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Co-organized by the Department of English, the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, the Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and CUHK-Peking University-University  System of Taiwan Joint Research Centre for Language and Human Complexity, the ‘International Symposium on Psycholinguistics of Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism’ was held recently.  It brought together 150 scholars in second language acquisition (SLA) and bilingualism from the United States, Europe, mainland China, and Hong Kong,  as well as members of the public, to exchange research findings from a psycholinguistic perspective.

As a bilingual and multicultural cosmopolitan city with people of different languages coming into contact, Hong Kong’s competitive edge lies in nurturing those with bilingual talents who can succeed in acquiring two or more languages. Research in the psycholinguistics of second language acquisition and bilingualism from the international community will benefit language professionals, educators and practitioners in the local and regional community. The symposium offered a platform for scholars, practitioners and professionals to engage in academic exchange on current issues in second language acquisition and bilingualism that are of topical interest to the community.

The symposium featured six internationally renowned scholars as keynote speakers:  Brian MacWhinney, Carnegie Mellon University, USA; Jason Zevin, University of Southern California, USA; Stephen Matthews, the University of Hong Kong; Yasuhiro Shirai, Case Western Reserve University, USA; Yanping Dong, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China; and Yinglin Ji, Shenzhen University, China. A number of scholars from the local community also gave speeches with topics ranging from bilingual development in early childhood to adult second and foreign language learning.  The major themes included language emergence, language and cognitive development, bilingual education, individual differences, classroom language instruction, and technology-supported learning.