Conference Summary
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
November 16-18, 2007, San Antonio, Texas

Rong Liu
PhD Candidate
Second Language Acquisition and Teaching GIDP

The theme of this year's ACTFL annual convention is "Bridging cultures through languages¡¨. This conference gathered language teachers and researchers from around the world to speak on various issues in foreign language teaching.

Attending this conference is a rewarding experience for me. This is the first time I have been able to attend a conference on teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in the United States. Although I have much experience in teaching English as a Second Language, I have less experience in Chinese teaching. As more and more people are interested in learning Chinese, it is worthwhile to do more research about it to help students learn. Our panel discussion is about applying socialcultural theory in Chinese as a Foreign Language. My presentation went well and several scholars asked me very thought-provoking questions and we exchanged opinions. For example, one high school teacher told me her own experience as a Chinese heritage language learner. She confirmed my findings that face or self-image is a very important factor in language maintenance. Her mother is Chinese and she said she wished she had learned Chinese when she was young.

By attending this meeting, I was able to gain insight into recent research in the field of Second Language Acquisition. I attended several talks about using technology in teaching languages. The talks generated live discussion and debate about the role of technology in the classroom. One interesting observation is that teachers have realized that technology is a mean to an end. Activities with technology must serve pedagogical purposes.

At the conference, I met several alumni from our university. We discussed possible research topics and also talked about collaboration in research. I think it is very valuable to work together with people who share the same interests. We will keep each other informed about our latest research.

In summary, attending the conference helps me greatly towards my academic and professional goals. I am very grateful for being granted this opportunity by the support of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program and the Herbert E. Carter Travel Award.