Language is one of the most important abilities of human beings and is itself instrumental to learning in many other areas. There is rich research about language learning at different levels: Neuroscience research provides new knowledge and new ways of understanding how the brain allows us to learn and engage in basic cognitive functions such as vocabulary acquisition, memory, literacy and the neuro-physiological basis of speech and literacy disorders; cognitive research has contributed much to our understanding of cognitive and socio-cognitive aspects of language development; language education research has accumulated rich knowledge about children’s development in various forms of language development and pedagogical strategies that are successful in supporting language development. Given our strengths in the above disciplinary areas, we can build multidisciplinary research that extends and connect our scientific understanding of basic processes in conceptual and language development to the neural level, as well as construct scientifically grounded (evidence based) pedagogical theories and educational interventions. This subtheme seeks to stimulate research that could focus on and advance theory, practice and policy in language learning building on our current strengths in research that are directly or indirectly linked to learning, particularly within a multilingual context.

An indication of some possible productive research directions under this subtheme, leveraging our strengths in the Learning Sciences and Neuroscience SRTs include:

• Identification, analysis and profiling of effective pedagogy by exploring evidence of neural changes accompanying educational programmes of successful teaching, an example of which is the effective Chinese language pedagogy and curriculum designs developed at HKU that have already established a strong international reputation.
• The identification and delivery of education for special needs that can be supported by tracking changes in brain plasticity using neuroimaging.
• Early language learning and assessment—connecting neuroscience and cognitive research to early childhood education, language and communication disorders and gifted education.
• Hong Kong is a highly multilingual society. Cantonese, English and Putonghua among other languages can be heard daily and alphabetic and non-alphabetic scripts can be seen on every corner. Our programs in Teaching of Chinese as a Second Language are being adopted by US and Asian universities. These provide an advantageous context for us to develop research projects on multilingualism and brain development, which is currently a hot area of research internationally, as well as how multilingual language use can contribute to healthy aging.
• Knowledge translation on how findings from the fields of communication, education, humanities, linguistics and neuroscience can inform and benefit practitioners, policy makers and the community about language development and language learning.