June 26, 2023

Rie Tsujihara: 2023 IPHD graduate

Rie Tsujihara’s own experience as a Japanese immigrant who moved to California with her family during high school provided the impetus for her research on second language acquisition. It was then she realized, first, that the grammar and phrases she had learned in school were not enough for functional communication and, second, that language and cultural contexts are closely intertwined.

This understanding was refined as she earned master’s degrees in applied linguistics from Texas Tech University and in Japanese linguistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison–all the while teaching Japanese and seeking better ways to help students learn Japanese.

In the IPHD program, Rie worked under the mentorship of her committee chair, Amy Ohta, to explore a novel teaching approach known as Concept-based Language Instruction (C-BLI). In her dissertation, Rie proposed the implementation of C-BLI in teaching the expression of gratitude in Japanese–a complex concept due to the appropriateness of different levels of formality in interactions. Her research also included developing curricula for Japanese learners at UW in which they learn the inherent connection between cultural concepts and language when expressing gratitude.

Post-graduation, Rie will continue teaching Japanese while co-authoring a book with Amy Ohta and Kyoko Masuda from the Georgia Institute of Technology on C-BLI in the context of the Japanese language classroom.