On the afternoon of October 18^th, at the invitation of the Institute of Foreign Language Teaching, SIS, Professor Richard Clément, the vice dean of the School of Humanities, Ottawa University, gave a spectacular lecture entitled "Social Psychology and Foreign Language (Second Language) Learning", which was hosted by Professor WANG Xiaolu. Nearly fifty teachers and graduates were present.

  Psychology professor Richard Clément is the president of the Association of International Language and Social Psychology, the vice dean of the School of Humanities, University of Ottawa, and the head of the Institute of Official Language and Bilingualism. His research fields cover social psychology in communication and intergroup relationship, in foreign language acquisition and across cultures.

  During the lecture, professor Clément demonstrated the impact of social psychology on foreign language acquisition. Professor Clément introduced the Canadian bilingual system and its concrete implementation, as well as his research on this system. In his research, he made a comparison of language acquisition and social psychological identification between the majority group and the minority group, and analyzed the impact of various psychological drives and social factors on foreign language acquisition.

  Until the end of the lecture, the audience was still in great enthusiasm. They asked many questions and each of them received patient and comprehensive answers from professor Clément. Finally, the lecture went to a successful conclusion in warm applause. Through this speech, those present improved their knowledge toward the relevant researches in social psychology and second language acquisition. The audience enriched their linguistic knowledge from a brand new perspective and enhanced their academic interests as well. They said that they benefited a great deal from this lecture.

  The Executive Vice-President of Ottawa University, Fronçois Houle, and the China regional director of the Office of Foreign Affairs, Charles Chen, also attended the lecture. Before the lecture started, Vice-President Fronçois Houle gave an introduction of Ottawa University and welcomed teachers and students of ZJU to Canada.

(Translated by WANG Yuyan)