Diao, Wenhao | Department of East Asian Studies

wdiao@arizona.edu

Phone

(520) 621-0106

Office

Learning Services Building Room 104

Office Hours

For students: 12pm-1pm, Mondays (virtual) and Tuesdays (in-person)
For faculty and community members: 1pm-3pm, Tuesdays
Or by appointment (please email Julian Tran).

Please email Julian Tran. This is NOT my email address.

Personal Site

Google Scholar Page

Diao, Wenhao

Department Head

Dr. Wenhao Diao is the Department Head and an Associate Professor of East Asian Studies. She is also affiliated with the interdisciplinary program of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, the Department of Linguistics, and the Department of Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education at the University of Arizona. She received her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and her B.A. and M.A. from East China Normal University.

Dr. Diao has secured more than 1.4 million USD for research and resource-development projects and has published over 40 journal articles and book chapters. As an applied linguist, she studies identities and ideologies in (Chinese) language learning, teaching and use, with a particular focus on K-16 contexts and study abroad. She co-edited the book Language Learning in Study Abroad: The Multilingual Turn (Multilingual Matters, 2021) and a special issue themed Study Abroad in the 21st Century for the L2 Journal. She founded the Center for East Asian Studies, a Title VI National Resource Center supported by the US Department of Education, and served as its co-Director till 2024. From 2023-2025, she directed STARTALK: Chinese Pathways in Arizona, a summer residential program for high school students funded by the National Security Agency. She is an Area Editor for Second Language Acquisition at Linguistic Vanguard, and also serves on the editorial boards of the Modern Language Journal and Chinese as a Second Language. Prior to joining the University of Arizona, she taught at Middlebury College, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Virginia, and East China Normal University.

Currently Teaching

EAS 498H – Honors Thesis

An honors thesis is required of all the students graduating with honors. Students ordinarily sign up for this course as a two-semester sequence. The first semester the student performs research under the supervision of a faculty member; the second semester the student writes an honors thesis.

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EAS 577 – Qualitative Research in Applied Linguistics: East Asia and Beyond

This course introduces its students to the theories, principles and techniques underlying qualitative research and its application in applied linguistic research. Students apply the data collection and analysis tools and conduct their own qualitative projects during the semester . We begin by exploring the epistemology of qualitative research. The focus is on principles in designing a qualitative research project, such as constructing the research relationship, choosing among different approaches, and situating events in context . We then move to discuss how these theoretical positions are realized in practice through examining common data collection and analysis methods. In the final part, the students present their own projects and reflect on how qualitative methods can contribute to their understanding of specific issues in applied linguistics. Throughout the semester, we also engage in reading and critique of representative qualitative research in applied linguistics- within and beyond the East Asian context.

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