The Speakers

 

 

 

ZHU, Hua

Zhu Hua is Professor of Language Learning and Intercultural Communication and Director of International Centre for Intercultural Studies at the Institute of Education, University College London (UCL), UK.  She is an elected Fellow of Academy of Social Sciences, UK and Fellow and Elected Board member of the International Academy for Intercultural Research. She is Chair of British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) since 2021. Her main research interests span across multilingual and intercultural communication and child language. She is book series co-editor for Routledge Studies in Language and Intercultural Communication; Cambridge Key Topics in Applied Linguistics; and Cambridge Elements in Applied Linguistics.  She served as an Education sub-panel member, UK REF 2021,  an Education panel member, Hong Kong UGC Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) 2020, and Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) Linguistics and Psychology sub-panel Chair (2021-2023).

 Keynote Speech 1  ‘Where are you really coming from?’: Language, Culture and Identity

 “你究竟从哪来？”：语言、文化和身份

 

In December, 2022, Lady Susan Hussey, a former lady-in-waiting to the late Queen Elizabeth II, resigned from her role as a royal aide at Buckingham Palace after she was heard repeatedly asking the questions such as ‘where are you really coming from’ to a black charity boss in a social event. This is an example in which intercultural conversations are imbued with identity negotiation which may have serious consequence.  In this talk, I will provide an overview of interculturality research that focuses on the role of interactions and discursive practices in negotiating the relevance of (cultural) identities and differences between self-oriented and ascribed identities. I will discuss its contributions to a nuanced understanding of what people do with cultural identities and in particular, how it can help us resist stereotypes and challenge Othering. 

MUNRO, Murray

Murray Munro is a Professor of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His published works address a variety of topics in applied phonetics. They include numerous journal articles and several authored, co-authored and co-edited books, such as Applying Phonetics: Speech Science in Everyday Life (2020, Wiley-Blackwell) and Pronunciation Fundamentals (John Benjamins, 2015), co-written with Tracey Derwing. His perspective on L2 pronunciation emphasizes intelligibility and comprehensibility in both research and teaching. Most recently, he has turned his attention to inter-speaker variability in L2 segmental production.

Keynote Speech 2: What do we mean by “individual differences” in L2 phonetic learning

什么是二语语音习得中的“个体差异”？

 

JING-SCHMIDT, Zhuo

Zhuo Jing-Schmidt is Professor of Chinese Linguistics and PI of the Oregon Chinese Flagship Program in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Oregon. She holds a BA and an MA in German from Peking University, an MA in Germanic Linguistics from UCLA, and received her PhD in General Linguistics from the University of Cologne, Germany. She was a recipient of the Lise-Meitner Award, and research grants from the Fritz-Thyssen Foundation, the German Research Foundation, as well as the U.S. Institute of International Education. Dr. Jing-Schmidt researches and teaches at the interface of language, culture, emotion, cognition, society, and second/foreign language learning. She publishes in three languages – English, Chinese, and German and has placed her work in leading international journals and academic presses. She is Executive Editor of Chinese Language and Discourse.

keynote Speech 3: Logical cohesion in advanced L2 Chinese writings

汉语作为第二语言高年级学生写作中的逻辑衔接

 

The use of cohesive devices in L2 writing directly relates to judgment of essay quality and writing fluency (Crossly et al. 2016; Sugita 2012; Tien et al. 2021). Research on the use of logical cohesive devices in L2 Chinese writing by L1 English learners suggests a complex picture. There is evidence of overuse, underuse, and misuse of connectives (高霞, 2016; Zhang et al. 2022), but also evidence of a generally underuse of logical cohesive devices（王丽/严莎莎, 2016). This study reports preliminary findings from a corpus study that examined logical cohesive devices in the form of conjunctions used in advanced L2 Chinese writings in comparison to a large native Chinese natural language corpus. The results show an overall match of the most frequently used logical conjunctions. However, the L2 and the L1 corpus differ greatly in both type and token frequencies. While L2 writers use fewer distinct types of conjunctions, their writings show a strong tendency of overuse of the most common conjunctions. The study has implications for theories of interlanguage development and Chinese second language pedagogy.  

 

LI, Ping

Ping Li is Sin Wai Kin Professor in Humanities and Technology, Chair Professor of Neurolinguistics and Bilingual Studies, and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He previously served as President of the Society for Computation in Psychology and Program Director at the U.S. National Science Foundation while being a Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Information Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. Li’s research is focused on investigating the neurocognitive and computational bases of language acquisition, bilingualism, and reading comprehension in both children and adults. He uses cognitive neuroscience methods and digital technologies to study neuroplasticity and individual differences in learning and in understanding the relationships among language, culture, technology, and the brain. Li is currently Editor-in-Chief of Brain and Language and Senior Editor of Cognitive Science. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Keynote Speech 4:  Digital Language Learning (DLL): Computational and Neurocognitive Mechanisms  

数字语言学习及其计算和认知神经机制

 

How can we leverage advances in digital technology and computational power to enhance language learning? In an era of widespread digital application and innovation, our understanding of the interaction between humans and technology has lagged behind. In this talk, I outline an approach that combines emerging technologies and data-driven methodologies with current computational and neuro-cognitive theories, in an effort to gain insights into language learning and bilingual representation. This approach highlights interactive mechanisms (bottom-up and top-down) and integrative processes (theory and application) that enable us to understand the differences between child and adult language learning, as well as individual differences in diverse language learning contexts. Computational and neurocognitive studies in this domain also have significant implications for application of AI and machine learning in personalized education, which is especially relevant in light of today’s rapid developments in large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT.

 

CHEN, Zhongmin

Dr. Zhongmin Chen is a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, and an adjunct professor at the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence at Fudan University. He is also an adjunct professor and the deputy director of the academic committee in the Institute of Modern Languages and Linguistics at Fudan University. Dr. Chen earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2000. His research interests are experimental phonetics, neurolinguistics, historical linguistics, and Chinese dialectology. Dr. Chen also has other professional affiliations, including Vice President of the Chinese Neurolinguistic Society, Vice President of the Shanghai Language Society, Vice President of the Shanghai Language and Writing Workers Association, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Language Studies, board member of the Li Fang-Kuei Society for Chinese Linguistics, and chair of the International Li Fang-Kuei Field Work Award Committee (since Aug. 2015), associate editor of Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics, and senior expert of the Ninth People's Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.

Keynote Speech 5：语言接触中的双向动态语音变异

The Bidirectional Dynamic Phonetic Variation in Language Contact 

 

CHANG, Chenguang

Dr Chang Chenguang is a professor of linguistics at the School of International Studies, Sun Yat-sen University. Professor Chang’s research interests include systemic functional theory, discourse analysis, lexis and lexicography, and translation studies, and he has over 80 publications in these areas. His most recent publications include the following edited volumes: Linguistic Sustainability (Chang Chenguang & Yu Changsen, Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen University Press, 2020), Critical Discourse and Corpus Approaches to Systemic Functional Grammar (Josef Schmied, Chang Chenguang & Matthias Hofmann, Göttingen: Cuvillier, 2021), and Functional Approaches to Translation Studies (Si Xianzhu & Chang Chenguang, Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen University Press, 2022). He is also the series co-editor of The M.A.K. Halliday Library of Functional Linguistics Series (Springer).

 Keynote speech 6: Diomatic Expressions and Evaluative Force

 惯用语与评价语力 

Many idiomatic expressions in both English and Chinese have clear evaluative functions and are used to express different kinds of attitude. Working within the Appraisal framework developed by Martin and his colleagues (e.g. Martin 2000; Martin & Rose 2003/2007; Martin & White 2005), this paper focuses on how these idiomatic expressions in both languages serve to upgrade the evaluative force and heighten the interpersonal effect in discourse. It will be shown that while English and Chinese idioms share some common upscaling features such as the use of lexical metaphors, exaggeration and manipulation of metaphorical images, assumption of knowledge of shared cultural background on the part of the reader, Chinese idioms tend to make more use of repetition as an amplification device in general. This appears attributable to the typical conjoining internal structure of many Chinese idioms and the way in which synonymous idioms are used in combination in discourse. The use of number in Chinese idioms also seem to be a prominent feature as compared with English. 

References

Chang, C. G. 2004. English Idioms and Interpersonal Meanings. Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen University Press.

Martin, J.R. 2000. Beyond Exchange: Appraisal Systems in English, in Hunston, S. & Thompson, G. (eds.) Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 142-175.

Martin, J. R. & Rose, D. 2003/2007. Working with Discourse: Meaning Beyond the Clause. London: Continuum.

Martin, J. R. & White, P. 2005. The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English

Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Invited Symposia and Experts

1   Bilingualism and Diglossia

2   L2 Phonetics and Prosody Processing

3   The acquisition and processing of pragmatic inferences