An Overview of Foreign Languages Department

Founded in 1999, the foreign languages department has a teaching staff of 50, including 10 professors and associate professors, 13 lecturers. 6 overseas teachers are employed at present. Among the staff, 5 are PhD, 20 are MA and another 9 are on in-service MA programs. One teacher has been awarded the title of “Key Researcher of Qinglan Project” (a provincial project aims at giving priority to the cultivation of the young and middle-aged teachers who excel academically in the universities of the province) and another the title of ‘Honored Young Teacher' of the province. Currently, the department has a full-time undergraduate enrollment of 737.

The department consists of three teaching sections, the teaching section for seniors and juniors, teaching section for freshmen and sophomores and Japanese language teaching section. BA program of English language and literature was started from 1995 and the English language and literature BA program has been listed as a key discipline and a program with its own characteristics by the university. The Japanese language BA program was started from 2002 and has been licensed to offer BA degrees. The department is equipped with 4 language labs, covering an area of 480 square meters, including two network language labs. Four 240-squre-meter classrooms for language skill training are furnished multi-media facilities. In addition, the department has a set of digital FM broadcasting equipment and 2 web servers. The department library houses a collection of 50, 000 specialized books, 1716 sets of books in original foreign languages, 76 specialized periodicals and journals, with subscription to10 foreign periodicals and newspapers and 356 audio-video materials of all sorts.

More than 1,000 qualified students have graduated from the department for the society since its inception of BA program in 1978.

BA program of English: Following the principle of ‘multidisciplinary knowledge, practical application and all-rounded development', the program, apart from traditional courses as Comprehensive English, Advanced English, Aural-Visual Training in English, Spoken English, Extensive Reading and Writing, also offers professional courses: International Business and Translation. The students are to receive systematic training and practice and lay a sound grounding in English language. With highly competent language ability in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation, upon graduation, students will feel at ease in jobs in the field of education, journalism, science and technology information, foreign trade and finance. Or they may work in the fields of foreign affairs section, tourism, information retrieval and processing or secretarial work at the company.

BA programs of Japanese: the program aims at training advanced specialized personnel with solid command of Japanese language and culture, which leads to careers in industries of tourism, service, trade and business, foreign affairs section, education or companies. The courses offered include: Basic Japanese, Extensive Reading, Spoken Japanese, Japanese Writing, Introduction to Japan, Japanese Grammar, An Overview to Japanese Literature, Translation, Advanced Japanese, Advanced Aural-Oral Japanese, Applied Japanese (trade and business, tourism and science and technology) and A Brief Survey of Japanese Culture. The quality-oriented courses cover Linguistics, Psychology, Pedagogy, Introduction to Legal Theory, Elementary Computer Science and Application and English.