Yan Liu, Associate Professor of the Practice of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Director of the Chinese Language Program

Dr. Yan Liu is an Associate Professor of the Practice and Director of the Chinese Program in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) at Duke University. She received her Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition from Carnegie Mellon University. Since joining Duke in 2013, Dr. Liu has been teaching and coordinating intermediate Chinese courses for non-heritage students and advanced Chinese courses for heritage students.

In recent years, her focus has been on course development, pedagogy innovation, and teaching material development, leading her to develop "Chinese Translation and Interpretation" (CHINESE 332) for third-year Chinese heritage students and "Understanding China and the U.S.: Stereotypes, Conflicts, and Common Challenges" (CHINESE 450S), an interdisciplinary course for both Chinese international students and advanced-level Chinese students. Additionally, she has been teaching and developing Chinese CLAC (Curriculum across Languages and Cultures) courses, including "Voices in Global Health: Mandarin Tutorial" (GLHLTH 270T/AMES 270T), "Voices in the Environment: Mandarin Tutorial" (ENVIRON 269T-3/CHINESE 269T), and "Voices in Public Policy: Mandarin Tutorial" (PUBPOL 273T-3/CHINESE 273T). In 2022, she also offered Chinese Sociolinguistics, a course cross-listed by AMES and the linguistics program. Dr. Liu's teaching approach incorporates community-based learning, service-learning, visual arts, games, fake-news analysis, and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) to enhance her students' learning and provide an equitable learning environment for her students. In recognition of her commitment to service-learning, Dr. Liu won the "Betsy Alden Outstanding Service-Learning Award" in 2020. 

Dr. Liu’s main research interest lies in teaching and learning Chinese as a second language (L2), a foreign language, or a heritage language. To be specific, she has conducted research on L2 reading in Chinese, writing in Chinese as a heritage language, Chinese assessment, Chinese language pedagogy, and Chinese curriculum development. Her research work has been published as journal articles or book chapters. In addition, she has presented her research in many prestigious conferences, such as, the annual conferences of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), the National Chinese Language Conference (NCLC), the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA), and some international conferences on Chinese teaching and learning. She is also a reviewer for Routledge, the Journal of Chinese as a Second Language, the International Journal of Chinese language Teaching, and Studies in Chinese Learning and Teaching, 

Dr. Liu is also an active member of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA), providing services to the organization in various capacities. She was elected as a board member of CLTA in early 2022 and is currently serving on four committees. Additionally, Dr. Liu co-chairs two CLTA special interest groups (SIGs): the Content-based Chinese Language Courses at Advanced Levels SIG since 2020, and the Chinese Heritage Language Learning SIG since 2021. 

Contact Info:

Office Location:	2204 Erwin Road, John Hope Fra, Box 90414, Durham, NC 27708
Email Address:

Teaching (Spring 2024):

• PUBPOL 273T-3.01, VOICES IN PUBPOL: CHINESE Synopsis

  Languages 208, M 01:25 PM-02:40 PM

  (also cross-listed as CHINESE 273T.01)

• AMES 337S.01, CHINESE SOCIOLINGUISTICS Synopsis

  Social Sciences 105, MF 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as LINGUIST 337S.01)

• CHINESE 99.01, SURVIVAL CHINESE Synopsis

  Allen 226, M 03:05 PM-04:20 PM

Office Hours:

W: 1:30-3:30 PM

Education:

Ph.D.	Carnegie Mellon University	2013
MA	Beijing Foreign Studies University	2005
BA	Lanzhou University	1999

Specialties:

Chinese

Research Interests:

Current projects: Reading instruction and assessment for college foreign language content courses

Dr. Yan Liu's primary research interests include second language reading, biliteracy development, and teaching / learning Chinese as a second language / a foreign language / a heritage language

Areas of Interest:

Second Language Acquisition
Second Language Reading
Biliteracy Development
Heritage Language Acquisition
Foreign Language Instruction and Assessment
Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language or a Second Language

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Liu, Y; Ji, J; Wu, G; Liang, M-M, 传承中文 Modern Chinese for Heritage Beginners Stories about Us (April, 2023), pp. 257 pages, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9781000860344  [abs]
2. Liu, Y, Boundary Crossing: Integrating Visual Arts into Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, in Crossing Boundaries in Researching, Understanding, and Improving Language Education: Essays in Honor of G. Richard Tucker., edited by Zhang, D; Miller, R (March, 2023), Springer, ISBN 978-3-031-24078-2  [abs]
3. Liu, Y, Cross-language and cross-disciplinary collaborations in a Mandarin CLAC course, in A Transdisciplinary Approach to Chinese and Japanese Language Teaching (February, 2023), pp. 159-175, Routledge [doi]
4. Reisinger, D; Valnes Quammen, S; Liu, Y; Virguez, E, Sustainability across the Curriculum: A Multilingual and Intercultural Approach, in Education for Sustainable Development in Foreign Language Learning: Content-Based Instruction in College-Level Curricula, edited by Fuente, MDL (November, 2021), Routledge [doi]
5. Reisinger, D; Quammen, SV; Liu, Y; Virgüez, E, Sustainability across the Curriculum: A Multilingual and Intercultural Approach, in Education for Sustainable Development in Foreign Language Learning: Content-Based Instruction in College-Level Curricula, First Edition (January, 2021), pp. 197-214, ISBN 9780367530327 [doi]  [abs]

Selected Conferences

1. Developing An Online Course for Advanced Learners of Chinese., January, 2014, Duke University    
2. Assessing and Promoting Cultural Analysis Skills in Advanced Chinese Courses, November 22, 2013, 2013 ACTFL conference at Orlando    
3. Acquisition of Chinese Characters Among Child and Adult Learners: the Effects of Visual Complexity and Radical Presence., May, 2013, Washington, D.C.    
4. L2 Semantic-gap Filling (SGF) in Chinese Reading Comprehension., April, 2013, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.    
5. Lexical Inferecing Ability in Chinese as a Foreign Language., March, 2013, Dallas, TX.    
6. A Synthesis Study of Morphological Awareness Instruction., November, 2012, Philadelphia, PA.    
7. Lexical Inferencing Ability and Reading Comprehension in Chinese among American College Learners of Chinese, November, 2012, College Park, MD.    
8. Morphological Awareness and Lexical Inferencing Ability in Chinese as a Foreign Language., October, 2012    
9. Compound Awareness, Lexical Inferencing Ability and Reading Comprehension in Chinese as a Foreign Language., March, 2012, Boston, MA.    

Selected Grant Support

• AMES T6 IT grant.