Two DEALL graduate students, Wei William Zhou (Chinese linguistics, GREALL President) and Ai-Ling Lu (Chinese language pedagogy), were very excited this March! They were flying to DC to attend and present at the Annual Conference of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA). Joining them to attend the conference were Xuan Ye (Chinese linguistics) and Jonathan O’Dell (Chinese literature). Founded in 1962, CLTA is the largest professional organization in North America that is dedicated to the study of Chinese language, culture and pedagogy.

This spring the CLTA conference returned to in-person mode, and was held on March 31 to April 2, 2023, at the Hilton Hotel at Washington Dulles Airport. Wei Zhou gave two presentations, a solo one on “Learners’ Perception of Intonation-Overlaid Tones in Mandarin Chinese,” and a second one that was co-authored with his advisor, Marjorie Chan, on “The Zero Initial in Chinese: Implications for CFL Teachers.” Ai-Ling Lu presented her talk that was co-authored with her former advisor, Professor Danjie Su (U. of Arkansas), on “Effects of Authentic Videos Vs. Textbook Audios on Beginner L2 Learners’ Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones in Spontaneous Speech.”

CLTA was attended by two dozen Buckeyes, presenters and attendees. Products of DEALL's Chinese language pedagogy program at the conference include Crista Cornelius (Dallas International U.), Kai Liang (Western Kentucky U), Ai-ling Lu (current DEALL grad student), Nan Meng (U. of Connecticut), Bing Mu (U. of Rhode Island), Xizhen Qin (U. of S. Florida.), Lulei Su (Brown U.), and Yongfang Zhang (Wofford College). Those in DEALL's Chinese linguistics program were also present: Dana Scott Bourgerie (Brigham Young U., CLTA journal editor), Mien-hwa Chiang (U. of Pennsylvania), Chengzhi Chu (U.C. Davis), Baozhang He (College of the Holy Cross; retired; CLTA associate editor), Wenze Hu (US Navy Academy), Yutian Tan (U.C. Davis), Sue-mei Wu (Carnegie Mellon U.; CLTA executive director), Chunsheng Yang (Columbia U/U. of Connecticut), and current DEALL grad students, Xuan Ye  and Wei William Zhou. And three DEALLers from our Chinese literature program were also there: Man He (Williams College), Anne Henochowicz (Aidan Montessori School, DC), and Jonathan O'Dell (current DEALL grad student).

Other Buckeyes include one alumnus from the Department of Linguistics: Qian Gao (Defense Language Institute), and two from Education: Michael Everson (U. of Iowa; retired) and Hsiang-ling Charlize Wang (current OSU student).

Wei Zhou, on realizing how many Buckeyes were going to be at CLTA, organized, with help from Professor Sue-mei Wu, a Buckeye Reunion that took place immediately after the Dinner Buffet on March 31. Needless to say, our four current DEALL grad students attending the reunion were ecstatic in getting to meet so many alumni, first at the Dinner Buffet and then at the Buckeye Reunion! To make the reunion especially meaningful, Wei Zhou gave out some of our DEALL-50 buttons! The photos on this web page capture some of the moments from the Buffet Dinner and Buckeye Reunion. Who and how many DEALL alumni do you recognize?!

DEALL continues to have very strong representation at CLTA’s annual conferences. It is surely a testament to our Department’s unwavering commitment to promoting the study of the Chinese language, culture and pedagogy, and our continued efforts in advancing the field through innovative research and teaching practices.