Education:

Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of Speech Communication, 2000
Adviser: Dr. Peggy J. Miller

Research:

One area of research has been cross-cultural and explores the interaction between
parents and their young children in both the United States and Taiwan. With
a two-year grant from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, I have also looked at mother
tongue education in Taiwan and the United States.

Recent Publications:

My most recent publication is "What it Means to be a Grandmother: A Cross-Cultural Study of Taiwanese and Euro-American Beliefs" co-authored with Grace Cho, Peggy Miller, and Su-Hua Wang. It appeared in the Journal of Family Communication in October, 2006. Based upon studies of 16 grandmothers in Taiwan and 16 in Central Illinois, we found differences in their perceived role and caregiving tasks, with Taiwanese grandmothers being "temporary caregivers," and Euro-American grandmothers being "companions." This study points to differences in cultural understandings of family roles and tasks.

Based upon data collected in Taiwan, "Language Shift and Language Accommodation across Family Generations in Taiwan," co-authored with Chung-Hui Liang and Wen-Yu Chao, appeared in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Communication. This study found shift from Tai-gi (also called Taiwanese, Hoklo, Southern Min) to Mandarin among parents and children, and faster shift in urban than rural locales. However, Tai-gi was still valued as many said it was the speech code which conveyed greater intimacy.

Two other papers, "What do grandmothers think about self-esteem? American and Taiwanese folk theories revisited" and "Self-esteem as folk theory: A comparison of European-American and Taiwanese mothers’ beliefs," are cross-cultural studies of folk understandings of the concept of self-esteem. These studies show how mothers and grandmothers in different cultures conceptualize self-esteem and apply it to the task of child care.

A final paper, "Linguistic Capital in Taiwan: The KMTs Mandarin Language Policy and its Perceived Impact upon the Language Practices of Bilingual Mandarin and Tai-gi Speakers," was published in the journal Language in Society in 2003. It explores the habitus of language and associated language ideologies in Taiwan. One purpose of the paper is to present the collective history of Taiwan's contested language policies and ideologies, ranging from past colonial governments to the present democratic one. A second purpose is to trace contemporary personal reflections of this history. It presents the views of three generations of bilingual speakers and how their language learning experiences impact past and present speaking practices and associated ideologies.

Teaching:

At the University of Oklahoma I have taught courses in Intercultural Communication,
International Communication, Theories of Communication in Society, Communication in
Nonwestern Cultures, and Language Perspectives.

Vitae:

For a more detailed version of my vitae, Click here for PDF File