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Pei-Chia Chen

Faculty and Academic Coordinator, Chinese Language Program

Pei-Chia Chen
  • 9500 Gilman Dr
    Chinese Studies Program - Language
    Mail Code: 0113
    La Jolla , California 92093-0113

Born and raised in Taiwan, Pei-Chia Chen has been teaching Mandarin Chinese in the U.S. since 1999.  She holds a bachelor degree in Western Literatures, and a Master of Arts degree in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language. Before joining Chinese Studies at UC San Diego in 2004, she taught Chinese at Harvard University for five years. Her research interests include literacy development, heritage language instruction and inclusive curriculum design.

Office: Arts and Humanities Building room 631


Books:

  • Modern Mandarin Chinese, the Routledge Course. Textbook and Workbook Level 1 (in Simplified and Traditional Characters) Authored by Claudia Ross, Baozhang He, Pei-Chia Chen and Meng Yeh.
  • Modern Mandarin Chinese, the Routledge Course. Textbook and Workbook Level 2 (in Simplified and Traditional Characters) Authored by Claudia Ross, Baozhang He, Pei-Chia Chen and Meng Yeh. 
  • Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar. Authored by Claudia Ross, Jing-heng Sheng Ma, Baozhang He and Pei-Chia Chen. 
  • Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar Workbook. Authored by Claudia Ross, Jing-heng Sheng Ma, Baozhang He and Pei-Chia Chen. 
  • Elementary Chinese (Harvard First-Year Textbook). Authored by Baozhang He, et al.

Conference Presentations:

  • 2023 “Inclusive Pedagogy and Multimodal Curriculum Design: Learner-centered tasks & teaching strategies in a 3rd year Chinese Class”.  ACTFL annual convention. Chicago, IL.
  • 2023 Keynote speaker, “International Trends of Learning Mandarin under Glocalization Complex: American Perspective in Mandarin Classrooms and Chinese Exploration in US Classroom” TCS/FL Education in the U.S.— Glocalization and Cooperation. Taipei, Taiwan (virtual)
  • 2022 “Tech-enhanced Teaching and Learning Motivation in L2 Chinese Education” ACTFL annual convention. Boston, MA.
  • 2022 “Differentiated Literacy Instructional Designs in Novice and Intermediate CFL Classes.” CLTA annual conference. (virtual)
  • 2022 “What is literacy and how do we teach it?” Frontline CFL Teachers’ Professional Development @Taiwan (virtual)
  • 2021 “Teaching grammar through task-based activities”. Frontline CFL Teachers’ Professional Development @Taiwan (virtual)
  • 2021 Panel Discussion-Heritage Chinese Classes in US: overview, opportunities, and challenges. CLTA-SIG: Chinese Heritage Language Learning. (Virtual)
  • 2021 “Developing reading literacy in Chinese through lexical compounding skills.” CLTA annual conference. (Virtual)
  • 2020 “Curriculum design for heritage students with dialect-background”. CLTA-SIG: CFL Teacher Development (Virtual)
  • 2019 “Research to practice: Developing reading literacy among CFL learners”. CLTA annual conference. Seattle, WA.
  • 2018 “Developing higher-level reading skills: classroom examples” ACTFL annual convention. New Orleans, LA.
  • 2017 “Developing inferential reading comprehension skills in Chinese” ACTFL annual convention. Nashville, TN.
  • 2016 “Using formative assessment to guide reading literacy development in CFL”. ACTFL annual convention. Boston, MA.
  • 2012 "Character Literacy Research to Support Best Practices in CFL Instruction” , ACTFL annual convention. Philadelphia, PA.
  • 2011 "The Encoding and mental representation of Chinese characters: using research to support the teaching of Chinese characters”  ACTFL annual convention. Denver, CO.
  • 2010 "Bridging the Gap: from simple sentence to paragraph, ACTFL annual convention. Boston, MA".
  • 2009 "Putting Culture at the Core of the Language Lesson”. ACTFL annual convention.  San Diego, CA.