • Ohta, Amy Snyder (2017). Conceptualizing and teaching Japanese addressee honorifics as expressing modes of self: From SCOBA development to instructional implementation. Language & Sociocultural Theory, 4(2), 1-32.

Research

Selected Research

Courses Taught

Spring 2024

Winter 2024

Autumn 2023

Spring 2023

Winter 2023

Autumn 2022

Summer 2022

Spring 2022

Winter 2022

Autumn 2021

Summer 2021

Spring 2021

Winter 2021

Resources & Related Links

Affiliations

Professional Affiliations
American Association for Applied Linguistics, American Association of Teachers of Japanese, Washington Association of Teachers of Japanese

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