Dr Neal Szu-Yen Liang

[Dr Szu-Yen Liang]

Other Faculty, Modern Languages

Last Updated: January 20, 2021

syliang@uta.edu

about me

Research Interests

Second Language Acquisition and Chinese Language Pedagogy: I am interested in finding the factors that contribute language learners' success in acquiring certain Chinese linguistic features and developing models to enhance learning quality. Long Distance Language Learning and Teaching: The online language learning has been the trend for the past few years due to the advancement of new technology. There is a high demand for effective online platform to connect learners and teachers to facilitate different learning styles and to eliminate physical/geographical limitations.

Teaching Interests

As a Chinese language instructor, I emphasize active learning through contextualized instructions. Students are expected to learn from student-centered and contextualized personal interactions in class instead of the instructor teaching the grammar from the outset. I also actively pursue opportunities of teaching and learning through web-based technology. Classroom interaction can never be removed from language teaching, but the advancing development of web and multimedia technology can increase learners' interest and consequently enhance learning outcome. Language teachers should keep themselves up to date with new technology skills in order to be able to speak the same language used by the Generation Y.

Biography

Dr. Neal Liang came to the U.S. for his undergraduate study in Mass Communications at the University of Utah. He then worked in mass media and IT industries before being accepted into the PhD program in Linguistics at UT Arlington. His dissertation title is "The Acquisition of Chinese Classifiers by L2 Adult Learners of Chinese". He started teaching Chinese as an adjunct faculty at UTA in 2006 and earned his PhD degree in 2009. He later accepted a Lecturer position at Northern Arizona University and taught Chinese courses for one year. In 2010, he returned to UTA as a Senior Lecturer and was put in charge of the development of the Chinese program in the Modern Languages Department. During this period, the Chinese minor and major in Critical Language and International Study. In 2013, Dr. Liang became Assistant Professor and was asked to manage the growing Chinese section. He has been since teaching all levels of Chinese course, recruiting and retaining students, creating extracurricular activities, serving the communities both domestically and internationally. One of several achievements during Dr. Liang's tenure as the Chinese Section Coordinator is the creation and development of CLIS-Chinese major in 2013. In three years, the Chinese program has graduated five Chinese major students who continue on to their graduate studies or work as a language teacher in local public school. Currently, Dr. Liang devotes much of his time and resources in developing an online Chinese tutoring program where UTA students receive free supplemental tutoring from pre-service teachers in Taiwan or China. The program is well received by both UTA students and the collaborating universities. The program is also recognized by the United States Distance Learning Association and it award Dr. Liang "Best Practices Award for Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching in the field of Online Technology" in May, 2015.

Education

- 2009 PhD in Linguistics
  The University of Texas at Arlington, 2009
- 2003 MS in Info. Tech/Mgmt.
  University of Texas at Dallas, 2003
- 1998 BA in Mass Communications
  University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 1998

Licensure and Certifications

- 2009 Official Oral Proficiency Interview in Chinese - Superior, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
- 2009 Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI-Chinese) Assessment Workshop, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
- 2009 Oral Proficiency Rater Certification (Chinese), American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
- 2007 Chinese Morphology, Syntax and Pedagogy, Chinese Language Teacher Association of Texas (CLTA-Texas)
- 2006 Teaching of Chinese Language and Culture, University of Pennsylvania
- 2008 AP Chinese Reader, Educational Testing Service, College Board

Appointments

- Sept 2016 to Present Assistant Professor of Instruction in Chinese
  Modern Languages, University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington, TX, United States)
  Courses Taught: CHIN 1441 - Beginning Chinese I CHIN 1442 - Beginning Chinese II GLOB 2301 - Global Studies CHIN 2313 - Intermediate Chinese I CHIN 2314 - Intermediate Chinese II CHIN 3303 - Conversation Chinese I CHIN 3304 - Conversation Chinese II CHIN 3310 - Chinese Localization and Translation I (Co-teach) CHIN 3311 - Chinese Localization and Translation II (Co-teach) CHIN 3391 - Independent Study CHIN 4334 - Contemporary Chinese Culture (Online) CHIN 4335 - Chinese Business (Online) Faculty Led Summer Study Abroad to China Program
- Sept 2013 to Aug 2016 Assistant Professor of Chinese
  Modern Languages, University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington, TX, United States)
- Aug 2010 to Aug 2013 Senior Lecturer of Chinese
  Modern Languages, University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington, TX, United States)
- Aug 2009 to May 2010 Lecturer of Chinese
  Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, AZ, United States)
- Aug 2007 to June 2009 Lecturer of Chinese
  Modern Languages, The University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington, TX, United States)
- Aug 2006 to Dec 2007 Chinese Instructor
  Brookhaven College (Farmers Branch, TX, United States)

Memberships

- 2008 to Present American Council on the teaching of Foreign Languages
- 2005 to Present Chinese Language Teachers Association
- 2003 to Present The Linguistics Circle of UTA
- 2005 to 2007 Linguistic Society of America
- Past to 1999 Microsoft Certified Professional (Networking), Microsoft

Awards and Honors

- Dec 2016 "Language and Cultural Exchange in the Virtual Classroom" sponsored by UT Arlington, College of Liberal Arts, Digital Arts and Humanities Initiatives
- Dec 2015 Best Practices Award for Excellence in Distance Learning & Teaching in the field of Online Technology sponsored by The United States Distance Learning Association
- Dec 2014 Outstanding Teaching Award sponsored by UT Arlington, College of Liberal Arts
- Dec 2009 University Scholar sponsored by UT Arlington
- Dec 2008 Best Lecturer of the Year Teaching Award sponsored by UT Arlington, Modern Language Department
- Dec 2008 Travel Fund sponsored by Dean of Liberal Arts & Graduate School, UT Arlington
- Dec 2007 Dissertation Travel Fund sponsored by Dean of Liberal Arts Award, UT Arlington
- Dec 2006 ACES Poster Presentation sponsored by Dean of Liberal Arts Award, UT Arlington
- Dec 2006 Graduate Research Assistant sponsored by UT Arlington
- Dec 2004 Linguistics Scholarship sponsored by UT Arlington

Other Activities

Support & Funding

This data is entered manually by the author of the profile and may duplicate data in the Sponsored Projects section.

- Apr 2012 to Feb 2013 UTA STARTALK Student Program sponsored by National Foreign Language Center - $100000
  Szu-yen Liang (Funded)

Publications

In Process

[]. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2008.0035

Journal Article
"Chinese Classifier Production by L2 Adult Learners"
[Liang, Szu-Yen]. Journal of Chinese as a Second Language Research. Submitted.

2008

"The Acquisition of Chinese Shape Classifiers by L2 Adult Learners"
[Liang, Szu-Yen]. The Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20). 309-326. The Ohio State University at Columbus, OH.

2007

Review of 'Computational linguistics and beyond: Perspectives at the beginning of the 21st century' by Huang & Lenders (eds)
[Liang, Szu-Yen]. Langauge. 83(4), 95. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2008.0035

Presentations

- August 2019
  Liang, Szu-Yen (Presenter), "The Process of Selecting Technology in Modern Language Classroom.", Chinese Language Teachers Association - Texas, UT Dallas. (August 03, 2019).
- February 2019
  Liang, Szu-Yen, "Technology in the Modern Language Classroom - Online-learning and Teaching", UT Arlington. (February , 2019).
- June 2018
  Liang, NealSzuyen (Panelist), "Chinese Spoken Tonal Fluency and Machine-Human Overlap Analysis", by Technology and Chinese Language Teaching , Taipei, Taiwan. . (June , 2018).
- 2017
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""Analysis on the Tonal Error Patterns Through an Online Teaching and Real-Time Pronunciation Feedback Training Module by L2 Learners of Chinese in the USA"", Taipei, Taiwan. ( , 2017).
- 2017
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""Motivation to Study Chinese Online for American Students and their Background"", Department of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language at National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. ( , 2017).
- 2016
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""Best Practices for Creating Social Presence in Online Language Teaching"", Boston, MA. ( , 2016).
- 2015
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""Successes and Challenges in Expanding an Online Tutoring Program"", Boston, MA. ( , 2015).
- 2014
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""Best Practices in Online Language Teaching - A Case Study: NTNU & UTA Online Chinese Language Exchange Program"", San Antonio, TX. ( , 2014).
- 2014
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""Building an Innovative Online Language Teaching and Learning Program: A collaboration between NTNU and UTA"", The Confucius Institute at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. ( , 2014).
- 2013
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""AP Chinese: Its Format, Grading Criteria, and Assessment"", Ursuline University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. ( , 2013).
- 2013
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""AP Chinese: Its Format, Grading Criteria, and Scoring Process"", United University in Miaoli, Miaoli, Taiwan. ( , 2013).
- 2013
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""Language Assessment for Chinese"", Ursuline University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. ( , 2013).
- 2013
  Liang, Szu-Yen, "AP Chinese and Its Application", Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. ( , 2013).
- 2012
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""The Relations between NNS and NSs' Cognitive Manifestations of Prototypes in the Linguistic Categorization Revealed in Chinese Classifiers"", The Confucius Institute at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. ( , 2012).
- 2011
  Liang, Szu-Yen, "Assessing Chinese Oral Proficiency", Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. ( , 2011).
- 2010
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""An Empirical Chinese Classifier Production Test on L2 Adult Learners of Chinese and Its Pedagogical Implications"", The Confucius Institute at The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. ( , 2010).
- 2009
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""Implications of differentiating Chinese measure words from classifiers"", Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Appalachian State Univrsity, Boone, NC. ( , 2009).
- 2009
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""On-line resources for teaching Chinese language and culture"", University of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. ( , 2009).
- 2008
  Liang, Szu-Yen, ""The acquisition of Chinese classifiers by English and Korean speakers"", Department of Linguistics and TESOL, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX. ( , 2008).

Courses

Service to the University

- Sept 2018 to Present Committee Member
  
  State Employee Charitable Campaign
  Served as a liaison between SECC and MODL to promote charitable campaign on campus.
- Sept 2017 to Present Student Org Advisor (Non-Professional Org)
  
  Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars
  Supervising/advising officer election, festival celebration activities, new student orientation.
- Sept 2011 to Present Student Org Advisor (Non-Professional Org)
  
  Chinese Culture and Language Association
  Supervised club officers' meetings and funding/accounting; organized/taught weekly general meeting activities, coordinated with other clubs to have our students performed in Chinese New Year party and Mid Autumn festival.
- Sept 2018 to Aug 2020 Committee Member
  
  Recruitment & Retention
  Promote MDOL on campus and in communities to recruit more students; collaborating with student clubs to participate in extracurricular activities.
- Jan 2019 to Jan 2019 Candidate Reception/Campus tour/Airport trip
  
  New Assistant Professor Positions Search
  Taking candidates for a short campus tour, answering questions about working at UTA and living in DFW area, taking candidates to airport after their interviews are over.
- 2017 to 2018 Student Org Advisor (Non-Professional Org)
  
  Chinese Culture and Language Association
  Supervised club officers meetings and funding/accounting; organized/taught weekly member activities, coordinated with other clubs to have out students performed in Chinese New Year party and Mid Autumn festival.
- 2017 to 2018 Committee Member
  
  Recruitment & Retention
  contact high school Chinese teachers or principals to arrange campus visits to promote UTA MODL.
- 2017 to 2018 Departmental Representative
  
  State Employee Charitable Campaign
  Served as a liaison between SECC and MODL to promote charitable campaign on campus.

Service to the Profession

- 2019 to Present
  Task Force Member (Princeton, NU,
  Education Testing Service/AP Chinese Summer Writer Workshop
  Served as a Test Development Committee Member, developed AP Chinese Test questions to be used in 2020 and beyond.
- 2018 to Present
  Committee Member
  Test Development Committee, SAT Chinese, Education Testing Service
  Develop new test questions for SAT Chinese Test.
- 2014 to Present
  Test Reviewing Committee Member (Taipei, Taiwan)
  National Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu
  Review the accuracy and appropriateness for the Mandarin Chinese proficiency test and provide recommendations for improvement.
- 2009 to Present
  Reader/Table Leader
  AP Chinese, Education Testing Service
- Apr 2019 to Apr 2019
  Task Force Member (San Antonio, TX, United States)
  Texas Pre-Admission Content Tests (PACT) Standard Setting Conference,
  Assess, evaluate, provide recommendation for the Chinese test standard set forth by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Pearson.
- 2014 to 2017
  Officer, President/Elect/Past
  Chinese Language Teacher Association - Texas Chapter
- 2011 to 2015
  Faculty Advisor (Arlington, TX,
  UTA Asian Student Association. The University of Texas at Arlington
- 2012 to 2014
  Officer, President/Elect/Past
  Chinese Language Teacher Association - Texas Chapter
- 2012 to 2013
  Program Director (Arlington, TX,
  UTA Student STARTALK. National Security Agency/Central Security Service
- Past to 2012
  Trainer (Taipei, Taiwan)
  Four-Day Workshop Training on Chinese Oral Proficiency Interview. National Taiwan Normal University
- 2011 to 2012
  Board Member
  Chinese Language Teacher Association - Texas Chapter

Service to the Community

- 2017 to 2018
  Officer, President/Elect/Past (DFW, TX,
  Chinese Language Teachers Association - Texas
  Provided consultation on how to operate/management the organization's funding/accounting, annual conference, officer election, grant distribution, membership maintenance, fund raising.
- 2017 to 2018
  Speech Contest Judge (Richardson, TX,
  DFW Chinese Community Center
  Served as one of the judges for Chinese speech contest for elementary and middle school students.

Other Creative Activities

2019
- Digital Media
  - May 2019
    UTA MODL Promotion Video
    
    Promotional video about MODL at UT Arlington. Collaborating with faculty/students at Dept. Communication and MODL to produce a short video that introduces/promotes the Department of Modern Languages at UTA.
    https://vimeo.com/337357641
    [Non-refereed/non-juried]

Faculty & Staff Resources