saramats

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saramats@arizona.edu
Matsumura, Sara
Graduate Associate

Sara Matsumura is a PhD student in the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) program at the University of Arizona. She earned her BA in English and Spanish at the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa and her MA in Spanish Linguistics with a focus on Second Language Acquisition at Arizona State University. She has worked as a K-12 tutor, mentor, teacher, and instructor in higher-education, and is passionate about helping students achieve language proficiency through innovative teaching methods and research-driven approaches. Her research areas include curriculum development, computer-assisted language learning (CALL), teacher training, and critical language awareness. She enjoys teaching beginner to intermediate-level Spanish courses, adopting a framework that develops linguistic and cultural competence in the target language while also encouraging students to engage critically with discussions related to language, identity, and communities. 

In her free time, you can find her at the beach, doing hot yoga, visiting restaurants/cafes, reading, and traveling. 

Currently Teaching

SPAN 201 – Third Semester Spanish

Continuation of Spanish 101 and 102 or by placement exam. As the first semester of the second year Spanish, this course focuses on a short review of the materials studied in the first year courses. It expands on those points with a more in-depth study of the Spanish language and culture. Content-based approach integrates grammar and culture in a functional use through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The course further develops grammatical accuracy in the use of the simple tenses: present, future, and conditional and of particular importance is the perfection of the use of the past tense: preterit and imperfect. Compound tenses such as the present perfect, past perfect are also developed in this course. Students gain the ability during this course to deal with more complex and abstract situations in the foreign language. Language use encouraged by way of communicative activities rather than a sequence of linguistics units. Audio, video, and computer materials incorporated.

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Continuation of Spanish 101 and 102 or by placement exam. As the first semester of the second year Spanish, this course focuses on a short review of the materials studied in the first year courses. It expands on those points with a more in-depth study of the Spanish language and culture. Content-based approach integrates grammar and culture in a functional use through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The course further develops grammatical accuracy in the use of the simple tenses: present, future, and conditional and of particular importance is the perfection of the use of the past tense: preterit and imperfect. Compound tenses such as the present perfect, past perfect are also developed in this course. Students gain the ability during this course to deal with more complex and abstract situations in the foreign language. Language use encouraged by way of communicative activities rather than a sequence of linguistics units. Audio, video, and computer materials incorporated.

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To view full listing of courses offered, please visit our Course Schedule.

Course Schedule