Introduction of the School of Foreign Languages at Nanchang University

Founded in 1998, the predecessor of Nanchang University’s School of Foreign Languages was the Foreign Language Department of Jiangxi University (from 1975 to 1993), and then the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature of Nanchang University’s School of Humanities (from 1993 to 1998). The School now consists of three departments and five research institutes namely, the English Language and Literature Department, the Asian-European Language and Literature Department, the College English Teaching Department, the English and American Literature Research Center, the Foreign Languages Research Institute, the Research Center for Translation Studies, the Research Center for Japanese Language and Culture and the Research Center for Theater Culture. The School offers seven undergraduate programs: English (with Foreign Language & Literature and English & Japanese orientations), Translation, Japanese, German, French, and Spanish. The Foreign Language and Literature Program is entitled to grant master’s degrees as a first-class discipline. Programs such as English Language and Literature, Japanese Language and Literature, and Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics are entitled to grant master’s degrees as second-class disciplines and to confer degrees in MTI (Master of Translation and Interpreting). The on-campus enrollments include 1199 full-time students, among whom 1,527 are undergraduates and 74 postgraduates. In addition, the school offers foreign language courses to students in other majors, among whom 16,000 are undergraduates and over 4,000 are postgraduates.

Currently, the School has a staff of 193 members, among whom 165 are teachers, 13 full professors, and 60 associate professors. There are 4 teachers who are studying for doctoral degrees, 79 returning scholars who have studied abroad, and 15 master supervisors. The School boasts one member from the National Advisory Committee on Teaching English as a Major in Higher Education under the Ministry of Education, one teacher with the title of Outstanding Teacher of Jiangxi province, two provincial-level young and middle-aged core teachers, two early middle-aged and middle-aged academic leaders in Jiangxi universities, and one teacher who claimed the Outstanding Teacher Award of Baogang Education Foundation.

The English Major Program is a provincial brand specialty and it ranked first in a comprehensive evaluation of English offered in higher education undergraduate programs in Jiangxi Province. The Japanese Major Program, the French Major Program and the Spanish Major Program all ranked first in the evaluation of the respective languages in 2016. Courses like Basic English, Advanced English, Collage English Reading and Writing are crowned as Provincial Excellent Courses, and courses like Audio-visual Advanced Japanese, Advanced English and Collage English Reading and Writing are listed as Provincial Excellent Open Courses. The Intermediate Japanese course was awarded first prize in the 15th National Multimedia Courseware Competition. The Audio-visual Advanced Japanese and Practical Japanese (I) courses were rated as Provincial Excellent Online Open Courses, and the French course was named as the University’s Excellent Online Open Course.

The School is a demonstration site for the reform of college English teaching, and it outshines its peers in the province in terms of college English teaching.  

The projects secured by the School in recent years are as follows: 11 projects have been approved by the National Social Science Fund; one Translation Project of Chinese Humanities and Social Sciences Academic Boutique; six projects sponsored by the Ministry of Education Funds for Humanities and Social Sciences; two projects approved by China's Foreign Language Education Fund; 98 research projects on Humanities and Social Sciences at the provincial level; 47 research projects on educational reform at the provincial level, 13 science research achievement awards at the provincial level; 20 teaching achievement awards at the provincial level. Papers published by the School are as follows: over 240 in Chinese core journals, 92 in CSSCI source journals, 12 in China’s authoritative journals, 6 in A&HCI and 6 in SSCI.  

The School is devoted to international cooperation and exchanges. For example, funded by the inter-school Chinese-foreign cooperative education project and China Scholarship Council, the School will invite over 70 students every year to study in universities such as Yamanashi Gakuin University, Musashino University, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Bashkir State University, University of Poitiers, University of Wuppertal, University of Guanajuato and Edith Cowan University.

To enhance students’ all-round abilities, the School organizes various extra-curricular activities such as a Foreign Language Festival, an "Internet +" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and the Forum on Having a Date with Growth. These activities provide opportunities for students to improve their language skills, helping them to be high-quality and versatile language professionals.  

Introduction of English Major Program