Keynote Speakers
Prof Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen
Professor in Applied Linguistics at the Department of Education
The University of Bath, UK
Biography
Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen is Professor in Applied Linguistics at the Department of Education, University of Bath, UK. Her research interests encompass ideological, socio-cognitive and policy perspectives on children’s multilingual education and biliteracy development. She has examined bi/multilingual community-home-school contexts in the UK, Canada, France and Singapore on topics of curriculum policy, language-in-educational policy and family language policy. As one of the top 2% most cited scientific authors in the world in Applied Linguistics (https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/6), she has published widely in the field of applied linguistics. She sits on the editorial board of the following journals: Language Policy; Language and Education; Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development; The Bilingual Research Journal; and Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices.
“Heritage Language Education in Chinese Diasporic Communities”
Abstract:
This presentationcuses on heritage language (HL) education in major English-speaking Chinese diasporic communities. The talk starts with a brief overview of the Chinese diasporic communities across different geopolitical contexts. It is followed by a discussion of the benefits of HLs and the impact of language hierarchies on language development. It then provides a discussion of HL development in the home and its key research contributions in the field. The discussion is devoted to a critical review of HL language schools and the development of HL learners’ identity and perceptions of their multilingual selves. In the last section, the implications of HL education are outlined and suggestions for future research are indicated.
