early one hundred scholars and specialists attended the 18^th Cross-Strait Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Learning, which was held recently by Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), to discuss how to cultivate foreign language talents in a more efficient way.

The conference aims to explore new ways of foreign language teaching and learning which can foster talents with more systematic and efficient education.

SISU president Li Yansong pointed out at the opening ceremony that the complex international situation and the severe challenges that new technologies have brought.

With the integration of multiple cultures, students may become lack confidence in their own country's culture and find it difficult to comprehend other cultures.  

He emphasized that SISU talents should be confident in their own culture on the basis of understanding Chinese culture. Professors should try their best to encourage students immerse in “Multilingual +” educational initiative.

“We should stress the importance of technology, transformation and the exploration of the advanced fields of language learning. With the help of technology, we can pay more attention to area-studies focused research to enhance international communication,” he said. 

Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China has been focusing on exchanges among universities from Chinese Mainland and Taiwan Province with the hope of making higher education in China more efficient. The conference can provide new ideas for expanding non-government exchanges and deepening development in education and culture, according to Shu Gangbo, Deputy Director of Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges. 

Zhang Jing, vice president of SISU, introduced the exploration of SISU in the development of cultivating foreign language talents.

SISU is dedicated to nurturing international talents for the globalized era, with a focus on improving the “Multilingual +” development strategy. According to SISU’s website, this training system means that all foreign language major students should complete bilingual study task. They can also study other foreign language courses through minoring in multiple languages or optional courses. 

SISU will gradually promote digitalization and intelligent development to make students have more personalized recommendations during the online learning. SISU has also built a talent development platform empowered by technology named Treenity or “zhihuishu”.

This platform has launched massive online courses for students covering multiple subjects. SISU also started to attach AI technology to the platform to analyze students’ preferences. With the help of AI, students can obtain their personalized recommendations in the platform.

Conference representatives from other universities also shared opinions on various topics such as Area country focused research and online education by sharing the past experiences.

Sun Youzhong, vice president of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), pointed out that Area country focused research has been the hot area of foreign language teaching research. Sun added that the challenge of insufficient teaching staff should be addressed and it’s significant to help students establish their own knowledge framework.

Zhuang Huiling, president of Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages (WZU), stressed the significance of the combination of online and offline education. “It is a good timing that we should integrate and coordinate these two education modes to make foreign language learning more efficient,” she said. 

Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU) employs a similar education strategy with SISU in training multilingual talents. It’s important for students to integrate theoretical learning of language with practice, according to Liu Jiwen, Dean of FJU’s College of Foreign Languages. 

Cross-Strait Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Learning was initiated in 2004 by WZU, FJU, BFSU and SISU. The conference is held annually, and the host university alternates between the four schools. The next conference will be held at FJU.