The Chinese Graduates Association of Alberta Graduate Scholarship was awarded to Kai Rong (Kylie) Yang, a second-year doctoral student in the University of Alberta’s Department of Secondary Education. The award is endowed by the Chinese Graduates Association of Alberta and is awarded annually on the basis of superior academic achievement to a student in a graduate degree program whose thesis or research is in the area of Chinese Studies to help promote a better understanding of the Chinese people.

Kylie’s areas of interest in research include curricular and pedagogical comparisons between Chinese English Instruction in China and North American English Instruction. Her doctoral research is focused specifically on curricular goals and pedagogical methods, in particular to building a bridge between the high school English teachers of China and the high school English teachers of North America. By seeking out this third place she hopes to integrate and refine the general practice of English teaching by seeking the best of both worlds.

Kylie is a highly experienced English teacher with more than a decade of classroom and professional experience. Certified as a teacher in China, she later came and completed her Master’s Degree at St. Francis Xavier University and wrote a thesis investigating the curricular policies of the Chinese Ministry of Education for high school English classes. After the completion of her PhD, Kylie hopes to continue comparative studies in English curriculum in Chinese, North American, and European Contexts. Her personal connection with the experience of many of Canada’s new immigrants has convinced her that reform is needed in the multicultural and multilingual classrooms of Canada’s future. By studying the methods used by second language teachers internationally, she hopes that the Canadian English classroom, in curricular goals and pedagogic methods, can be designed to match the interests, needs and understandings of tomorrow’s global students and citizens