On the morning of April 16th2015, New Zealand TESOL experts Associate Professor John Macalister and Dr Peter Gu from Victoria University of Wellington were invited to engage in an informal academic exchange with teachers and students from the Center of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics and Faculty of English Language and Culture. The discussion was hosted by Professor Wang Chuming, and warmly welcomed by the participating teachers and students.
Associate Professor John Macalister first explained the underlying reasons behind the criticisms against the use of questionnaires, a major instrument for strategy studies. He emphasized the predicting value of strategies for future research and the conversion of conscious strategy use into automatic skills. Meanwhile, Dr. Gu pointed out the limitations of strategy studies and raised concern about the application of such studies. Suggestions were made for coursebook compilers and curriculum designers.
Greatly inspired, the teachers and students launched a heated discussion of topics relating to language studies with Associate Professor Macalister and Dr. Gu. One topic was on TESOL classroom writing tasks. Macalister introduced what he called the activity cycle, which was made up of four strands, that is, meaning-focused instruction, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning and fluency development. Another interesting topic was about the necessity to reform theuniversity entrance examinationin China in this rapid-changing era. Dr. Gu approached this topic by distinguishing summative evaluation and formative evaluation, and elaborating on the washback effect on teaching and the society at large.
The discussion lasted only one hour and a half, and the interaction impressed all the participants and deepened their understanding of some issues relating to linguistics and applied linguistics.
