Xiaohong Sharon Wen

Xiaohong Sharon Wen is an Associate Professor and the Director of Chinese and Japanese programs at the University of Houston. She received her B.A. from the Beijing Language and Culture University, M.A and Ph. D. from the University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Her research areas include psycholinguistics, specifically Chinese language acquisition by English-speaking learners, socio-psychological factors that affect learning of a foreign language, and language pedagogy. Her research studies have been published in numerous refereed journals in the USA, and in European and Asian countries. She has co-authored a Chinese text book, and developed E-learning programs. She frequently conducts research and pedagogy workshops in the United States and China.

Xiaohong Sharon Wen is the second recipient of a prestigious teaching prize, the Sydney B. Karofsky Teaching Prize, from Bowdoin college, Maine. She has received more than 30 research, teaching, and service awards and grants (ranging from $4000 to $25,000, the principal investigator) from academic communities at local and national levels in both USA and China.

You can e-mail Xiaohong (Sharon) at xwen@uh.edu.

The course will engage participants in reflective discussions and interactive activities to learn about the main components and the underlying principles of the AP* Chinese Language and Culture course and the exam. The course will provide participants with ample opportunities to acquire effective teaching methods and approaches. Participants gain knowledge, derive insights, and practice the skills on language pedagogy, designing and teaching a Chinese language course.

Participants are encouraged to bring their favorite classroom activities and best practices to demonstrate in class.

1. Help K-12 instructors of Chinese develop a clear understanding of content and pedagogical principles of the AP* Chinese Language and Culture Course and Exam.
2. Provide discussions on methods of how to develop a Chinese language course in general and an AP* course specifically, and also discussions on approaches to designing the curriculum and organizing learning contents under the framework of Communicative language teaching.
3. Assist instructors of Chinese to become effective in instructional implementation and to use a variety of techniques to conduct interactive activities in a student-centered classroom.
4. Provide knowledge and methods of assessing learning through different approaches and formats.

• Standards-based curriculum and instruction in an AP* Chinese program
• Motivating students in learning and classroom participation: the roles of teacher and students
• Communicative language teaching and form-focused instruction
• Task-based instruction: teaching strategies and learning activities
• An Interactive approach to teaching conversation and communication skills
• Developing learning strategies and cognitive skills for input comprehension
• Strategies in teaching writing: from characters to essays
• Fun and effective learning with characters, vocabularies, and grammar
• Function of the language and culture understanding in a communicative classroom
• Easy and effective activities: role play, interviews, learning by discovery, songs, games, projects.