Chinese Link: Beginning Chinese, Simplified Character Version, Level 1/Part 1

Chinese Link: Beginning Chinese, Simplified Character Version, Level 1/Part 1 provides a practical, enjoyable language and cultural learning experience for beginning students of Chinese. It explains grammar points clearly and systematically, yet not in a fashion that would be overwhelming to beginners. The textbook presents both traditional (complex) and simplified versions of Chinese characters, since learners will encounter both forms during their course of study or in travel abroad.

Sue-mei Wu, Ph.D., Associate Teaching Professor of Chinese Studies in the Modern Languages Department at Carnegie Mellon University. She is the project leader and primary author for the Chinese Link textbook project (Beginning and Intermediate levels). She received her Ph.D. in linguistics, with a minor in language pedagogy, from the Ohio State University. She has taught at Ohio State University, Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University. She has devoted her linguistic, pedagogy and technology expertise to creating and developing various innovative new Chinese courses, textbooks, online courses and web pages. She has designed, developed and coordinated all levels of Chinese languages and culture courses and received several awards to support developing online language, culture and folk performance modules. She is the chair of the Chinese LearnLab of the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC, funded by NSF, http://learnlab.org), and the PI of various online Chinese language and culture projects. She is the project leader and coordinator of the Chinese Online project funded by NSF. She is the co-author of Classical Chinese Primer (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press) and the co-author of a new textbook for heritage learners.

Yueming Yu, PhD., Teaching Professor and Coordinator of the Chinese Studies Program of the Department of Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University and co-author of the Chinese Link textbook project. She came to CMU in 1992 to start the Chinese Program at the Department of Modern Languages and has been the Coordinator of the program ever since. She has more than 40 years of experience in teaching a foreign language. She has taught various levels of Chinese courses and in recent years has focused on the content courses at the advanced level of Chinese. Before she came to the US, she was an Associate Professor of English as well as the coordinator of the International Journalism Program at the Shanghai International Studies University. She was also one of the founding members of the English newspaper (Students Weekly) in Shanghai and a pioneer for the English News Program of Radio Shanghai. She has translated several books from English to Chinese, and compiled English-Chinese dictionaries. Her doctoral dissertation was a research on the criteria used in the selection of textbooks for teaching Chinese in the United States. Her current research focuses on pedagogical issues in Chinese language education with an emphasis on the relationship between teaching language and teaching culture, including a special focus on the teaching of heritage students. She is also the project leader of another textbook of Chinese for heritage students and published a series of Chinese textbooks for online use by high school students.

Yanhui Zhang, PhD., is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her PhD. in Second Language Acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research focuses on the fluency and robustness of second language basic skills learning, cross-language transfer, computer-assisted language learning, and bilingual education.

Weizhong Tian, obtained her Bachelor of Art degree in English Language and Literature from Peking University, one of the most prestigious universities in mainland China. She has been an Instructor of Chinese in the Modern Languages Department at Carnegie Mellon University. Before coming to the U.S., she taught various levels of English as well as English for Business at a university in China.