Lili Zhang has been an instructor in Chinese Language at Nazarbayev University since 2019. She obtained her second master’s degree in “Second Language Acquisition” from The University of Maryland, College Park, and her first master’s Degree in “Chinese Linguistics and Applied Linguistics” from Beijing Language & Culture University. 

She taught Chinese language at Drake University and University of Maryland, College Park. Before her studying in the US, she worked as a Chinese language instructor in China Youth University of Political Sciences. She also participated in a variety of summer/winter language programs, such as Harvard Beijing Academy (with cooperation from Harvard University and Beijing Language & Culture University), Bohai College, and universities. 

Her primary research interest is in vocabulary acquisition, and the influence of learning environment on language acquisition, and cognitive aptitude. Her teaching interests are primarily focused on how to teach characters effectively and task-based language teaching.

Lili, Zhang. (2013). Effects of Exposure Frequency and Type of collocations on Acceptability Judgment Task. In Xiliang Cui & Baolin Zhang (Eds.), Selected Thesis of The 2nd International Conference on Chinese Inter-language Corpus Construction and Its Application. Beijing: Beijing Language & Culture University Press. 

Lili, Zhang. (2012). Review of Child-Directed Speech Studies. In Hua Zhang & Xianqiang Liu (Eds.), Teaching Chinese as a Foreign/Second Language: Theory & Practice. Beijing: Beijing Language & Culture University Press. 

Enzhu, Jin., & Lili, Zhang. (2011). Analysis of “X族” from Memetics. Chinese Human Sciences, 111-119. 

Lili, Zhang. (2011). Effects of Character Frequency and Semantic Radical Position on Radical Awareness of Elementary Students within the Circle of Chinese Character. In Wangxi Zhang, & Hongbing Xing (Eds.), Cognitive Exploration of Chinese Test and Acquisition. Beijing: World Books Press.

Conference Presentations

May.2017 The 2nd International Foreign Language Studies International Seminar on Second Language Processing, Qingdao, China. (Second Author)

Title: Effects of Exposure Frequency and Method on Processing Collocations.

Apr.2016  2016 CLTA Second International Symposium on Chinese Teaching and Learning, Iowa, USA. (Second Author)

Title: Effects of Exposure Frequency & Repetition Method on Learning Chinese Collocations.

Oct.2015  The 12th International Conference on Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, Beijing, China. (Second Author)

          Title: Pragmatic and Grammatical Awareness in CFL and CSL Setting.

Nov.2012  The 9th International Conference on Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, Chongqing, China. (being invited but not attend)

          Title: Effects of Exposure Frequency & Repetition Method on Learning Different Types of Collocations.

Aug.2012  The 2nd International Conference on Chinese Inter-language Corpus Construction and Its Application, Beijing, China. 

Title: Effects of Exposure Frequency and Type of collocations on Acceptability Judgment Task. 

Dec. 2011  The 10th International Conference on Teaching Chinese Language, Taiwan.

Title: Effects of Language Background, Frequency and Position of Semantic Radical on Development of Radical Awareness. 

CHN 101: Beginning Mandarin I

CHN 102: Beginning Mandarin II

CHN 201: Intermediate Mandarin I