On December,17th ,2008, Professor Jose L. Galvan, President of the Graduate School from California State University, LA, delivered a wonderful lecture for the School of Interpreting and Translation Studies in Room B201 of the Sixth Teaching Building at 7:30 p.m.. The lecture was titled “Current Development Trend of Second Language Acquisition”. Liang Xuehong, former Secretary of the Party Committee, presided over this lecture. The lecture not only attracted the postgraduates majoring in translation and lexicology, but also some teachers who were interested in Second Language Acquisition.

Professor Galvan was quite amiable, and he began his lecture with his experience of learning English and Spanish. The pleasant atmosphere ignited the nerves of the listeners immediately.

Professor Galvan’s lecture mainly referred to three aspects:

First part: Theories and Philosophical Trend of the TESOL Program in California State University, L.A.

Second part: Overview on Current Trends of Language Leaning

Third part: Description of English Programs in California State University,L.A.

Professor Galvan also paid attention to interactivity and he said that the most effective teaching was often realized in the noisiest classroom. Later, in the question-and-answer phase, the students took the initiative in raising some novel and practical questions which were patiently answered and explained by Professor Galvan.

Subsequently, Mr. Liang summarized the lecture and presented a souvenir to Professor Galvan on behalf of the School of Interpreting and Translation Studies.

When the lecture was finished, the present students were reluctant to see the end of it. This lecture enabled the students to deepen their understanding of some linguistic theories, such as Chomsky’s language acquisition device. Meanwhile, it offered advice for the teachers and students to conduct second language teaching better: teachers should catch every teachable moment to make sure that learnable knowledge would be accepted by students.