My research is focused on Mandarin Chinese phonology and grammar as well as pedagogy. I have also been working on assessing study abroad programs designed for American college students located in China and Taiwan. Another aspect of my research is on methods and effectiveness of incorporating technology in the teaching of Chinese.

I have very strong interest in researching effective approaches in teaching and fine-tuning American college students' pronunciation. Being inadequately nicknamed "the tone police" by students, I devote a good deal of time on finding more effective ways to help students break away from the influence from their native language of English. I am also interested in finding ways to better introduce the nuances between phonemes in Mandarin Chinese and American English.

Chinese grammar is another area that I am fond of exploring. I like studying grammatical features that present the most challenges to both the students and the instructors, e.g. Chinese adverbs, all complements, aspect words "le," "zhe," and "guo."

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Salomon Grant, Brown University, 2005
Consortium of Language Teaching and Learning Grant, Brown University, 2004
Wriston Grant, Brown University, 2002
Curricular Development Grant, Brown University, 2001
Wriston Grant, Brown University, 2001

- Member of Chinese Language Teachers' Association (CLTA)
- Member of Association of Asian Studies (AAS)
- Member of The Special Interest Group in Business Chinese Instruction (BCI)