Ruby Wang

My name is Ruby. My Chinese name is Yi-Ping Wang. I come from Taiwan. I am a dual MA student in Linguistics and TESOL. I have been studying in UTA for two and a half years, so this semester is my sixth semester in UTA. Before that, I was in Ole Miss (the University of Mississippi) studying TESOL. I am going to graduate with MA TESOL in May, 2010 and my MA in Linguistics in Dec., 2010. I am at the final stage for both degrees. After this semester, I only got one course left to take.

I started working as a TA of Mandarin Chinese in the Dept. of Modern Languages in UTA since last semester. If nothing is wrong with the program, I guess I would work as a TA of Chinese till I graduate with both degrees. If anyone of you is interested in Chinese language or culture, please feel free to ask me. I will be glad to share whatever I know about that. (My office: Hammond Hall R. 320)

I used to be a very experienced EFL teacher in Taiwan with more than eight years of teaching experience. Actually, I started teaching EFL to junior high or senior high school students at the age of 19 when I was an English (Literature)-majored college student in Taipei (National Cheng-Chi University). However, before I majored in TESOL and Linguistics (in National Kaohsiung Normal University since 2002), the only teaching methods I had been familar to were Grammar Translation Method and Audiolingual Method, the ways I had been taught by my English teachers in Taiwan for my whole life. What I have been studying and learning for TESOL (and Linguistics) during the past seven years (NKNU + Ole Miss + UTA) really changes my view of looking at the industry. I am going to start my volunteer ESL teaching in Arlington Reads on Feb. 2nd and the project will go on until Apr. 8th. By the end of the course, I will collect 60 working hours of teaching, but this time, no Grammar Translation Method or Audiolingualism anymore. Everything will be Communicative Approach. I think it will be a new journey for me to explore.

In the middle of April, I will wrap up my study in TESOL and put it into the portfolio and get ready to sail with my MA TESOL degree. My career goal is not teaching English. I will teach Mandarin Chinese in colleges in USA (hopefully in DFW area) for the rest of my life. I believe what I have been learning from TESOL and Linguistics has equipped me with the methods and techniques of teaching my native language (Mandarin Chinese) to Americans. If possible, I will keep on pursuing the Ph.D. in Linguistics, so that maybe some day in the future, I can teach Chinese Linguistics in some university in USA.