Binnan Gao
Assistant Teaching Professor of Chinese in the Department of World Languages and Cultures
Department: World Languages and Cultures
Email: bgao@elon.edu
Phone number: (336) 278-5238
Brief Biography
Binnan Gao received her Ph.D. in second language acquisition from the University of Iowa in 2009. She was formerly employed at Harvard University before joining Elon faculty in 2014. She believes in engaging students with meaningful and real-life tasks in the language classroom and is passionate about teaching Chinese language and culture through films. Her scholarly interests include second language reading and writing, second language acquisition of grammar and vocabulary, and heritage learners. Her hometown is Harbin, the capital city of the farthest north province of China, Heilongjiang province. She misses its cool breeze and picnics on the Songhua riverside in the summer, beautiful ice-sculptures in the winter, and the local cuisine and snacks, such as the wine filled chocolate and sourdough.
News & Notes
Current Projects
(in preparation) Comparison of narrative and argumentative essays of advanced heritage and L2 learners of Chinese.
(Submitted) Grammar of Chinese heritage learners and L2 learners of Chinese: Acquisition of perfective aspect marker –le.
Grants Awarded
2015 Research Funding, $800, “How Can We Make Students’ Practice of Tones More Effective: Is Praat an Answer”, Elon University.
2015 Fall Course release from the Faculty Research and Development of Elon university, “Developing Effective Techniques of Correcting First-Year Students’ Pronunciation Errors”, Elon University.
2014 Action Research Award, $500, “Developing Effective Techniques of Correcting First-Year Students’ Pronunciation Errors”, Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA).
2013 First Prize, Cengage Learning Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, $800, “Speed Reading Materials Developed for Advanced Learners”, Cengage Learning and Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA).
Publications
Speed reading: Theory, practice, and research. US-China Foreign Language, 12(3), 216-225. (2014)
Comparison between advanced-level Chinese heritage and non-heritage learners’ narrative writing. In Nan Jiang (Ed.), Advances in Chinese as a second language: Acquisition and processing (pp. 88-116). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. (2014)
Awards