Department of English

2025 APLX, 34th ETA & TESPA International Joint Conference

APLX 2025, the department's biennial linguistics-oriented conference, was held as part of the 2025 APLX, 34th ETA & TESPA International Conference at the GIS Taipei Tech Convention Center from November 6 to November 8, 2025. The joint conference was organized in collaboration with the English Teachers' Association-Republic of China (ETA-ROC) and the Taiwan ESP Association (TESPA). Under the theme "Re-imaging Human Empowerment in ELT for a Changing World," the conference brought together scholars, educators, and practitioners to explore how English language teaching and applied linguistics can respond to rapid social, technological, and educational transformations while continuing to empower learners, teachers, and communities.

Bringing together over 300 scholars and professionals from Taiwan and abroad (the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and more), the conference featured 108 paper presentations, 17 poster presentations, 6 workshops, and 2 panel discussions. Participants contributed to vibrant discussions on current challenges and future directions in applied linguistics and ELT.

Distinguished Keynote & Invited Speakers:

• Dr. Tsu-Chia Chao (Minghsin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan)
• Dr. Howard Hao-Jan Chen (National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan)
• Dr. Winnie Cheng (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong)
• Dr. Christine C. M. Goh (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
• Dr. Dilin Liu (The University of Alabama, USA)
• Dr. Seohyun Paik (Hanyang Women's University, South Korea)
• Dr. Natalie Rusk (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
• Dr. Huei-Chun Teng (National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan)
• Dr. Yukio Tono (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan)
• Dr. Manka Varghese (University of Washington, USA)
• Dr. Hui-Chin Yeh (National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan)
• Dr. Eric Kwan-Wai Yu (The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

For more detailed information regarding the session programs, please visit the official APLX 2025 Website.

The 46th Comparative Literature Conference: Microfascisms

The 46th Comparative Literature Conference: Microfascisms was held on June 1, 2024, in collaboration with the Comparative Literature Association of the Republic of China (CLAROC). The keynote address, "The Blind Spot of Contemporary Literary Studies: (Micro)Fascisms, Neoliberalism, and Post-Criticism", was delivered by Professor Chun-yen Chen of National Taiwan University.

Throughout the one-day conference, thirty-five papers were presented by distinguished scholars from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan, with over 100 participants registered for the event. A special issue featuring selected peer-reviewed papers from the conference will be formally published in the Chung-Wai Literary Quarterly (indexed in THCI).

2023 APLX International Conference

APLX 2023, the department's biennial linguistics-oriented conference, was held at TAIPEI TECH GIS Convention Center on October 11 through October 13, 2023 and was organized in collaboration with the English Teaching and Research Association and the Taiwan ESP Association. The main theme for APLX 2023 is "Advancing empowerment and resilience: Language, culture, policy and pedagogy."

Over 100 papers were accepted and presented (73 oral presentations and 35 poster presentations). Over 200 people (from the US, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Spain, the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, and Thailand) attended the conference in person.

Distinguished Keynote Speakers & Topics:

• Dr. David Lasagabaster (Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country) "The Impact of English-medium Instruction on Language Ecology in Multilingual University Settings"
• Dr. Emma Dafouz (Professor, Complutense University of Madrid) "Empowering Minds: The Role of Disciplinary Literacies in English-medium Internationalised Universities"
• Dr. Masaki Oda (Professor, Dean of the College of Humanities at Tamagawa University) "Building Up a Responsible Applied Linguistics Community"
• Dr. Yukio Tono (Professor, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) "Implementing the CEFR Framework in English Language Teaching in Japan: Insights from the CEFR-J Project"
• Dr. Gale Stam (Professor Emerita, National Louis University) "Language Is More Than Speech: Implications for Foreign/Second Language Learning and Teaching"
• Dr. Howard Chen (Distinguished Professor, National Taiwan Normal University) "Utilizing AI and Cutting-edge Technologies to Enhance the Learning Experiences of ESL Learners"

For more historical details, please visit the archive on the official APLX 2023 Website.

2022 International Conference on Comparative Literature

The International Conference on "Memory: The Captive and the Fugitive" was held on November 21–22, 2022. Professor David Hertz of Indiana University Bloomington gave the opening keynote address, "Proust, Cognition, and the Arts." Professor Jonathan White of the University of Essex delivered the second keynote speech, "Dilemmas of Memory in Literature of Slavery, the Holocaust, and other Cultural Trauma," as the closing address of the first day.

More than sixty papers were presented at the two-day conference, including thirty-nine presented by overseas scholars from the U.S., the UK, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Portugal, Poland, France, India, the Philippines, Romania, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Over 100 people registered in total. A special peer-reviewed issue including selected papers presented at the conference will be published by The Wenshan Review: Literature and Culture (indexed in THCI) in 2025.

To review full session program records, please visit the official 2022 Conference Event Page.

2021 APLX International Conference

APLX 2021, the department's biennial linguistics-oriented conference, was held at TAIPEI TECH GIS Convention Center on October 28 through October 29, 2021. The main theme for APLX 2021 is: "Language, culture & policy: foreign language learning and bilingualism."

45 papers were accepted and presented. Over 150 people (from the US, Canada, Japan, Vietnam, Australia, Taiwan, and UK) attended the conference in person or online.

Distinguished Keynote Speakers & Topics:

• Dr. Ernesto Macaro (Emeritus Professor, Worcester College, the University of Oxford, UK) "English Medium Instruction in HE: Student support and teacher professional development Issues"
• Dr. Ron I. Thomson (Professor, Brock University, Canada) "The importance of perceptual training in second language pronunciation learning"
• Dr. Becky H. Huang (Associate Professor, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA) "Assessing speaking proficiency in young bilingual/English as an additional language (EAL) learners"
• Dr. Andy Gao (Associate Professor, University of New South Wales, Australia) "Identity constructions of ESP teachers"

For more historical details, please visit the archive on the official APLX 2021 Website.

2019 APLX International Conference

APLX 2019, the department's biennial linguistics-oriented conference, was held at TAIPEI TECH GIS Convention Center on October 31 through November 1, 2019. The main theme for APLX 2019 is: "Trends and Issues: Language, Culture, Translation and Bilingual Education."

45 papers from Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, the UK, and the United States of America were presented, and 332 participated in total.

Invited Keynote Speakers & Topics:

• Prof. Martha Bigelow (University of Minnesota, USA) "The intercultural and the interpersonal in world language teaching: Changing the world one class at a time"
• Dr. Minako O'Hagan (University of Auckland, New Zealand) "The Human and the Machine: The future of work for translators and linguists"

For more historical details, please visit the archive on the official APLX 2019 Website.

2018 International Conference on Comparative Literature

Held on Nov 23–24, 2018, this conference featured keynotes from Prof. Marysa Demoor (Ghent University) and Prof. Ackbar Abbas (UC Irvine), along with a featured talk by Dr. Thomas Wall (Taipei Tech). Over 130 attendees participated in sessions covering topics such as nationalism in the nineteenth-century fantastic and documentary in the era of impossibility.

For session details, please visit the 2018 Conference Archive Website.

2017 APLX International Conference

Held on Nov 16-17, 2017, APLX 2017 focused on "Transformation and Development: Language, Culture, Pedagogy, and Translation." Keynotes were delivered by Prof. Stephen J. Andrews (University of Hong Kong) and Prof. Leo Tak-hung Chan (Lingnan University). The event featured 59 paper and poster presentations with approximately 200 participants.

For more information, please visit the APLX 2017 Website.

2016 International Conference on Comparative Literature

This conference on "Forgotten Books and Cultural Memory" (May 27–28, 2016) featured keynotes from Dr. James Mussell (University of Leeds), Dr. Rebecca Krug (University of Minnesota), and Dr. Eivind Røssaak (National Library of Norway). Over 125 attendees explored themes like global print culture, digital memory, and archival research.

For full session records, please visit the 2016 Conference Event Page.

2015 APLX International Conference

APLX 2015, the department's biennial linguistics-oriented conference, was held on November 19 and 20, 2015. The theme of the conference was "Global Communication and Beyond: Language, Culture, Pedagogy, and Translation," and more than sixty papers, including poster presentations, from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates were presented, covering a wide range of topics including discourse & culture, language teaching & technology, assessment, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and translation.

The conference committee also invited industry partners to give several pre-conference workshops, giving insights into language assessments, digital English teaching, and board games in the ESL classroom. More than 150 people participated in the two-day event.

Invited Keynote Speakers:

• Prof. Alastair Pennycook (University of Technology Sydney, Australia)
• Dr. Prue Holmes (School of Education at Durham University, UK)

For more historical details, please visit the archive on the official APLX 2015 Website.

2014 International Conference on Literature and Comedy

The 2014 literature-oriented conference on comedy explored the nature, history, and structure of comedy in its varied manifestations across time, aesthetic genres, and academic disciplines. The conference took place on November 28 and 29, 2014. Papers from India, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were presented in the two-day event, and more than eighty participants registered.

Invited Keynote Speakers & Topics:

• Prof. Jeremy Tambling (Retired Professor of Literature at Manchester University, UK) "Tricks to Catch the Old One: Comics, Agelastes and Misanthropes"
• Prof. Eivind Røssaak (Associate Professor at the Division of Film and Media in the National Library of Norway) "Comedy Loves Irony: Framing Devices and Reflexivity in Cinema"

For more historical details, please visit the archive on the official 2014 Comedy Conference Website.

2013 APLX International Conference

APLX 2013 was held on November 14 and 15, 2013 and had the theme "Applied Linguistics on Global Fronts: Culture, Pedagogy, Translation, and Communication." Fifty-three papers from the Philippines, the US, the UK, Australia, France, Japan, Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan were presented in the two-day event, and more than one hundred registered participants attended.

Invited Keynote Speakers & Topics:

• Prof. Rod Ellis (University of Auckland, New Zealand) "Corrective Feedback: Pedagogical and Theoretical Perspectives"
• Prof. Sue Starfield (University of New South Wales, Australia) "Ethnographic approaches to researching academic writing"

2012 International Conference on Literature: The Aesthetics of Suffering

The Aesthetics of Suffering conference was a literature-oriented conference held on November 23 and 24, 2012. The conference invited papers to explore compelling questions about the limits of artistic representations, the paradoxical generation of beauty from pain, or any other aspect of the aesthetics of suffering. In the two-day event, twenty-three papers from Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were presented and more than eighty participants registered.

Guest Speakers:

• Prof. Laura Quinney (Brandeis University, USA)
• Prof. William Flesch (Brandeis University, USA)

2011 NTUTAPPLINGX International Conference

NTUTAPPLINGX 2011 continued the success of the applied linguistics-oriented NTUTAPPLINGX 2009 conference and explored the diversity and innovation of applied linguistics and language learning. It was held on November 3 and 4, 2011. The two-day event saw forty-four papers from Thailand, Iran, Australia, China, and Taiwan and had more than ninety participants. The presented papers were peer-reviewed and later published in the special issue of the Taiwan Journal of Linguistics.

Invited Keynote Speakers & Topics:

• Prof. Susan M. Gass (Michigan State University, USA) "Applied Linguistics, Language Learning, and Language Teaching: Creating a Research Link"
• Prof. Michael Hoey (The University of Liverpool, UK) "How a right knowledge of Chinese might be used to help in the learning of English (and how a wrong knowledge won’t help at all)"

2010 International Conference on Literature: The Silent and Ineffable

The Silent and Ineffable conference was held on November 26 and 27, 2010. The conference was a literature-oriented conference and invited papers to reflect on the aesthetics of the unsaid, and, from the metaphor, imagination, and philosophy in literature, to listen to the unsaid in this noisy world. There were forty-two papers from the UK, Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan presented in the two-day event, and more than seventy participants registered. The presented papers were reviewed and later published in Issue 26 of the NTU Studies in Language and Literature.

Invited Keynote Speaker:

• Prof. Gabriele M. Schwab (University of California, Irvine, USA)

To access authorized research papers from this session, please check out the official NTU Studies in Language and Literature Online Edition.

2009 NTUTAPPLINGX International Conference

NTUTAPPLINGX 2009 was the first applied linguistics-oriented international conference held by the Department. It took place on November 6 and 7, 2009. There were eighty-four papers from Japan, China, and Taiwan presented in this conference, and more than one hundred registered participants attended. The presented papers were later peer-reviewed and formally published as Conference Proceedings for NTUTAPPLINGX 2009 by Crane Publishing.

Invited Keynote Speakers & Topics:

• Prof. Robert Bley-Vroman (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA) "Is there a fundamental difference between foreign language learning and native language development?"
• Prof. Michael Barlow (University of Auckland, New Zealand) "Language of the individual and the group: a corpus-based approach"

2008 International Conference on Translation Studies: System, Norm and the Societal

The System, Norm, and the Societal conference was a translation studies-oriented conference that was co-organized by the Department and the academic study group of Theo Hermans's landmark book Translation in Systems. The conference was held on April 19 and 20, 2008, and focused deeply on the topic of translation studies as an empirical science. There were fourteen papers presented in the two-day event, and more than forty registered participants attended.

2006 International Conference on Literature: Sustainability and the Literary Imagination

The Sustainability and the Literary Imagination conference was literature-oriented and marked the Department's very first major international conference since its establishment. The conference was successfully held on November 17 and 18, 2006, creating a historic academic foundation for our department's international research exchange.

Distinguished Guest Speakers:

• Prof. Greg Garrard (Bath Spa University, UK)
• Prof. Ursula Heise (Stanford University, USA)