For the launch of the Centre, we were delighted to welcome Prof James P. Lantolf, Xi’an Jiatong University, Greer Professor in Language Acquisition, Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University to give our inaugural Annual Lecture.

Please click here to view Professor Lantolf's presentation.

The presentation focuses on the long-standing, and still unresolved, crisis in the general field of applied linguistics in which the gap between SLA theory/research and educational practice has yet to be bridged. A brief history of the origin of the crisis is considered; its trajectory and where things stand in the first quarter of the 21^st century are also discussed. I then propose a solution to the crisis that arises from how Vygotsky approached the crisis in psychology, which separated the discipline into idealistic psychology, such as Freudian theory, phenomenology, and even affected linguistics of the type practiced by Chomsky, and materialist psychology such as Pavolvian reflexology and American behaviorism of Watson, Thorndike and Skinner. The solution to the crisis is to unify theory and practice, as Vygotsky did. I will argue that SLA needs to do something similar and that this is already being done in the Vygotskian approach to SLA. In this case, it means that the place to assess the quality of a theory is not in laboratories, but in practical settings, including classrooms. One implication of this move is that teacher research is brought to the foreground on a par with research carried out under experimental conditions with control groups, etc. The approach based on Vygotsky’s principles and concepts of educational development are outlined and the specific instructional approach based on these principles and concepts is presented. If time permits some of the work carried out within this paradigm will be considered.

Prof James Lantolf is the scholar whose name is most closely associated with the development of the Vygotskyan, or sociocultural (SCT), paradigm of second language acquisition research. He has published nine books and over 100 articles A world-renowned scholar, Prof Lantolf previously directed the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at the Pennsylvania State University. He has been President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and received the association’s Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award. Prof Lantolf was awarded the prestigious Changjiang Yangtze River Scholar in Applied Linguistics, with the recent establishment of the Lantolf Research Center for Second Language Studies, School of Foreign Studies. Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Seminar Series

In our Centre Seminar Series, we invite colleagues from around the world to give a presentation and engage with us on particular topics. We take care of our time in these seminars so that we have opportunities to listen and discuss. Discussion is a key feature of our Seminars. These are free and open for anyone to register to attend.

You can find information of our upcoming seminars on our Events page.