Director and Key Trainer
Dr. Miao-fen Tseng (曾妙芬)
Dr. Tseng is an expert in second language acquisition and teacher education for teaching Chinese as a foreign language. She serves as the coordinator of the Chinese Outreach Program and director of the STARTALK Teacher Program at the University of Virginia. She also serves as a member on the AP Higher Education Advisory Committee formed by College Board, a College Board consultant in AP Chinese, an OPI certified tester in Mandarin Chinese, and a K-12 Chinese language program evaluator and foreign language program reviewer for ACTFL/NCATE. Her most recent involvement in the development of AP Chinese includes serving as a curriculum advisor for the Course Audit and as a member of the Curriculum Development and Assessment Committee. She has frequently given talks and taught in many workshops, seminars, and summer institutes in AP Chinese and Chinese language pedagogy in the US, China, and Taiwan. Numerous K-12 and heritage school teachers have benefited from her professional experience and have obtained TCFL certificates or graduate-level credits granted by different universities around the US. She has actively promoted Chinese language and culture in the nation and is the founder and president of the Chinese Language Teachers Association of Virginia. Her Intermediate Chinese was recognized as one of the top ten undergraduate Chinese language courses in a nationwide study of Chinese courses completed by the Educational Policy Improvement Center in Oregon. She also received the Ron Walton Presentation Prize in 1998 and the Jiede Empirical Research grant in 2005 awarded by the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA) and is also the author of two books: AP Chinese Language and Culture Teacher’s Guide, and Promoting Professionalism in Teaching AP Chinese (推動專業化的AP中文教學).
Co-trainer and Technology Specialist
Dr. Ran Zhao (赵冉)
Dr. Zhao has nine years' experience in teaching CFL to college students in Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Virginia. Throughout all these years, teaching has been one of the most enjoyable things in her life and that enjoyment easily passes on to her students in her classroom. As shown from her teaching evaluations, her students love her not only for the way she teaches, but how she has inspired, motivated, and engaged them to learn. In addition to her excellent skills in creating a highly interactive and enjoyable class, she also possesses expertise in implementing various forms of instructional technology to supplement, enhance and enrich classroom teaching. Her skills include experience and proficiency in using Windows Movie Maker and iMovie, web design, E-Folio, to name just a few. She has attended and presented in many conferences and workshops on language teaching, translation, and technology. Her participation on the teacher training team is a valuable addition and will help provide trainees with a well-rounded skillset to engage their students in and beyond the classroom.