Margaret Yan

Email:

yan@indiana.edu

Education

• PhD, Stanford University, 1974

Research Interests

• Chinese language
• Linguistics, especially Chinese phonology and dialectology
• Language pedagogy

Awards and Distinctions

• China Program Fellowship, Cornell University, 1968-69
• Stanford University Fellowship, 1969-73
• Fulbright-Hays Research Abroad Fellowship. Department of Education, USA, 1981-82
• Indiana University-Shangdong University Exchange Professorship, 1983
• Indiana University-Tenri University Exchange Professorship, 1987-88

Publication Highlights

• Interactions I-II: A Cognitive Approach to Beginning Chinese (Textbooks and Workbooks), with Jennifer L. C. Liu. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.
• “A Study of Literary and Colloquial Amoy Chinese.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 1.3: 414-436, January 1973.
• “Chinese Language and Culture: Study of Homonyms, Lucky Words and Taboos.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 7.1: 15-28, January 1979.
• “Phonology of the Zhangpu Dialect.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 14.1:71-88, January 1986.
• “Chinese Dialects and Sino-Japanese.” Chinese Languages and Linguistics I: Chinese Dialects. Symposium Series of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, No. 2, pp. 563-585, May 1992, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
• “The Evolutionary Development of the MC *ri Initial in the Dialects of Fujian and Taiwan.” In Proceedings of NACCL 10, Vol. 1, pp. 74-89, edited by Chaofen Sun. Stanford: Stanford University, 1999.

As a trained anthropologist and linguist, I have for over three decades engaged in research that encompasses several different yet interrelated fields, but my particular specialties are anthropological/socio-linguistics, and phonology. My field research has been primarily conducted in Chinese communities in Shandong, Taiwan, and Fujian provinces. Besides the Chinese dialectology, I have also done field research in Taiwan aboriginal tribes in La'alua (Saaloa), Kanakanavu and Puyuma (of Austronesian language family).My teaching responsibilities in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University have included teaching Chinese language (First-year Chinese to Fourth- year Chinese and Cantonese), general Chinese linguistics, history of Chinese phonology, Chinese dialectology and culture courses; coordinating the Chinese language program (1975-92); offering training for Associate Instructors (teaching assistants) not only of the Chinese but also of the Japanese (1975-87) and Korean (1986-1990) programs. I have been elected President of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA) for two terms (1987-88, 1988-89). So far, forty of my former graduate students and the teaching assistants who have gone through my year-round training in teaching the Chinese language now hold or have held Chinese language/linguistics teaching positions at universities and secondary schools.