Dr Foo Suan Fong, Executive Director of Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL), was invited to attend the ninth "Month-end Café Forum" on 25 May 2025, delivered a keynote speech titled "Chinese Language Teaching in the Age of AI: Opportunities and Challenges".

         Dr Zhang Limei, Dean of Academic Affairs of SCCL, was invited to attend the "10th International Conference on Teaching Chinese as a Second Language: Discipline Formation and Development" on 28 May 2025 and delivered a research report titled "The Effect of Metacognitive Instruction on Chinese Listening Comprehension and Metacognitive Awareness Among Singapore Secondary Students".

1. Dr Foo Suan Fong, SCCL Executive Director

         On 25 May 2025, Dr Foo Suan Fong, Executive Director of the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL), was invited to attend the ninth "Month-end Café Forum" hosted by the National Training Centre for Secondary School Principals, Ministry of Education of China, and organised by Shanghai Shangde Experimental School. Held in Shanghai, the Forum, with the theme "Chinese Language Education in the AI Era: Global Issues and International Trends", attracted education administrators, scholars, and principals from China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and other countries.

         Dr Foo delivered a keynote speech titled "Chinese Language Teaching in the Age of AI: Opportunities and Challenges", emphasising that education in the AI era should be centred on "humanity" and that educators should remain vigilant about the potential impact of technology on teacher-student relationships and educational ethics. He shared Singapore's "Transforming Education Through Technology" masterplan 2030 and proposed four key directions for applying AI in Chinese language teaching: 1. Uphold educational values and cultivate 21st century skills; 2. Develop a localised AI teaching ecosystem; 3. Strengthen AI application training for teachers; 4. Provide teachers with room for exploration.

         Dr Foo cautioned that overreliance on AI could weaken students' curiosity and interpersonal interaction. He called for education to return to its core mission of "nurturing people", fostering critical thinking and emotional connection, and ensuring that students experience "a sense of meaning in being human" while safeguarding truth, goodness, and beauty amidst the wave of technological change.

Dr Foo Suan Fong delivering his talk

2. Dr Zhang Limei, Dean of Academic Affairs

         On 28 May 2025, Dr Zhang Limei, Dean of Academic Affairs of the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, was invited to attend the "10th International Conference on Teaching Chinese as a Second Language: Discipline Formation and Development." The Conference was jointly organised by the Department of Chinese Language Studies, Graduate School, CKC TechCulture Innovation Centre at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), the College of International Education at Shandong University, Shandong International Chinese Education Research Association, and International Journal of Chinese Language Education. As an invited speaker, Dr Zhang delivered a talk titled "The Effect of Metacognitive Instruction on Chinese Listening Comprehension and Metacognitive Awareness Among Singapore Secondary Students". It is a report on Dr Zhang's recent research on metacognitive instruction for listening comprehension in Singapore secondary Chinese classrooms. The findings reveal that students who received metacognitive instruction showed significant improvement in both listening comprehension performance and metacognitive awareness. The talk received unanimous praise by scholars and experts from around the world at the conference.

Dr Zhang Limei delivering the talk