Ye Tian is a Lecturer in Foreign Language at Penn. He served as the Director of the Chinese Language Program from 2021 to 2025. Before Penn, he taught Chinese at various institutes, including Harvard University, Middlebury College, and Bucknell University. As PI, Tian has secured over 20 major grants with budgets exceeding $180,000 to support his work and research. These projects, funded by Penn Global, PLC, EALC, CEAS, and the National Security Agency, enhance Chinese language research and education nationwide. With a Ph.D. in Education, Society, and Culture from the University of California, Riverside, his research focuses on Chinese language education, with a particular emphasis on educational technology, and explores the field through sociocultural and historical frameworks. He published 18 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and books.
PhD, Education, Society, and Culture, University of California, Riverside, 2017
Refereed Journal Articles
2025 Feng, Y.S., Tian, Y. Assessing the Accuracy of Chinese Speech-to-Text Tools for Chinese as Foreign Language Learners. Chinese as a Second Language. In Print.
2024 Yang, Y., & Tian, Y. Exploring the Chinese AWCF Platform’s value in improving CSL learners’ writing performance in a ChatGPT context. Chinese as a Second Language, 46-68. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1075/csl.24008.yan
2024 Zhang, J., Tian, Y. Adopting the “Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education” in North America: Challenges and insights. Chinese as a Second Language, 103-107.
2024 Tian, Y., Dietrich, M.S., Wu, G. The Challenge and Significance of Using "Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education" in the U.S.: A Study on Chinese Characters and Vocabulary. Chinese as a Second Language, 129-145.
2024 Chiang, M., Hu, J., Tian, Y. The History and the Future of Business Chinese Course at the University of Pennsylvania. Chinese Language Globalization Studies, (14), 12-21.
2023 《从机器翻译、语音合成、语音识别、文字识别到ChatGPT：浅谈AI对中文教学的挑战》(From Machine Translation, Speech Synthesis, Speech Recognition, Character Recognition to ChatGPT: On the Challenges of AI to Chinese Language Teaching). Teaching Chinese in the World 37(3), 297-299.
2022 Chiang, M., Hu, J., Tian, Y.《宾夕法尼亚大学中文项目的历史、发展与创新》 (The History, Development, and Innovations of the Chinese Language Program at the University of Pennsylvania). Studies in Chinese Learning and Teaching, Special Issue (1),15-23.
2021 Constructing an Ideological Cultural Toolkit in Chinese Language Classrooms. China-US Journal of Humanities 6, 59-66.
2020 The Error Tolerance of Machine Translation: Findings from a Failed Teaching Design. Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching 11(1), 19-35.
2018 From Greek/Latin to Chinese: What We Can Learn from the First Chinese Teacher at Harvard. Curriculum History, 18(1), 54-70.
2018 《机器翻译对中文传统翻译作业的挑战》 (The Challenge of Machine Translation to Traditional Translation Homework in Chinese Language Learning). Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching, 9(1), 78-95.
2017 “Sorry, but They Don’t Want Chinese Americans to Participate”: A Case Study of Tracking in an Ivy League Chinese Language Programme. International Journal of Multilingualism, 14(4), 437-462.
Chapters in Books
2024 From Greek/Latin to Chinese: What We Can Learn from the First Chinese Teacher at Harvard. In Morowski, D., Burlbaw, L. (Eds.) Reflections on People, Policy, and Practices in Curriculum History. IAP-Information Age Publishing. First published in Curriculum History (2018), 18(1), 54-70.
2024 No Way Out: Lu Xun’s “A New Year's Sacrifice”. In Ding, F., Hu, J. (Eds.) Appreciating Classics of Modern Chinese Literature. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press.
2023 “Weeping for My Late Father on New Year’s Day” by Zhou Shuyuan, Co-translator & Co-commentator (with Jing Hu), in Mair, V., Zhang, Z. (Eds.) Eternal Nostalgia: Gems of Ancient Chinese Poems of Mourning and Texts of Lament. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. (in press).
2022 《 “锦带功曹为何褪色？” ：中国艺术史的画风与时风》(Why did the "Turkey" Fade in Color? : Painting Style and Cultural Ethos in Traditional Chinese Art History). In G. Liu & H. Wang (Eds.) 《传统与现代：海外中文文化教学》 (Tradition and Transition: Teaching Chinese Culture Overseas). Beijing: Peking University Press.
2022 Mu, B., Ma, C., Tian, Y. Reconfiguration of CFL Learners’ Ecologies of Resources during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China and America. In Liu S. (Eds.), Teaching the Chinese Language Remotely: Global Cases and Perspectives (pp. 325-347). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87055-3_14
2021 The Artistic Discourse and Semiotic Significance of Food in Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman. In Ding, F., Hu, J. et al. (Eds.) Appreciating Contemporary Chinese Film Classics (pp. 142-148). Nanjing: Jiangsu People’s Publishing, LTD.
Textbooks
Liu, J. L., Tian, Y. & Wang, M. Hundred Years of China (not published).
Liu, J. L. & Tian, Y. Academic Chinese (not published).