Dr. Atsuko Suga Borgmann received her Ph.D. in Urban Education, specializing in Curriculum and Instruction, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). Her dissertation titled, Multimodal Vocabulary Learning through Manga in Japanese as a World Language, presents a quantitative study to examine how multimodal reading materials impact one’s vocabulary acquisition. She also holds her Master’s degree in Asian Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During her twenty-year tenure as a Senior Lecturer at UWM, she coordinated the Japanese program and developed the curriculum for undergraduate courses. Additionally, she holds a full Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Tester certification from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).
Her primary research interests lie in language pedagogy, with particular emphasis on multimodal learning and teaching and their impact on vocabulary and language acquisition. Her further interests include integrating technology and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) into language pedagogy, as well as utilizing content-based, task-based, and project-based instructions, as well as incorporating student-created plays into the curriculum. She is also deeply dedicated to creating a student-centered environment that fosters learner autonomy and motivation in the language classroom.
At Brown, she teaches all levels of Japanese, including Business Japanese and culture. While focusing on how current research can directly improve her teaching practices, she has also been deeply committed to coordinating the Japanese program since Fall 2020.
