The ICELEAL 2022 Congress: Fostering Hong Kong as a Hub for Academic Exchanges in English Language Education and Applied Linguistics

The International Congress on English Language Education and Applied Linguistics 2022, organised by the Department of English Language Education, the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies, and the Centre for Research on Linguistics and Language Studies from 6 to 9 December 2022, aims to bring together academics from around the world to report on their various research work related to English Language Education and Applied Linguistics. As English Language Education and Applied Linguistics are gaining momentum in this globalised world, it is hoped that through this congress we can promote Hong Kong as a hub for academic exchanges and collaborations in the area of English Language Education and Applied Linguistics. Given the current pandemic situation, the conference was held via Zoom.

The congress attracted more than 210 presenters from different parts of the world, including Australia, Europe (Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the UK), the Middle East (Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey), South America (Argentina and Brazil), Canada, Nambia, Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, Taiwan and other Asian regions (Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines) reporting their studies on English Language Education and Applied Linguistics.

The congress was honoured to have invited the following distinguished keynote speakers in the field of English Language Education and Applied Linguistics: Prof Douglas Biber from Northern Arizona University, the USA, Prof Barbara Seidlhofer from the University of Vienna, Austria, Prof Tang Jinlan from Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, Prof Jean-Marc Dewaele, Birkbeck from the University of London, the UK, Prof Angel Lin from Simon Fraser University, Canada, and Prof Jozef Colpaert from the  University of Antwerp, Belgium.

The congress was a great success: during the three Pre-Congress Workshops, six plenary sessions, four invited speeches, 18 parallel sessions and four themed symposiums, there were over 1,700 participants in total (head counts), and the participants had very insightful discussions on English Language Education and Applied Linguistics issues. In addition, Symposium 2 on “Postgraduates’ Research on Applied Linguistics and English Language Education” attracted 50 candidates for the “Best Paper Award for Postgraduate Students”. The two winners were Qiu Yu from Nanyang Technical University, Singapore and Joyce Cheung Oiwun from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The Congress Opening Ceremony

Prof Douglas Biber, Northern Arizona University, the USA

Prof Barbara Seidlhofer, University of Vienna, Austria

Prof Jinlan Tang, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China

Prof Jean-Marc Dewaele, Birkbeck, University of London, the UK

Prof Angel Lin, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Prof Jozef Colpaert, University of Antwerp, Belgium