Corpus Linguistics Symposium Successfully Held

On April 26, 2024, the Department of Applied Linguistics presented the Corpus Linguistics Symposium on the SIP campus at XJTLU. The symposium brought together esteemed scholars and researchers to discuss cutting-edge research and share insights in corpus linguistics.

The event started with a warm welcome from Dr. Penelope Scott, Head of the Department of Applied Linguistics, who extended her greetings to the keynote speakers, guest speaker, and attendees and expressed expectations for the success of this symposium. Dr. Tanjun Liu, leader of the Corpus Linguistics Research Group, provided a brief introduction of the group and its research initiatives.

Keynote Speaker, Professor Lei Lei, from Shanghai International Studies University, set the tone for the symposium with a presentation titled “Proposing Alpha Readability Chinese: A tool for the measurement of readability in Chinese texts and its applications”. Professor Lei’s talk focused on the development of a tool for measuring readability in Chinese texts and used novels written by Gulong and Jinyong as an example.

Following this, Dr. Meilin Chen from Hong Kong Baptist University presented findings from her cross-disciplinary research titled “Can university students effectively display their knowledge/insights in their disciplinary writing: A cross-section study”. Dr. Chen’s analysis of students’ academic writing across different majors sheds light on the implications of teaching and learning in writing.

In the afternoon session, Keynote Speaker Professor Yukio Tono from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies delivered an insightful talk on “Error Annotation for Learner Corpora using Generative Al.” Professor Tono emphasised the importance of using AI to supplement human analysis while cautioning against blindly following AI’s decisions.

Dr. Dimitris Kitis, our internal speaker from the Department of Applied Linguistics, presented a co-authored study, “Disentangling Gentrification and Immigration in Media Representations of Chinatowns (1988~2018): A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis”. During the presentation, he discussed the recontextualisation of racist discourses within gentrification discourses, based on the findings of the study. Another internal speaker, Dr. Detong Xia delivered a talk on “Optimizing Idiomatic Language Production in L2 Learners: A Study on Lexical and Grammatical Collocations Across Proficiency Levels”. Her presentation highlighted the potential of bigrams in tracking the development of L2 phraseological knowledge across proficiency levels.

The symposium concluded with a lively panel discussion, where speakers addressed pertinent questions in corpus linguistics and engaged in dialogue with participants. Topics ranged from the integration of Generative AI into corpus linguistics to the future directions of research in the field.

Reflecting on the symposium, one of the attendees, an MA TESOL student Mingzhu Gao described it as "an inspiring and intellectually enriching event."

The Corpus Linguistics Symposium at XJTLU provided a platform for both internal and external scholars to showcase the latest research and foster collaboration within the academic community.