Maiheng S. Dietrich is the course coordinator and chief instructor of Beginning Chinese at the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. She holds a PhD in Chinese language and literature from the University of Minnesota. She is actively involved in classroom instruction, curriculum design, new instructor training and action research. Her research interests include curriculum design, teaching methodology, acquisition of specific Chinese linguistic structures, pedagogical grammar, language and culture as well as language and literature. In addition to beginning Chinese, Maiheng also teaches three Chinese literature courses in Chinese. She also teaches first-year Spoken Chinese through PLC (Penn Language Center).