Fusae Takasaki Ivarsson
Senior Lecturer
Department of Languages and LiteraturesAbout Fusae Takasaki Ivarsson
Researcher, Teacher
Background
Fusae Ivarsson earned her B.A. in Japanese from International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan, and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Essex. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Gothenburg in 2016, with a dissertation titled A Study of the L2 Kanji Learning Process: Analysis of Reading and Writing Errors of Swedish Learners in Comparison with Level-matched Japanese Schoolchildren.
Her doctoral research explores the reading and writing errors made by Swedish learners of Japanese and compares them to those made by Japanese schoolchildren who have acquired the same number of kanji characters. By analyzing cognitive error types and their frequency across the two groups, the study sheds light on the cognitive processes involved in kanji acquisition among Swedish learners.
Research
Fusae Ivarsson’s current research focuses primarily on yakuwarigo, or “role language”—a field that investigates how linguistic features in fiction are used to express character types, social roles, and cultural stereotypes. Her recent projects in this area include:
- Analyses of speech styles in Japanese fictional works (e.g., manga, literature, film) in relation to character archetypes and traits;
- Comparative analyses of English and Swedish translations of these stylistic features;
- Studies of orthographic variation and other written stylistic devices (such as writing kanji words in hiragana, hiragana words in katakana, unconventional use of furigana, and vertical vs. horizontal text) used in Japanese fiction to highlight character attributes, emotional states, contextual nuances, or mood.
She is also engaged in the following areas of research:
- Investigating the pedagogical effectiveness of generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot) in intermediate-level Japanese writing instruction;
- Exploring cross-writing system issues in second language acquisition, with a particular focus on the multiscriptal nature of Japanese and its implications for L2 Japanese teaching.
Teaching
Since 1997, Fusae Ivarsson has been teaching Japanese at the University of Gothenburg. She teaches across all proficiency levels, with a focus on writing systems, composition, translation, grammar and reading comprehension. In addition to her teaching duties, she regularly supervises both bachelor’s and master’s theses.