In his opening remarks, Rector Jun Liu extended a warm welcome to the participating guests and scholars from around the world. He noted that this conference is a major academic event in celebration of CityU’s 45th anniversary and expressed his hope that it would further promote research in applied linguistics, the development of language education, and cross-cultural exchanges and cooperation. Rector Liu emphasized that Asia is growing into a core region for the development of applied linguistics, and that it is necessary to bring together the academic forces both within and beyond the region to build a sustainable platform for scholarly exchange. In the face of new opportunities and challenges brought about by rapid technological advances, he called for deeper integration of applied linguistics with other disciplines to strengthen cultivation of outstanding talents with international competitiveness, and support Asian scholars in playing a more significant role on the global academic stage.
The conference also marked the official debut of the Association of Applied Linguistics in Asia (Macao), which is committed to advancing teaching, research, and social service development in applied linguistics and related fields. At the same time, its affiliated academic journal, Studies of Applied Linguistics in Asia (SALA), was formally launched by the internationally renowned publisher Scilight.
In addition, CityU has built a talent development system covering bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs in applied linguistics, forming an integrated framework spanning the support of association, journal, and talent cultivation. This jointly provides a high-quality international platform for publishing cutting-edge research findings and nurturing future leaders in Asian linguistics.
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Prof. Shameem Rafik-Galea, president of the Malaysian Association of Applied Linguistics (MAAL); Prof. Kornwipa Poonpon, president of the Thai Association of Applied Linguistics (TAAL); Prof. He Wei, director of the National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education at BFSU; and Dr. Lee Zhang, representative of Scilight Publishing, delivered congratulatory speeches. The four guests congratulated the successful hosting of the conference and highly praised CityU’s efforts and commitment to advancing applied linguistics in Asia.
After the opening ceremony, visiting professor at the University of Warwick Prof. Martin Cortazzi, Beijing Normal University Prof. Yu Hui, and Beihang University Prof. Jiang Feng from also gave talks, sharing their latest research findings and academic insights in their respective fields, which further broadened the interdisciplinary research perspectives of the attendees.
On the same morning, the conference held two parallel sessions. Prof. Huang Guowen, associate dean of FHSS at CityU, proposed that applied linguistics should be re-conceptualized from a multidimensional network perspective. Prof. Li Defeng from University of Macau shared guidelines for large language model (LLM)-assisted academic writing, emphasizing that verification, transparency, and data security are central to academic research in the age of artificial intelligence.
Source: Faculty of Humanities and social sciences
