Faculty-Language-Pedagogy

Kyoko Matsui Loetscher

Kyoko Matsui Loetscher

Senior Lecturer in Japanese, Director of the Japanese Language Program

Office: 514 Kent Hall
Office Hours: TR 4:00-5:00
Phone: (212) 854-3523
Email: kml2168@columbia.edu

Educational Background

MA: Second Language Acquisition, Ohio State University
BA: English Literature, Aoyama Gakuin University

Classes Taught

JPNS UN1101 First Year Japanese I
JPNS UN1102 First Year Japanese II
JPNS UN3005 Third Year Japanese I
JPNS UN3006 Third Year Japanese II

Research Interests

Second Language Acquisition
Content-Based Instruction

Kyoko Matsui Loetscher joined Columbia University in 2010. Before joining Columbia, she taught at Princeton University for 8 years including Princeton Summer Program in Ishikawa. She developed curriculum and teaching materials for 4th and 5th year Japanese course based on Content-Based Instruction while teaching at Princeton. She is currently working on creating new teaching materials for Third Year Japanese.

Publications

Shokyuu Nihongo no moji purojekuto [Japanese Orthography Project] (with Shinji Sato and Yuri Kumagai; 2016)

Yike Li

Yike Li

Lecturer in Chinese

Office: 506 Kent Hall
Office Hours: Friday, 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Phone: (212) 854-8545
Email: yl4707@columbia.edu

Educational Background

MA: Chinese Philology, Beijing Language and Culture University
BA: English, Beijing Language and Culture University

Classes Taught

Chinese UN1101 FIRST YEAR CHINESE I
Chinese UN1102 FIRST YEAR CHINESE II
Chinese UN1115 ACCELERATED FIRST YEAR CHINESE (W)
Chinese UN2201 SECOND YEAR CHINESE N I
Chinese UN2202 SECOND YEAR CHINESE N II
Chinese GU4013 BUSINESS CHINESE
Chinese GU4516 FIFTH YEAR CHINESE

Research Interests

Pedagogical Grammar
Chinese Phonetics
Development of Audio-Visual Materials

Yike Li is a Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. He previously taught at Princeton University and Harvard University. He has also taught in intensive summer Chinese language programs, including the Middlebury Chinese Language School, Princeton in Beijing, and the Harvard Beijing Academy. He has served as a lead teacher at both the Middlebury Chinese Language School and Princeton in Beijing.
During his time at Harvard, he received the Certificate of Distinction in Teaching for six consecutive semesters in recognition of his excellence in teaching. He has also received multiple teaching innovation grants from Columbia University and Princeton University and has played a key role in developing several innovative teaching initiatives, including the First-Year Chinese Learning Hub and the FIRST STEP online platform. In 2025, he received the Teaching Innovation Award from the New England Chinese Language Teachers Association (NECLTA) in recognition of his contributions to innovative Chinese language teaching.

Lening Liu

Lening Liu

Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Coordinator of Classical Chinese

Office: 626 Kent Hall
Office Hours: T/R 1PM-2:30PM
Phone: (212) 854-7036
Email: ll172@columbia.edu

Educational Background

PhD: Linguistics, University of Florida (1996)
MA: History of Chinese Language, Shaanxi Normal University (1985)
BA: Chinese Language and Literature, Shaanxi Normal University (1982)

Classes Taught

CHNS GU4516 Fifth Year Chinese I
CHNS GU4518 Fifth Year Chinese II
CHNS GU4301 Intro to Classical Chinese
CHNS GU4302 Introduction to Classical Chinese II
CHNS GR5001 Chinese Linguistic and Pedagogy

Research Interests

Linguistics
Historical Syntax
Discourse Grammar
Chinese Language Pedagogy

Lening Liu was born and raised in Xi’an, China. In 1977, right after the Cultural Revolution, he entered college as part of an extremely select group of students to finally end years of disruption of higher learning in China. He came to the United States in 1990 and studied linguistics at the University of Florida. He joined Columbia’s faculty in 1995 and received his Ph.D. in 1996. He has published a number of articles on the evolution of Chinese conjunctive adverbs, the rhetorical structures of Chinese, the history and innovation of Chinese pedagogy, etc. Courses he has taught include Introduction to Classical Chinese, Readings in Classical Chinese, History of Chinese Language, Educational Chinese Linguistics, Chinese Language Pedagogy and all levels of Modern Chinese. Currently, Liu is Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures. He also directs the Chinese Language Program and serves as the co-director of the Certificate Program of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages.

Publications

Handbook for Chinese Teachers Beijing Language University Press, 2017; co-author)
Proceeding of the First International Conference on Modern Linguistics and Chinese Education (Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2016; co-author)
Studying in China (Peking University Press, 2014; co-author)
Approaching China (Peking University Press, 2015; co-author)
A Course on Intercultural Communication (Higher Education Press, 2013; co-author)
Experiencing China (Peking University Press, 2013; co-author)
Contemporary Chinese Reader (Peking University Press, 2011; co-author)
International Standards for Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (Foreign Language Study and Teaching Publisher, 2007; co-author)
Everyday Chinese (Thompson Publications, 2006; co-author)
Pedagogical Chinese Grammar (Beijing Language University Press, 2017)
Legal Chinese (Beijing, Foreign Language Study and Teaching Publisher, 2007; co-author)
A Primer of Classical Chinese (Columbia University Press; co-author)
A Primer of Chinese (Columbia University Press, 2003; co-author)
The Grammaticalization of Chinese Conjunctive Adverbs (The University of Michigan Press, 1996)
A Concise Dictionary of Chinese Traditional Linguistics (Shaanxi People’s Press, 1990; co-author).
A Study of Zhuoan Yunwu (Zhonghua Book House, 1988; co-author)