May 13, 2024
COIL enriches Chinese language learning at Carolina
“What have been your happiest moments in life?” Luoyi Cai asked her students.
Winning a tough sports game, earning a scholarship to study abroad, they said.
Cai was in her third year at East Normal China University (ECNU), teaching for a study abroad program, while dreaming of a career in business. Her students were only a few years younger, in high school and from the U.S. During her lesson about Chinese food one day, she mentioned the “Four Happiness Dumplings,” and the students seemed puzzled.
After asking them what their happiest memories are, she explained that in ancient China, one’s wedding night, succeeding in the imperial exams, running into an old friend far from home and experiencing rain after a long drought were among the greatest fortunes in life.
“Why rain after a drought? It didn’t seem to be a big deal to them,” she said. “I told them it was because our ancestors were deeply rooted in our land, and we cared so much about it. And in that moment, I felt a bond between my culture and me that I enjoyed so much, it made me want to be a teacher.”
Today, Cai teaches Chinese language at Carolina. Her love of people and culture guide her approach to teaching, and she embraces innovative ways of enhancing her courses, such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL).
Many years ago, while studying in Shanghai, Cai volunteered for a grass-roots organization dedicated to human rights. Her organization and others like it thrived for many years in places like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
“They were doing all these great things that benefit our society and make people’s lives better. They made underrepresented voices heard,” she said.
Recently, the political environment has shifted, according to Cai, and many of her friends from that time have quieted their efforts or moved abroad.
“Behind the rapidly growing economy and the acceleration of urbanization is a shrinking space for people from minority groups,” Cai said. “But these activists opened a new world to me. They’re more interesting than anyone I know.”
In teaching, Cai saw a way to inspire others as her friends had inspired her.
After graduating, she enrolled as a graduate student in ECNU’s Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages program, where she met Hsin-hsin Liang, a professor at the University of Virginia (UVA). From 2006 to 2019, Liang led the UVA-in-Shanghai summer language program at ECNU.
“Before our summer program started, I recruited the ECNU graduate students to be the teachers in our program,” Liang said. “Luoyi was one of the applicants. She impressed me with her eagerness and seriousness to become an excellent teacher even though she was only a first-year graduate student and had little experience of teaching Chinese.”
In 2013, Cai moved to the U.S. to be a visiting lecturer at UVA. After finishing her master’s degree the following year, and after teaching various courses at UVA, Indiana University, Middlebury Chinese Language School, ECNU and Fudan University, she came to Carolina.
“When I teach a language, I hope I do more than teach grammar and vocabulary,” Cai said. “I hope to open a new horizon of possibilities for my students. To do this, I constantly reflect on and improve my teaching to make sure all students, from all backgrounds, are part of the journey.”
Cai builds classrooms that are inclusive and inspiring. Language instruction can be simplistic, even reductive, she believes. Students learn about “typical Chinese families,” but what exactly is a typical Chinese family? Students also spend very little time developing their language skills outside of the classroom.
“When my students say they have been studying Chinese for one or two years, I have them pull out their calculators. ‘Let’s see how long we’ve actually been learning Chinese,’ I say. Each class is 50 minutes, then we count the classes, and since they say they don’t have much time to practice outside of class, a year or two of learning Chinese ends up being about three or four days.”
As a result, Cai makes the most of every 50-minute session. She uses “authentic materials,” as she calls them, such as YouTube videos, social media content and popular Chinese television shows. According to her, these materials, “bridge the gap between the theoretical and the practical.” She invites guest speakers, collaborates with community partners and embraces virtual exchange. In 2020, she partnered with Beijing Normal University (BNU), allowing Carolina students to learn from BNU graduate students, who were enrolled in the Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (TCSOL) program. BNU students practiced their teaching skills, as they were preparing to be educators, and Carolina students practiced their Chinese language skills with real-time instruction and support from native speakers.
A few years ago, she attended a COIL workshop, led by Sharmila Udyavar, Carolina’s associate director for global education, who leads Carolina’s COIL program. The concept was familiar; Cai was already collaborating with BNU faculty, and she imagined many ways COIL could improve her courses.
“Professor Cai really understands the purpose and potential of COIL,” Udyavar said. “She and her partner at BNU curate an experience between two classrooms that is mutually beneficial and experiential and enhances student learning outcomes.”
The Office of the Vice Provost for Global Affairs (OVPGA) introduced COIL to Carolina in 2020, and more than 100 COIL courses have been offered by Carolina faculty to date.
According to Cai, COIL allows her to “facilitate immersive language experiences beyond the confines of the classroom,” and with recent technological advancements, a pandemic and limitations to physical mobility, COIL has “broken the walls of the traditional classroom to develop new forms of cooperation.”
In a COIL course, instructors at two or more universities anywhere in the world create opportunities for students to learn material and complete assignments together virtually. Cai and her colleague Yi Zhou have now taught several COIL courses, including CHIN 101, 102, 305, 306, 407 — which is a three-way COIL course with BNU and Wake Forest University — and 443. Their students record videos, communicate via Zoom and complete final video projects together. The effort enhances Cai’s and Zhou’s students’ language development, and it provides valuable cross-cultural experience to BNU graduate students who are limited in their ability to travel abroad. Initially, the collaboration began during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it continues as a meaningful way to enhance UNC-Chapel Hill students’ language skills and BNU students’ teaching skills.
Cai is now a teaching associate professor and serving as a COIL Faculty Fellow. She has taught language courses at every level, earned Curriculum Development Awards from the OVPGA (2023, 2022) and received various grants from the Carolina Asia Center. These grants have focused on course development, programming and professional development.
In early 2024, on her way to teach a class, Cai received an email from Morgan Pitelka, chair of the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, congratulating her on winning the Tanner Award for Undergraduate Teaching. Many years had passed since she chose this career path, redefining for herself what success looks like, and she had no idea two of her colleagues, Zhou and Pamela Lothspeich, nominated her for a 2024 University Teaching Award.
“Her remarkable talents as an instructor and mentor leave an indelible impact on her students, shaping their academic journey and nurturing their passion for the C
hinese language,” Zhou and Lothspeich said. “Her commitment to her students’ growth and her passion for language education are truly commendable.”
A few months after winning her teaching award, Cai attended an international conference for Chinese language teachers to celebrate her mentor. Liang had recently won the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chinese Language Teachers Association.
“I have been highly influenced and inspired by so many mentors,” Cai said. “Liang inspired me so much. She embodied a genuine passion for education and provided unwavering support throughout the ups and downs of my early career.”
Teaching — and specifically, teaching with empathy, teaching to inspire — has not always come so easily.
“One day [during the summer 2012 program] after a class that did not turn out to be the way she expected, Luoyi was quite upset. She wrote to me to express her frustration,” Liang said. “I told her that genuinely listening to what students are talking about is more important than thinking about what you want to teach.”
Cai recalled the conversation similarly. She said, when the lesson landed poorly, “all the magic disappeared.” And she felt discouraged. She was grateful to hear quickly from Liang.
“She told me that being an excellent teacher never means ensuring each class is perfect. Teaching is an art of listening and caring. A truly inspiring educator always gives their full attention to their students and stands by their side, guiding them through ups and downs on their journey.”
Perhaps that is why she begins every course congratulating her students. Learning Chinese is difficult for anyone who is unfamiliar with it. Cai appreciates her students’ courage and encourages them from day one because she believes in the importance of language learning.
“A student may forget 99% of the language they’ve learned in college after graduation, and that’s fine,” she said. “But their outlook and mindset will never be the same. The courage to step out of their comfort zones, the motivation to explore and learn from different cultures and life experiences, as well as the inclusive mindset they’ve developed through learning a new language are the most valuable things that I hope my students gain from my class.”