Dr. Paul Throssell, a doctoal supervisor from the university of Tasmania in Australia, was invited to give an academic lecture in the School of Foreign Language (SFL) of HBUE on May 16, 2018. Teachers and students of SFL attended the lecture, which was hosted by Hu Lei, vice dean of SFL.

The lecture topic was “The Effective Application of Qualitative Research Methods in the Context of Data-driven Era”. Taking as an example his researches on second language teaching and teacher’s development, Dr. Paul Throssel compared quantitative and qualitative research methods, and pointed out their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, he stressed the necessity and importance of application of qualitative methods in scientific research in the context of data-driven era. With a humorous and vivid tone, he explained difficulties in simple terms, which successfully aroused the interest of the audiences. Finally, the audiences had a warm Q&A interaction with Dr. Paul Throssell on several issues.