Dr. Shen Chen is an Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He received his teacher education training at Nanjing Normal University, China and was awarded his Ph.D. degree by the Graduate School of Education at La Trobe University, Australia. He is one of the pioneer trainers of Chinese language teachers for schools in Australia. Dr. Chen has published widely in the field of language education. Two of his research books are well known in China. One is an English book entitled The teaching of cultures in foreign language education. The other is a Chinese book entitled Research on teaching strategies for learning language and culture.Dr. Chen received an Award for Excellence in Teaching and was recommended for the best university teacher in Australia by his university. He has been a visiting scholar at UBC, UC Berkeley, Cambridge University and Hong Kong University.

Dr. Michael Everson

University of Iowa

Dr. Michael Everson is an Associate Professor of Foreign Language and ESL Education at The University of Iowa where he manages K-12 teacher certification programs for 8 foreign languages including Chinese. He earned his Ph.D. in Foreign Language Education from The Ohio State University. Dr. Everson’s primary research interest investigates second language reading in Chinese. He has published in a variety of foreign language outlets, and is past editor of the Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages. Dr. Everson has sat on the Chinese Language Teachers Association Board of Directors for two terms, the editorial board of the Modern Language Journal, and is past-President of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages. He is currently a member of the StarTalk Advisory Board, which is working to start K-12 language and teacher education programs in Chinese and Arabic. He is also co-editor of the (2009) book, Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language: Theories and Applications (Cheng & Tsui, Boston).

Professor Hongyin Tao is director of the Chinese language program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to UCLA, he taught at the National University of Singapore and Cornell University. His areas of expertise include Mandarin discourse and grammar (e.g., Units in Mandarin Conversation: Prosody, Discourse, and Grammar, John Benjamins, 1996); applied linguistics (e.g., heritage language learning and research), and corpus linguistics (e.g., The UCLA Corpus of Written Chinese and the Lancaster-Los Angeles Corpus of Spoken Chinese). Recent projects include a special issue of The Heritage Language Journal on Chinese as a heritage language, an Online Handbook for Heritage Language Teaching, and a US Department of Education sponsored project for advanced language teaching. He is on a number of editorial boards, including the Journal of Chinese Language Teachers Association and the Heritage Language Journal. Professor Tao’s most recent articles have appeared in Language, Journal of Chinese Language and Computing, International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, and Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory.

Dr. Joe Wu is an associate professor at the University of Alberta specializing in second language acquisition and teaching methodology. After several years teaching at the Harbin Normal University, China, he earned his Master of Education and Ph.D. at the University of Alberta. His research interest lies in socio-cultural aspects of second language acquisition and bilingual education, and he has published many journal articles and book chapters in these areas. Dr. Wu was also the curriculum designer of “Learning English”, an English textbook series authorized by China’s Ministry of Education as one of the five recommended English textbooks for middle school students. He conducted research projects in Edmonton’s Chinese bilingual program, did second language teacher training, organized the Chinese Language conference and consortium, and developed policy papers and action plans for enhancing Chinese language education in Alberta and Canada. Currently, he is working on a Teachers’ Handbook for teaching Chinese in North American schools.

Dr. Huamei Han is an Assistant Professor in TEAL (TESL/TEFL) at Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University. Trained in Chinese linguistics, Dr. Han was a faculty member specializing in Teaching Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language at East China Normal University in Shanghai until 1999. In Canada, she taught both adults and children Mandarin-Chinese for four years, with School of Continuing Studies at University of Toronto and Toronto District School Board respectively. Dr. Han earned her PhD in Second Language Education from University of Toronto in 2007. Her current research focuses on language use and identity construction in multilingual settings, and the application and impact of Expressive Writing pedagogy on monolingual and multilingual. Dr. Han has published academically and literarily in both English and Chinese in China and Canada. Life Rattle Press published a collection of her stories set in China and written in English in “Transfer and Other stories” in 2004 and 2005. Her most recent academic contribution is appearing in TESOL Quarterly.

Tianwei Xie (谢天蔚) Ph.D., Foreign Language Education, University of Pittsburgh

Tianwei Xie studied Russian and taught English and linguistics in China. He taught Chinese in the University of Pittsburgh, University of San Francisco and the University of California at Davis. Currently, he is the Professor of Chinese at the Dept. of Asian and Asian American Studies, California State University, Long Beach. His publication includes books and papers on socio-linguistics, the second language acquisition and using computers in teaching Chinese. His web site ‘Learning Chinese Online’ (http://learningchineseonline.net) is one of the most popular websites among Chinese teachers and learners.