Yongfang Zhang
Associate Professor of Chinese Studies, Coordinator of Chinese Program, Director of STARTALK Chinese @ Wofford Program
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Ph.D., Chinese Pedagogy, The Ohio State University
M.A., Chinese Pedagogy, The Ohio State University
M.A., Modern Chinese, Beijing Normal University, P. R. China
B.A., Chinese Language and Literatures, Henan University, P. R. China
Bio
Dr. Zhang has taught Chinese language and culture for twenty-five years and has developed and coordinated several language programs. Since 2006, she has participated as a trainer in teacher training programs at both K-12 level and college level in the U.S. and China. She has also offered keynote speeches and dozens of professional development workshops for K-12 Chinese teachers. She has published her research at national and international conferences, and refereed journals about performance-based instruction, task-based instruction, authentic material use in Chinese language instruction, ACTFL standards, proficiency testing, intercultural competence, teacher preparation, and STARTALK principles. She served as a STARTALK site visitor and a team leader (2018-2021), and an ACTFL/Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) reviewer (2013-2017). She is a certified ACTFL OPI Tester of Mandarin, an ACTFL OPI Mandarin Tester Trainer, a certified AAPPL rater, and an AAPPL Quality Advisor. She started and is leading a Special Interest Group “Intercultural Competence for Chinese Teachers and for Chinese Learners: Supporting Chinese Teachers on Developing Students’ Intercultural Competence,” approved by the CLTA Board. She has served as the Principal Investigator and the Program Director of STARTALK Chinese Summer Program at Wofford College since its inception in 2013, and also served as the Lead Instructor during 2013-2015. The programs offered Novice level Chinese learning to middle and high school students.
Publications
2023 Developing a PCA-Informed Learning Spiral for a Beginner-Level STARTALK Chinese Program. In J. Wang & J. Jia (Eds.), Performed Culture in Action to Teach Chinese as a Foreign Language: Integrating PCA into Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment (pp. 27-36). New York: Routledge, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003199090
2021 Contextualizing Grammar Instruction at the Novice and Intermediate Levels: A Reflection on Grammar Instruction from a Cognitive Perspective. Journal of International Chinese Teaching, 2021 (1), 59-67.
2020 The Understanding of Context in Performed Culture Approach and Context Design in a Non-Chinese Language Environment. International Chinese Language Education, 2020 (2), 60-68.
2019 Teaching Chinese culture in a non-Chinese environment — An example of elementary and intermediate Chinese instruction in the USA. Journal of International Chinese Teaching, 2019 (2), 56-64.
2015 Teacher cognition of overseas teaching context and adjustment of instructional strategies: A reflection based on personal teaching experiences in U.S.A. Journal of International Chinese Teaching, 2015 (4), 16-29.
2013 A CIP spiral performance-based model for beginner level Chinese L2 reading instruction. The Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (JCLTA), 2013, 48 (2), 91-118.
2012 Integrating authentic written texts into beginning Chinese reading instruction. The Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (JCLTA), 2012, 47 (1), 43-60.
2010 Best practices for blended Chinese courses offered to face-to-face classroom and distance sites simultaneously. The Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Technology and Chinese Language Teaching (TCLT 6), 283-287. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University.
2010 How Chinese native speakers handle written style material in reading and its application in second language acquisition. In M. K. M. Chan & H. Kang (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20) (Vol. 1, 327-342). Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University.
1999 How do foreign students use Chinese idioms — An error analysis. Applied Linguistics, 1999 (3), 25-30.
1999 Analysis of the relationship between the position and the semantics of Chinese adverb ‘dou’. Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Science Edition), 1999, 84-88.
INVITED PRESENTATIONS
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Nov 1, 2014 Keynote Speaker at CLTA National Capital Region (CLTA-NCR) Chinese Language Teacher Conference. University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
Oct 21, 2010 Keynote Speaker at The Annual Minnesota Chinese Language Teachers meeting. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN.
INVITED PRESENTATIONS
Dec 21, 2022 “Backward design to implement the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education”. Workshop invited to Beijing Language University and Beijing Language University Press.
Dec 9, 2022 “Providing effective platform for diverse Chinese learners,” International Forum on Chinese Program Brand Building, co-hosted by Chinese Language Teachers Association, Journal of International Chinese Teaching, and Phoenix Tree Publishing Inc.
Jul 3, 2022 “Using backward design to explore the application of Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education in Chinese teaching,” Global Webinar Series “CFL teaching in U.S.A.” hosted by Beijing Language University and Beijing Language University Press.
Aug 7, 2021 Presented at Theme D “Assess What Matters: How and Why,” The 2021 Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary Schools (CLASS) Symposium “Refresh, Recharge, Reimage: Refresh your practice & Reimage Teaching in New School Year”, hosted by CLASS, the national association of K-12 Chinese teachers.
May 29, 2021 “How to Implement Performed Culture Approach at Chinese Heritage Classrooms,” The Chinese School Association in the United States (CSAUS) Workshop, hosted by CSAUS, the national association of Chinese heritage weekend schools in U.S.A.
May 22, 2021 “From ‘Structure-Function-Culture’ to ‘Function-Culture-Structure’: A Revisit of Chinese Instructions at the Novice and Intermediate levels,” CLTA SIG Webinar hosted by CLTA SIG group “Teaching CFL to Elementary and Intermediate Learners”.
May 15, 2021 “Promoting Heritage Chinese Learner Autonomy through Cognitively Interactive and Engaging Learning Activities,” The Lecture Hall hosted by Chinese Language and Culture Education Foundation of China.
Apr 8, 2021 “Integrating ACTFL Proficiency in Chinese Courses,” Chinese Program Annual Workshop, Yale University.
Dec 19, 2020 “Developing CFL Learners’ Cross-cultural Communicative Competence through Backward Design,” Global Webinar Series “CFL teaching in U.S.A.” hosted by Beijing Language University and Beijing Language University Press.
Dec 12, 2020 “Language Proficiency and Performance: What are They, How to Assess, and How to Apply in K-16 CFL Instruction,” The CLTA-National Capital Region Symposium 2020 Fall/Winter “Assessment of Articulation of Chinese During and After the Pandemic: Bridging K-12 and College Chinese Teaching”.
Oct 25, 2021 “Promoting CFL Learners’ Cross-cultural Communicative Competence,” The Lecture Hall hosted by Chinese Language and Culture Education Foundation of China.
Sep 26, 2020 “ACTFL Language Assessment and its Application at K-12 Chinese Instruction,” CLASS Frontline.
Sep 12, 2020 “Formative Assessment in CFL Instruction,” The Global Webinar “Teaching Chinese Online under the New Global Challenge: Reflection and Expectation” hosted by Beijing Language University and Beijing Language University Press.
Aug 28, 2020 Served on a panel and provided online practicum workshop to coach a dozen Chinese heritage weekend school teachers, invited by CSAUS.
Jul 18, 2020 “Performed Culture Approach and Its Application on Teaching Heritage Chinese Learners”, CSAUS Forum “Oversea Chinese Education Talk”.
Jun 6, 2020 Presented at “Moving Chinese Teaching Forward in the Post-pandemic Era”, invited by CLASS.
Oct 11, 2019 Invited by STARTALK Central to present a two-hour workshop “Performance Assessment Tasks: Using Backward Design to Create a STARTALK Curriculum” at the STARTALK Fall Conference with a theme “TELL-ing About Our Principles in Practice”, Phoenix, AZ.
May 2018 Presented in the panel “Developing an Effective Model for Contextualized Language Learning” at the 2018 National Chinese Language Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, invited and sponsored by STARTALK Central.
Nov 4, 2017 Invited by STARTALK Central to present at a Reflection Focus Panel and offer an Application Workshop titled “Enhancing L2 learning through digital storytelling and contextualized tasks” at the STARTALK Fall Conference, Portland, OR.
Oct 15, 2016 Invited by STARTALK Central to lead a Program Implementation Strategies Session titled “MEE: Motivate, Engage, and Empower Learners” at the STARTALK Fall Conference. Atlanta, GA.