From May 10 to 12, 2019, the 2nd International Conference of Sociocultural Theory and L2 Teaching, co-hosted by the School of Foreign Languages of Xi'an Jiaotong University and the China Second Language Research Society, was held in Xi'an. Teachers from the Second Department of College English attended this meeting and presented their paper abstracts.
Professor James Lantolf of University from Pennsylvania, Professor Zhangjun from University of Auckland, Professor Xu Jinfen from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Professor Yang Luxin from Beijing Foreign Studies University and other experts at home and abroad attended the conference. They had a thorough discussion with teachers from various universities on the latest trends and innovation cooperation in the field of second language teaching and research.
The conference includes four parts: workshop, experts’ keynote speeches, paper presentation and open discussion.
Professor Zhang Jun made a keynote speech entitled "Teachers’ Learning in This Changing Era—Effectiveness of Classroom Teaching and Teachers’ cognition"; he emphasized several aspects of teachers’ cognition, including teachers’ belief, knowledge reserve, teaching values and teaching reflection. Dr. Eduardo Negueruela-Azarola from University of Navarra (Spain) made a speech entitled "Revolutionary Research and Teachers’ Development from Socio-Cultural Perspective"; based on the theories in sociocultural psychology, his paper explained how foreign language teachers apply their practice theory to theoretical researches, which is a form of transformative research. Professor Yang Luxin made a speech entitled "Research-oriented Classroom: A Bridge across Theory and Practice"; taking two English teachers' classroom teaching for example, he introduced SSR (Continuous Silent Reading) method and thinking guidance method respectively. Professor Xu Jinfen gave an academic report entitled "Learning by Chinese English Language Teachers from a socio-cultural Perspective". Professor James Lantolf gave a special report entitled "Perception of the Development of Second Language Teachers—Dialectics about Feeling".
In the group discussion, teachers present papers on social culture and concept teaching, teachers’ development, teaching evaluation, culture, literature and teaching. They also discussed the development of second language teachers and the theory of second language teaching. Teachers from our college presented papers on teachers' self-awareness and teaching modes interaction, which aroused interest from the participants and received positive feedback.
After the meeting, Professor James Lantolf and Professor Xu Jinfen unveiled the nameplate of the "East Asia SCT Union".
The seminar is a high-level international conference in the field of social culture and second language teaching. Scholars at home and abroad have conducted in-depth dialogues in relevant research fields, which will play an active role in serving the national strategy in language and culture and enhancing the level of English teaching and research.
