Two hundred Chinese language educators from across the globe hold successful conference at MIT
Global Studies and Languages (GSL) at MIT successfully hosted the 9th International Conference on Internet Chinese Education (ICICE 9) on June 19-21, 2015, at the Stratton Student Center. This biennial conference is sponsored by the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) of Taiwan, a high-level Cabinet office of the Taiwanese government, and attended by language and technology professionals from around the world. MIT is the second US institution to host this international conference, selected both for MIT’s reputation in technology, and for GSL’s reputation in innovative language teaching.
The theme of the ICICE 9 was “Reflections on Chinese Language Teaching and Technology.” The conference featured 80 panel presentations showcasing a range of new technologies for language teaching and attracted nearly 200 Chinese language educators from across the globe, including Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Mainland China, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the US.
The OCAC Deputy Minister, Professor Shih-Chang Hsin; Dr. Bernd Widdig, Director of International Affairs in the Office of the Provost; and Professor Emma Teng, incoming Head of Global Studies and Languages; welcomed the attendees at the opening ceremony, which also featured performances from a local Chinese folk arts ensemble. GSL’s Senior Lecturer Haohsiang Liao and Lecturer Min-Min Liang actively participated in the conference and gave paper presentations. The conference provided a valuable platform for the sharing of technological innovations in language teaching and an opportunity to showcase the various cutting-edge projects undertaken by the Chinese language team in MIT’s GSL.
This is the first time that ICICE was held on the east coast of the United States and Global Studies and Languages of MIT was proud to be the co-sponsor. Dr. Haohsiang Liao, Senior Lecturer in Chinese, led the MIT conference organizing team.