Galal Walker

Galal Walker is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at The Ohio State University, specializing in linguistics through his focus on Chinese pedagogy. He has directed the National East Asian Languages Resource Center and the OSU Midwest US-China Flagship Program, which enables American students to achieve superior proficiency in spoken and written Chinese via internships in Chinese workplaces through the Global Professional Service Corps. Walker has made enduring contributions to Chinese language study and less commonly taught languages, serving as President of the National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs; Steering Committee member of the National Council for the Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages; Executive Board member of the Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers' Association; and task force member for the College Board’s Chinese Advanced Placement Program. He currently presides over the Midwest US-China Association, a non-partisan organization advancing economic, educational, and cultural exchanges between China and Midwestern U.S. states. Walker spearheaded the creation of Ohio State’s World Media and Culture Center, a distinctive facility for language and culture learning, development, and exchanges, and implemented Individualized Instruction in Chinese at OSU. His investigations center on incorporating media into advanced language instruction.

Walker has secured major grants as principal investigator for Chinese: Communicating in the Culture from the U.S. Department of Education, the National Foreign Language Resource Center grant from the U.S. Department of Education, a development contract for Kaleidoscope: A Course in Intermediate to Advanced Spoken Cantonese from the Center for the Advancement of Language Learning, and a development grant from the Defense Language Institute. Prominent publications encompass co-authorship of Chinese: Communicating in the Culture and audio programs for beginning Mandarin; design and editing of the five-volume Kaleidoscope series and ancillaries; co-authorship of Learning Less Commonly Taught Languages: An Agreement on the Bases for the Training of Teachers published by OSU Foreign Language Publications; 'Design for an Intensive Chinese Curriculum' in Chinese Pedagogy: An Emerging Field edited by Scott McGinnis; contributions to Foreign Language Annals and Shaping the Future: Challenges and Opportunities from Northeast Conference Reports; and editing and contributing to The Pedagogy of Performing Another Culture in 2010. Honors include the China Language and Culture Friendship Award from the Ministry of Education of China in 2003, the first awarded to a recipient in the U.S. and English-speaking world, and the Qingdao Award from the People’s Government of the City of Qingdao in 2010 for enhancing the city’s social and economic life. Walker retired from The Ohio State University in 2023.

Professional Email: walker.17@osu.edu