On November 11, 2014, the faculty of the Department of English had an academic salon in the language center with the theme of the reform on the “Integrated English” course. The salon was hosted by Associate Professor Chen Cheng, Executive Associate Dean Ms Chen Cheng and all the teachers attended the salon with great interest.
The salon began with the speech delivered by our overseas teacher Mr. Felix, who showed the participants his understanding of the text and triggered other teachers’ interest by raising the question of “What the role of the teacher is in the classroom”. Miss Ye Ting focused on the points of how to encourage the students to discuss the theme of the text and how to extend their understanding of the new words by making use of the context. Mr. Lin Qi, who is a part-time teacher now, introduced his interactive teaching method, which was interrupted by the burst of laughter from the audience. Ms Zeng Ling, Head of Teaching & Research Section of Integrated English Course, emphasized on cultivating students’ sense of language and the ability to conduct the critical thinking ability. Mr. Wang Liehui explained how to apply the theories of applied linguistics into the teaching of new words. Professor Zhu Shichang, Dean of the Department of English made a speech by combining the theory with teaching practice. From the pedagogical point of view, he put forward some practical suggestions for further considerations. Professor Xh Zhong was invited to make comments on the presentations. He said that “The ultimate purpose of the course of “Integrated English” is to provide students with more opportunities to help them to lay a solid foundation for the language.”
This academic salon held by the Department of English is an important step to translate the general requirement of “Three-Year-Long Plan” with a view to sustaining the reform in the Department in the past year, the purpose of which is to further enhance the general quality of teaching and education. After the salon, the overseas teacher Mr. Ian held more discussions together with Professor Zhu and other administrators of the Department. The teachers of the Department were all much encouraged by this. They said that a series of reforms now underway in the Department including “the interactive approaches in the class teaching, the extracurricular activities and the reform and change of the course arrangement for the third-year students would not only provide every teacher with a platform where they could display their competence but also raise higher demand on the part of the teachers. The participants also said that they really benefited a great deal from such activities. The leading personnel would discuss further on the basis of the salon and continue holding more academic salons so as to enrich the quality of teaching.
