Atsuko Moriyama
Language Assistant in Japanese
- Japanese Studies, Asian Studies
- School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
- University of Edinburgh
Contact details
- Email: atsuko.moriyama@ed.ac.uk
Background
Dr Atsuko Moriyama (B.A. Waseda University, M.Ed. Chiba University, M.Sc. and Ph.D. The University of Edinburgh in Applied Linguistics) is a full-time teaching staff of Asian Studies and currently teaches Japanese language courses to all year levels. Before taking up this position, she supervised master dissertations in MSc TESOL and MSc in Language Teaching at Moray House School of Education (2017-2019). She has almost 30 years of experience as a language teacher (Japanese and English) in Japan and UK. Throughout her teaching career, she has been motivated to practise research-informed teaching.
Dr Moriyama has received a number of external grants in support of her research and teaching. In Japan, she was awarded a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for a classroom-based study (2012–2015), as well as Student Exchange Support Program Scholarships from the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO). These supported five intercultural communication courses she developed and/or coordinated for students at Chiba University and its partner institutions worldwide.
In the UK, she was awarded a Sasakawa Foundation grant (2025) for a collaborative project promoting Japanese language education through outreach visits to schools in Scotland. She also received a Japan Foundation Japanese Language Network (Sakura Network) Grant via the British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (BATJ) (2023–2026). She currently leads the BATJ project “Developing Locally-Based Communities for Japanese Language Teachers in the UK,” funded by the Japan Foundation London.
Responsibilities & affiliations
The British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (BATJ)
The British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL)
Undergraduate teaching
Japanese Language Lower Intermediate (Main Textbook Class & Writing Class)
Foundation Japanese Language 1
Research summary
My research interests include second language acquisition (particularly grammar acquisition and academic writing), sociolinguistics, and intercultural competence acquisition, and English and Japanese language education, including the application of corpus resources in classrooms for student-centred learning. In Japanese language education, I am particularly interested in fostering learner autonomy through prosody and pitch accent training, as part of pronunciation instruction; developing systematic approaches to teaching essay writing; and guiding reading strategies by contrasting Western-style paragraphs with the Japanese rhetorical structure known as danraku.
Current project grants
- The Japan Foundation Japanese Language Network (Sakura Network) Grant (2023/2024, 2024/2025, 2025/2026)
- The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Grant (2025)
Past project grants
- Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) (2012-2015) awarded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Award Category: Scientific Research C), Project Title: Effects of the noticing-promotion approach on the production of collaborative dialogues in pair work and acquisition of English interrogatives (Project No: 24520609) (£22,000)
- Student Exchange Support Program Scholarships (2013-2014) awarded by the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) for coordinating five short study-abroad programmes for both home students and international students at Chiba University as well as for those at its sister universities around the world. This scholarships, which were recognised as excellent examples of intercultural programmes by
JASSO. I was successful in all five applications to fund all the programme participants (about 60 students in total).
- ORS (Overseas Research Students) Awards (2000-2003) awarded by UK Universities to support my PhD study at The University of Edinburgh
- The Premier Awards (2000-2003) awarded by The University of Edinburgh to support my PhD study at The University of Edinburgh
- Small Grants (2001-2002) awarded by The University of Edinburgh to support my PhD study’s data collection in the classroom
Conference details
Moriyama, A. (2025) Activity Report: Developing locally-based communities for Japanese language teachers in the UK. BATJ Annual Conference. Keele University (England).
Moriyama, A., Narumi, F., Kumagai, A., & Matsuoka, Y. (2024) Promoting Japanese language education in Scotland: Building teacher networks and developing hybrid provision for secondary schools. BATJ Annual Conference. Leicester University (England).
Moriyama, A. (2023) Activity Report: Developing locally-based communities for Japanese language teachers in the UK. BATJ Annual Conference. Oxford University (England).
The 4th JADE Kanto-Koshinetsu Chapter Conference (2016). The Japan Association for Developmental Education (JADE). Edogawa University (Tokyo, Japan).
The 3rd JADE Kanto-Koshinetsu Chapter Conference (2013). The Japan Association for Developmental Education. Nihonbashi Gakkan University (Tokyo. Japan).
The International Academy of Technology, Education and Development (IATED), iCERI 2014: 7th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation. The Barceló Renacimiento Hotel (Sevilla, Spain).
The 11th Asia TEFL International Conference (2013) The Ateneo de Manila University (Manila: The Philippines).
The British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL), The 2013 BAAL Conference. Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, UK).
The JACET 51 International Convention (2012). The Japan Association for College English Teachers (JACET). Aichi Prefectural University (Nagoya, Japan).
The 15th JABAET Conference (2009). The Japan-Britain Association of English Teachers (JABAET). Dokkyo University (Saitama, Tokyo).
The Japan Association of Language Teaching (JALT). The JALT 24th Annual International Conference on Language Teaching (Omiya, Japan).
Invited speaker
Moriyama, A. (2013) Developing EFL learners' awareness of pragmatically-appropriate language use through sociolinguistic surveys and video-conferencing. The University of the Philippines Open University. Lecture Series: Let's Talk it Over“ organised by The Faculty of Management and Development Studies (Los Banos: The Philippines).
Organiser
- Collaborative Project between University of Edinburgh and Japan Foundation, London, titled "Tour to schools in Scotland for promoting Japanese language education" (Jun 2025) - BATJ Teacher Workshop 3: An introduction to extensive reading:creating engaging materials, funded by Japan Foundation, London (Feb. 2025) - BATJ Teacher Workshop 2: Documentary film screening about heritage language education in Japan and the UK, followed by lectures and discussions, funded by Japan Foundation (Feb 2025) - BATJ Teacher Workshop 1: Using Senryu in the Classroom: a 17-syllable Japanese poetic form similar to haiku, but more focused on humour and human behaviour (as a part of BATJ
Participant
Sato, N. & Moriyama, A. (2015) Exploring collaborative instruction to teach paragraph writing in Japanese and English by a teacher of Japanese and a teacher of English (In Japanese). The Japan Association for Developmental Education (JADE), The 4th JADE Kanto-Koshinetsu Chapter Conference. Edogawa University (Tokyo, Japan).
Sato, N. & Moriyama, A. (2014) Teaching paragraph writing to undergraduates: a possibility of collaborative instruction by a teacher of Japanese and a teacher of English (In Japanese). The 3rd JADE Kanto-Koshinetsu Chapter Conference. The Japan Association for Developmental Education. Nihonbashi Gakkan University (Tokyo. Japan).
Moriyama, A. (2014) Can language-related episodes (LREs) facilitate L2 questions development?, The International Academy of Technology, Education and Development (IATED), iCERI 2014: 7th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation. The Barceló Renacimiento Hotel (Sevilla, Spain).
Moriyama, A. (2013) Effects of peer feedback on the production of modified output: a study of English question formation acquisition. The 11th Asia TEFL International Conference, The Ateneo de Manila University (Manila: The Philippines).
Moriyama, A. (2013) Effects of a linguistic survey experience on EFL learners' awareness of pragmatically appropriate language use. The British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL), The 2013 BAAL Conference. Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, UK).
Moriyama, A. (2012) Effective ways of motivating learners to keep trying out lately-acquired English question forms beyond lesson. The Japan Association for College English Teachers (JACET), The JACET 51 International Convention, Aichi Prefectural University (Nagoya, Japan).
Moriyama, A. (2009) Effects of form-focused instruction to promote noticing the gap on learners’ L2 development: a study of English interrogative acquisition in the classroom. The Japan-Britain Association of English Teachers (JABAET). The 15th JABAET Conference, Dokkyo University (Saitama, Tokyo).
Iwa, A. (1998) The effects of communication strategy training on Japanese high school students in Oral Communication classes. The Japan Association of Language Teaching (JALT). The JALT 24th Annual International Conference on Language Teaching (Omiya, Japan).
Papers delivered
Moriyama, A. (2013) Benefits of teacher modelling using thinking-aloud protocol and manuscripts written in L1 and L2. (In Japanese). The Japan Association for Developmental Education. 8:2, pp.40-47. The Japan Association for Developmental Education (JADE).
Moriyama, A. (2012) Effective ways of motivating learners to keep trying out lately-acquired English question forms beyond lesson. The JACET 51 International Convention Proceedings, pp.198-203. The Japan Association for College English Teachers (JACET).
Iwa*, A. , Enomono, M., Otani, K., Shimano, K., & Tsuchiya. S. (1998) Overlapping phenomena in the Japanese Map Task Corpus. Technical Report of IEICE, SP98-70, pp.15-21. The Institute of Electronics, information and Communication Engineers. (* "Iwa” is Dr Moriyama's previous surname)
Peer-reviewed Articles
Moriyama, A. (2016) The effects of instruction intended to facilitate peer assistance on the production of collaborative dialogues and the second language acquisition. Report of the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 24520609), Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan. https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/file/KAKENHI-PROJECT-24520609/24520609seika.pdf
Moriyama, A. (2013) Benefits of teacher modelling using thinking-aloud protocol and manuscripts written in L1 and L2. (In Japanese). The Japan Association for Developmental Education. 8:2, pp.40-47. The Japan Association for Developmental Education (JADE).
Moriyama, A. (2012) Effective ways of motivating learners to keep trying out lately-acquired English question forms beyond lesson. The JACET 51 International Convention Proceedings, pp.198-203. The Japan Association for College English Teachers (JACET).
Iwa*, A. , Enomono, M., Otani, K., Shimano, K., & Tsuchiya. S. (1998) Overlapping phenomena in the Japanese Map Task Corpus. Technical Report of IEICE, SP98-70, pp.15-21. The Institute of Electronics, information and Communication Engineers. (* "Iwa” is Dr Moriyama's previous surname)
Textbook
Moriyama, A. (2004) Contributed to the textbook titled “Writing in the Humanities” authored by Anderson, K., Lynch, T., & Benson, C. (2004). I wrote a sample essay in English using the four-part organization of Chinese/Japanese wiring — introduction, development, turn, and conclusion ("ki-syo-ten-ketsu" danraku-writing style), which is commonly used among Japanese and Chinese.