FHSS Invites Distinguished Expert to Deliver Lecture

05 July 2022


In late June the School of Education and English and the Language Centre, supported by the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office, invited distinguished expert Professor Yuming Li from the Beijing Language and Culture University to deliver a lecture entitled ‘Language: a Boundary Marker and/or a Conduit between Cultures’. It attracted almost 800 viewers both online and offline.

Professor Yuming Li, is a holder of the prestigious China State Council Special Allowance. He is the chief expert of the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Language Resources (ACLR) at Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU), president of the Lexicographical Society of China (LSOC), president of the Institute of Language Policy and Planning of Chinese Language Society (CLS), president of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL) (2016-2017), as well as the chief editor of the Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning and Journal of Language Planning. Professor Li has also worked for various units and departments in China’s Ministry of Education. He has held appointments as the deputy director of the National Language Committee, director of the Department of Language Information Management, director of the Institute of Applied Linguistics, chairman of the Council of BLCU, and vice president of Central China Normal University. Professor Li’s research interests encompass theoretical linguistics, syntactics, psycholinguistics, and language planning. He has published more than 40 books and over 600 academic papers, which have been translated into Mongolian, Tibetan, Uygur, Japanese, French, English, Russian, Korean and Italian.

Professor Patrick Chau, vice provost for research and knowledge exchange, Professor Gary Rawnsley, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Dr. Derek Irwin, head of school for Education and English also attended the lecture.

Professor Patrick Chau pointed out in his welcome speech that ‘The year 2022 marks the 18th anniversary of UNNC, signifying the university has marched into adulthood. With more maturity, the university is ready to make a greater impact on education in China.’ He elaborated, saying that the focal theme of the lecture was to discuss how, as a subset of humanities and social sciences, the education of language and culture is able to nurture talents with a global mindset and local awareness and the experience and mission of a Sino-British university like UNNC. He added that he hoped that Professor Li’s lecture will help to push the UNNC community’s boundaries of knowledge and deliver world-leading research to solve today’s global challenges.

Professor Gary Rawnsley introduced the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences to guests and explained how language plays an essential role in today’s global world. It is for this reason that the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences has always been committed to developing students' multilingualism and intercultural communication skills. The School of Education and English uses English as a vehicle to help students understand how language has developed into a tool of communication for all human beings and to promote an understanding of the nature of teaching and learning, thereby developing their critical thinking, communication skills, analytical skills and cultural awareness. FHSS’s Language Centre provides students with the opportunity to learn another language, helping them to broaden their horizons, enjoy the benefits brought by multiculturalism, and improve their employability. They are also strong examples that showcase FHSS’s mission and vision.

During the lecture, Professor Li explained the nature of language, the development of translanguaging, and the importance of a barrier-free society to participants. He also offered valuable advice on the construction of a barrier-free society in light of the developments of today's world. According to Professor Li, Language and its variants serve as a bridge for cultural groups to communicate, as well as a communicator and transmitter of culture. Therefore, learning another language can to a large extent help us seek common ground while despite differences. At the same time, with the development of the modern world, translation is now playing a more comprehensive and important role in reducing communication barriers, misunderstandings and language conflict. To continue this journey, it is of vital importance to implement multilingualism, to strengthen comprehensive multilingual education, and to develop automatic machine translation.

Professor Li concluded the lecture by encouraging each of us to work to protect local dialects, learn foreign languages, and improve translation skills, which are not only important ourselves, but society as a whole.

As knowledge exchange pioneer, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences has always been committed to promoting exchanges and interactions between different disciplines. In the future, FHSS will continue to invite more leading scholars in different disciplines from both home and abroad to provide more opportunities for our students to expand their horizons and gain further insight and valuable knowledge.

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