Dr. Liang Tao
Dr. Liang Tao was recently promoted to full Professor of Linguistics. Tao, who has been teaching in the department since 1996, is being rewarded for her hard work in the areas of interactional linguistics, usage, exemplar representations and grammaticalization, Chinese language learning, and more.
Tao has published more than 50 journal articles and book chapters plus an edited volume, and she has presented at a variety of international conferences, symposia and invited talks. One of the external reviewers commented that she is “a first-rate scholar of impressive erudition, rigor, and originality.”
From left: Chinese language TAs: Man Yang, Yue Dong, and Qiuqu Qin; Chinese instructor Lu Cao, Dr. Liang Tao, Spring, 2017
In addition to her scholarly achievements, Tao has also mentored a large number of OHIO University students, most of whom are Chinese language students. Chinese has been taught at OHIO for more than three decades. Tao has coordinated this program for over two decades, during which time the program flourished both in enrollments and in the impact on students’ careers.
Dr. Liang Tao with some of the summer study-abroad students at the completion ceremony of the summer program, 2008.
Tao started a summer study-abroad program, and many OHIO students benefited from that experience learning both Chinese language and culture. Thanks in no small part to the Chinese classes that she has been instrumental in shaping, a number of students have gone on to win nationally competitive scholarships.
“For as long as I can remember,” Tao said, “ almost every year our students won some nationally competitive scholarships to conduct research and/or study Chinese language in China.” The most recent winners of the U.S. Critical language Scholarship and the Project GO scholarship include Meriah Woolery ’19, Jahmir King ’18 and John Wehrkamp ’19.
Among graduate students, some of her mentees have become successful Chinese instructors. Some have gone on to Ph.D. programs, and some have completed their Ph.D. studies and become university faculty.
Dr. Liang Tao with Chinese language students at the International Street Fair, 2005. Tao has been organizing the Chinese Language Booth at the Street Fair every year since she came to OHIO.
“Dr. Tao was my first academic adviser after I came to study in the United States. During my two years of graduate study, she helped me achieve good academic performance and adjust to living in the United States. She met with me and the other Chinese TAs every week, coached us step-by-step, on how to teach the Chinese language to second-language learners in American universities. I would not have been able to find a college lectureship in Chinese without her,” said one former Chinese TA, Linye Jing, ’12 M.A. Linguistics, who taught Chinese as a lecturer at Elizabethtown College and is now a fourth-year doctoral student and adjunct instructor at the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at NYU.
“We spent a lot of time discussing lesson plans, Chinese grammar and just in general, teaching and learning,” said Shuai Shao ’11 M.A. Linguistics, remembering the TA meetings. “I did think the meetings were a little long at that time, but when I started to work, I realized how important those discussions were and how much I learned from those, and I really miss it. I also remember Dr. Tao really liked to quote Li & Thompson, so that’s the first book I bought after I started to work.” Shao is now a Teaching Professor in the Chinese program at Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster, PA.
OHIO students posing in martial art gesture while showing off their own design of the Peking Opera face masks, Summer Chinese Language & Culture Program, Beijing, China, 2009
Tao has taught many Chinese classes in addition to her Psycholinguistics classes. Alba Garal, one of Tao’s former students and thesis advisees, credits the professor with having a “tremendous impact” on both her academic and professional development.
“[W]hether Dr. Tao is telling stories to illustrate the connections between Chinese characters and the concepts they reference or illustrating psycholinguistic principles through events of our daily lives, she has a powerful ability to connect class concepts to the real world in a way that students can access. I came to appreciate the opportunities that she created for my Chinese language proficiency to develop rapidly and deeply later in life. While living in China for two months to collect data for my graduate studies, it became apparent that I would have not been able to survive in such a context without her educational expertise,” Garal said.
Not only has Tao mentored Chinese teachers and Linguistics students, but she has also influenced her students’ careers.
Shao noted that “Dr. Tao greatly impacted my life.” She fondly recalls how personable and kindly Tao treated her and the other TAs, explaining, “She took very good care of me. I remember she took me and the other TAs to a shopping trip in West Virginia and we all enjoyed a Chinese buffet.”
Garal also stated that she has “personally benefited from Dr. Tao’s deep knowledge of linguistics and Chinese language pedagogy, her commitment to the development of her students, and her generous and curious nature.”
Tao’s guidance was key to Linye Jing’s career as well.
“Dr. Tao is also the person who introduced me to research in communication sciences and disorders,” Jing said. “During my second year of study at Ohio University Linguistics, she recommended me taking courses in psycholinguistics, informed me that there’s a field called ‘speech-language-hearing sciences,’ and invited me into a collaborative research project studying cross-linguistic differences and working memory. These experiences sparked my interest in continuing doing research and really helped with my Ph.D. application.”
Garal adds, “I benefited from Professor Tao’s admirable patience, depth of knowledge, ability to push students toward excellence, and general approachability. I have found my relationship with her to be one of the most influential relationships I have had in my life as a student, and knowing her has been one of many great joys during my time at OHIO University.”
In the spring semester Dr. Tao will be teaching “Women in Chinese Literature.” For more details please contact Dr. Liang Tao.
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