Aurora Tsai

Project Assistant Professor
ALESS/A Program
Global Education Center
University of Tokyo
e-mail: amtsai at g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

PhD in Second Language Aquisition, Carnegie Mellon University, 2018
MA in Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2013
BA in Biology, Boston University, 2005

 

Research Interests

My research examines the intersections of language, race, and identity, with a particular focus on questioning, dismantling, and helping individuals unlearn racial and linguistic (raciolinguistic) ideologies that produce feelings of shame toward heritage and second-language abilities.

The first strand of my research investigates how mixed-heritage individuals (MHIs) negotiate identity, resist marginalization, and pursue psychological healing under conditions of systemic racism and linguistic discrimination. Drawing on qualitative survey and interview data collected from MHIs in both the United States and Japan, my work analyzes everyday experiences of microaggressions that question or deny individuals’ racial, ethnic, or national identities. My research further demonstrates that developing critical awareness of raciolinguistic ideologies, along with access to community support, plays a crucial role in overcoming raciolinguistic shame.

The second strand of my research explores how Japanese learners of English internalize, reproduce, and resist discourses that frame Japanese-accented English as unattractive or unintelligible. In collaboration with colleagues, I have examined pedagogical approaches aimed at the decolonization of language education. Additionally, using critical discourse analysis, I have analyzed a popular English-learning YouTube channel to reveal how native-speakerism and “Standard English” ideologies are subtly and routinely reproduced in everyday media discourse.

私の研究は、言語、人種、そしてアイデンティティの交差性に焦点を当てています。特に、継承語や第二言語能力に対する「恥」の感情を生じさせる人種・言語的（raciolinguistic）イデオロギーを問い直し、解体し、個人がそれらを「学びほぐす（unlearn）」プロセスを支援することを目指しています。

第一の研究軸として、人種的または民族・文化的に混合的背景を持つ個人（MHIs: Mixed-Heritage Individuals）が、構造的人種差別や言語差別の下で、どのようにアイデンティティを交渉し、周縁化に抵抗し、心理的な癒やしを追求しているかを調査しています。米国と日本の両国で収集した記述式アンケートおよびインタビューデータに基づき、個人の人種、民族、あるいは国家的アイデンティティを疑問視または否定する「マイクロアグレッション（意図を問わず、日常の言動や環境を通じて、マイノリティーを軽視・侮辱する否定的なメッセージを伝える行為） 」の経験を分析しています。この研究はさらに、人種・言語的イデオロギーに対する批判的な意識を養い、コミュニティのサポートを得ることが、人種言語学的な「恥」を克服する上で極めて重要な役割を果たすことを示しています。

第二の研究軸では、日本人英語学習者が、「日本風のアクセントを持つ英語は魅力的でない、あるいは理解しにくい」という言説をどのように内面化し、再生産し、あるいはそれに抵抗しているかを探求しています。共同研究においては、言語教育の「脱植民地化」(decolonial)を目指した教育的アプローチの検討を行ってきました。さらに、批判的談話分析（CDA）を用い、人気の英語学習YouTubeチャンネルを分析することで、ネイティブ・スピーカー主義(native-speakerism)や「標準英語」イデオロギーが、日常的なメディア言説の中でいかに巧妙かつ常態的に再生産されているという実態が浮かび上がってきました。

Publications

Tsai, A., Harris, S., & Wong, K. (2025). From Translanguaging to Transraciality: Dispelling Boundaries of Race through Critical Raciolinguistic Awareness and Radical Listening (book chapter). In In Li Wei, L., García, O., Phyak, P., & Lee, J.W. (Eds.) Handbook of Translanguaging (pp. 521-528). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394227167.ch32

Tsai, A. (2025). Unlearning shame and silence as a Multiracial woman. (book chapter). In Sheeris, A. & Peyton, J.K. (Eds.) Untold Autoethnographic Stories of (In)justice, Teaching, and Scholarship: Textu(r)alities in and Beyond Applied Linguistics (pp. 220–235). Multilingual Matters & Channel View Publications. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.30412878.18

Kimura, D. & Tsai, A. (2023). Decolonizing classroom discourse: Insights from interactional research. English Language Teaching Journal, 73(3), 327-337. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccad008

Tsai, A., Straka, B., Kimura, D. (2022). Mixed-heritage individuals and systemic risk during negotiation of identity. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 23(6), 895–909 https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2022.2065277

Tsai, A., Straka, B., Gaither, S. (2021). Mixed-heritage individuals' Encounters with raciolinguistic ideologies. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(2), 507–521. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1904964

Tsai, A. (2018). The role of prior knowledge in promoting higher-order thinking skills in Japanese as a foreign language (Order No. 28645800). [Doctoral Dissertation, Carnegie Mellon University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. link

Tsai, A. (2017). Conceptualizations of vocabulary knowledge in second language reading. The Reading Matrix. 17(2). link

Tsai, A. (2014). The role of visuo-spatial and verbal working memory in L2 Japanese reading proficiency. University of Hawaii Second Language Studies Working Papers. 32(2), 76-113. link

Courses Taught

University of Tokyo

ALESS/A Program
Active Learning of English for Students of the Arts (ALESA)
Active Learning of English for Students of the Sciences (ALESS)
Fluency-oriented Workshop (FLOW)
Race, Language, and Identity in a Globalizing World (English-medium content course)
Qualitative Research Methods in Applied Linguistics (English-medium content course)

Georgia Institute of Technology

School of Modern Languages
JAPN 1001 Elementary Japanese 1
JAPN 2002 Intermediate Japanese 2 (Synchronous Online Course)
JAPN 4813 Project X: Lessons from Japan (Content course on the Project X Documentary Series)
JAPN 3693 Japan Today (Sustainability in Japan)
JAPN 3691 Technical and Scientific Japanese

Carnegie Mellon University

Department of English
ENG 76-100 Academic Reading and Writing

Modern Languages Department
JPN 82-171 Elementary Japanese 2
JPN 82-172 Elementary Japanese 1

Summer College Preview Program (Qatar Campus)
Academic English

The Pennsylvania State University

Department of Applied Linguistics
ENG 100 ESL Composition for American Academic Communication II

University of Hawaii at Manoa

English Language Institute
ELI 82 Academic Reading
ELI 83 Academic Writing for Graduate Students
ELI 73 Academic Writing

Hawaii English Language Program
Academic Listening
Academic Writing

Digital Humanities Projects

Visualizing the Attitudes and Experiences of Mixed-Race Individuals in the U.S.
This project uses R-shiny to create an interactive visualization of 193 mixed-race individuals' attitudes and experiences related to issues related to race, language, and identity.

Invited Talks

Berkeley Language Institute
Mixed-Heritage Individuals: Rewriting Narratives of Racial, Linguistic and Cultural Deficiency

Japanese for Nikkei
Hafu women's collective healing from ethnolinguistic discrimination through a "translanguaging safe space"

University of Tokyo: Global Faculty Development
Interdisciplinary Roundtable on Diversity and Inclusion in the Academy

University of Tokyo: Time to Talk Series
Promoting Critical Language Awareness and Inclusivity in the Japanese Classroom

Review of Atlas.ti 9

Atlas.ti 9 Review
I review the features of Atlas.ti 9, a Computer-assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS), based on my work with it for thematic analysis of survey responses.

Online Tutorials

TidyR package Tutorial for R
This package is helpful to learn if you need a quick way to reorganize your data on spreadsheets. Unlike other tutorials, it contains example problems with data from Applied Linguistics.

Data Visualization with GGplot2 Tutorial
An introduction to the power of ggplot2, this tutorial explains how to visualize linguistic data, covering boxplots, line graphs, scatterplots, barplots, and more.

Multiple Imputation Analysis for Missing Data Sets in R
This is especially useful for researchers involved with larges amount of data from language assessment and wish to perform item response theory analyses.

Reading Strategies Workshop for undergraduates
A 5-minute teaching workshop for undergraduate students, introducing research-based reading strategies used by "good" and "poor" readers.