The Institute of Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, which integrates the academic powers in the field of linguistics and related fields of the School of Foreign Languages, is a free-bound unofficial academic organization aiming at academic exchange and cooperative research, as well as a coordinative organization for scientific research of the School.
Basing its research on the real-life use of language, the Institute sticks to the principle that theory should be integrated with practice, and that the scientific research should serve language practice. The academic team of the Institute is well structured and the research is of distinctive feature. Its research areas mainly include: linguistic theory, pragmatics, forensic linguistics, morphology, functional linguistics, comparative linguistics, history of linguistics, applied linguistics, etc. The Institute has three doctoral supervisors, eight professors, eight associate professors, two post doctoral fellows, ten doctors and seven doctoral students. The incumbent director of the Institute is Professor Liao Meizhen, and the incumbent deputy director is Professor Wang Yong.
The Institute provides free and equal platform for academic exchange in an effort to build a favorable academic atmosphere for those teachers of the School who are devoted to language study. It encourages resources sharing and advantage complementation, and coordinates the research powers to make joint efforts for better development of the study of the discipline and the scientific research of the School. Ever since the establishment of the Institute, various forms of academic activities have been held, mainly including:
(1) “Chutian Forum for Famous Linguists.” This Forum invites scholars in related research fields at home and abroad to give academic lectures. Many renowned scholars at home and abroad have attended the forum, e.g. Hu Zhuanglin, Liu Runqing, He Ziran, Gu Yueguo, Huang Guowen, Yao Xiaoping, Zhang Delu, Yang Xinzhang, Zhang Shaojie, L. M. Solan (from America), etc. (until June, 2009).
(2) “Chutian Forum for Young Linguistic Scholars.” This Forum mainly invites those young and middle-aged teachers who are devoted to the research of linguistics to give seminars.
(3) To organize irregularly various academic conferences, such as the “Eighth Annual Conference on Contemporary Linguistics” held in 2008, and the “Academic Activity Week of Chinese Functional Linguistics” held in 2010.
(4) Besides, to hold irregularly various academic salons so as to provide academic exchange platforms for young teachers, doctoral students and other researches who are interested in the related filed of the discipline.
