[Academic News]CIAALR held successfully in WHU

Directed by the Department of Language Information Management, Ministry of Education, and organized by the College of Chinese Language and Literature, Wuhan University and the National Institute of Chinese Language Matters and Social Development together with its affiliated institution, the Fourth Seminar on the Collaborative Innovation Alliance of Young and Middle-Aged Scholars in Applied Linguistics Research (CIAALR) was successfully held in Wuhan University and Future City Hotel from October 27th to 28th.

Present at the seminar were Vice-Chair of the University Council Shen Zhuanghai, Professor of Peking University Lu Jianming, Deputy Director of the Department of Language Information Management Li Qiang, Alliance Initiator and Professor Yang Chunyu, Professor of Xiamen University Su Xinchun, Professor of the University of Queensland Chen Ping, Vice President of the College of Chinese Language and Literature of Wuhan University Yu Ting, Professor Zhao Shiju, Professor He Lin as well as other young and mid-career scholars in linguistics.

Experts present at the seminar

The theme of the seminar—Development Opportunities and Missions in Language Research for the New Era—covereds a wide range of issues including the linguistic demands for the new era, language service for a better life and linguistic research with artificial intelligence. They are cutting-edge topics closely related to real-life. A country’s language capability is inextricably linked to its economic and social development. In the new era, young and mid-career linguistic scholars are confronted with new missions and standards.. “This seminar aims to make an active response to the major pragmatic needs.” Shen Zhuanghai said at the opening ceremony.

After the opening ceremony, Prof. Lu Jianming delivered a speech, expecting the junior scholars’ to enhance the awareness new era’s tasks and mak endeavor to foster their independent research capabilities. He said that a nation’s language capability is one of the prerequisites for successful international communication in an information age featuring big data, cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT).

In terms of younger scholars, laying a solid and broad foundation of professionalism is their first priority. “In an attempt to broaden your scope of knowledge, you should not only read up relevant monographs but also vigorously participate in language practice through survey and teaching activities”, Lu said. When it comes to research capabilities, Prof. Lu laid particular emphasis on the ability to discover questions. “As essential as the abilities of analyzing and problem-solving are, discovering questions ourselves is the starting point of advancing toward academic success. We can capture questions either from our textbooks or our daily life.”

Professor Lu Jianmingdelivering aspeech

Besides invited reports, the seminar also included group discussions and thematic dialogues. On October 28th, five sub-forums took place in parallel at the College of Chinese Language and Literature, WHU. Young and mid-career scholars fully exchanged views on current language hotspots such as family language planning, dialect protection, the language of new media, the operation of college bilingual websites and mandarin teaching in Hong Kong, Macao and foreign countries.

The seminar concluded at 2pm.This two-day symposium helped attendees get a better understanding of current of language issues and guide their future research.

Group photo of all participants present at the seminar

Photo by Yang Qian

Edited by Li Yushan and Hu Sijia