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It’s a noteworthy thing when a member of a college’s faculty wins a national teaching award—and even more remarkable when two do so in a single year! During the 2023-24 academic year, this feat was achieved by professors John Jing-hua Yin and Bridget Levine-West of the �պ����� College of Arts and Sciences’ School of World Languages and Cultures (SWLC).

In April 2024, Yin, professor of Chinese and director of the Program in Asian Languages and Literatures in the SWLC, was presented with the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA)’s Annual Conference, in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to the field of Chinese language education.” Yin, who teaches Chinese language classes at all levels, has been educating students for 30 years, the past 27 of them at �պ�����. The award honors both his time as the executive director of the CLTA and the work he’s done in developing a new Chinese language teaching approach (outlined in Essential College Chinese Book 1 and Book 2, co-authored by Yin and Professor Diana Sun), which, he says, “may change the way Chinese has conventionally been taught.”

“At the initial stage of learning Chinese as a foreign language, the conventional teaching approach does not separate the teaching of spoken Chinese from the teaching of the Chinese script,” says Yin. He found that by separating the two, students have an easier time learning to both speak and write the language. With this new approach, he says, “learning Chinese has become more manageable and enjoyable by our students who are busy with courses in other subjects and disciplines.” 

When asked what he loves most about teaching Chinese, Yin doesn’t hesitate. “Teaching a Chinese class is not just a language class,” he says, “It’s also a music and fine arts class.” He explains that the language is tonal—in other words, every syllable has its own tone—and uses logographs (symbols used to represent words or phrases) instead of letters. “While Chinese language tones and characters are challenging to teach and learn, they have made the language particularly musical and artistic,” Yin says.

Bridget Levine-West (shown above) was also honored at the national level for her exemplary work as a teacher of German at all levels and in a range of subject areas. An associate professor of German in the SWLC’s Program in German, Russian, and Hebrew, she specializes in film and second language acquisition and has taught at the university level for the past 14 years, half of them at �պ�����. Last fall, she was named the 2023 Outstanding German Educator at the post-secondary level by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG). The award recognizes her excellence in teaching and dedication to her students and colleagues as well as her other diverse contributions to the German teaching profession, such as her frequent professional development workshops and the widely adopted, non-profit textbook for teaching German language and culture, , of which she is a co-author.

“This award represents the greatest honor one can receive in our profession, so I am deeply moved to receive it and have my commitment to teaching recognized so highly,” Levine-West says. This is her fourth teaching award, having previously won the AATG’s Next Generation Leadership Award as well as two for her work as a graduate student instructor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Levine-West is a firm believer that learning to speak other languages has a profound effect on how we see and understand the world around us. “The more languages one speaks, the more lenses one has through which to view and analyze any number of interpersonal exchanges and social experiences,” she says. These insights and new perspectives can lead students not only to see and understand things differently, but to do them differently as well—and that’s something Levine-West finds deeply compelling. In the classroom, she thinks of herself as “a guide on the side,” listening closely and helping students explore the why and how behind what they’re saying. “Seeing and helping foster this type of linguistic and intercultural growth is something that I find absolutely magical about this profession,” she says.

Please join the College of Arts and Sciences in extending hearty congratulations to professors Yin and Levine-West!