research overview
- Yumiko Matsunaga's research is focused on issues that foreign language learners face, such as identity construction, participation framework, and community building. Ever since her dissertation work, she has been researching foreign language housing (FLH), a form of special university housing for language learners. FLH has increasingly attracted attention among both foreign language educators and second language acquisition (SLA) researchers who have been dedicated to understanding language learning and the development of language competency in community learning settings for the last decade. Her FLH research focuses on the complex interactions/configurations of each participant’s unique expectations and contributions to this setting. In June, 2020, her book chapter, 'Learners’ Investments and Identities in the Japanese House: A Study of JFL Learners Living in Foreign Language Housing,” was published. Currently, she is researching remote conversation meetings between Japanese language learners and Japanese people.