Kaidi Chen

“ALLEX gave me a very good start!”

– Kaidi Chen, Lecturer in Chinese at Columbia University, PhD Student in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies, University of Connecticut

Host University: Allegheny College
Program: One-year non-degree Teaching Fellow Program
Language: Chinese

How I Became Interested in Teaching Chinese in the U.S.

Before joining ALLEX, I was studying for my Masters in Chinese linguistics at the University of Macau. At that university, I had the chance to meet two well-known professors- Professor De Bao Xu and Professor Hong Gang Jin- in the field of teaching Chinese as a second language. Those two professors had just started teaching at the University of Macau, after retiring from careers teaching Chinese in the United States. When I worked as a teaching and research assistant for Professor De Bao Xu, I was influenced by his teaching theories and training, which he had received in the U.S.

Through meeting Professor Xu, I had a chance to teach Chinese to Portuguese-speaking people and other international students in Macau. That experience introduced me to the field of teaching Chinese. At the time, my career was not in applied linguistics, Chinese language teaching, or second language teaching. It was in theoretical linguistics and sociolinguistics. I was surprised to find that my theoretical linguistics could be applied when teaching Chinese. That was my first time thinking that a linguistics major like myself could also be a language teacher, not only become a professor. I felt it was a good time for me to try something more practical, rather than pursuing only theoretical research. When I started teaching, I found that my personality is a great fit for being a teacher. I am patient. Also, I feel quite satisfied, when my students reach a certain level of accuracy and proficiency after I give constructive feedback and scaffolding. So, many factors together encouraged me to start pursuing a career in teaching Chinese.

Motivation for Choosing ALLEX

I chose ALLEX because I wanted work experience to help me secure a position teaching Chinese as a lecturer or professor in the United States. Also, I knew that Professor Cornelius Kubler and Dr. Haohsiang Liao – two influential scholars and teachers in the Chinese language teaching field – were at ALLEX. I was also interested in experiencing life and study at a liberal arts college. The two professors I met in Macau were both from Hamilton College, which is a small liberal arts college in New York. They told me about the reputation of American liberal arts college. I was fascinated by the experiences they described from their time teaching at Hamilton College. When I found out that through ALLEX I could go to a liberal arts college in the United States, as well as teach Chinese to American students and take classes myself, I was excited. At that point, there was no better choice than ALLEX.

Summer Training Program

For me, the biggest theoretical takeaway from the summer training program was the distinction between “fact” versus “fact,” in other words between declarative knowledge versus procedural knowledge. Like playing the piano, you may have knowledge but if you do not practice, you cannot really use the language. I also learned the approach of performed culture. With this approach, class time is mostly used to perform dialogues, converse, and practice interpersonal communication. Little time is reserved for students to do structure-based practice. Performed culture is a cutting-edge approach. The two professors I knew in Macau used a more structure-based communicative approach with only a small amount of class time spent on dialogue-based performance in authentic scenario like ALLEX. Participating in ALLEX helped me expand my pedagogical theory and practice. It helped me better balance structure and communication in the classroom, combining both the ALLEX approach and the approach from the professors I knew in Macau.

Benefits of Teaching in ALLEX

ALLEX gave me the chance to start my career in the United States. Towards the end of the second year at Allegheny College, I was working with the tenured professor at Allegheny to revamp the Chinese program. I proposed changing the textbook to Professor Kubler’s textbook. The professor agreed. That gave me the chance to visit Williams College, with the support from Allegheny’s Demmler Curriculum Innovation funding. Thanks to Professor Kubler, I visited Williams’ Chinese program and audited Chinese classes for one week. There I met many people, including Professor Cecilia Chang, who is involved with the Middlebury summer language program and would start to serve as the program’s Director in the coming summer. She asked me if I wanted to join for a summer and of course, I said, “yes!”

Through those unexpected connections, I was able to start a career at a more prestigious program at Middlebury and got to meet many leading professors in the field. Later, I got another position teaching at Trinity College. Looking to the future, I feel that I still need more training and theoretical input to help me develop strategies for a Chinese teaching program. So, I decided to get a PhD in Applied Linguistics. I will start in August at the University of Connecticut.

The ALLEX program gave me a very good start on my Chinese teaching career. I hope that in the future, more and more graduates from ALLEX will have good careers teaching Chinese and will hold important positions at major universities here in the States.