CFLC Professor Yang Xinzhang is among China ’s foremost scholars in functional linguistics and discourse analysis. He is also a member of the Ministry of Education’s Steering Committee for English Language Programs, a member of the National Steering Committee for the Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) Programs, president of the Fujian Society for Foreign Languages and Literatures, and vice president of the Fujian Translators Association.

Prof. Yang graduated from XiamenUniversity in 1983 with a BA in English Language and Literature. He studied at the University of Sydney from 1988 to 1990 and was a senior visiting scholar at CentralMichiganUniversity in 1998 and 1999. He became a supervisor for master’s students in 1994 and a supervisor for doctoral students in 2000. Undergraduate and graduate courses that he teaches include Contemporary Linguistics, Introduction to Linguistics, Functional Grammar, Discourse Analysis and Translation, Selected Readings in Linguistics, Linguistic Research, Functional Linguistics, and Discourse Analysis and Research.

Prof. Yang was dean of CFLC from 2004 to 2012. During his tenure, CFLC grew by leaps and bounds, and its program of foreign languages and literatures was ranked among the nation’s top 10 in a 2012 evaluation by the Ministry of Education.

Prof. Yang is a prolific researcher. His research output, which spans the areas of linguistics, lexicology and translation studies, includes more than 80 papers and over 20 monographs, textbooks and dictionaries.

Prof. Yang has completed 14 major research projects, including two projects with grants from the National Social Science Foundation, two projects with grants from the Ministry of Education, one New Century Online Course Program sponsored by the Ministry of Education, two projects with grants from Fujian Social Science Foundation, and one online course program sponsored by Fujian education authorities.

Over the years, Prof. Yang has received 11 awards for research excellence at the provincial and city levels and two awards at the provincial level for teaching excellence. In 2008, one of his courses, “Contemporary Linguistics”, was rated a “National Premium Course”, and a year later, he was honored as a “Distinguished Teacher of Fujian”. His textbook “English Lexicology” was included into the nation’s 11^th and 12^th Five-Year Plans for the Publication of Textbooks.