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.