Acquisition of Chinese characters: the effects of character properties and individual differences among second language learners.

Dr. Yan Liu is an Associate Professor of the Practice and Director of the Chinese Program in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) at Duke University. She received her Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition from Carnegie Mellon University. Since joining Duke in 2013, Dr. Liu has been teaching and coordinating intermediate Chinese courses for non-heritage students and advanced Chinese courses for heritage students.

In recent years, her focus has been on course development, pedagogy innovation, and teaching material development, leading her to develop "Chinese Translation and Interpretation" (CHINESE 332) for third-year Chinese heritage students and "Understanding China and the U.S.: Stereotypes, Conflicts, and Common Challenges" (CHINESE 450S), an interdisciplinary course for both Chinese international students and advanced-level Chinese students. Additionally, she has been teaching and developing Chinese CLAC (Curriculum across Languages and Cultures) courses, including "Voices in Global Health: Mandarin Tutorial" (GLHLTH 270T/AMES 270T), "Voices in the Environment: Mandarin Tutorial" (ENVIRON 269T-3/CHINESE 269T), and "Voices in Public Policy: Mandarin Tutorial" (PUBPOL 273T-3/CHINESE 273T). In 2022, she also offered Chinese Sociolinguistics, a course cross-listed by AMES and the linguistics program. Dr. Liu's teaching approach incorporates community-based learning, service-learning, visual arts, games, fake-news analysis, and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) to enhance her students' learning and provide an equitable learning environment for her students. In recognition of her commitment to service-learning, Dr. Liu won the "Betsy Alden Outstanding Service-Learning Award" in 2020. 

Dr. Liu’s main research interest lies in teaching and learning Chinese as a second language (L2), a foreign language, or a heritage language. To be specific, she has conducted research on L2 reading in Chinese, writing in Chinese as a heritage language, Chinese assessment, Chinese language pedagogy, and Chinese curriculum development. Her research work has been published as journal articles or book chapters. In addition, she has presented her research in many prestigious conferences, such as, the annual conferences of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), the National Chinese Language Conference (NCLC), the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA), and some international conferences on Chinese teaching and learning. She is also a reviewer for Routledge, the Journal of Chinese as a Second Language, the International Journal of Chinese language Teaching, and Studies in Chinese Learning and Teaching, 

Dr. Liu is also an active member of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA), providing services to the organization in various capacities. She was elected as a board member of CLTA in early 2022 and is currently serving on four committees. Additionally, Dr. Liu co-chairs two CLTA special interest groups (SIGs): the Content-based Chinese Language Courses at Advanced Levels SIG since 2020, and the Chinese Heritage Language Learning SIG since 2021.