Awardee: Jun Lang is a broadly trained linguist who works on the interface of language structure, semantic construction, social dynamics and cultural context. Her research interests include language and gender, second language acquisition, Chinese as a second language pedagogy, sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics. Her research can be found on Google Scholar. She also serves as a reviewer for peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Computational Social Science, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, the Journal of Pragmatics, Languages, Chinese Language and Discourse and PLOS One, among others.
Project Assistants / TA’s: Ernesto Gutierrez Topete: Chau Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Linguistics and Cognitive Science, Manxi Wang: Chinese Language Resident (Oldenborg Center)
Project Title: From Pronunciation to Real-life Communication: AI Tutoring as Supplementary Resources in Chinese Language Courses
Project Goal: Lang’s project aims to explore the effectiveness of AI-powered tools in improving Mandarin Chinese language skills for both beginner and advanced learners. Lang seeks to answer whether an AI tutoring system can help beginners improve their pronunciation and assist advanced learners in enhancing their communicative skills. The project involves integrating AI tools into two Chinese language courses: Elementary Chinese, and a newly designed advanced course. For Elementary Chinese students, the AI app “Chinese Pronunciation AI Tutor (CPAIT)” will be used to help students practice tonal pronunciation, while the advanced course will incorporate “Talkpal,” an AI platform offering role-play tasks in real-life scenarios to improve practical language use. The ultimate goal is to optimize learning outcomes and promote lifelong, self-directed language learning using AI tools.