Dr. Winnifred Tang

Ph.D. Special Education (Learning Disabilities), University of British Columbia

M.Ed. English Language Education (TESL), University of British Columbia

B.A. History of Fine Arts, University of British Columbia

Dr. Winnifred Tang holds a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of British Columbia. She specialized in the diagnosis and intervention of dyslexia in her doctoral work. Dr. Tang focused on teaching academic reading and writing for ESL/EFL college students in her Master of Education degree; as such, she has an in-depth understanding on how non-native English speakers learn to read and write in English. This has helped her tremendously in her present work where she has to diagnose learning disabled ESL students who are dyslexic and not able to benefit from regular ESL instruction in school.

Dr. Winnifred Tang has had extensive experience in doing teachers’ training for academic institutions. She has taught pre-service elementary and high school teachers at UBC in courses dealing with learning disabilities; as well, she has trained ESL teachers in China for post-secondary institutions.

In the 1980’s, Dr. Winnifred Tang lived in Hong Kong for a period of time where she worked in various higher education institutions, recruiting and training English teachers as well as designing English language programs. Dr. Tang’s expertise in the recruitment and training of teaching staff for academic institutions is an asset for her present work. She regularly recruits and trains tutors to deliver Special Education Intervention to her clients according to the specifications of her intervention design.

Dr. Tang believes in life-long learning and keeps current on research in her professional field as well as in related fields through the UBC library on a daily basis through the use of high-tech tools. She also uses high-tech learning tools to help her Special Education clients to maximize their potential in academic learning.

According to Dr. Winnifred Tang, she became involved in Special Education and focused her research on learning disabilities because she loves life and everything that makes us “human”. She believes that without a mastery of language, we miss out on many good things in life. This is why she has devoted her professional life to helping those with a language-based learning disability such as dyslexia.

Dr. Tang’s background in Art History and her love of music have an influence on her approach to Special Education Intervention. She believes in training students with minds that can operate on multiple levels and tries to engage students in “multi-sensory learning” as much as possible.

Having a wide and varied network of professional friends gives Dr. Tang an advantage in recruiting tutors for her clients. As a rule, she chooses multi-talented individuals to train as tutors for each Special Education Intervention assignment.