Professor Wang Weiming, Executive Vice-Dean of SFL and Li Bin, the Director of Education Technology Center, were invited to attend the “Academic Seminar on Linguistic Intelligence and Improvement of Foreign Language Ability & the Second Conference of National Association of English Writing” from May 23rd to 24th in Beijing. The seminar was co-hosted by National Association of English Writing, Capital Normal University and Juku Correcing website. More than 200 representatives including Li Deyi, a member of Chinese Academy of Engineering, language and technology research experts, deans of the School of Foreign Languages and teaching experts of English writing from many universities presented at the seminar.
Focused on the topic of “Language and Technology”, the seminar published the “Blue Book-Research Reports on College Students’ English Writing” which was compiled by National Association of English Writing. On the morning of 23rd, Li Deyi, a member of Chinese Academy of Engineering, delivered the speech entitled “Positive Effect of Big Data on Language Ability”; Zhang Lu, a researcher from Beijing Research Institute of Linguistic Intelligence, introduced the progress made by the Innovation Center of Linguistic Intelligence and Technology Application and analyzed the big data obtained from “Research on Student’s English Writing Ability” held from April 10th to May 10th; and Yu Shiwen, a Professor from Institute of Computational Linguistics, Peking University, gave a report on “Natural Language Understanding and Language Depth Calculation”.
The deans, experts and representatives on the afternoon of 23rd shared their experience in teaching writing and their topics involved a wide range of areas such as big data and college English writing, thoughts on teaching writing and the use of writing correction website, reform in teaching college English and discipline-based transfer of teachers and so on. Yang Yiming, a Changjiang scholar appointed by Ministry of Education, the Vice-President of Jiangsu Normal University, the Dean of School of Linguistic Science, Jiangsu Normal University, reported on “Chinese Dream-Starting from Speaking”. The report introduced in detail how the only one School of Linguistic Science cooperate with such international renowned linguists as Noam Chomsky and the latest scientific progress of human language faculty made by their joint efforts, presenting a new outlook for the attendees. On behalf of our university, Professor Wang Weiming, the Executive Vice-Dean of SFL, reported on “Computer-aided Engineering English Writing”, in which he explained the concept of English writing and the importance of writing in the development of language proficiency. He specifically analyzed problems in the teaching of college English writing, introduced the reform progress and ideas of engineering English writing of our School, and finally gave opinions about the advantages and disadvantages of writing correction software and put forward some suggestions. Full of humor, his speech combined theoretical illustrations with case analysis, winning him praise from peers.
Advantages of integration of information technology and language teaching, current situations of college English teaching reform promoted by “Big Data Age” were discussed at the meeting, casting a new light on the English teaching and scientific research of SFL, which was of great practical significance.