1. Brief introduction
The School of Foreign Languages (SFL), one of the youngest schools at Shanghai University of Engineering Science (SUES), was founded in March 2016. Now the SFL has one four-year undergraduate program translation and interpretation starting from September 2016. The recruitment of international students started in 2017. The SFL adheres to the mission of building the school on teaching, vitalizing it by academic growth, strengthening it with more talents, and honoring it in a harmonious environment. The SFL aims to cultivate undergraduates who master foreign languages and major courses, understand different cultures, and their application to be the ideal talent with inter-disciplinary and international perspectives in the labor markets. Currently, the SFL is mainly engaged in the construction of the translation and interpretation program. Simultaneously, the SFL is responsible for the teaching and research work for undergraduates and graduates on campus at SUES. Every year, the SFL employs full-time foreign teachers to teach spoken and listening English courses for English majors and preside over English salon activities. They also provide translation and organization services for international conferences held on campus, provide foreign language tutoring for foreign exchange activities such as overseas visits, and provide translation services for the websites of SUES and SFL. Since its establishment, the SFL has achieved a lot in discipline construction, teaching, academic research, international exchanges, foreign language competitions, and moral education programs.
2. Institutional structure
There are six branches in the SFL: the Department of Translation and Interpretation, Department of Foreign Language Teaching for Non-English majors, Department of Applied Foreign Language Teaching, Foreign Language Lab, Office of Student Affairs, and Office of SFL.
3. Program features
The SFL implements the curriculum structure system of the theoretical basis of subject research plus the practice of program orientation modules. The SFL relies on the resources of engineering education at SUES, constructs the undergraduate program of translation and interpretation with SUES characteristics, and cultivates excellent undergraduates who have solid bilingual English-Chinese language proficiency, skilled language expression capability, and cross-cultural communication capability. With these skills and capabilities, the graduates are welcomed in the workforce markets, excel in foreign affairs, foreign trade, foreign-owned enterprises, joint ventures, Chinese overseas agencies, news media, educational and scientific research institutions, and other institutions. Additionally, the program strengthens the combination of translation and the advantages in the engineering science of SUES so that the undergraduates in the SFL are qualified for various types of translation and interpretation for international engineering projects, management negotiations, and other work.
The SFL also plays its disciplines and professional advantages and actively integrates into SUES's international construction process. In the process of internationalization, the SFL grafts international high-quality educational resources, raises the quality of University construction through extensive and diverse exchanges, and cooperates with foreign universities in order to train international talents with a global vision. They are well skilled in international rules and can participate in international affairs and international competition. Many students currently enrolled at the SFL are studying at Weber State University in the US through the credit mutual recognition system.
4. Faculty and staff
Currently, there are 77 faculty and staff, including 69 full-time faculty and eight staff. Among them, four of them are professors, and 15 are associate professors. 91% of the faculty have master's or doctoral degrees, and 80% have overseas educational backgrounds. Some of them have won overseas honors (such as the Honor Award for Merit). Many of them have won honors such as Shanghai New Long March Assaulter, Baosteel Education Fund Excellent Teachers, Shanghai Education Award, Outstanding Educators of SUES, Outstanding Young Teachers of SUES, and other titles. In this way, the SFL forms a stable and effective faculty team, with young and middle-aged teachers as the main body, from the perspectives of structures, titles, and ages.
To enrich the discipline construction and team building, since 2018, the SFL has recruited more than ten young teachers with doctoral degrees at home and abroad, with strong scientific research ability to enrich the teaching staff. The SFL encourages young and middle-aged teachers to study for Ph.Ds., in-service training, and academic exchanges to optimize the teaching staff's structure. Every year, SFL strengthens the overseas study for teachers, actively participates in overseas international conferences, and provides Chinese and foreign teachers with academic activities.
5. Achievements
The SFL adheres to the concept of teaching as the root, students as the center, and academic research as the soul. Based on the idea of constructing a modern University with its unique characteristics, the SFL actively promotes the reform of teaching and research, continually updates the instructional concepts, and boldly explores the innovative and efficient teaching models. As a result, the SFL has made fruitful achievements in the construction of disciplines, teaching, research, foreign language competition, and moral education.
Innovation in discipline construction is remarkable. In 2018, SUES became a council member of the Chinese Universities Foreign Language Discipline Development Alliance. Professor Wang Gang, the dean of the SFL, became the representative of the council. At the initiative of the SFL, the First National Special Committee of the council was established, the Foreign Language Discipline Development Committee of Science and Engineering Universities. The first National Forum on Foreign Language Education Development of Science and Technology Universities was held at SUES. These innovative activities strengthen the connection among Chinese universities of science and engineering and explore the new approach to the character development of the SFL. Based on the alliance, the council members discuss the common problems encountered in developing foreign language disciplines and building a cross-regional and inter-university educational resource sharing platform. These efforts and activities make it possible for the alliance members to share high-quality education resources and cooperate effectively.
Furthermore, these activities improve foreign language discipline development in science and engineering universities, and the SFL has played an indispensable role in foreign language discipline development with these universities. Such innovation and activities have held many universities' attention in China. Additionally, the SFL has taken the lead in setting up the first national intelligent engineering foreign language development center to explore the new model of cultivating college graduates, the combination of artificial intelligence, and engineering and foreign language teaching.
The SFL has achieved a lot in the teaching field. Since its establishment, the SFL has completed one national teaching reform project, two key course construction programs for undergraduates in Shanghai, one model course innovation for overseas students in Shanghai, one quality course construction in Shanghai, and seven high-quality courses at USES. As for textbooks and teaching prizes, the SFL won one award for outstanding textbooks among Shanghai universities, two prizes for outstanding textbooks at SUES, one first-level prize for teaching achievements at SUES, and two second-level prizes for teaching achievements at SUES. Additionally, there is one key course construction project in Shanghai in the works.
The SFL has made fruitful research achievements in the past few years. Since the School's establishment, three National Social Science research projects and two national Humanities and Social Sciences projects have been approved and supported by the Ministry of Education. One general project at the local state level and one project for young researchers was approved by the Shanghai Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science. The Shanghai Academy approved one Educational Science project, and Shanghai Higher Education Association approved two. The faculty at the SFL also collaborated with other university professors to research one project approved by the National Planning Office of Social Science and one approved by the Ministry of Education. The faculty at the SFL has published more than 50 research books and textbooks, and more than 200 high-level research articles (including A&HCI, CSSCI, and other high-level papers, which have appeared in top-level journals including Copy Materials by Renmin University of China [the full-text reprint] and Comparative Literature in China).
The SFL has achieved remarkable fruits in teaching competitions, English discipline competitions, and honorary awards, winning 29 awards. Representative awards include the top prize, the first-level prize, and the third-level prize for teaching in the Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Cup National University Foreign Language Teaching Competition (University English Group) in the Shanghai area. The faculty has also won the first prize in the national level teaching competition. Additionally, the faculty has also won first level and third-level prizes in the Teaching Star University English Group Teaching Competition supported by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. One of the faculty won the first prize in the 30th Han Suyin International Translation Competition, and another one won the first-level Contribution Award in the 45th Kazan World Skills Competition. In the student competition field, the students of the SFL won the first-level prize, the second level and the third-level prizes respectively in the National University English Competition. More than 1,000 students at the SFL won the English competition prizes at the local level, including eight top-level prizes, 67 first-level prizes, 373 second-level prizes, and 618 third-level prizes. Students also won prizes in the National Interpretation Competition, the National College Student English Speech Contest, the China-Australia Cup China-Australia Friendship English Competition, the National English Speech Contest, the Reading Contest, and the Writing Competition.
The SFL has also achieved remarkable results in moral education. The SFL actively explores the cooperation model of school-enterprise linkage, internal and external training, and establishes long-term practical cooperation relations with many companies (including Shanghai Xueersi Education Co., Ltd., Shanghai Cema Translation Co., Ltd., Shanghai Overseas Service (Group) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Yingpei Business Consulting Co., Ltd., Beijing Remote TLScontact Business Consulting Co., Ltd., Shanghai Ruike Translation Co., Ltd., Shanghai Yikaidi Translation and Interpretation Consulting Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Shenhui Private Immigration Services Co., Ltd.) These companies provide SFL graduates with internship opportunities, such as interpretation post internships, summer production, and cooperation positions. People's Transit Group and other seven enterprises donate social scholarships to encourage students to study hard and practice. Besides these activities, the SFL has established a demonstrated base for cooperative education in the industry and learning with the Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. As a result, relying on the existing broad platforms for cooperation in industry, learning, and research, students in the SFL can participate in cooperative education, accumulate practical working experience, and increase their employment competitiveness.
6. Visions
Currently, the SFL is in a critical transitional period from teaching-oriented to teaching research-oriented. Bearing in mind President Xi's call for being ideal teachers in four respects (ideals and beliefs, morality, knowledge, and love), all the faculty and staff at the SFL will be accountable and become excellent teachers. All the faculty and staff at SFL strive to make more significant contributions for school construction, high-level development, and three complete education: to cultivate excellent college graduates with the whole process's efforts from all aspects.
The SFL will continue to consolidate the undergraduate program translation and interpretation basis, implement the four-year consistent tutor-assisted training system, and cultivate high-level translation and interpretation graduates. According to the trend of professional market segmentation, relying on the advantages of engineering at SUES, the SFL will construct the translation and interpretation undergraduate program with intelligent engineering education characteristics. The SFL will make full use of its advantages in discipline construction and major development, actively participate in the construction process of internationalization at SUES and promote the application of the valuable teaching resource from international universities to accelerate the development process of SUES.
The SFL will follow its developmental goal, the New Three Steps, established at the third-Party Congress in SUES, and vigorously implement the new development strategies. These goals include strengthening college with more talents, developing college with its characteristics, and cooperating with more foreign colleges. Under the school board's leadership, all faculty and staff cooperate effectively, work hard, and pioneer initiatives. This leads to the SFL becoming a high-quality and harmonious family with the characteristics of scientific management, abundantly qualified faculty, high-quality teaching, top-level research, high level of internationalization, and high-quality graduates. Consequently, the SFL will contribute more to SUES in constructing a top-class University of engineering applications.