Plenary Speakers

Nicole Mills is the Joint Director of Language Programs in the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures and lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. She teaches courses in French, language pedagogy, and technology enhanced language learning and serves as the advisor for Harvard’s Bok Certificate in Teaching Languages and Cultures. Her research interests are associated with the psychology of language learning and their intersection with virtual and simulated environments in language learning, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and virtual reality applications. Her book, Perspectives on Teaching Language and Content (co-authored with Stacey Katz Bourns and Cheryl Krueger), was published in 2020 with Yale University Press and she has various publications in the Modern Language Journal, Foreign Language Annals, Language Learning, CALICO Journal, the International Journal of Applied Linguistics, and in various edited volumes. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Studies and French from Emory University.

Dr. Yu (Joyce) Wu is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Chinese Flagship Program at the University of Rhode Island. She is the President of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA-USA), a board member of NECLTA, and the Higher Education Co-Chair for the AP Chinese Development Committee for the 2024-2025 academic year. Her research focuses on second language acquisition, proficiency-based teaching and assessment, individual differences, and the development of proficiency and intercultural communicative competence in immersion contexts. Dr. Wu has received the URI College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence Award and the Rhode Island Foreign Language Association Mary L. Borra Excellence Award. She regularly presents at national and international conferences and has conducted teacher training for institutions such as Middlebury College Chinese Summer School, NECLTA, and Beijing Language and Culture University. Her research has appeared in reputable venues such as Foreign Language Annals, Chinese as a Second Language, and book chapters published by Routledge and Springer. She is a co-author of the textbook series Progressive Chinese: An Intermediate Chinese Textbook, and a co-editor of the CLS Special Issue Seeking Change in a Challenging Time: New Perspectives for Proficiency-Oriented Chinese Teaching and Beyond.