The School of Foreign Languages was first founded in 2001, whose history can be traced back to the time when it was the English Teaching and Research Section, affiliated to the Department of Basic Courses. In 1989, it offered one three-year program of Scientific English (later into Business English). In September 2001, it began to recruit undergraduates majoring in English. For more than 26 years, the school has undertaken the task of conducting English training for the senior leaders in China’s aviation companies. The school initiated French major in 2011, which is the first among all the local universities in Henan Province, and built up a new major of Translation and Interpreting in 2014. So it now provides 3 undergraduate programs, English, French, and Translation and Interpreting, with a student body of 1028 undergraduates.
The school has now fostered 7 teaching and research sections, namely English, French, Translation and Interpreting, English Courses for Postgraduates, College English I, College English II, and International Education, as well as 1 languages laboratory center. The School offers specialized courses to English major, French major, and the major of Translation and Interpreting, teaches Japanese, French and Spanish as second foreign languages or public elective courses, and undertakes the course of College English 1-4 for over 15,000 undergraduates in ZUA.
The School enjoys tremendous faculty strength, with its largest faculty number of 123 in ZUA. Mainly made up of young and middle-aged teachers, our teaching team is devoted, motivated, youthful, and vigorous. Among the 106 full-time teachers, there are 5 professors, 25 associate professors, and 72 lecturers. 2 of our teachers have obtained their doctoral degrees. 2 are now teaching in Confucius Institutes in USA and Tanzania. 30 of them have working, studying or visiting experiences overseas. Foreign teachers from UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and France are hired to lecture on a regular basis.
For years, the School of Foreign Languages has kept to its education goal of training graduates with wide specialty, profound base, high quality and strong capability, consistently placing quality education in the first place. Sticking to the syllabus set by ELT Advisory Board under the Ministry of Education, and the guidance of the Fundamental Requirements for College English Course, the School is committed to deepening education reforms, so as to strengthen our students’ overall ability to use foreign languages and enhance their cultural awareness. In the past years, Foreign Languages School has been devoted to platform constructions for teaching and scientific research, thence providing better opportunities for our teachers to conduct teaching and scientific research. Since 2011, the school has won various honors, including being enrolled in the Key Discipline Construction Project and the Special Major Construction Project, the award of Outstanding Teaching Team, and the title of Research Innovation Team etc., which has brought financial support from central and provincial government with a total value of 3 million yuan. College English Teaching Team has annually received wide praise and prizes from the university for the past three consecutive years. Interpreting specialty was approved to be enrolled in Outstanding Talents Training Program by ZUA in March 2015, creating not only better opportunities for the development of our teachers and students, but also a new platform for discipline construction.
The school attaches great importance to internship, thesis writing, social practice and other practical teaching procedures and has fixed bases for graduation internship. It is equipped with 16 modern language labs, which can hold 1170 students simultaneously. The school library houses 9,000 books, 538 video books, 48 types of periodicals and 11 different newspapers. Many of our students have won the honor of Advanced Individual in Summer Social Practice, and our school has earned the title of Outstanding Unit for Social Practice awarded by ZUA. The school made an agreement with Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics to jointly train English graduates in 2014. This project enables 19 of our students to conduct inter-university exchanges in BUAA and is highly praised by students. It also boosts school-enterprise cooperation, carrying out its characteristic paid-internship programs for English and French majors in oversea companies. This practice has effectively facilitated students’ employment and hence well received.
For years, the School of Foreign Languages sticks to the guiding principle of equally emphasizing teaching and research, while using the latter to facilitate the former. From 2011-2015, our faculty have published 538 papers and translations, and undertaken 248 scientific research projects at provincial, ministerial, and school levels, publishing 49 books and textbooks, which won 9 prizes awarded both by the Education Ministry of Henan Province and ZUA.
The School has attached great importance to the construction of teaching teams, providing opportunities for our teachers to participate in various academic exchanges, vocational trainings, visiting scholar programs and further education. Our teachers have won tremendous honors in recent years. For example, 3 of them received the title of Civilized Teacher in Henan Province, 2 with the honor of Academic and Technological Leader awarded by the Department of Education in Henan Province, 2 with the title of Distinguished Teacher, and etc.. Each year, our young teachers have won prizes in teaching competitions at various levels. As a teaching unit, the school has gained Buole Award for many times in ZUA’s teaching contests. As a party branch, it has also won the honor of Outstanding Party Branch.
The School has already established scholarships and provided various work-study posts for our students to accomplish their education. Students in our school are now taking advantage of their professional skills to take part in social practice. They have enjoyed colorful extra-curricular activities, such as English Corner, The Week for Science and Culture, and the Foreign Languages and Culture Festival. These activities effectively enhance our graduates’ interests in language learning and their comprehensive ability in using language, equipping them with strong adaptability and competitiveness. Our graduates have received widespread praise in job markets, keeping a stable employment rate of 97% for many years. The school ranked the first above all the other schools for its highest comprehensive employment rate and received commendation and reward in 2009.
Now, the construction of Central Plain Economic Region and Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone has become a national strategy, hence creating a great demand for compound foreign language talents with high quality, innovation spirit and international vision. Focusing on these needs and aiming to serve the local economy, the school is dedicated to reform and innovation by consistently improving our teaching quality and training more qualified professionals for society.
