On Nov. 15th, 2017, Prof. Bernard Spolsky was appointed as the International Academic Adviser of ACLR. Prof. Li Yuming, Director of ACLR, issued the letter of appointment to Prof. Spolsky.
After the appointment ceremony, Prof. Spolsky had a discussion with the participants. Prof. Li Yuming, Prof. Chen Shuangxin, and Prof. Shi Chunhong raised questions and exchanged ideas with Prof. Spolsky including “why do western language planning pay less attention to the informatization of languages”, “whether language policy making wouldshift its target from human to computer under the background of internationalization”, and “how to treat the relationship between language ontology, language usage, and language research in the era of big data”. He explored the important topics concerning language planning managers and governing bodies by giving examples of protection and use of Maori and Navajo in relevant countries around the world.
Professor Bernard Spolsky is an Emeritus Professor of Bar-Ilan University, Israel and a Senior Researcher at the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) of the University of Maryland. He studied at Wellington College and Victoria University and received a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Montreal. Studying language policy and language planning, he has published several books on language testing, second language learning, digital humanities, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and language policies, and has won the Guggenheim Fellowship and Mellon Fellowship. Hisvisit to China as the International Senior Language Expert of the State Language Commission has attracted great attention in the domestic linguistics circle and the media. He has also been invited by the Office of Confucius Institute of BLCU to attend a series of activities and was welcomed by all.
