Yu WuView profile
Associate Professor
- Second language acquisition
- Chinese language pedagogy
- Proficiency-based teaching and assessment
- +4 more
Yu (Joyce) Wu is Associate Professor of Chinese, Chinese Section Head, and Director of the Chinese Flagship Program at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. She also serves as Vice President of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA-USA), board member of NECLTA, and incoming higher-education Co-Chair for the College Board AP Chinese Development Committee. Education Ed.D. in Development Studies (Language Education), Boston University M.A. in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies B.A. in English & B.S. in Computer Science, Shanxi University Research Interests Dr. Wu’s scholarship centers on classroom-based empirical research in second-language acquisition, with particular emphasis on proficiency-oriented pedagogy and assessment, individual learner factors, technology-enhanced language learning, and the development of intercultural communicative competence in immersion and study-abroad contexts. Recent projects investigate learner self-assessment accuracy, the roles of vocabulary size and metacognitive awareness in listening proficiency, and differential impacts of teacher corrective feedback on Chinese grammatical acquisition. Recent Publication Trends Between 2019 and 2024 her work spans rigorous empirical studies (mixed-methods oral profiling, CALL interventions, corrective-feedback experiments), curriculum-focused case studies (engineering Chinese programs), and pedagogical reflections on mindset and assessment. Collectively these publications advance evidence-based practices for moving learners from intermediate toward advanced and superior proficiency in Chinese. Awards & Honors 2022 Rhode Island Foreign Language Association Mary L. Borra Excellence Award 2020 Cengage Learning Award for Innovative Excellence in the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CLTA) 2019 URI College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence Award 2014 CLTA Walton Presentational Award Professional Service & Outreach She routinely presents at national and international conferences and has delivered teacher-training workshops for Middlebury College Chinese Summer School, NECLTA, Western Kentucky University, Beijing Language and Culture University, and Shanxi University. She is currently completing the ACTFL Workshop Facilitator-in-Training program (2023–2024) and will lead ACTFL workshops on foundational proficiency development and World-Readiness Standards. Textbook Development Dr. Wu co-authored the Progressive Chinese: An Intermediate Chinese Textbook series (volumes 1–2, student books and teacher manuals, 2022–2023), designed to bridge learners from intermediate toward advanced proficiency.






