On the morning of June 15th 2017,associate Prof. Dongping Zheng from the University of Hawaii was invited todeliver a lecture titled “Knowing as Coordination and Friending: From LanguageLearner’s Identity to Cross-cultural Becomings” at the Center for Linguistics andApplied Linguistics. The lecture was hosted by Professor Xu Hai, and warmlywelcomed by the participating teachers and students.
Dr. Zhengreviewed the variables targeted by the mainstreamlinguistic research, such as input and output, cognitive linguistics andsocialinguistics, together with which was a summary of dialogicality research.By combining the findings of research on mainstream linguistics and ondialogicality, Dr. Zheng advanced her idea of ecological psychology anddialogism, wherein she argues language learning emerges from learners’experiencing the event. As a result, their learner agency gradually turns intocross-cultural becomings.Further, enlightened by Ames and Hall’s correlative cosmology, and Ames’ ConfucianRole Ethics, Dr. Zheng argues that a heart-mind-body integration occurs when peopleexperience and get access to the world. To test her hypothesis, she observed learners’participating a series of wireless games and found that they went through fourstages including exploration, understanding, self-analysis and suggestionprovision. During the processes of experiencing and problem solving, learners’agency changes constantly and is also becoming ecologically situation. As aresult, a harmonious state is arrived, which fits well with Confucian ideas.
Interaction with the participating teachers and learners, Dr. Zheng illustratedher idea in relation to “Qi” philosophy of China, providing us a novieperspective of language learning.
