Tianyin(Mark) Xu

Phone: (1) 267-249-1399 Email: markxu@upenn.edu

Education
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Expected 05/2024
● Master of Science in education, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
● GPA 3.83/4.0
University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 06/10/2021
● Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy
● Dean’s Honors 2018 Fall, 2021 Winter, Spring

Course Work: L2 Acquisition, Intro to Applied Linguistics, TESOL Classroom Fundamentals, Critical
Issues in Applied Linguistics, Educational Linguistics, Sociolinguistics in Education, Approaches in
Teaching English and Other Modern Languages, Second Language Development

Other teaching related Experiences

Garces Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States 08/2023-12/2023
● Currently serving as a volunteer English teacher at Garces Foundation, responsible for teaching A1
beginner-level adult students, and helping them to gain progress in reading, listening, speaking, and
writing. Ensuring students are well-prepared for the final exam focusing on grammar, reading, and
listening designed by the Garces Foundation.
● Designing a 10-week unit plan covering various topics (self-intro, transportation, food ordering,
etc.). Getting more proficient in lesson plan writing and teaching pedagogy usage (CLT, TBLT, and
differentiated teaching).
● Implementing a CLT-oriented approach combined with TBLT, and provides students with sufficient
scaffolding for output and communication.

TOEFL and IELTS Assistant Instructor, Sanli Global Education Group, Nanjing, China 08/2018
● Served as a TOEFL Assistant instructor for speaking and writing courses. Helped 6 high school
students with memorization and pronunciation tasks. Graded daily memorization quiz lists.
● Study room Q&A assistant answered reading exercise questions from students. Explained article
meanings to students.
● Graded TOEFL mock tests.
● Researched the potential of natural L2 acquisition to avoid rote memorization during test
preparation.

Intern Guide/Director, The Dice Board Game Hub, Nanjing, China 07/2021-09/2021
● Narrator/guide for 3 Party or “Murder Mystery” Games, responsible for explaining instructions and
directing stories for guests. Explained the rules and instructions, also stories to guests in both
Mandarin and English.
● Explored Chinese high school players’ interests in bilingual game narrations, and the potentiality of
using board games for educational purposes.

Assistant translator (online), Bilingual Education, Nanjing, China 07/2020-08/2020

● Assisted teachers to translate marketing material for high school science summer programs from
English to Chinese.
Additional Skills
● Languages: Mandarin (Native); English (advanced). Nanjingese, Japanese (beginner)
● Sports: boxing, Hema.
● Computer: JavaScript; basic HTML web design; graphical game design with Construct 3 and
GitHub; link-based game design with Twine.