Post time: 2021-10-29

On the afternoon of October 22, Professor Xu Jinfen of Huazhong University of Science and Technology gave a lecture entitled “The Discussion of Topic Selection, Argumentation and Results in Scientific Research Based on Foreign Language Teaching" for the teachers and students of School of Foreign Languages (SFL), which was presided over by Vice Dean Li Minjie.

Before the lecture, Professor Yi Lixin, Dean of SFL, issued a letter of appointment to Professor Xu Jinfen and hired her as a distinguished professor of SFL, hoping that Professor Xu would make more valuable suggestions for us in terms of discipline construction, scientific research development, and professional teaching progress. Then, Professor Xu readily accepted the offer.

Professor Xu’s main research interests are foreign language education, second language acquisition, independent learning and teacher development. She has presided over the National Social Science Fund of China (3 projects), the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Fund, National Education Sciences Planning and more than 20 important topics at or above the provincial and ministerial levels.  Also, she has published more than 150 papers on SSCI and CSSCI journals, 26 textbooks and monographs, and she serves as an editorial board member of System and Language Teaching Research of Q1 on SSCI and an external review expert of several SSCI and CSSCI foreign language core journals. In addition, she is an evaluation expert of the National Social Science Fund of China and the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Fund.

During her lecture, Professor Xu firstly pointed out the common problems in the process of writing papers from many aspects such as thesis topic selection, literature review, research methodology, argumentation, thinking of writing, research results discussion, works cited etc., as it seeks to make everyone have a deeper understanding of the standards and accuracy of thesis writing. The dilemma of writing and publishing pedagogical empirical thesis on core journals pointed out by Professor Xu resonated among many teachers at presence.

In terms of the source of thesis topic selection, Professor Xu made several suggestions. First, devote ourselves to literature reading, increase knowledge and experience in reading, and discover areas that worth researching. Second, combine personal teaching experience and interests with papers writing, in order to write papers in a positive and pleasant mood. Last but not least, participate in academic conferences and communicate with experts and peers more to grasp the most cutting-edge focus and core issues in this field, and at the same time select topics which can meet the needs of our country and university. Professor Xu also introduced three types of theses in detail: the critical, reviewable and empirical one. To explain them more clearly, she combined examples with methodology in a clear, understandable and reasonable way, providing scientific guidance for thesis writing.

At the end of the lecture, Professor Xu patiently answered the questions from teachers and students with an image of a scholar who devoted herself to scientific research and a woman who was passionate about life. Her thorough insights and in-depth analysis of thesis writing have guided the ideas and methods of scientific research for everyone. The whole lecture was in a warm and lively atmosphere. All the teachers and students benefited a lot.