On September 12, Professor Wu Yicheng, “Qiu Shi” Distinguished Professor of Zhejiang University, Chief Expert of the National Social Science Fund Key Project, and a 1990 postgraduate of the College of Foreign Languages (CFL) ,USST, was invited to give lectures for the faculty and students. The lecture was hosted by Professor Liu Qin, the Dean of CFL.
Professor Wu gave a lecture on the topic of “Language Research: Fun and Livelihood” for freshmen and faculty members. As the opening lecture in the series of “Career Navigation” lectures for undergraduates, Professor Wu explained from three perspectives how foreign languages majors can exert our strengths, and why language research is a viable career choice. Firstly, Professor Wu explained that the career paths for foreign language majors are divided into two: the “direct route” — working in the field after graduation, and the “indirect route” — workingout of the field after graduation.
Secondly, Professor Wu introduced three great linguists and shared their stories: Sir William Jones, the “Founder of Linguistic Science” who proposed the “Indo-European Language Hypothesis”; Noam Chomsky, the “Father of Contemporary Linguistics” who developed Generative Grammar Theory and believed that language is an innate human ability; and Daniel L. Everett, a linguist who was noted for his challenging to Chomsky’s theory. Professor Wu illustrated that although there are surely uncertainties in the future, we should strive for the better if you chose to learn a foreign language as your major.
(The First Lecture)
Professor Wu gave his second lecture titled “Academic Publication and Language Research Program Application” for graduate students and faculty members. Professor Wu first used three stories of famous linguists as examples to illustrate that linguistics is an empirical science, focusing on the in-depth exploration and detailed depiction of linguistic facts. After that, Professor Wu enlightened the teachers and students on how to identify their research points, how to develop them into good papers, and how to publish them in prestigious academic journals. The purpose of his lecture was to show that “believe everything in the book, it is better without the books”. Once the gate of critical thinking is opened, new research ideas will be unleashed.
(The Second Lecture)
Dean Liu Qin summarized the two lectures. On behalf of the college, she expressed gratitude for his insightful lectures and expressed her sincere wish that he could come back to communicate with the faculty and students again. She hoped that all teachers and students of CFL would take this opportunity to figure out how to unlock the gate of critical thinking in language research, to have more confidence in the future of foreign language majors, and to brave forward.
(Dean Liu Qin Presides the lectures and makes conclusive remarks )
