Department of Basic Public English Teaching School of Foreign Languages-江苏大学外国语学院

Dean/Teachers’ CPC Party Branch Secretary: Hua Houkun

Deputy Dean: Xu Huixia, Tian Hong, Liu Shuying

Teachers’ CPC Party Branch Members: Ju Xiaoli (Deputy Secretary), Ni Xiaoyan

Office: Main Building 105

College English teaching in Jiangsu University boasts a history traced back to the late 1970s. For over 40 years, College English has been one of the “Window Courses” of Jiangsu University to demonstrate its outstanding teaching quality to the outside world, one of the first demonstration sites of college English teaching reform approved by the Ministry of Education of People’s Republic of China, and one of the first 842 key construction courses of Jiangsu University.Under the leadership of three generations of college English course leaders in charge and the unremitting efforts of all college English teachers, College English courses have developed into a complete courses group consisting of three sections in terms of “language skills”, “literature and culture” and “academic development”, covering nearly 30 courses of “public basic courses”, with course content and difficulty constantly elevating. Now, college English course has basically reached the benchmark of “quasi-English major course”. In 2020, College English courses were officially approved as national first-class undergraduate courses thanks to its outstanding performance (offline, led by Wu Peng and Wu Yuanyuan). In 2021, College English courses were approved as the first batch of Ideological and Political Demonstration (team) Courses in Jiangsu Province (team led by Wu Peng), leading the development direction of college English courses in Jiangsu Province and even the whole country, presenting Jiangsu University wisdom and Jiangsu University model for the ideological and political construction of national foreign language courses, and priding college English courses themselves on the sole advanced case of curriculum education in the work summary of Jiangsu University concerning “Three-aspect All-round Education" demonstration university. As one of the principal undertaking units of teaching and research tasks of College English courses group, the Department of Basic Public English Teaching was established in August 2022, formed by the merger of the former College English Teaching Department I and College English Teaching Department II. Currently, there are 59 full-time teachers, including 3 professors, 7 master supervisors, 20 associate professors, 6 teachers with doctoral degrees (including 1 with double doctoral degrees), 53 teachers with master’s degree, 1 master teacher of Jiangsu University and 1 teacher awarded excellent youth of Jiangsu Philosophy and Social Sciences. According to the requirements and relevant standards for the setting of basic courses in colleges and universities, the number of teaching faculty, academic background, learning-origin structure, knowledge structure and research direction of college English courses group are relatively complete and consummate.

The basic public English teaching team has consistently attached importance to enhancing the quality of teaching and persisted in inheriting the “craftsman's feelings” and “craftsman’s spirit” held by teaching staff of college English generation after generation, reckoning high-quality English teaching as the career line and lifeline of all teachers. To this end, the Department of Basic Public English Teaching has successively formulated teaching and management documents including Teaching Guide for College English Courses of Jiangsu University, Curriculum Quality Standards for College English Courses, Classroom Teaching Management Regulations for College English Courses, Management Regulations for Graded College English Teaching, and Management Regulations for College English Courses Exam Setting and Invigilation, requiring all teachers to strictly abide by relevant teaching regulations and ensuring there are no teaching accidents in the year and the year to come. The strict and standardized management of the Department of Basic Public English Teaching has achieved apparent teaching performance: In the past ten years, despite the constant changes in the quality of students, the passing rate of all undergraduates in Jiangsu University is above 90% in CET-4 and about 80% in CET-6, ranking among the best in all colleges and universities across the country. In the past five years, the teaching team has tutored more than 30 students who won national special awards in National College English Competition, more than 100 students who won the first-class, second-class and third-class prizes in provincial finals of FLTRP Cup Challenge. In the past five years, more than 30 teachers have won many important teaching awards, such as the special awards, first-class and second-class prizes in FLTRP National English Teaching Competition, second-class prizes in FLTRP National English Micro-Class Competition, and second-class and third-class prizes in Jiangsu University Teaching Competition. In 2012, the teaching team won the second-class prize of Jiangsu Provincial Education Achievement Award and Jiangsu University Teaching Achievement Special Award. In 2021, the teaching team made a comeback to Jiangsu University Teaching Achievement Special Award.

While attaching high importance to teaching quality, the basic public English teaching team also lays special emphasis on the improvement of teachers’ teaching and research competence. At present, a number of relatively stable teaching and research teams have been set up, such as “Teaching Research on College English Critical Reading", “Teaching Research on College English Critical Writing”, “Teaching Research on College English EAP/ESP”, and “Research on College English Teachers’ Professional Development”. Up to now, teachers of the Department of Basic Public English Teaching have presided over and completed nearly 30 research projects including National Social Science Fund Youth Project, Humanities and Social Science Fund Project of the Ministry of Education, the “11th Five-Year Plan”, “12th Five-Year Plan”, and “14th Five-Year Plan” of Jiangsu Provincial Education and Science Plan, Jiangsu Provincial Social Science Fund Project, Jiangsu Provincial Teaching Reform Project, Industry-University Collaborative Project of the Ministry of Education, and the “12th Five-Year Plan” Scientific Research Project of the State Language Commission. More than 40 papers have been published in SSCI and CSSCI journals, 5 monographs have been published at home and abroad, together with 5 national textbooks.

During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the basic public English teaching team will continue to carry forward the “craftsman spirit” of which teaching faculty of college English are proud, exert themselves to explore approaches to seamlessly link up Internet with traditional classes, reinforce consciousness of teaching quality, further improve the quality of English teaching in accordance with international standards, keep deepening construction of national first-class college English courses, actively apply for and strive for approval from the Ministry of Education regarding curriculum ideological and political demonstration courses, and at the same time forge a superior-quality teaching team with rational age structure and higher academic level, leading both in teaching and scientific research.

(Data above is up until December, 2022)