The SCRELE 2019 with the theme of Language Teaching for Young Learners was held on September 21-22, 2019 at the Hongkou Campus of SISU (Shanghai International Studies University).
The conference invited renowned experts from home and abroad to give presentations, including Professor Yuko Butler from University of Pennsylvania, Professor Cheng Xiaotang from Beijing Normal University, Professor Rod Ellis from Curtin University, Professor Janet Enever from King’s College London, Professor María del Pilar García Mayo from University of the Basque Country, Professor Gong Yafu from China National Academy of Education Sciences, Professor Jonathan Newton from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and Associate Professor Annamaria Pinter from University of Warwick, UK. The conference attracted more than two hundred researchers, teacher educators and front-line teachers from all over the world. During the conference, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, Oxford University Press, Multilingual Matters Press and John Benjamins Press set up a special book exhibition on the practice and research of foreign language education for young learners.
The opening ceremony was hosted by Professor Shu Dingfang, the chief expert of SCRELE. He said that since its establishment, SCRELE has been committed to research and reform of foreign language teaching for young people, and this conference aims to provide a platform for researchers, teacher educators and front-line teachers in related fields to exchange and discuss the latest research and practical achievements in the field of foreign language teaching for young people.
Rod Ellis, Professor at Curtin University and Chair Professor at Shanghai International Studies University, gave a keynote speech entitled “Doing task-based language teaching with beginner-level learners”. Professor Ellis reviewed the theoretical basis of task-based language teaching in the field of second language acquisition and explained the content and steps of task-based language teaching with examples, pointing out the significance and feasibility of using communicative tasks in primary school English class.
Professor María del Pilar García Mayo, Editor-in-Chief of Language Teaching Research and Professor at the University of the Basque Country, Spain, gave a keynote speech entitled “Primary school children using collaborative tasks in an EFL setting: Findings from research and challenges ahead”. There are significant differences on second language acquisition between children and adults. Future challenges may include: how to deal with the ethical and moral issues involved in research; how to strengthen the collaboration between teachers and researchers; how to highlight the importance of teachers, students and the learning environment in research; how to pay attention to the individual differences of learners.
Professor Janet Enever of King’s College London organized an invited seminar on the theme “Global forces, diverse solutions: Implementing primary foreign language policies worldwide”. The aim of the seminar was to answer questions about policy initiatives to promote foreign language teaching and learning at the primary level around the world through research with teachers, schools, policy makers and other stakeholders, and analysis of policy documents.
Professor Gong Yafu, researcher of the China National Academy of Education Sciences and chairman of the Professional Committee of Foreign Language Teaching of the Chinese Society of Education, gave a keynote speech entitled “Integrating of English language education into whole-person development”. Professor Gong believes that we should look at English education from the perspective of children’s development, and that English learning should place more emphasis on thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and the cultivation of good character and virtues that are common to all cultures.
On the afternoon of September 21 and September 22, 70 breakout sessions were held in which scholars from all over the world shared their research results, expressed their opinions, and discussed issues in the fields of task-based language teaching, classroom teaching, materials development, education and development of teachers, information-based language teaching, and language assessment. Experts and scholars expressed that the conference was very fruitful, and the success of the conference played a positive role in promoting the development of research on youth foreign language teaching and further promoting international exchange in the field of youth foreign language education; the conference also provided a valuable learning platform for front-line language teachers, who benefited greatly from exchanging their confusion and thoughts on teaching with experts and peers at home and abroad.
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