The Center for Language Education successfully held its 3rd annual autumn conference on December 29th. The CLE annual conference is an opportunity for the SUSTech community to share their knowledge and skills on teaching and learning with others. The theme for our 2020 conference was “Reimagining English Education Post COVID-19.” We invited both faculty members and students to share their stories of coping with online teaching and learning during the pandemic. New ideas, effective strategies, insights, as well as positive learning outcomes were also celebrated at the conference.
Appropriate for our hard-won knowledge this year, the keynote speech was delivered by Dr. Jun Liu using video conferencing software. Dr. Liu is professor of Linguistics, Vice President and Vice Provost for Global Affairs, and Dean of international Academic Programs and Services at Stony Brook University. Dr. Liu’s keynote speech mentioned the changes in teacher cognition, teaching methodology, curriculum development, assessment and evaluation, and offered 10 predictions for the future of ELT in the coming post COVID-19 era.
Dr. Jun Liu presenting via video conferencing software
Throughout the day, as the 13 featured presenters shared their discoveries and experiences, the many connections became clear. Despite the initial struggles of online teaching and learning, both our educators and students developed adaptive strategies to this new norm in our life. While we grew strengths embedding new technologies in our curriculum, we also paid more attention to the digital interaction in teaching and learning. As we all agreed content-based language education is becoming more prominent, we are also seeking inter-disciplinary collaborations within and beyond.
Speakers from CLE and SUSTech students
We also invited speakers from the department of Mechanical Engineering in SUSTech, 3rd People’s Hospital of Shenzhen and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. They all shared valuable perspectives on teaching and learning under the era of COVID-19 and brought possible future collaboration opportunities with CLE.
Dr. Yan Wei from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in SUSTech （top), Weijia Kang from 3rd People’s Hospital of Shenzhen (middle) and Martina Dorn from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (bottom)
The conference is a sound demonstration of the CLE’s commitment to teaching excellence. It also demonstrates a strong belief that our knowledge is created together with students, other departments, and even other institutions. Dr. Yuan Li helped to initiate the yearly conference in 2018. According to Dr. Li, the initiative of holding the CLE annual conference is to enhance the excellence of teaching and learning in English at SUSTech. The CLE, Li says, will never stop its development of a promising and excellent language center with a global vision in China.
CLE Director Dr. Yuan Li giving a speech
Group photo of the conference participants
