Child Language Research Center

The Child Language Research Center is affiliated with the School of English and International Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University and was officially inaugurated on May 17, 2019. The center closely follows the development of advanced international educational theories and second language acquisition research. In alignment with the national language development strategy, it conducts theoretical and empirical research, as well as innovative practices, in foreign language education for Chinese children and adolescents, covering teaching, learning, research, assessment, and application. The center also serves as a platform for communication among university researchers, foreign language educators and frontline teachers from primary and secondary schools, promoting the advancement of foreign language education at the basic-education level across China.

Vision: To advance the theory and practice of child language development.

Mission: To build a first-class center for child language research.

Members

Academic Exchange

The Center’s academic exchange activities take three forms:

1. Academic Forum

Since its first forum on children’s cognitive development and second-language acquisition in May 2019, the Center has held five forums exploring the characteristics of, and interrelationships between, children’s cognitive development and second-language acquisition.

2. Research Projects

In 2020 the Center was awarded the University’s Double First-Class Major Project, “Theory and Practice of English Reading for Chinese Children.” To date it has published six book-length outcomes:

● Developing Basic English Reading and Reading Literacy

● Children’s Vocabulary and Reading Development from an Embodied-Cognition Perspective

● English Reading and Children’s English Reading: Theory and Practice

● Design and Production of Digital Games for English Reading Instruction of Chinese Children in IT-Rich Environments

● Children’s English Reading and Vocabulary Development: Principles, Concepts, Methods, and Implications for English Education in China

● Exploring the Development of Primary-School Students’ English Listening and Reading Abilities

Beyond this flagship project, the Center encourages collaborative applications from primary-, secondary-, and tertiary-level English teachers on its platform and provides full guidance. As of early 2024, the Center has reviewed and approved 13 research projects, six of which have already been completed.

3. Academic Guidance (Online + Offline)

The center has launched the “Cloud Meetup Monday” program, which periodically invites experts, scholars, frontline teachers, and teaching researchers from universities, secondary, and primary schools to deliver free lectures on topics related to child language acquisition, both domestically and internationally. Additionally, the Center arranges online, theme- and grade-specific exchanges with teachers and heads of English programs at leading schools, covering areas such as synchronous online research for junior high English teachers, interpretation and application of the new curriculum standards, training to enhance teaching evaluation skills, reader leadership workshops, and graded English reading instruction. From 2019, the center has organized 5 offline summer training sessions for primary and secondary school English teachers, guiding them to understand the learning patterns, psychological and cognitive development characteristics of English learners at these levels. These sessions aimed to help English teachers establish scientifically sound concepts of English teaching and learning while mastering effective teaching methods. Furthermore, the center dispatches experts to designated project schools to provide on-site guidance for the implementation of English education in primary and secondary schools.