About

Dr. Wenhao Diao is the Department Head of East Asian Studies and a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Arizona. She is also an affiliated faculty member in the interdisciplinary graduate program of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching. She founded and co-directed the Center for East Asian Studies, a Title VI National Resource Center supported by the US Department of Education, at the University of Arizona. Dr. Diao received her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and her B.A. and M.A. from East China Normal University. As an applied linguist, her research interests include the identities, ideologies, and (in)equities that Chinese language learning and teaching (re)produce and (re)distribute. Her primary research focus has been on the phenomenon of study abroad, particularly involving China. More recently, she has examined Chinese learning during the secondary to postsecondary transition. She has co-edited a book titled Language Learning in Study Abroad: The Multilingual Turn and has guest edited a special issue themed Study Abroad in the 21st Century for the L2 Journal. Prior to her current position, she taught at Middlebury College, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Virginia, and East China Normal University.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Pedagogy
• Social Science
• Social psychology
• Law
• Gender studies
• Mathematics education
• Linguistics

Selected publications

• Review of Weiyun He (2025): Voices of Immigration: A Serial Narrative Ethnography of Language Shift

  Chinese as a Second Language (漢語教學研究—美國中文教師學會學報) The journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association USA · 2026-04-14

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Less Commonly Taught World Language Programs

  2025-06-06

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  In this chapter, we examine issues related to the teaching and learning of less commonly taught languages (LTCLs) in the North American context. We begin by reflecting on the definition of LCTLs in the US, which generally includes all the languages other than English, Spanish, French, and German. This definition encompasses a wide variety of world languages; some are very widely spoken and widely taught as additional languages in other parts of the world, while others may not be. Thus, we caution our readers to conceptualize the very focus of our chapter (LCTLs) as a sociocultural product that intersects with the complex histories of settler-colonialism and immigration policies within North America. Moreover, due to the dominance of English in academic research and publishing, these historical complexities lead to the reality that there is less published research on LCTLs. Within this context, and drawing from our individual experiences working with LCTLs (Chinese, Finnish, and Japanese), we review three types of fundamental issues in the teaching of LCTLs: pedagogical challenges, especially those resulting from a lack of teaching materials and research related to LCTLs, linguistic and cognitive differences (due sometimes to the differences between LCTLs and English, such as those in phonology, syntax, and writing systems), and sociocultural concerns (e.g., histories of colonialism and racism, problematic cultural representations of LCTLs). We then provide implications that are specific to the administration of such LCTL programs, such as how to overcome enrollment challenges while confronting the lack of institutional incentives; how to promote more evidence-based pedagogical practices for LCTLs; as well as how to present each of the LCTLs as a language within which there exist diverse speakers and cultural backgrounds. Finally, we conclude by urging for a more multilingual and culturally responsive approach in our research and teaching to meaningfully help with the growth of programs for LCTLs.

  PublisherDOI

• 12 Feeling Through Technology : Affect and Emotional Attachments During Remote Teaching

  University of Toronto Press eBooks · 2024-12-31 · 1 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• <i>Give you some color</i>: Chinese language teachers’ encounters of race and racialization in American K–12 schools

  Modern Language Journal · 2024-05-02 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This study investigates issues related to race and racialization among Chinese language teachers in US primary and secondary (K–12) schools. Although race is an increasingly important topic in the field of language education, the published research continues to be dominated by the teaching and learning of English as a second language. Set mostly in 2021, when there was a widespread surge of anti‐Asian violence, this mixed‐methods project directs our attention to the experience of Chinese language teachers in a particular moment. We focus on interviews and journal data collected from 27 Chinese teachers, who were selected as a representative sample from the 221 participants who completed our national survey. The themes that emerged in our data highlight the intersectionality among language, nation, ethnicity, and race in Chinese language teachers’ professional work. While some teachers reported racial hostility during the COVID‐19 crisis, others described language‐ and culture‐based exclusion as a part of their everyday struggle that predated the pandemic. Moreover, as the teachers described these challenges also as opportunities for racially inclusive language pedagogies, the findings here dovetail with the ongoing discussion on antiracist possibilities in and through language teaching.

  PublisherDOI

• Chinese heritage speakers as language brokers in internship abroad

  Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education · 2023-10-05 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Focusing on four Chinese heritage speakers seeking internships while studying in China, this ethnographic multi-case study reveals how their linguistic ideologies can shape their life and work abroad. Drawing upon the theory of language ideology, findings show that heritage speakers were perceived as model Chinese speakers in the classroom, and their bilingual upbringing was also considered an asset by Chinese multinational companies. While the bilingual identity afforded them initial access to internship opportunities, in the workplace they were assigned language tasks (e.g., translation) rather than responsibilities aligned with their academic training. As this distribution of labor foregrounds heritage speakers’ bilingual identity, it places them into the peripheral role as language service providers in the corporate realm. By describing these perplexing experiences, our results provide a more nuanced understanding of heritage speakers’ experiences abroad and unpack the linguistic expectations and implications for those who seek internships while studying abroad.

  PublisherDOI

• 2 ‘Softening the Tone?’: A Corpus-Based Study of the Utterance-Final Pragmatic Particle BA (吧) between L1 and L2 Chinese Speakers

  Multilingual Matters eBooks · 2023-11-24 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  2 ‘Softening the Tone?’: A Corpus-Based Study of the Utterance-Final Pragmatic Particle BA (吧) between L1 and L2 Chinese Speakers was published in Pragmatics of Chinese as a Second Language on page 39.

  PublisherDOI

• “In a Foreign Bubble” in China: Language Use Among International Students During China’s Belt and Road

  Educational linguistics · 2023-01-01 · 5 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• ‘Softening the Tone?’:

  Channel View Publications eBooks · 2023-11-14

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Returning to Normal?: Reimagining Study Abroad and Language Learning for a Sustainable and Equitable Future

  L2 Journal · 2023-02-10 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Due to health and travel restrictions, COVID-19 has presented unusual challenges to international education. Meanwhile, the pandemic has also become a historical juncture overlapping with other political and cultural moments (e.g., renewed Black Lives Matter movement, resurgence of anti-Asian racism, extreme weather phenomena). These events have propelled a reconsideration of the complex relationship between access to and participation in study abroad, language learning, and social and environmental justice. In this paper, we draw on our collective experiences as practitioners and researchers across three languages (Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish) to argue that study abroad must be a part of equitable and sustainable world language education curricula. We begin by reflecting on existing issues related to access and participation in U.S.-based study abroad and the underlying ideologies that reinforce them. We then provide possibilities – within our spheres of influence – to reconceptualize study abroad from critical and translingual perspectives in an effort to contest ideologies and shift towards a more diverse and inclusive study abroad programming. Lastly, we suggest possible ways to better integrate at home, virtual, and study abroad opportunities in language learning curricula, some of which may serve as alternatives to study abroad, especially in an environmentally and politically volatile world where social privilege shapes access to international education.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Afterword

  Multilingual Matters eBooks · 2022-07-14

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Emma Trentman

  University of Colorado System

  21 shared

• Tracy M. Quan

  9 shared

• Anne Donovan

  Georgetown University

  3 shared

• Yi Wang

  Stony Brook University

  3 shared

• Margaret E. Malone

  2 shared

• Hsuan-Ying Liu

  University of California, Riverside

  2 shared

• Chantelle Warner

  2 shared

• Chen Chen

  Fudan University

  1 shared