Lini's Bio

Dr. Lini Ge Polin is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Polin received her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the School of Education at UNC-CH, and M.A. in Journalism and M.A. in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language from the University of Iowa. She has extensive experience in teaching Chinese as a second language in the U.S. and is a recipient of the Student Undergraduate Teaching Award at UNC-CH. Polin has been serving as the Chinese placement test coordinator at UNC-CH since 2015. She currently serves as a Diversity Liaison in the College of Arts and Sciences and a board member on the Study Abroad Advisory Board at UNC-CH.

Polin is a certified American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview tester in Chinese. Her teaching strengths include technology-enhanced curriculum design, task-based instruction, and performance-based assessment using ACTFL proficiency standards. She currently serves as the Chair of the ACTFL Research Special Interest Group and the Vice-President of the Chinese Language Teachers Association of North Carolina.

Polin has rich experience in organizing and facilitating professional development events for fellow language teachers. In April 2022, she received a grant from the National Security Agency for the two-year Carolina Asia Center STARTALK Chinese Teacher Program, which aims to train secondary school Chinese language teachers from around the nation to integrate community resources in curriculum design and pedagogical practice to support the development of students’ intercultural communicative competence.