Matt Coss

Matt Coss received his BA in Hispanic Linguistics and Asian Studies (Chinese) with a minor in Entrepreneurship from UNC Chapel Hill and his MA in Second Language Acquisition from the University of Maryland College Park. In addition to teaching Chinese classes of all levels at GWU, Matt works as a Second Language Acquisition Specialist on the STARTALK project at the National Foreign Language Center. Prior to coming to GWU, Matt has taught Chinese at Georgetown University and Washington Yuying Public Charter School and has also worked in various roles in STARTALK summer Chinese programs including: teacher’s assistant, co-teacher, instructor, lead instructor, curriculum consultant and teacher trainer.

In addition to his work teaching Chinese, Matt has worked as a Spanish language instructor at every age and proficiency level from novice children to advanced proficiency adult learners and profession-specific (medical school students, engineers, lawyers, etc.) students. The time spent in different classrooms with a range of very different students sparked an interest in what makes for successful language learning and teaching, in both commonly taught and less commonly taught languages. Matt has also given presentations at state and national language conferences, including the NCLC and ACTFL. Matt was also rated Superior on the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) in Chinese in 2015.