Anthony Diaz

Photo of Anthony Diaz

PhD Student

Kerr 255

I am a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics at UC Davis working with Dr. Santiago Barreda.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Japanese and a Master of Science in Education (TESOL) both from California State University, Fullerton. 

In addition to these academic degrees, I have over 12 years of language teaching experience both in the U.S. and abroad in Japan.

Education and Degree(s)
  • M.A., Linguistics, The University of California, Davis, 2024
  • M.S., Education (TESOL), California State University, Fullerton, 2013
  • B.A., Japanese, California State University, Fullerton, 2011
Honors and Awards
  • 2024 College of Letters and Science Dean’s Summer Fellowship
  • 2023 Michales Student Living Scholarship, The Michaels Organization
  • 2023 Selected Paper for 2022 JALT National Conference, The Japan Association for Langua
Courses
  • LIN 177 Computational Linguistics - Teaching Assistant - Spring 2025
  • JPN 001 Elementary Japanese - Associate Instructor - Fall 2024
  • LIN 001Y Introduction to Linguistics - Teaching Assistant - Winter 2024
  • LIN 001 Introduction to Linguistics - Teaching Assistant - Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Spring 2023, Fall 2023
Research Interests & Expertise
  • Acoustic Phonetics
  • Speech Perception
  • Applications of LLMs to Second Language Teaching and Learning
  • Japanese Linguistics
Publications
  • Zhang, X., Diaz, A., Chen, Z., Wu, Q., Qian, K., Voss, E., & Yu, Z. (2024). DECOR: Improving Coherence in L2 English Writing with a Novel Benchmark for Incoherence Detection, Reasoning, and Rewriting. In Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (pp. 11436-11458). Link
  • Duval, C. R., Booker, N. P., Brotherton, C., Diaz, A. M., & Jasbi, M. (2024). Using constructed languages to introduce and teach linguistics. Linguistics Vanguard, 10(s3), 201-214. Link
  • Diaz, A. M. (2023). Phonetics applied: An acoustic analysis of Japanese L2 English. In P. Ferguson, B. Lacy, & R. Derrah (Eds.), Learning from Students, Educating Teachers–Research and Practice. JALT. Link
  • Diaz, A. M. (2023). Phonological clustering: A different approach to L2 vocabulary instruction. PanSIG Journal 2022.
  • Diaz, A. (2021). Articulatory setting: An overlooked aspect of L2 pronunciation?. Comparative Culture: The Journal of Miyazaki International College, 26, 37-47.
  • Pattison, S., Diaz, A., Eto, T., Johnston, P., Jones, K., Larking, M., & Phillips, M. (2020). Incorporating an external online test into a university language program. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & R. Gentry (Eds.), Teacher efficacy, learner agency. Tokyo: JALT. 154-166.
  • Diaz, A. (2020). Adding pronunciation instruction to the classroom. PanSIG Journal 2019, 64-73.
  • Diaz, A. (2020). The APU Corpus of Japanese Learner English. APU Journal of Language Research, 5, 38-55.
  • Diaz, A. (2019). Developing a pilot learner corpus: New directions in writing instruction. APU Journal of Language Research, 4, 84-90.
  • Diaz, A. (2017). Towards improving Japanese EFL learners’ pronunciation: The impact of teaching suprasegmentals on intelligibility. APU Journal of Language Research, 2, 69-84. Link
Membership and Service
  • The Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) - Member (2017-present)
  • The Japan Association for Language Teaching Post-Conference Publications - Content Editor (2020-2022)
  • Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University - Graduate Writing Workshop Tutor (2017-2018)
  • Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University - Admissions Interviewer (2017)