Lecturer

Tao Peng

Tao Peng

Lecturer in Chinese

Office: 510 Kent Hall
Office Hours: MW 1:00-2:30
Phone: (212) 854-3604
Email: tp2728@columbia.edu

Educational Background

Ph.D.: Comparative Literature, University of California, Riverside.
Ed.M.: Curriculum and Methodology of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, Beijing Language and Culture University
B.A.: Chinese Language and Literature, Hunan Normal University

Classes Taught

CHNS UN1101 First Year Chinese I
CHNS UN1102 First Year Chinese II
CHNS UN2201 Second Year Chinese N I
CHNS UN2202 Second Year Chinese N II
CHNS GU4017 Fourth Year Chinese Advanced I

Research Interests

Tao Peng earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Riverside. His primary research focuses on modern Chinese fiction with a special interest in the interactions between language and literature. His dissertation, “The Emergence of the Modern Chinese Narrator: Studies of Lu Xun, Shi Zhecun, Sun Li, and Wang Zengqi,” is an interdisciplinary project of literary criticism, narratology, and linguistics. Tao Peng joined the Columbia faculty as a Lecturer of Chinese in the Fall of 2021. Before joining the Columbia faculty, Tao Peng taught Chinese language classes at Princeton University, Middlebury Chinese School, and several language programs in China. He also taught and coordinated various levels of Chinese courses at the Princeton in Beijing Summer Program.

Miharu Nittono

Miharu Nittono

Senior Lecturer in Japanese

Office: 520 Kent Hall
Office Hours: TR 4:00-5:00
Teaching Hours: MW 11:40-12:55, MTWR 1:10-2:15
Phone: (212)854-5500
Email: mn70@columbia.edu

Educational Background

EdD: Teachers College, Columbia University
MA: TESOL at Teachers College, Columbia University
MA: Waseda University

Classes Taught

JPNS UN2201 Second Year Japanese I
JPNS UN2202 Second Year Japanese II
JPNS GU4516 Fifth Year Japanese I
JPNS GU4517 Fifth Year Japanese II

Research Interests

Japanese Linguistics
Japanese “Hedging”

Miharu Nittono is a senior instructor of Japanese at Columbia University, where she has taught all levels of Japanese. She also has experience teaching intensive summer courses in Japanese, including “Japanese Language and Culture” at Sophia University in Tokyo as an invited professor. She has also served as the Administrative Director of the MA Program in Japanese Pedagogy at Columbia University.

Publications

Hiyaku: An Intermediate Japanese Course (Routledge, 2011; co-authors: Shigeru Eguchi, Fumiko Nazikian, Keiko Okamoto, Jisuk Park)
“Follow the Old Ways: A New Approach to Kanji Learning” (The Seventeenth Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum Proceedings, 2010)
“We’re doing traditional rakugo!: Striving towards acquiring the ‘five’ skills through performing rakugo” (The Sixteenth Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum Proceedings, 2009)
“Show & Short: A Journey through 10 Years of Student-Written Short Stories” (The 20th Annual Conference of the Central Association of Teachers of Japanese (CATJ20), 2008)
“Contrasting Group Size and Hedge Use” (The Fifteenth Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum Proceedings, 2008)
“Avoidance and Appeal: A Two-Fold Motivation for Japanese Hedging Use” (Sophia International Review, 2007)
“Hedging at Work: How Occupations Affect the Use of Hedging in Japanese Interactions during Non-Work Conversations” (The Fourteenth Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum Proceedings, 2007)
“Two-Fold Conversation Management Function of Japanese Hedging: Speaker-Centered and Listener-Centered” (Humanities Conference 2004 Proceedings, 2006)
“The Golden Mean: Japanese Speakers’ Use of ‘Downtoners’” (Hawaii International Conference on Arts and HumanitiesProceedings, 2005)
“Japanese Hedging in Friend-Friend Discourse” (Teachers College, Columbia University, 2003)

Phuong Chung Nguyen

Phuong Chung Nguyen

Lecturer in Vietnamese, Director the Vietnamese Language Program

Office: 502-A Kent Hall
Office Hours: T 3:00-5:00
Email: cn2496@columbia.edu

Educational Background

MA: Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Hanoi National University (2007)
Diploma: Teaching English as Second Language, Hanoi University (2003)
BA: English Language and Culture, Hanoi University (2000)

Classes Taught

VIET UN1101 & UN1102 First Year Vietnamese
VIET UN2201& UN2202 Second Year Vietnamese
VIET UN3301 & 3302 Third Year Vietnamese

Research Interests

Teaching Vietnamese for Special Purposes
Material Development
Testing and Assessment

Phuong Chung Nguyen served as the Vietnamese Language Coordinator for the Post Language Program at the US Embassy in Hanoi from 2008 to 2018. Before joining the Post Language Program, she was the Professional Language Coordinator at the Vietnamese Language Center, Hanoi University and taught for seven years in various Vietnamese language programs for expatriate staff at embassies, universities, and other organizations in Hanoi. She has also created language materials such as Vietnamese Vocabulary Elementary 1, Vietnamese Listening Elementary 1, Survival Vietnamese Handout Volume 1 and Volume 2, Listening and Note-taking for Advanced level, Reading Material on Economics (Intermediate), and Reading Material for RSO and PAS (Advanced level).