On the 5thof May,the 4thInternational Conference of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Teaching and Research in China was held at the Mingxiang Campus of Taiyuan University of Technology (TYUT). The event was hosted by TYUT, organized by the College of Foreign Languages, and supported by both the Higher Education Press and the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
The theme of the conference was Teaching and Researching EAP in Diverse Contexts in the New Era: Opportunities and Challenges.Itwas attended by over 230 specialists and scholars from more than 100 universities from China and abroad, includingMichigan State University,The University of Auckland, the University of Waikato,Beijing Foreign Studies University, Shanghai International Studies University, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Xi'an International Studies University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Tongji University, Beijing Normal University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Northeastern University and Chongqing University.
The opening ceremony was hosted by professor Liu Bin, the dean of the College of Foreign Languages. Professor Liang Weiguo, the vice-president of TYUT, delivered a speech, in which he extended the warm welcome of TYUT to all the specialists and scholars in attendance. He then described TYUT and its future aims, and noted the achievements of the College of Foreign Languages in language teaching and cultivation of new talent. The ceremony was attended by Yang Xinsheng, communist party secretary; Xu Jianzhong, editor in chief of the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press; and Zhou Junhua, deputy director of the foreign language publishing division of the Higher Education Press.
The conference lasted for two days. Special reports regarding EAP teaching and research were given by Huang Guowen, who is in the Changjiang Scholars program and who is a doctoral supervisor at South China Agricultural University; Cai Jigang, doctoral supervisor at Fudan University; Professor Charlene Polio, from the department of linguistics at Michigan State University; Lawrence Jun Zhang, a professor from the University of Auckland who is also a distinguished member of Shanxi’s ‘A Hundred-Talent Program'; Professor Michael Barlow from the University of Auckland; Doctor Ian Bruce from the University of Waikato; and Professor Liu Bin from TYUT. The conference was hosted by Zhao Wen, doctoral supervisor from Northeastern University; Zhang Lian, doctoral supervisor from Beijing Foreign Studies University; Deng Liming, doctoral supervisor from Wuhan University; and Yang Ruiying, doctoral supervisor from Xi'an Jiaotong University.
In the conference, 10 sub-forums were set up to divide up the speeches of 143 specialists and experts, who discussed 12 distinct topics, including EAP theory and teaching research, EAP research frontiers and trends, EAP in a global context, EAP and professional communication, the study of EAP and professional development for teachers, EAP testing and assessment, research on EAP corpora, research on EAP translation, research on mobile learning for EAP, and the study of EAP discourse from the perspective of system-functional linguistics.
TYUT fully appreciated the significance of the meeting, so first held a rehearsal meeting, with both teachers and students from several departments were actively involved in the preparation work. This international conference allowed for high-level academic exchange and cooperation, which will contribute to tackling the challenges that higher education will soon face in the new era. It is hoped that the conference has enhanced international communication about EAP teaching and research, and has improved TYUT’s own EAP research and training capabilities. The next internationalconference on EAP teaching and research will be held in 2019 at Tongji University.
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