Ben Pin-Yun Wang

Research Interests

• Language pedagogy
• Curriculum development
• Cognitive linguistics
• Corpus linguistics
• Pedagogical grammar
• Discourse analysis
• Taiwan studies

Biography

I hold a dual-title PhD in Applied Linguistics and Asian Studies from the Pennsylvania State University (PSU). My academic work centres on foreign language instruction, shaped by interdisciplinary training and research in Chinese linguistics that integrates cognitive-functional theories with corpus-based methods.

At the University of Victoria (UVic), I teach Chinese language courses at all levels, along with courses in translation, Chinese linguistics, teaching Chinese as an additional language, Chinese food culture, and Taiwan in a global context. As Chinese Language Coordinator, I oversee student placement and advising, curriculum planning and development, and the training of new instructors and teaching assistants.

Beyond UVic, I serve as Vice-President and Conference Chair (2025–2029) of the Canadian Teaching Chinese as a Second Language Association, and since 2025 have co-organized the Association’s Chinese Language and Culture Immersion Program in Taiwan.

Before joining UVic, I was a Lecturer in Chinese in the Department of Asian Studies at PSU, where I also served as Interim Coordinator of the Chinese Program. I taught Chinese language courses from beginner to advanced levels, content courses in Chinese film and literature, and classical Chinese, as well as co-taught courses in pedagogical English grammar, language assessment, and cognitive linguistics in second language teaching. Prior to my time in North America, I taught academic English writing to graduate students at National Taiwan University.

Courses

PAAS 116: Beginner Chinese I

PAAS 117: Beginner Chinese II

PAAS 118: Intensive Beginner Chinese

PAAS 153: Chinese Food Culture

PAAS 218: Intensive Pre-Intermediate Chinese

PAAS 279/LING 261: Introduction to Chinese Language and Linguistics

PAAS 318: Intensive Intermediate Chinese

PAAS 352: Global Taiwan

PAAS 411: Directed Readings in Chinese Language

PAAS 412: Understanding Chinese Media

PAAS 413: Effective Communication in Chinese

PAAS 415: Professional and Business Chinese

PAAS 452: Teaching and Learning Chinese as an Additional Language

PAAS 494: Special Topics in Translating Asian Languages (Chinese-English Translation)

Selected Publications

• Journal Articles
• Wang, B. P.-Y., Hsu, C.-C., Long, S., & Liles, X. (2020). Designing data-driven learning activities for the Chinese as a second language classroom. Journal of Chinese Language Teaching, 17(3), 103-137. (in Chinese)
• Lu, X., & Wang, B. P.-Y. (2017). Towards a metaphor-annotated corpus of Mandarin Chinese. Language Resources and Evaluation, 51(3), 663-694.
• Wang, B. P.-Y., & Su, L. I.-W. (2015). On the principled polysemy of –kai in Chinese resultative verbs. Chinese Language and Discourse, 6(1), 2-27.
• Book Chapters
• Wang, B. P.-Y., Lu, X., Hsu, C.-C., Lin, E. P.-C., & Ai, H. (2019). Linguistic metaphor identification in Chinese. In S. Nacey, L. Dorst, T. Krennmayr, & G. Reijnierse (Eds.), Metaphor Identification in Multiple Languages: MIPVU Around the World (pp. 247-265). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Yu, N., & Wang, B. P.-Y. (2018). Cognitive linguistics approaches to Chinese second language acquisition. In C. Ke (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Second Language Acquisition (pp. 31-47). New York: Routledge.