About

Atsushi Fukada is a professor affiliated with the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University, with appointments in the School of Languages and Cultures (SLC) and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies (SIS). His research focuses on Japanese linguistics, pragmatics, and foreign language education, with particular expertise in computer-assisted language learning. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His academic interests include Japanese linguistics and pragmatics, and he is involved in developing resources for language learning and teaching.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Multimedia
• Communication
• Mathematics education
• Medicine
• Medical education

Selected publications

• Interacting with virtual instructors: The effect of gender and years of study on the perception of in‐game instructors

  Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds · 2021 · 4 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Psychology
  • Multimedia

  Abstract Previous research has shown that student‐instructor interaction is vital to motivating students to learn a second language. However, it is unclear whether learners' demographics affect in‐game immersion and interactions with virtual instructors. This study's purpose is to investigate whether the number of years learning Japanese (foreign language familiarity) influences students' immersion levels in serious games and their interactions with virtual instructors. We developed a 3D animated Japanese roleplaying game with a virtual in‐game instructor. Eighty‐four college students enrolled in 200‐ and 300‐level Japanese language courses voluntarily participated in the study. Participants played the game and then answered a questionnaire concerning virtual character appearance, attentiveness to the instructor, and immersion in the game. The findings indicated that gender and the number of years studying Japanese significantly impact multiple measurements.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of Virtual Instructor’s Facial Expressions in a 3D Game on Japanese Language Learning

  2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW) · 2021 · 2 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Psychology
  • Computer Science

  Previous research has shown that student-teacher interaction is very important in motivating students to learn a second language. However, it is unclear whether facial expression, which is one of the most important elements of interaction, affects in-game language learning motivation. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the facial expressions of the other party, in this case, the in-game virtual instructors, will influence the language learning process for L2 Japanese students. The researchers of this study developed four conditions for a 3D animated Japanese role-playing game. In each condition of the game, only one facial expression was assigned to the virtual characters: neutral, happy, sad, or angry. Eighty-four college students from 200/300 level Japanese courses participated in the study voluntarily. Participants played a version of the game that was assigned to them randomly and then answered a questionnaire concerning language learning. The findings of this research suggested that the virtual characters' in-game facial expressions had no significant effect on participants' language learning. However, significant effects on language learning were found regarding years of learning Japanese and gender. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Examining Oral Performance Characteristics of L2 Learners With the CAF Calculator

  Advances in educational technologies and instructional design book series · 2019-09-24 · 1 citations

  book-chapterSenior author

  Previous fluency studies typically used small datasets to analyze L2 learners' oral performance with objective fluency measures, and found positive correlation between objective measures and subjective ratings. Findings from a small dataset are difficult to generalize. However, it takes a great deal of time and effort to build a large dataset with various measures. To help facilitate this process, CAF Calculator, which outputs 50 fluency measures, has been developed. In this chapter, CAF Calculator and a workflow to compute fluency measures are introduced along with a study investigating utterance fluency of L2 learners of Japanese at two proficiency levels performing two tasks. The study found significant differences in speed, breakdown, and composite fluency measures between the two groups in both tasks. It also found that task type affects pause locations. It is hoped that the research tools introduced in this chapter will encourage more research on fluency.

  PublisherDOI

• The Validity of General L2 Proficiency Tests as Oral Proficiency Measures: A Japanese Learner Corpus Based Study

  Rose-Hulman Scholar (Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology) · 2017-01-01

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• Teaching Languages Online: Innovations and Challenges

  Purdue e-Pubs (Purdue University System) · 2017-01-01 · 2 citations

  article

  Language professionals long resisted teaching online mainly because it was unthinkable to teach speaking in the online environment. Recent advances in technology, however, have made it conceivable. This chapter presents the design and implementation of online courses in Japanese and Chinese recently developed and being offered at Purdue University. We will highlight not only technologies involved, but also pedagogical innovations that helped resolve difficult issues. The efficacy of online teaching will also be touched upon. Reactions from enrolled students and the instructors that have taught the courses will also be shared.

  Publisher

• A Tool for Computing Objective Oral Fluency Measures Fluency Calculator and a Longitudinal Study that Demonstrates Its Use

  Rose-Hulman Scholar (Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology) · 2017-01-01

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  Publisher

• Development of the Fluency Calculator for Objective Oral Fluency Measures and Longitudinal Study on Fluency

  Rose-Hulman Scholar (Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology) · 2017-01-01

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  Publisher

• Examination of the Validity of J-CAT and SPOT as a Placement Exam

  Rose-Hulman Scholar (Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology) · 2017-01-01

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

• Research on Oral Fluency Using Objective Measures: Its Significance and Actual Computation of Measures

  Rose-Hulman Scholar (Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology) · 2015-01-01

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

• Effects of Oral Repetition on Learners’ Japanese Word Accentuation

  IALLT Journal of Language Learning Technologies · 2014-04-15 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Japanese word accentuation is a problematic area for learnersunfamiliar with a pitch accent system. Since accent locations areunpredictable, learners are typically told to memorize them by rote,which is a time-consuming, tedious, and demanding task. It wouldcertainly be ideal for learners to learn correct accentuation withoutexplicit instruction as they learn new words. This article reports on apreliminary study that examined effects of a computer-based onlineword repetition exercise on the learning of Japanese wordaccentuation. 41 students in their 10th week and 17 students in their12th week in a 2nd-year 1st-semester Japanese course took a pretest,followed by computer-based online word repetition practice on theSpeak Everywhere system, a posttest immediately after the practice,and a delayed posttest after one week (class-and-computer condition).Out of the same group of students now in a 2nd-year 2nd-semestercourse, 22 students took a pretest, followed by two posttests in their 5thweek (class-only condition). A paired t-test (two tailed) performed on13 overlapping subjects found a significant difference between the twoconditions (t=5.58, p<.001, Cohen’s d =1.9309). The online word repetition practice produced a significant gain in accentuation scores without explicit instruction, while classroom instruction alone was not sufficient to produce a significant gain.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Maki Hirotani

  Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology

  8 shared

• K. Matsumoto

  California Institute of the Arts

  3 shared

• Robert Blomeyer

  2 shared

• Nicoletta Adamo‐Villani

  Purdue University System

  2 shared

• L. Matsumoto

  2 shared

• Kazumi Matsumoto

  Hitachi (Japan)

  2 shared

• Steven J. White

  2 shared

• Christos Mousas

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  2 shared