In recent years, Eco-Translatology, an interdisciplinary paradigm that integrates ecological wisdom and translation studies, has experienced remarkable advances in both theory and practice. As the prologue to the sequel Eco-Translatology: Translation Dao and Translation Art — a follow-up to the seminal monograph Eco-Translatology: Construction and Interpretation that was published a decade ago — emerging developments in the field are described in this article. Key discussions include a holistic reinterpretation of Eco-Translatology, its life-oriented translation Dao (guiding principles) and source-oriented translation art (practical methodologies), value orientation, eco-translatological cultural construction, and philosophical essence, as well as novel reflections on the discipline’s evolution within AI-driven contexts. These insights are anticipated to enhance the understanding of Eco-Translatology’s theoretical framework while fostering deeper, more systematic research trajectories.

In terms of discipline attribution and the theoretical integration of studies of eco-translatology, the research pedigree and thinking forms of Eco-Translatology require systematic summarization and theoretical refinement in order to reveal the entire profile of the eco-translatological theory system. The research pedigree of eco-translatology consists of theoretical research, descriptive research, and applied research. Of these, the “quadrilife-oriented view” draws on the field of general theory for theoretical research, the “trilife-oriented configuration” is the object of its descriptive research, and “green translation” is the new issue of its applied research. Thinking forms of Eco-Translatology consist of life-oriented thinking, existence-oriented thinking, and eco-thinking. Life-oriented thinking is referred to as “translation as textual transplant,” existence-oriented thinking involves “translation as adaptation/selection,” and eco-thinking is related to “translation as eco-balance.” The systematic formation of the eco-translatology research pedigree is of tremendous importance in the construction of the eco-translatological discourse and knowledge systems.

Professor Hu Gengshen’s academic journey, practice, and research spanned nine cities and over five decades. In this paper, Professor Hu’s academic life is investigated according to five aspects: the nine cities in his academic journey, his academic achievements, his scholarly methods, his reputation as the founder of Eco-Translatology, and his wisdom in life. His innovations in academic research and his outstanding contributions to translation schools are analyzed, and his scholarly methods and wisdom in life are summarized with the aim of showcasing the long-term efforts and accumulated expertise behind the success of this translation theorist in the hope of setting an example for future scholars.

According to the core principle of Embodied-Cognitive Linguistics, “Reality-Cognition-Language”, we have developed “symmetrical embodied cognitive strategy” in our minds due to the ubiquitous phenomenon of symmetry in the external world; this has led to the emergence of numerous symmetrical expressions in language, particularly in Chinese, in which a large number of symmetrical phenomena appear at various levels, such as phonetics, characters, vocabulary, syntax, and discourse. We intend to regard this as the most important grammatical mechanism in Chinese, which belongs to the category of “isolating languages”. By contrast, languages such as English, which are “inflecting languages”, require word forms to be adjusted according to grammatical rules when included in a sentence to maintain a strict correspondence between word classes and syntactic components. This is called the “word-based” grammatical theory. In recent years, many scholars have found this theory to be unsuitable for constructing Chinese grammar; although various X-based theories have emerged in China, they have all overlooked “the symmetrical strategy” that is widely used in Chinese. When conducting comparative studies of English and Chinese, it is essential to emphasize the difference between “correspondence and symmetry”, as this difference is important for language research and teaching.

Based on the principles of embodied-cognitive linguistics, embodied-cognitive poetics (E-C Poetics) is a literary research method that aims to explain the interactive relationships among authors, texts, and readers. In E-C Poetics, “embodiment” can be understood from the perspectives of the author and the reader. From the author’s perspective, embodiment refers to the writer’s lived experience of reality, which explains the origin of literary creations. From the reader’s perspective, embodiment denotes the aesthetic experience of engaging with a literary work, which is also based on an understanding of the essence of literature. Similarly, the “cognition” in E-C Poetics involves both authors and readers. For the author, cognition refers to the creative processing of lived experiences into literary works. For the reader, the act of reading is in itself a cognitive process, which means that interpretations of a text will vary based on individual aesthetic experiences. By establishing connections among authors, texts, and readers, E-C Poetics explores the correlation between literary ontology and epistemology, thereby offering fresh insights and perspectives for understanding literary creations, reading, and criticism.

Learning engagement is an important topic in the research on second language education. Exploring the impact of motivational factors on learning engagement enables researchers to understand college students’ self-regulated learning mechanisms. Based on goal-orientation learning theory, the impact of goal orientations and motivational regulation strategies on engagement in English learning was explored in this study, as well as the mediating role of motivational regulation strategies through a survey of 299 non-English majors and structural equation modeling. The results revealed that both mastery and performance-approach goal orientations had direct and positive effects on learning engagement, while performance-avoidance goal orientation had direct and negative effects. Motivational regulation strategies had direct and positive effects on learning engagement; while such strategies could partially mediate the positive relationships among mastery, performance-approach goal orientations and learning engagement, they could not mediate the negative relationship between performance-avoidance goal orientation and learning engagement. The findings can provide empirical evidence for teachers to improve students’ engagement in English learning by cultivating motivational beliefs and motivational regulation.

The impact of peer interaction patterns on learner engagement is examined in this study by following Philp & Duchesne’s (2016) framework of learner engagement. Two classes of first-year non-English-major students participated in the research and engaged in topic discussions as required. Based on the analysis of the recorded data obtained from 25 paired interactions, the findings revealed that there were three patterns of paired interactions, with collaborative and passive parallel patterns being the main types. The interaction pattern affected learners’ behavioral, cognitive and social engagement, as evidenced by the significantly more usage of words, turns, idea units, and responsiveness in the collaborative pattern compared to those in the passive parallel pattern. The results of the interviews with six pairs of students showed that cooperative learners exhibited more positive emotions in interactions, while passive parallel learners were relatively negative. The findings indicate that it is necessary for teachers to guide learners to cooperate in order to promote their language learning.

The aim of this study was to explore the influence of peer interaction on learning engagement in English classrooms through the mediating effect of academic self-efficacy. The study’s participants were 1,143 non-English majors; the quantitative data were analyzed via a descriptive analysis, a multiple regression analysis, and structural equation modeling. Some of the participants were then invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that the content and mode of peer interaction were both positive predicters of the three dimensions of learning engagement; while the perception of peer resources positively predicted cognitive and behavioral engagement, it did not significantly affect emotional engagement. Moreover, peer interaction was a direct positive predicter of learning engagement in English classrooms; it also indirectly affected learning engagement via academic self-efficacy, with academic self-efficacy playing a mediating role in the relationship between peer interaction and learning engagement in English classrooms. The transcription and analysis of the interviews confirmed these quantitative results. The study enhances the understanding of the path relationship between peer interaction and learning engagement in English classrooms, thereby providing insights for teachers to improve learning engagement through both peer interaction and academic self-efficacy.

Language is a means of communication, and is related to the state of an individual’s health. The relationship between language and health has recently attracted interest in academia, with language health services being one of a prominent area of research and discussion. Planning is essential for the development of the field. In this article, we introduce the relationship between language and health, and discuss the implications and characteristics of the development of language health services. The authors advocate for strategic planning for language health policy, language health information, language health care, language rehabilitation, language health technology, and language health talent education and training, among other topics. To achieve the planned goals, joint efforts need to be made by stakeholders such as the government, society, individuals (family), and other actors. The authors recommend coordinated collaborations on the part of all the participating parties in terms of institutional mechanisms, technology integration, and human and material resources. These efforts will help to popularize language health knowledge and will advance research on language health products, which will ultimately improve the overall quality of language health services. Lastly, the authors propose the integration of resources to meet the diverse individual needs of the society and to help to achieve the vision and goals of the “Healthy China Initiative”.

The bibliometric software CiteSpace was used to conduct a visual analysis of research articles on metadiscourse that were published in international journals from 2006 to 2024 based on the Web of Science database. In this article, we present the most frequently cited references and prestigious authors, and investigate the knowledge base, research frontiers, and important topics in international metadiscourse studies. The results revealed that metadiscourse research is increasing and developing rapidly, particularly since 2014, with a significant increase in both publication volume and citation count. Moreover, high-impact and high-centrality references mainly focus on metadiscourse conceptions, research models, and research paradigms, and the research topics and important academic issues are academic discourses, metadiscourse markers, corpus data, linguistic features, and disciplinary differences. These findings could help domestic researchers to understand the trends in international metadiscourse research in more detail and provide valuable insights for metadiscourse research in China.