Lecturer

Shaoyan Qi

Shaoyan Qi

Senior Lecturer in Chinese

Office: 512 Kent Hall
Office Hours: M 12:00-1:00 pm
Phone: (212) 854-3604
Email: sq2106@columbia.edu

Educational Background

EdD: Applied Linguistics, Teachers College, Columbia University
MA: Education, Villanova University
MA: Linguistic and Socio-cultural Anthropology, State University of New York at Binghamton

Research Interests

Instructed Second Language Acquisition
Chinese Language Pedagogy
Task-Based Language Teaching

Shaoyan Qi has been teaching in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALAC) at Columbia University since 2004. She has taught Chinese language courses at all levels, as well as linguistics courses at both Columbia and Teachers College. She is the lead author of the award-winning Discover China textbook series.

Her research is closely informed by her commitment to effective classroom practice and responsiveness to students’ learning needs. From 2008 to 2017, she also served as a teacher trainer in a certificate program at Teachers College. She approaches her work as a researcher, teacher, and teacher trainer as deeply interconnected.

Shaoyan served as a member of the Lecturer Advisory Committee (LAC) from 2022 to 2025 and as its Chair from 2024 to 2025. She is currently a lecturer representative on the Arts & Sciences Policy and Planning Committee (2025–2028).

Publications

S., Qi (In press). Implementing TBLT in an online Chinese class for beginners [Case Study], in Lambert C. (ed) Designing tasks for teaching foreign languages, Cambridge University Press.

S., Qi (2015). Introduction: Why should second/foreign language teachers tune in to instructed SLA? (2015). Working Papers in TESOL and Applied Linguistics, 15 (2), pp. i-iv. Teacher’s College, Columbia University: New York

S., Qi & Q. Tan (2014). Discover China, Book IV. Macmillan: Hong Kong

S., Qi (2013). Discover China, Book III.  Macmillan: Hong Kong

S., Qi & J., Zhang (2012). Discover China, Book II. Macmillan: Hong Kong

S. Qi (2011). Computer-assisted second language teaching, learning, and research. Working Papers in TESOL and Applied Linguistics, 11 (2), pp. 27-28. Teacher’s College, Columbia University.

Book Contribution Chinese Grammar Made Easy—A practical and effective guide for teachers (Yale University Press, 2008)

Chika Ogura

Chika Ogura

Lecturer in Japanese

Office: 520 Kent Hall


Office Hours: Wed & Thu 2:30- 3:30PM


Email: co2657@columbia.edu

 

Educational Background

MA: Liberal Arts Studies, Wake Forest University


BA: Commerce, Osaka City University

Classes Taught

JPNS 1002 Introductory Japanese B


JPNS 1101 First Year Japanese I

Research Interests

Language Pedagogy
Intercultural Communication

Chika Ogura joined the Japanese Language Program at Columbia in
2025. She received her BA in Commerce from Osaka City University and her
MA in Liberal Arts Studies from Wake Forest University. Before coming to Columbia, she taught at Wake Forest University, where she developed extensive experience in teaching Japanese at various levels. Her research interests include Japanese pedagogy and intercultural communication. She is committed to supporting students in applying their classroom learning to real-world contexts.

 

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)