Last weekend of October 22 and 23 witnessed convening of the 7th Annual Forum on Second Language Acquisition and the opening ceremony of the Institute for Research on Languages and Wellbeing at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). Centering on the theme of "Bilingualism and Wellbeing", the forum was held both online and offline. The opening ceremony of the forum was presided over by Qing Tao, deputy dean of the School of Foreign Languages of SJTU .

 

Ansheng Zhang, Member of the Standing Committee and vice president of SJTU , pointed out that as a "comprehensive, innovative and international" world-class university, SJTU has made steady progress in promoting innovation-oriented multidisciplinary research and talent training. He said that the establishment of the Institute for Research on Languages and Wellbeing embodies not only the interdisciplinary development of SJTU, but also the discipline development of SJTU serving the "Healthy China" strategy.

 

 

Lianrui Yang, chairman of the Second Language Acquisition Committee of the China Association for Comparative Studies of English and Chinese, said that the conference was not only an annual event for research on second language acquisition, but also an important witness to  the development of linguistics at SJTU. He explained that the China Association for Comparative Studies of English and Chinese would continue to carry out interdisciplinary research on second language acquisition and make more contributions to the development of foreign language discipline, talent training, language situation, life and health, and international exchanges in the new era of China. 

 

 

Jian Ding, Party Secretary of the School of Foreign Languages at SJTU, spoke on behalf of the school. He said that in recent years, the School of Foreign Languages had gained outstanding achievements in scientific research and personnel training in languages and health, thanks to the comprehensive discipline advantage of SJTU. Ding remarked that the establishment of the Institute will help to deepen the interdisciplinary integration, construct the theoretical systems, transfer science into high technology, make new contributions to healthy China strategy and a human community with a shared future. 

 

 

Hui Chang, dean of the School of Foreign Languages of SJTU, gave a general introduction to the Institute for Research on Languages and Wellbeing. He said that the School of Foreign Languages had actively explored new development paths to promote integrated research on arts, science, medicine, engineering, and new humanity and arts. According to Chang, the Participation in Research Program, which started in 2017, aims to cultivate the undergraduates’ ability of scientific research in their early academic careers. A large number of high-level talents have been trained in the field of language and health since then.
The opening ceremony of the Institute for Research on Languages and Wellbeing at SJTU was  held at 9 am on Oct. 22. After that, scholars from home and abroad delivered talks on the theme of "Bilingualism and Well-being", exploring the relationship between L2 acquisition and human health from different perspectives. 

 

 

Professor Yiming Yang from Jiangsu Normal University gave an extensive review of the history of language disorders and development of clinical linguistics in China, particularly the work done by Jiangsu Normal University. Professor Gang Cui of Tsinghua University discussed the close relationship between language, cognition, and nervous system. He believed that language training activities like second language acquisition is beneficial to the brain development of children and adolescents, and can slow down brain degradation and foster recovery of brain function. Focusing on the theme of "Linguistics and neuroscience", Dr. Matthew Wallensky from East Carolina University in the U.S. discussed the characteristics of sentence comprehension impairments in aphasic patients based on event-related potential technology. Professor Chuanbin Ni from Nanjing Normal University discussed the influence of foreign languages on the five senses in general and differences between mother tongue and foreign languages in particular.

For the theme of "Diagnosis and rehabilitation of aphasia", Yumei Zhang, deputy director of Rehabilitation Department of Tiantan Hospital affiliated to Beijing Capital Medical University, discussed assessment and rehabilitation of aphasia based on neuroimaging technology. Yuxiao Xie, former director of Rehabilitation Department of China-Japan Friendship Hospital, shared her clinical expertise on optimized rehabilitation approaches to aphasia treatment.

 

 

With the theme of "Second Language Acquisition and Human Health", Professor Boping Yuan of SJTU discussed the potential contribution of linguistics and second language acquisition to human health and their positive roles in the "Healthy China" strategy. Professor Napoleon Katesus from the University of Cambridge discussed the positive effects of a second language (multilingual) environment on the cognition of children with autism. Professor Thomas Baker of the University of Edinburgh highlighted the importance of bilingualism for research into brain disorders like aphasia and dementia, exploring the positive effects of learning a foreign language on the brain across the life span. Professor Jenny Gibson of the University of Cambridge reported their results of experiments on children with neurodevelopmental disabilities who proved to have performed well in a bilingual or multilingual environment.

Students from different universities also gave their online talks in four parallel sessions in the evening of Oct. 22. 

Professor Jinfen Xu from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Dr. Qian Qian from Shanghai Sunshine Rehabilitation Center, and Profess Jingyu Zhang from Xi 'an International Studies University also gave inspiring speeches on this theme in the Round Table session in the afternoon of Oct. 23. 

At the closing ceremony, Professor Jinfen Xu made a concluding speech. She expressed her heartfelt thanks to the participating teachers and students both online and offline. She concluded that the forum was successful with its novel themes, high-end orientation, interdisciplinary nature and rich content. She believed that second language acquisition was very promising and urged researchers in this field to work together to make more contributions to its future development.