Research Associates and Alumni

Research Associates and Alumni


Alumni


Melody Jiang

I’m from Changchun, China. My background is unique among my classmates, as my career has involved largely in Chemistry. After obtaining B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry, I’m currently teaching Chemistry at St. John’s University in Queens, New York. Now I’m both a teacher and student, I’m a TC student in Ed.M. program in Science Education as well as a student in the TCSOL one-year program after attending the summer TESOL/TCSOL dual program.

The TCSOL program in TC arose my great interest in teaching Chinese from the bottom of my heart. My passion for teaching Chinese to foreign language learners has grown since I started my study career in the U.S. nine years ago. I used to teach Chinese as a student tutor, but I’ve never learned how to teach Chinese systematically. Many foreign friends asked me questions about Chinese language and culture, and I noticed the difficulties that many Chinese parents encountered when teaching their children Chinese in the U.S. By realizing this situation, I found that promoting the Chinese language and culture is of wide need. As a Chinese, I also feel that I have the responsibility to facilitate foreign people’s learning about the beauty of the Chinese language and culture.

This program provides comprehensive learning opportunities in TCSOL from theory to practice. After learning from instructors as well as peers though this program, I believe that we will find our places in Chinese education and achieve self-improvements to be better language educators.

Hui Yu

My name is Hui Yu. I was born in Sichuan province, China, and I have resided in Shanghai (China), Harbin (China), Nashville, TN, and Albuquerque, NM for several years each. I came to the U.S. in 2012, and have been working as a computational research fellow in the biomedical field for the past eight years. My passion for language and literature fuels my volunteer teaching role in the New Mexico Chinese School of Arts and Language, where I have received favorable feedback from colleagues and students’ parents. My essay, A Couple on Fire, was collected into a published anthology Words Are Windows anthology (Nashville, TN 2019: IngramSpark.). Now, while I still work as a research fellow on 80% efforts, I started this year-long online TCSOL certificate program through Teachers' College, Columbia University. If I can successfully earn my TCSOL certificate in May 2021, I wish to teach Chinese to heritage and native-born American students as a part-time Chinese teacher, especially on an online platform.

Tailin Grace Lin

My name is Grace Lin, I am a Chinese teacher at an international school in Taiwan, I have been a language teacher (teaching English, Japanese) since 2000. And 3 years ago, I started to teach Chinese and I found out it’s relatively challenging. In my class, especially when it comes to grammar questions, it seems to be a bit hard for me to provide satisfactory answers for my students, so when I saw the summer TCSOL/TESOL dual program I thought this might be a wonderful opportunity to advance myself and facilitate my students’ learning better. During the summer, although the sessions were mentally and physically challenging, I learned a lot from the professors and my peer classmates also gained a different view from what I am doing, and that leads me to think outside the boxes and come out effective and interesting class activities for my students. The feedbacks of my students and parents ensure me that I am on the right track. And I know being a teacher, constantly self-development is a must and I consider myself a lucky person to be able to attend TCSOL One-year Certificate Program for continuing to learn from excellent teachers and diligent classmates and I foresee myself to be able to become a bridge across different cultures and a shiny light illuminating the path to success.

Lanjun Cheng

My name is Lanjun Cheng. I am from Guilin, China. Chinese teaching has become my career passion since I studied "Teaching Chinese as a Second Language" major during my undergraduate at Xi’an International studies University. I continued M.A. in Chinese Linguistic and Language Acquisition at University of Hong Kong. Afterwards, I was very lucky to be chosen as an intern at Columbia in Beijing Summer Program, where I was deeply inspired. After few years' Chinese teaching in different programs and Universities, I feel my teaching skills still need to be refined. At this point, I was very excited to know TCSOL program in TC. I value every single class here in the program. Even though I have learned many relevant courses, APA and Educational Linguistics are still new and super helpful for me. What's more, the program has Practicum course which allows us to do real teaching to Columbia students. In such a well-designed program, I believe my goal of being a "localized" high qualified Chinese Teacher in US is not far!

Rachel Chen

As you will note, my teaching career has focused on teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages. After finishing my undergraduate studies in Jinan University, China in 2014 in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, I went to the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) to continue my study in Chinese Linguistics and Language Acquisition in 2015. In the past year, I worked as a Chinese teacher in CET Academic Programs in Beijing as a drill class teacher as well as IES Abroad Program in Shanghai as a lecturer. Besides, I have also taught Korean students who worked in LG Electronics as managers in Guangzhou, and provided one-on-one tutorials to 11-year-old South Asian students in Hong Kong. My past exposures to multi-national cultures have helped me to gain a better understanding of language teaching. However, in order to become a dedicated, qualified and flexible Chinese teacher, I need more than that. Right before my graduation, I got an amazing chance to teach students from Columbia University in the Columbia-Beijing Summer Program under supervision of Prof. Lening Liu and Prof. Zhirong Wang. I was strongly inspired by the faculty of Columbia University, which motivated me to study in TCOSL certificate program in Teachers College this year. I believe this program will provide me comprehensive trainings and help me to combine linguistic theories with various pedagogies in an efficient and dynamic way.

Siwen XI

My name is Siwen Xi, currently in both Music and Music Education program and TCSOL program in Teachers College, Columbia University. Before arriving in the US, I have learnt music since I was 5 and finally graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music in bachelor’s degree. I have been performing and teaching music related classes in china for a long period, and finally decided focus on education. Although I did not have any related academic background and working experience on teaching Chinese, I still want to dive into this domain. After graduating from conservatory, I began to consider my future including career and higher education. In order to guarantee a more promising and stable, I realized that it is necessary for me to chase for higher and wider educational pursuit for more embedded knowledge and more professional teaching strategies in terms of music teaching and Chinese teaching. From my perspective, both of music and language are a kind of means of expression and I convince that they are deeply related. Thanks to TCSOL program, it provided me this opportunity to broaden my horizon to gain a better view of these two domain.

Xiaoxing Cheng

My name is Xiaoxing, from Suzhou, China. I am a motivated individual with solid educational background in the hospitality management and business administration. Before I came to the U.S., I was a co-founder and marketing director of a consulting company which aim to help expats modify their living habits and customs to their local setting. I also held Chinese social etiquette and international communication lectures and training programs for foreign enterprises in Suzhou in order to help their Western employees to understand cultural differences and Chinese business manners. During these training experience, I realized Chinese fluency is becoming increasingly important in the future economy competitions. My experiences with training have evoked favorable responses which strengthened my desire to pursue work in combining teaching Mandarin with culture sharing. I applied for TCSOL without any hesitation after searching online for a Chinese pedagogy program. Because after researching on this program, I feel that I have the capacity to make the commitment and accept the challenges in this career change with the help of TCSOL faculties. I believe I will become an excellent Chinese teacher and an outstanding cultural disseminator after learning all hands on skills and academic knowledge from TCSOL program.

Yuhui Gong

I have 8 years of experience teaching Chinese and English at Google, EF Education First, and Gymboree. Last year I joined in a tech startup which was founded by former Google employees. We made an English learning app that helps parents teach their children English; the app drawn over 3.5 million users in its first year. My experience at this app company has shown me how efficient and comprehensive online course material can be used in teachers’ class or family. I believe education and technology go well together if the teachers know how to use them. I’m interested in making a Chinese learning app for non-Chinese speakers in the future. One of my friends recommended TCSOL program, its student-centered, creative pedagogy approach appeals to me. There are lectures like how to implement apps, technology and the internet in to course curriculum which is what I am looking for as well. Currently study at the TCSOL program, I’ve enjoy learning from distinguish professors who I respect and admire. I’m looking forward to learning so much more! I am very excited to make connections with other excellent language educators from different back ground as well.

Hsiao Wen Wu

Prior to embarking on the journey of becoming a Chinese instructor for foreigners, I have taken fashion as my lifelong passion and worked in the fashion industry for several years in Asia as well as in the US. Despite it might strike odd that I go for Chinese teaching for a career change, I have some related academic backgrounds to set it off: a Bachelor’s in Foreign Language and Literature and a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction. However, to more secure a promising start in the US again, I knew I had to go back to a good school to gain the essential knowledge, skills and training regarding Chinese teaching. And with the world-renowned, prestigious reputation and expertly faculty of Teacher’s College, Columbia University, TCSOL program is just a perfect choice for me. I’m also grateful to ever discovering a video featuring Dr. ZhaoHong Han’s introduction on TSCOL program, which further encouraged me to come to this program.

Siqi Ou

My name is Siqi; I grew up in Toronto, Canada. Different from other immigration generations as same age, the Chinese language had always been something I am interested in since I was little. At the age of 16, I decided to learn and explore more about the language, I went back to Peking University to study Chinese language and literature as my undergraduate major. However, knowing the language does not mean you know how to teach the language. Through a friend’s referral, I participated in the TCSOL Beijing summer program 2015. I was so impressed that teaching could be so complex and exciting at the same time. In the New York program, I learned both theoretical and hands-on skills in teaching. Also, we had several chances to teach real students in college classrooms. This is extremely beneficial for teachers who have no prior experiences. It has been an incredible journey so far, thanks to everyone who gave me this chance to participate in the program.

Molly Ximo Tong

After graduated from University majored in journalism, I have been a language teacher both in and out of China for around 3 years, through which I found my true passion in teaching Chinese and set it as my career goal. While searching on the Internet for M.A. Program in Teachers College, I noticed TCSOL at first time. And after some information searching, I believe this program is perfect for me to enrich my knowledge on Chinese Pedagogy both academically and pragmatically. What’s more it could help me to be better prepared for my further M.A. study in language education. Luckily I have joined in both the summer program in Beijing and the certificate program in NYC now, and TCSOL program have brought me much more than I had imagined. I am so glad to be here in NYC, and so far, everything I have being through with TCSOL is AMAZING!

Ye Chen

Since 2008 which is an eventful year in China, I started teaching Mandarin in Shanghai, my hometown. It is a definitely marvelous experience for me to catch the best economical development time to teach foreigners Mandarin. Within 5 years, I have taught the students from over 20 countries,100 cities except in Africa and Antarctic, from 6 till 60 years old, from pupil to top leader in multinational companies.

However, after 5 years extremely busy working, I made a big decision to pursue my diverse career abroad. I chose Indonesia and became a Mandarin teacher in an International school, teaching higher primary and secondary students. In that 3-language school, I finished syllabus, organized Chinese activity week and initiated to train the secondary students HSK3 and Spoken exam. Fortunately, all of the participants past Spoken exam and most of them past HSK 3 and one student got the highest grade in Indonesia. Because of that, the school could be invited to visit China for summer camp without payment and the school had the proficient to apply for Chinese teacher from Confucius Institute.

If I asked myself which aspect I should master the most before coming to TCSOL, Columbia University, I thought it should be pedagogy study. After one semester study, esp. in APA, I really find it is so helpful, which makes me analyze more questions on the personal characteristics and experiences of the learner, the social and cultural environment both inside and outside the classroom, the structure of the native and target languages, opportunities for interaction with speakers of the target language, and access to corrective feedback and form-focused instruction.

In a word, it is absolutely worth studying what you are interested and want to pursue further. I chose TCSOL without any hesitation after 8 years Mandarin teaching because it is a wonderland where I can bring the questions to class, transfer identification and explore more diversity in this world.

Yingjia Zheng

I am currently a student of 2015-16 TCSOL program. I had my Bachelor in teaching Chinese as a second language in Shenzhen University and my Master in teaching English as a second language in University of Rochester. I am thoroughly amazed by the beauty of language teaching and I know there's a lot more for me to explore. Therefore, I applied for this program as soon as I found it online without hesitation. Working as a Chinese lecturer in Gettysburg College, PA, I have to say my TCSOL story in Teachers college is serendipitous. However, my Chinese teaching path is paved by this program with far more than luck. It took me at least 7 hours each time to travel to NYC for the program. Yes, it is not easy for me; however, this program opens surprising doors in front of me to keep my deep conviction and courage. The attraction of the grogram is truly the key which prepared and inclined me to take effective action as a role of language teacher in my own language classes. That inclination is developed through learning academic and pragmatically knowledge from the world-class professors, interning in real classroom setting to practice teaching skills and also cutting-edge workshops in the related area. There's no doubt that I received a lot of professional guidance from the professors which really expands my potential and better excel me into the role as a Chinese language teachers in the higher education. I have to say, the TCSOL program is an investment that will return dividends in personal and intellectual development, in job choice and in professional flexibility. This is a place for hopes and dreams. And I hope this wonderful experience could be shared with more people who is also passionate about teaching Chinese as a Foreign (second) language.

Qian Huang

My name is Qian Huang. I’m from Shanghai. After obtaining my Master’s degree, I had been a university administrator for 9 years in universities in Shanghai and Hong Kong setting up and maintaining exchange and double degree programs with partner universities abroad, taking care of inbound and outbound students. After the administrative work in higher education, I decided to further pursue a doctoral degree in the area of higher education policy. I am now a Year 2 doctoral student at the University of Hong Kong. In the meantime, I am interested in learning something practical during my research time. TCSOL program offers a part-time online learning mode at weekends which allows me to learn flexibly. Personally, I have a great passion for teaching and learning Chinese. I hope I can teach Chinese to friends all over the world in a scientific and effective way and then to further spread Chinese culture.

Research Associates


Dr. EunYoung Kang
Research Associate

Eun Young Kang received her doctorate in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University. She has taught graduate courses in TESOL at Lehman College of the City University of New York. Her research interests include vocabulary learning, form-focused instruction, task-based language teaching, and the role of instruction in second language acquisition. Her articles have appeared in Modern Language Journal, Language Teaching Research, RELC Journal, and International Journal of Applied Linguistics.

Dr. Weiguo Zhang
Research Associate

Dr. Weiguo Zhang is a professor of economics at the Center for Economic Research, Shandong University, China. He is also the director of the Center for Language and Economic Research at Shandong University. His research interests include language, labor, education, and development. He is the author of the book Towards an Economic Approach to Language: An Elementary Framework and has published a number of articles in both economic and linguistic journals. He was the visiting professor at the University of Ottawa (2010-2011) and the University of Texas at San Antonio (2017-2018).

Photo of Adrienne
Research Associate

Wai Man Adrienne Lew earned her Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics—Second Language Acquisition from Teachers College, Columbia University (TC). Adrienne has served as a Master Teacher at TC’s Community English Program. Her research interests include interlanguage fossilization, second language input robustness, distribution, and processing, tense-aspect acquisition, corpus linguistics, and textbook analysis. Adrienne is a former Managing Editor of Teachers College, Columbia University Working Papers in Applied Linguistics & TESOL, a refereed web journal, and has been a peer reviewer for Language Teaching Research, de Gruyter Mouton, and Second Language Research Forum. She possesses specialized knowledge in integrating reference and knowledge management software (e.g., Citavi) and computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (e.g., NVivo) for quality, more efficient linguistic inquiry.

Photo of Peter
Research Associate

Peter received his Ed.D. in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University and is currently the editor of Studies in Applied Linguistics and TESOL at Columbia University. He has taught graduate courses in second language acquisition and has served as a teaching fellow at the Community Language Program at TC. His research interests include motivation, language aptitude, L2 ultimate attainment, quantitative L2 analysis and the application of mathematical models in language acquisition. Peter’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Language Testing Research Quarterly, International Journal of Language Testing, Journal of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, NYS TESOL Journal, and Journal of Second and Multiple Language Acquisition.

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