Of course Dr. Henny Yeung loves teaching the students who we may think of as “keeners”, who sit in the front row, ask questions in class, and want to engage with the material -- even in projects beyond the class.  But in his short talk at the Cormack Teaching Symposium this week, he asks, what about “the student who is not eager to demonstrate knowledge or participate enthusiastically?” or the student who appears to have other priorities than the simple love of the subject? In a few, engaging minutes, Dr. Yeung outlined how and why he has come to love the ‘anti-keener’ in his class too and shared 3 strategies for fellow teachers.

Dr Yeung talks about how humanizing foundational knowledge makes a difference to student learning – and what that might look like in his classes.  He creates variety in the ways that students engage with the intended material. “Experiential learning can make a difference to student motivation and appreciation of the course content.” He teaches key linguistics courses such as LING 221 (phonetics), LING 290 (speech science), LING 350 (first language acquisition), and LING 415 (neurolinguistics). And students consistently appreciate Dr Yeung’s approach.

Included within the nomination, a student wrote, “Not only does he teach the course content, but Dr. Yeung also makes great effort to connect what he is teaching to the real world and provide his students with practical skills.” And his teaching approach translated well to changing conditions and the pandemic teaching context.  The same student added that, “Dr. Yeung rose to the challenge of creating engaging, well-structured online courses, and I can confidently say that his have been the best online courses I have taken.”

“Knowing something about language and linguistics is just helpful for understanding the world,” says Dr. Yeung. “So many things, from how children or adults learn a new language, to understanding what happens to our ability to use language after a stroke or accident, to knowing how a computer might one day 'read' our linguistic thoughts -- all of these things have linguistic ideas at their core, and I think everyone -- even if you're not a huge linguistics nerd -- will benefit from understanding these ideas.”

After receiving the award on Tuesday, he was asked, “In what ways are you a better version of Henny, because you teach?” Dr. Yeung responded, “Teaching keeps me on my toes -- it is always challenging me to make connections between language and linguistics, and students' individual interests and passions. Every time I teach, I get new questions, or new ways of thinking about topics that thought I knew well! Learning is a two way street!”

We congratulate Dr. Henny Yeung on being a 2021 recipient of the Leslie Cormack Teaching Award and on his recent promotion to Associate Professor with tenure.