Teaching
Language Pedagogy
I design materials and courses for Chinese learners at every level, turning research on motivation into classrooms — and textbooks — that ask students to do things in Chinese.
Approach
My pedagogy grows directly out of my research: I develop materials for Chinese learners of various levels with the goal of transforming students into lifelong, self-motivated, and effective learners. Drawing on the performed-culture approach, I build courses around purposeful action in authentic cultural contexts, so that learners rehearse real roles rather than memorize decontextualized forms.
Books
images/your-cover.jpgNegotiating the Chinese Workplace: An Integrated Course in Advanced Chinese
An advanced-level, integrated Chinese course that prepares students to operate in professional Chinese-language settings — reading, listening, and performing the language of the contemporary workplace.
images/your-cover.jpgPerformed Culture in Action to Teach Chinese as a Foreign Language
A co-edited volume bringing together approaches that put performed culture at the center of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, connecting theory to concrete classroom practice.
images/your-cover.jpgPerform Suzhou / 体演苏州
A performed-culture Chinese course built around the city of Suzhou, with units on talking about Suzhou, food and friendship, and sightseeing — including a teacher's guide — so learners rehearse culturally situated roles rather than isolated forms.
Selected pedagogy scholarship
- Innovating the Design of Lower-Level Reading and Writing Curriculum for the Digital Age
- Understanding Chinese Behavioral Culture Through Cross-Cultural Communication
Courses taught
- First-Year Chinese
- Third-Year Chinese
- Americans & Chinese: Case Studies of Cross-Cultural Communication
- Exploring the Roots of Contemporary Issues in China
- Senior Project