The Center for Language Education (CLE) successfully held its 4th annual conference on January 6, 2022. The conference highlighted shared teaching and learning experiences in an English context at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech).

The theme for this year’s conference was “We Teach for a Shared Future – Inspired, Motivated, and Empowered Together.” After the successful completion of three CLE conferences in past years, with wider acceptance and recognition, the 4th conference received more attention.

Twenty presentations were delivered on the day. Presenters, including both faculty members and students, shared facts and offered their opinions and experiences on teaching and learning. An award ceremony was held at the end to give further encouragement and empowerment to our students.

The 4th CLE Conference on Teaching and Learning

This year, Dr. Bonnie Youngs, Full Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, delivered the conference keynote speech. Dr. Youngs co-directs and teaches in the Masters in Applied Second Language Acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University. She is also the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Modern Languages. Her courses include “Teaching methodologies for the foreign language classroom” and “Teaching modern languages and cultures”.

Dr. Bonnie Youngs, the conference keynote speaker

In this one-day conference, the featured presenters shared their discoveries and experiences, which consolidated their beliefs on teaching and learning. Through English and other subjects discussed, one common feature among all the presentations was how we understood student learning and our relationship to that learning. Learning is not an active compliance in the acquisition of the course concepts, but an active and reflective construction of those concepts. As teachers, they teach as learners who facilitate students’ construction of knowledge, and they learn together with them.

Speakers from CLE in the morning session

Afternoon Panel 1, G309 Lynn Library

Afternoon Panel 2, Room 301, Administrative Building

The conference also invited speakers from other departments at and outside of SUSTech, including the Department of Design, Center for Social Sciences, the Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, the School of Medicine, and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. They all shared valuable perspectives on teaching and learning, and brought possible future collaboration opportunities with CLE.

Guest speakers

The conference demonstrates CLE’s commitment to teaching excellence together with its SUSTech community members. It also demonstrates the focus of their education in empowering students with knowledge and skills.

Dr. Yuan LI, Director of the CLE, believes that learning in universities is the construction of meaning through language as a system and its use. The quality of meaning and learning achieved is dependent on the extent and quality of exchange between teachers and students. Therefore, in a learning-focused community, knowledge is pursued with a broader sense of rationality, along with the value and power of creativity of the human mind.

“Teaching for a Shared Future sums up our approaches to teaching and learning. We are inspired, motivated, and empowered together! The CLE will never stop its development of a promising and excellent language center with a global vision in China,” said Dr. LI.

Dr. Yuan LI, Director of the CLE, giving a speech

Group photo of the conference participants