Ayami Morita teaches courses in Japanese language.
Born and raised in Japan, Ayami Morita moved to the United States to pursue an M.A. in Japanese Linguistics and enhance her teaching skills at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before joining Washington University in St. Louis, she taught Japanese at Bowdoin College, Franklin & Marshall College, and the Middlebury Summer Language Schools.
Ayami earned her B.A. in Japanese Studies with a focus on Teaching Japanese as a Second Language from Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan. Her passion for teaching led her to work as a Japanese language instructor at a language school for foreign exchange students in Japan, teach classical Japanese at a Japanese high school, and volunteer as a Japanese teacher in Cambodia. Ayami has hosted various cultural events for her students, including demonstrations of the tea ceremony, drawing on her experience with the Sado Matsuo-ryu Nanzan-kai.
Her research interests encompass second language acquisition of Japanese, pragmatic development in a second language, and how language learning influences learners’ identities. Ayami is dedicated to supporting her students in their lifelong language-learning journeys by fostering a diverse and inclusive community of mutual respect and effective learning.