The 2024 annual meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) was held in Houston, Texas, USA from March 16 to 19, and Dr. Gao Yang, a young scholar of School of Foreign Studies (SFS), was invited to attend the annual conference and gave a lecture entitled Sustaining Studies on Language Teacher Beliefs: Insights and Innovations.

Dr. Gao elaborated on the concept of foreign language teacher beliefs, distinguished it from other concepts in the field of foreign language teacher education. By reviewing the researches on foreign language teachers’ beliefs, Dr. Gao introduced the future directions of teacher beliefs research from four dimensions, including research contents, theoretical perspectives, research methods and research subjects, shedding some light on new perspectives of future researches in this field. Dr. Gao's presentation attracted the attention of many well-known experts and scholars, including Bedrettin Yazan, editor-in-chief of TESOL Journal.

Since its establishment in 1977, AAAL is a large and influential international academic organization in the field of applied linguistics, and its annual meeting has been regarded as the top event in this field. With the theme of "Thinking Otherwise, Acting for Change", the conference aims to encourage linguists, researchers and teachers to think out of the box and promote changes in language education.

The participation of SFS young scholar in this conference demonstrated the academic achievements of SFS teachers, promoted the exchanges between SFS teachers and the international academic community, boosting dialogue between Xi’an Jiaotong University and the international academic community.                 

Written by: Li Zitan

Edited by: Chu Jianwei