【5月15日】
/海外名家系列讲座·第109讲/
The Synergies Project: Building Common Ground in SLA/T Studies
主讲嘉宾：Prof. Dwight Atkinson
与谈嘉宾：雷蕾教授 徐海铭教授
主持人：李茨婷教授
时间：5月15日（周四）10:05-11:35
地点：虹口校区会议中心凯旋厅
Dwight Atkinson is an applied linguist and second language educator who is officially retired but still working at the University of Arizona, where he is Professor of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching. Atkinson's research and teaching have ranged widely, including work in the following areas: sociocognitive approaches to second language learning and teaching; second language writing; qualitative research methods; theories of culture; and the historical development of scientific and medical discourse.
Recent co-authored publications have appeared in the Modern Language Journal (2025), Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Discourse (2024), and the International Review of Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching (2023).
Current projects include:
Ecologies of multilingual writing (with Jeroen Gevers & Elena Taylor-- to be submitted to Journal of Second Language Writing); Alternative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition, 2nd ed. (with Elena Taylor, under contract with Routledge); Learning as joint action: We-processes in second language acquisition and teaching (with Happy Cactus Group, to be submitted to Modern Language Journal) .
The SLA field has historically experienced division and disagreement to the point that some wonder if it might split up or dissolve (e.g., DeKeyser, 2010; Ellis, 2020; Hulstijn, 2013). The Synergies Project (Atkinson et al., 2025) was an exploratory attempt to discover and build common ground in SLA/T studies. It brought together 25 scholars (17 writers and 8 commentators) from across the field to explore together what they had in common, what bridges might be built, and how different SLA/T approaches could work together complementarily.
This talk describes the genesis of the project, what challenges were faced and overcome, and a selection of the project's findings and implications.
