Professor

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:
With my colleagues Kyoko Masuda and Rie Tsujihara, I have a recently published book entitled Concept-Based Language Instruction (Routledge), and with another coauthor we are working on a Japanese book (Hitsuji Shobo Press) that builds on the research of our English book. During my sabbatical, I have worked on these projects along with autoethnographic work on my learning of Korean.
Selected Bibliography
- Masuda, Kyoko, Ohta, Amy Snyder and Tsujihara, Rie (2025) Concept-Based Language Instruction: Usage-based linguistics and Sociocultural theory in teaching Japanese. Routledge.
- Mori, Junko and Ohta, Amy Snyder (Eds.) (2008). Japanese Applied Linguistics: Discourse and Social Perspectives. London: Continuum.
- Ohta, Amy Snyder (2001). Second Language Acquisition Processes in the Classroom: Learning Japanese (316 pages). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Ohta, Amy Snyder (2025). 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 (2024). 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,116-131. 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, 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), 187-218.
- Ohta, Amy Snyder (2016). Sociocultural Theory and Second/Foreign Language Education. In Second and Foreign Language Education, ed. by Nelleke van Deusen-Scholl & Stephen May. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. New York: Springer. Doi 10.1007/ 978-3-319-02323-6_6-1
Research
Selected Research
- 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.
- Amy Snyder Ohta. "Laughter and second language acquisition: A study of Japanese foreign language classes." Japanese Applied Linguistics: Discourse and Social Perspectives, ed. Mori, Junko, and Amy Snyder Ohta. New York: Continuum, 2008.
- Amy Snyder Ohta. Junko Mori, eds. Japanese Applied Linguistics: Discourse and Social Perspectives. London: Continuum, 2008.
- Amy Snyder Ohta. "Interlanguage pragmatics in the zone of proximal development." System 33.3 (2006). 503-517.
- Amy Snyder Ohta. "The Zone of Proximal Development and Second Language Acquisition: Beyond Social Interaction." Readings in Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Pedagogy in a Japanese Context, ed. Asako Yoshitomi, Tae Umino and Masashi Negishi. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2006. 155-178.
- Amy Snyder Ohta. "Confirmation checks: A discourse analytic reanalysis." Japanese Language & Literature 39 (2005): 383-412.
- Amy Snyder Ohta, Pauline Foster. "Negotiation for meaning and peer assistance in second language classrooms." Applied Linguistics 26.3 (2005): 402-430.
- Amy Snyder Ohta. Second Language Acquisition Processes in the Classroom: Learning Japanese. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001.
- Amy Snyder Ohta. Second Language Acquisition Processes in the Classroom: Learning Japanese.
- Amy Snyder Ohta. "Limitations of social interaction in second language acquisition: Learner “voices” and mediation in the zone of proximal development." Conceptualising ‘Learning’ in Applied Linguistics, ed. Paul Seedhouse. London: Multilingual Matters (forthcoming).
Courses Taught
Autumn 2025
Summer 2025
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
Autumn 2020
Summer 2020
Spring 2020
Winter 2020
Autumn 2019
Summer 2019
Spring 2019
Winter 2019
Autumn 2018
Spring 2018
Winter 2018
Resources & Related Links
Affiliations
Home Department
Professional Affiliations
American Association for Applied Linguistics, American Association of Teachers of Japanese, Washington Association of Teachers of Japanese