Agnes He
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Agnes Weiyun He is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and Asian Studies. She teaches courses on intercultural communication, structure of Mandarin Chinese, qualitative research methods, heritage language socialization as well as Chinese language and culture in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies, where she also served as Director of Undergraduate Studies (2007-2011).
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Biography
Professor Agnes Weiyun He received her B.A. in English from the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute (now Beijing Foreign Studies University), Diploma-in-Education from the National Institute of Education in Singapore, M.A. in English as a Second Language from the University of Arizona, and Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from UCLA. Prior to joining the faculty at Stony Brook University, she taught in the Department of Linguistics at Southern Illinois University for three years.
Professor He’s research interests are centered on discourse linguistics and (heritage) language development. She has published three research monographs and over thirty research articles in edited volumes and refereed journals.
Professor Agnes Weiyun He is a 2011-2012 Guggenheim Fellow and a 1999-2001 National Academic of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. In 2007-2009, she was co-PI of a federal Title VI grant in support of the development of an initial certification program in the teaching of Asian languages at Stony Brook University.
Professor He is an active member of the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) and of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA). She has served as a consultant, advisor, and evaluator for a number of public and private funded projects dedicated to the improvement of global language education at regional, state and national levels. She is also an editorial board member for Discourse Processes and The Journal of Chinese Language and Discourse.
Professor He is a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese and the Shanghai dialect and has a modest reading knowledge of French.
Books
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He, Agnes Weiyun & Xiao, Yun. (Eds.) (2008). Chinese as a Heritage Language: Fostering Rooted World Citizenry. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
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He, Agnes Weiyun. (1998). Reconstructing Institutions: Language Use in Academic Counseling Encounters. Greenwich, CT and London, UK: Greenwood.
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Young, Richard & He, Agnes Weiyun. (Eds.) (1998). Talking and Testing: Discourse Approaches to the Assessment of Oral Language Proficiency. Philadelphia: Benjamins. |
Selected Journal Articles / Book Chapters
He, A. W. (2011). The role of repair in modulating modal stances in Chinese discourse. Chinese Language and Discourse 2(1): 1-22.
He, A. W. (2011). Heritage language socialization. In A. Duranti, E. Ochs and B. Schieffelin (eds.) The Handbook of Language Socialization (pp. 587-609). Oxford: Blackwell.
He, A. W. (2011). Language socialization. In J. Simpson (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics (pp. 287-302). New York: Routledge.
He, A. W. (2010). Socio-cultural dimensions of heritage language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 30: 66-82.
He, A. W. (2009). Sequences, Scripts, and Subject Pronouns in the Construction of Chinese Heritage Identity. In A. Reyes & A. Lo (eds.) Beyond Yellow English: Toward a Linguistic Anthropology of Asian Pacific America (pp. 366-384). New York: Oxford University Press.
He, A. W. (2008). Heritage language learning and socialization. In P. Duff & N. Hornberger (eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Volume 8: Language Socialization (pp. 201-213). New York: Springer.
He, A. W. (2006). Toward an identity-based model for the development of Chinese as a heritage language. The Heritage Language Journal 4(1): 1-28.
He, A. W. (2004). CA for SLA: Arguments from Chinese language classes. The Modern Language Journal, 88(4):568-582.
He, A. W. (2003). Novices and their speech roles in Chinese heritage language classes. In R. Baley and S. Schecter (eds.) Language socialization in bilingual and multilingual societies (pp. 128-146). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
He, A. W. (2003). Linguistic anthropology and language education. In S. Wortham and B. Rymes (eds.) Linguistic anthropology of education (pp. 93-119). Westport, CT and London: Praeger.
He, A. W. (2001). The language of ambiguity: practices in Chinese heritage language classes. Discourse Studies, 3(1): 75-96.
Chen, Y. & He, A. W. (2001). Dui bu dui as a pragmatic marker: evidence from Chinese classroom discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 33:1441-1465.
He, A. W. (2000). Grammatical and sequential organization of teachers' directives. Linguistics and Education 11(2):119-140.
He, A. W. (2000). Discourse analysis. In M. Aronoff and J. Rees-Miller (eds.) The Handbook of Linguistics (pp. 428-445). Oxford: Blackwell.
He, A. W. & Lindsey, B. (1998). “You know” as an information status enhancing device: arguments from grammar and interaction. Functions of Language, 5(2): 133-155.
He, A. W. & Tsoneva, S. (1998). The symbiosis of choices and control: a discourse-based account of CAN. Journal of Pragmatics, 29(5): 615-637.
He, A. W. (1996). Narrative processes and institutional activities: recipient guided storytelling in academic counseling encounters. Pragmatics, 6(2), 205-216.
He, A. W. (1996). Stories as academic counseling resources. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 6(2), 107-121.
He, A. W. (1995). Co-constructing institutional identities: the case of student counselees. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 28(3), 213-231.
He, A. W. (1994). Withholding academic advice: institutional context and discourse practice. Discourse Processes, 18(3), 297-316.
He, A. W. (1993a). Exploring modality in institutional interactions: cases from academic counseling encounters. TEXT, 13(4), 503-528.
He, A. W. (1993b). Language use in peer review texts. Language in Society, 22(3), 403-420.
Current Projects
(1) Globalization through trans-generational and transnational communication: The case of Chinese
This project aims to explore the role heritage language plays in connecting local and global communities and in blending and blurring the distinction between the two by examining the language development trajectory of a prototype learner of Chinese as a heritage language in the U.S.
(2) Language, heritage, and “translanguaging”
This study conceptualizes “translanguaging” as the fusion of various constituents (phonemes, morphemes, syllable structures, tones, noun/verb phrase structures, turn-constructional-units, etc.) from different language systems at multiple and nested levels, thereby generating new interactional dynamics and possibilities, new speaker identities, and new speech communities. It re-evaluates existing syntactic prescriptions and functional taxonomies through the lens of translanguaging and examines how heritage language speakers traverse invisible cultural and identity boundaries as they iconically push and break perceptible linguistic boundaries.
(3) 2011-2012 Guggenheim Research Project
I plan to spend my Guggenheim Fellowship year writing a book that explores the trajectory of Chinese heritage language development. In the U.S., the term heritage language (hereafter HL) has been used to describe an immigrant, indigenous, or ancestral non-English language with which a speaker has a personal, cultural connection. HL speakers typically possess some oral skills in the HL but lack proficiency in written communication. Their range of HL language usage is often limited to settings, audiences and purposes involving solely friends and family. In spite of the rich personal, familial and national benefits HLs may bring, they are often considered a linguistic and cultural liability. The maintenance of HLs and heritage cultures has always been a formidable challenge for linguistic minorities. Anchored in discourse linguistics and linguistic anthropology, this book will examine how HL speakers acquire, challenge, reject, resist, learn, embrace, and transcend repertoires of language forms and functions associated with complex and changing contextual dimensions over time and across space.
