Learner. Teacher. Researcher. Designer.

I study how multilingual children and families make meaning with AI and design with them so their languages, cultures, and stories belong.

M.A. Bilingual/Bicultural Education · Teachers College, Columbia University
Yuxiao Yang outdoors with a corgi
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StoryPainter

An AI story studio for children’s art, language, and voice.

Visit StoryPainter ↗
INSIDE THE EXPERIENCEiPad app
StoryPainter drawing and coloring interface

Guided drawing and coloring give children a visual way into the story.

Children should not have to wait for fluency to tell their stories.

MY ROLE

Learning experience
designer

DESIGN DECISIONS

Adaptive prompts · First-language support · Voice

FROM DESIGN TO INQUIRY

An earlier version supported my teacher-inquiry study of multilingual children’s narrative agency.

I partnered with an engineer on implementation.Product screens only. No child participant data shown.
WRITING SAMPLE

Before the Words Arrive

Trans-Modal Narrative Agency in Multilingual Children’s AI Co-Creation

The question

How do children begin, interpret, and revise stories before they can fully express their ideas in English?

The study

Teacher inquiry with three trilingual children, using thematic analysis of session videos, story artifacts, and reflective memos.

Children personified, inferred, and revised stories ahead of their English fluency.

THE CONCEPT I PROPOSE

Trans-Modal
Narrative Agency

The capacity to begin, negotiate, and revise story meaning across visual and verbal modes, ahead of fluency in the target language.

FOUR FORMS OF AUTHORIAL CONTROL
  • DecodingRead meaning into AI visuals
  • NamingConnect concepts to new words
  • InterpretingReason about characters’ emotions and intentions
  • AuthoringQuestion and revise AI stories
RESEARCH ASSISTANT · TEACHERS COLLEGE

Research in practice.

September 2025 – May 2026

Language Portraits & Multilingual Identity

Qualitative Coding
Images + reflections

I built a multi-level coding framework for students’ language portraits and reflective texts to examine multilingual identity.

Methods & contribution

I compared code frequencies across the two sources to trace patterns in multilingual identity and embodied language experience.

Teacher Reflections with BERTopic

Topic Modeling · Qualitative Synthesis
365+ paragraphs
40+ topics

I evaluated LACOID and BERTopic, chose BERTopic to identify topics in teacher reflections, and then synthesized those topics into meta themes.

Methods & contribution

I evaluated each tool’s limits before selecting BERTopic to classify multilingual teacher reflections for a bilingual teacher education study. Computational analysis supported close qualitative reading.

PRISMA Systematic Review

Evidence Synthesis
655 records
83 included studies

I ran a PRISMA systematic review across five databases and documented the search, screening, and exclusion workflow.

Methods & contribution

Databases: ERIC, Scopus, Web of Science, Education Research Complete, and Academic Search Premier. I screened 655 records down to 83 included studies.

Yuxiao Yang holding her finalist certificate at the Teachers College 3MT event
RESEARCH COMMUNICATION3MT Research FinalistTeachers College · 2026
LOOKING AHEAD

Questions I want to pursue.

Multimodal authorship

How do children move meaning across drawing, speech, and languages?

Home languages

When do generative tools support or sideline children’s home languages?

Teacher mediation

How do teachers recognize and support children’s authorship with AI?

Yuxiao Yang at Bellefonte Area High School
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania · 2024

Certified teacher. Three languages.
Experience from Pre-K to adult.

Across three languages and classrooms from Pre-K to adult, I work to make learning a place where every language a child speaks belongs.

Teaching Spanish in high school, leading Mandarin for children from Pre-K to grade 5, and more than 2,000 hours of one-on-one instruction in three languages shape the questions I bring to research.

Teaching & field research details

Spanish Student Teacher

Bellefonte Area High School, Pennsylvania · 2023 to 2024

Taught five sections of Spanish I and III Honors to more than 120 students and received an Exemplary overall rating on my final evaluation.

Lead Chinese Teacher

PK to 5 World Language Camp, Pennsylvania · 2024

Designed differentiated Mandarin curricula for more than 100 children across six rotating groups, using calligraphy and hands-on tasks to help young learners feel ready to speak.

Language Tutor

Preply · 2024 to present

Taught more than 60 emergent bilinguals in English, Spanish, and Mandarin, with a 4.9 out of 5 rating across more than 2,000 hours.

Field Researcher

Samara Community School, New York · 2024

Evaluated a Spanish and English dual-language program through classroom observation and teacher interviews.

Pennsylvania K to 12 Spanish Instructional I Certification · ACTFL Advanced Low, Spanish

2016 / TEXAS

Houston.

Beginning high school in the United States.

01A NEW SCHOOL CONTEXT
2018 / WASHINGTON

Seattle.

Continuing at King’s High School.

02ACROSS PLACES
2020–2024 / PENNSYLVANIA

Penn State.

Studying languages. Preparing to teach.

B.S. in World Languages EducationB.A. in Spanish

My undergraduate studies connected language learning with teacher preparation, followed by Spanish student teaching and Mandarin instruction in Pennsylvania.

Two bachelor’s degreesTeacher certification · 2024
SPRING 2023 / SPAIN

Madrid.

A semester of language and area studies.

Exchange program at Universidad Complutense de Madrid during my undergraduate studies.

04SPANISH / LANGUAGE & AREA STUDIES
2024–2026 / NEW YORK

Teachers College.

Bringing practice into inquiry.

M.A. in Bilingual/Bicultural EducationTeachers College, Columbia University

Graduate study brought together bilingual education, research assistant work, learning experience design, and my teacher-inquiry study of children’s narrative agency.

  • Founders Award2024–2025
  • Graduate Assistantship Grant2025–2026
Yuxiao Yang wearing a light blue graduation gown
Graduation portrait