The department is pleased to celebrate the following recently tenured faculty. EALAC is proud to recognize this significant milestone and their contributions to the department. Please join us in congratulating them on this achievement!
Phuong Chung Nguyen, Senior Lecturer and Director of the Vietnamese Language Program at Columbia University, has been selected as a 2026 Vietnamese Language Ambassador Abroad, representing the United States. The recognition, presented by Vietnam’s State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, honors individuals who have made significant contributions to teaching, preserving, and promoting the Vietnamese language around the world. In 2026, eight ambassadors from eight countries and territories were selected.
At Columbia, Chung Nguyen has worked to strengthen Vietnamese language education and connect it with Vietnam Studies, cultural programming, and community engagement. The award recognizes her continuing commitment to bringing Vietnamese language and culture to students and communities in the United States.
Read the Culture Newspaper article
Senior Lecturer Zhongqi Shi has published a new book, Embracing Change: A New Era in Chinese Teaching, which explores how Chinese language educators can respond to the rapid transformations brought about by emerging technologies, evolving learner needs, and shifting educational expectations.
Written in Chinese and grounded in over twenty years of classroom teaching experience, the book offers a practical, AI-informed framework that integrates the strengths of traditional pedagogy with new technological possibilities. It aims to support educators in making thoughtful instructional decisions and adapting their teaching in an increasingly complex learning environment.
Embracing Change represents a synthesis of Shi’s long-term teaching practice and research interests at the intersection of language pedagogy, cognitive psychology, and educational technology. It also reflects his ongoing work in the field, including his leadership role in the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA), where he currently serves as Chair of the “AI for Chinese” Special Task Force.
This book is among the first publications in North America to systematically address how Chinese language teaching can evolve in the age of artificial intelligence from a practice-based perspective.
https://www.cheng-tsui.com/embracing-change
