Boping Yuan became a worker in a carpentry workshop in China after his secondary school, and was among those first groups of people who entered universities when universities re-opened in China after the ten-year Cultural Revolution. He read English language and literature as an undergraduate at Yantai Normal University (now Ludong University), China, from 1978 to 1982. Then he taught English as a foreign language at universities in China and on the China Central Television.
In 1986, he entered Shanghai Jiaotong University, China, and did postgraduate studies in Applied Linguistics. In 1988, he got a scholarship from the British Council to study at Edinburgh University, where he first studied for an M.Sc. in Applied Linguistics and then for a Ph.D. in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics.
In 1992, he came to Cambridge, where he has been teaching Chinese language and linguistics, directing the modern Chinese language program as well as supervising graduate students in developmental Chinese linguistics.
He also provides services for international academic journals and organizations, which include being the vice President (2005-2008) and executive member (2008-present) of the Executive Committee of The International Society for Chinese Language Teaching.
Dr Yuan has designed modern Chinese syllabi for both the undergraduate program and the two-year M.Phil in Chinese Studies and teaches Chinese Language and Linguistics
Dr Yuan is happy to supervise students in topics relating to his research into Chinese linguistics.
Empirical studies of developmental and synchronic aspects of second language acquisition, bilingualism and multilingualism; linguistic approaches to non-native Chinese grammars; second language acquisition theory; formal linguistics; syntax and semantics.
Current PhD students
| Miss Manyun Liu: Chinese Reflexive 'ziji' in Second Language Acquisition, Heritage Language, and First Language Attrition |
| Mr Tongkun Liu: Interfaces in the Chinese ba Construction and Their Representations in Second Language Learners' L2 Chinese Mental Grammars |
| Ms Hsiaoching Wang: L2 Acquisition of Wh-indeterminants in Mandarin by English and Korean Speakers. |
| Miss Jingting Xiang: Definiteness and Specificity in L2/L3 Mandarin Grammars |
| Miss Lilong Xu: Chinese Null and Covert Arguments and their Behaviors in L2 Chinese Grammars |
| Mr Fei Yuan: The Third Language Acquisition of English Negative Polarity Items by Ethnic Koreans in China |
| Chenyang Zhang: L2 acquisition of empty verbs in Mandarin Chinese by English-speaking learners |
