Yoko Matsumoto-Sturt / 松本スタート洋子

Lecturer in Japanese

Biography

Background

Dr. Yoko Matsumoto-Sturt holds a degree in Phonetics and Linguistics from University College London, followed by an MSc in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh. She worked as an interpreter/translator for the BBC and the automotive industry before gaining teaching experience in Japanese language, literature, and translation at the University of Edinburgh. She completed her PhD in Applied Linguistics in 2004 with a thesis entitled ‘Second Language Acquisition of Japanese Orthography’ and became a lecturer in Japanese Studies. She participated in funded research projects, including a Japan Foundation Fellowship (2006), and was a visiting professor at Gakushuin University in 2013.

Responsibilities & affiliations

Professional Services

Dr. Matsumoto-Sturt has served on the Executive Committee of the ‘Japanese Language Group’ since 2015, on the Editorial Board of the BATJ Journal (2006-2010), and as Chair of the British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (BATJ) (2013-2016). In 2011, she established the UK’s second Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) Centre and led it until 2022. She has been a dedicated board member of the Japan CLIL Pedagogy Association (J-CLIL) Japanese Language Branch Executive Committee since 2021.

Internally, she has been actively involved in university-wide outreach activities, including collaborating with LLC colleagues on student-led 'Language Beyond University' courses and participating in widening participation events to promote Japanese language and culture among young Scottish pupils. She has also served as the Head of Japanese Studies since 2022.

 

Memberships

  • Japan CLIL Pedagogy Association (J-CLIL)

  • AILA Research Network in Early Language Learning

  • Association of Japanese Language Teachers in Europe (AJE)
  • The British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (BATJ)
  • Film in Language Teaching Association (FILTA)

 

 

Undergraduate teaching

Dr. Matsumoto-Sturt organises and teaches research-based courses such as Kanji: A Linguistic and Cultural Introduction, Supernatural Japan: Doing Japanology through Yokai, Language Communities and Variation in Japanese, and Japanese Language Beyond University. She also contributes to Researching Japan: Skills, Methods and Critiques, and supervises dissertations on topics related to gender, language, youth culture, popular media, and supernatural Japan.

Postgraduate teaching

Dr. Matsumoto-Sturt organises and teaches courses on Language Communities and Variation in Japanese, and Portfolio of Written Translation Exercises in Japanese 2. She also supervises dissertations in both Asian Studies and Translation Studies. She is currently supervising three doctoral students.

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I am happy to supervise PhD projects in the areas of Language, Society and Culture, Translation and Language Learning.

Current PhD students supervised

Principal supervisor:

  • Elisha Ager (2021-current), Doctoral (Japanese Studies)

Assistant supervisor :

  • Katherine Heller (2021-current), Doctoral (Translation Studies)
  • Mari Murray (2023-current), Doctoral (Japanese Studies)

Past PhD students supervised

  • Grey Micah (2019-current), Doctoral (Translation Studies)
  • Maki Kubota (2015-2017 with (1) JFEC Grant no.5780416, £1850.00, and (2) The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Youth and Education grant, £1000.00).  

 

Research summary

My research interests are broadly focused on society, language, and culture. Specific areas in which I am currently involved include a Kanji experiential learning project and visual media discourse research. My work has appeared in journals such as "the Journal of Japanese Language Teaching" (日本語教育) and Synergy. I have also contributed to a book on language policy and young learners in Scotland in "Yasashii Nihongo and Multiculturalism in the Community"<やさしい日本語>と多文化共生(2019).

 

Current research interests

My recent projects, 'Japanese for Young Learners' (2016/17) and 'Beyond Kanji Teaching: Culture, Values, and Issues in Kanji Writing' (2022/23), aimed to widen access to Japanese language education and pioneered inclusive education. These were funded by the Japan Foundation’s Grant Programme. In 2024, I focused on multimodal analysis of visual media content, culminating in a conference presentation and a journal article <From Noh plays to modern anime: The role of peony flowers in Japanese cultural imagery>. Keywords: Experiential learning (Learning by Doing) approach: CLIL in Higher Education; Multimodal analysis of visual media content

Past research interests

Second Language Translation as an Academic exercise at Higher Education in UK and Beyond [国際交流基金　日本語教育フェローシップ]

Knowledge exchange

Japanese for Young Learners project [2015-2019]

Beyond Kanji Teaching: Culture, Values, and Issues in Kanji writing [1/04/22 → 31/03/23]

Project activity

Japanese for Young Learners project

The project aims to develop the teaching and learning of Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFL) for young learners in Scottish primary/secondary schools, and to explore approaches to supporting schools and training teachers. This research and development on the teaching and learning of Young JFL content will be beneficial for the day-to-day teaching practices of primary and secondary school JFL teachers within and beyond Scotland.

The current research on Young JFL has two components: (a) a theoretical perspective on designing teaching/learning contents based on <Yasashii Nihongo>[1] (Easy Japanese) with an emphasis on the reduction of grammatical content, for very limited required teaching hours in JFL classroom; and (b) a perspective on a newly-introduced non-alphabetic literacy that is underpinned by empirical studies of JFL academic writing and kanji class[2].

[1] <Yasashii Nihongo> (Easy Japanese) research

[2] on non-alphabetic literacy

Current project grants

The Japan Foundation Grant Program for Sakura Network (£2,830) for University of Edinburgh Seminar, Workshops and Teacher Training Session (August 2018-March 2019)

Past project grants

The Japan Foundation Grant Program for Sakura Network (£2,676) for one day conference - Developing young JFL in the Scottish primary context: Japanese for Young Learners Project (スコットランド児童生徒に対する日本語教育の実践と研究) held on 28 August 2017.

Conference details

Peer-reviewed conference presentation:

  • Monsters Re-visited: the Fantastic Creatures of Japan - The Center for Global Research Initiatives, University of Hyogo, Kobe, Japan, 27-28 April 2024.

  • The 25th Japanese Language Education Symposium in Europe (AJE): 第 25 回 AJE ヨーロッパ日本語教育シンポジウム - Leiden, Netherlands, 25-27 August 2022.

  • The 3rd EAJS Japan Conference in Japan - University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan, 14-15 Sep 2019

  • 15th International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies, 30 Aug - 2 Sep 2017
  • Languages’ in the Primary Classroom, 22-23 June 2017

 

Invited speaker

  • J-CLIL 2023 – Tokyo, Japan (online), 18 March 2023

  • The 3rd Japanese CLIL Annual Bilingual Conference [keynote speaker - Tokyo, Japan (online), 3 October 2020.

  • 学習院大学主催シンポジウム＜やさしい日本語＞と多文化共生- Gakushuin University, Tokyo, 17 February 2018.

  • ' Japanese onomatopoeia and mimetic words - Why are they difficult to translate? ' at Scottish Society part of the Chartered Institute of Linguistics, Scotland on 21 Nov 2015

Organiser

  • Beyond Kanji Teaching: Culture, Values, and Issues in Kanji Writing (organiser) – Edinburgh (online), 10-18 August 2022.

  • Sakura Japanese Language Seminar Series (2018-2019).

  • Japanese for Young Scottish Learners: Practice, pedagogy and reflection on 28 Aug 2017
  • Japanese for Young Learners Project - 6 week teacher course, 20 April- 25 May 2017
  • Turning Japanese! An introduction to Japanese for young learners on 24 Jan 2017
  • Primary/Secondary Teacher workshop (Fife) on 5 May 2016
  • Japanese Teacher workshop - Marugoto@Edinburgh on 20 Jun 2016.
  • Volunteer Japanese Teaching Opportunity at University of Edinburgh Training Day on 30 Mar 2015.
  • BATJ Early Summer Conference on Translation in Japanese Language Teaching  at University of Edinburgh, 22- 23 Jun 2013

Participant

Participation in CPD programmes:

  • Training Programme for Japanese Language Education in Europe 2020 (Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris) on 17th-18th July 2020 (online).
  • 1+2 Languages Leadership Programme  (Education Scotland) on 3 Jul -7 Jul 2017

 

Papers delivered

  • Kanji experiential learning: Integration of theory and practice in an online course (体験型学習パラダイムを利用したオンライン漢字コースの実践), The 25th Japanese Language Education Symposium in Europe (AJE), Leiden, Netherlands, 25-27 August 2022.
  • 日本語教育とCLIL アプローチ - 欧州の複言語主義の観点から / The CLIL approach to Japanese language teaching - from the perspective of European plurilingualism, The 3rd Japanese CLIL Annual Bilingual Conference (Plenary Talks) - Tokyo, Japan (online), 3 October 2020.
  • 'Walking through invisible uncanny landscapes in kanji', The 3rd EAJS Japan Conference in Japan - University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan, 14-15 Sep 2019
  • '1+2 APPROACH: Teaching Young Japanese Learners in Scottish Primary Education', 15th International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies, 30 Aug - 2 Sep 2017
  • ‘Japanese language in the Scottish primary classroom’, Languages’ in the Primary Classroom, 22-23 June 2017

 

My publications can be found on the University of Edinburgh portal - Edinburgh Research Explore. Click on the link to view them.

<https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/persons/yoko-sturt/publications/>

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