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Introduction
The College of English Language and Literature developed out of the former English major, founded in June of the year 1956, in the Department of Western Languages at Shanghai International Studies College. It became an independent department in 1961, with Fang Chong, a distinguished professor, serving as the first Chairman of the SISU English Department.
Approved by the Ministry of Education, the English Department launched an M.A. program in English Language and Literature in 1980 and a Ph. D. program in English Language and Literature in 1983. Along with the University’s rapid development, it was renamed the College of English Language and Literature on December, 6th, 1994 to promote and expand the development of English subjects to a new level. English as a subject group was recognized in the list of Shanghai leading academic disciplines in 1996 and 2001, and it was honored by the Ministry of Education as being one of the state-level leading academic disciplines in 2001 and 2007. The College was approved to offer the postdoctoral programs in 2003.
As one of the best among similar colleges in China, the SISU College of English Language and Literature has a mature teaching and research system offering different kinds of major study directions at all levels: offering top-ranked bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, doctor’s degrees, and research in post doctoral programs. In 2007, the SISU English major programs got all A-level marks in undergraduate teaching assessment by the Ministry of Education.
Major Goal
The College of English Language and Literature aims at cultivating students to be highly qualified international English talents with noble moral purpose, a sense of high social responsibility, polished professional knowledge, excellent foreign language skills and broad global visions.
Faculty
The College has a well-organized team of teachers with outstanding academic, teaching, and research achievements, two-thirds with senior professional titles and high credentials. At present, it has 16 doctoral student supervisors, 26 full professors (18 under 55 years old), 29 associate professors, 33 instructors with a Ph. D. degree, 21 teachers studying for the doctorate, and more than half of the teachers furthering their study abroad or who have been abroad as visiting scholars. Many professors and doctoral student supervisors are prestigious in national English academic circles. They work as members on the Foreign Languages Steering Committee under the Ministry of Education, as evaluation experts of state-level textbook projects and of models of teaching quality, thus establishing their position as the largest team of discipline leaders in national foreign language research and teaching associations.
Programs
At present, the College of English Language and Literature has two undergraduate programs in English Language and Literature and in Translation. Approved by the Ministry of Education in 2007, the Translation major is a newly established one, aiming at cultivating advanced English interpreters, translators, and multi-linguistic translators.
Overview of Teaching
The English major has historically been a pillar program at SISU. In the last several years, the new situation of the opening-up policy and the need for foreign language professionals at all levels provided perfect opportunities to broaden the stage for the program. The College has made timely adjustments in the teaching modes and materials, thus greatly improving its academic efficiency and catering effectively to the urgent need for advanced foreign language professionals. The goal is to cultivate interdisciplinary talents in the specialty of English with subsidiary specialties in other majors. The required courses for the English Language and Literature major and for the Translation major are as follows:
Integrated English, advanced English, extensive reading, audio-visual-oral English (I、II), English pronunciation, oral English, basic English grammar, introduction to English-speaking countries course, selected readings in American literature, history of British literature, interpretation, and translation.
The English Language and Literature major specifically has the following courses: Lexicology, English practical writing, advanced audio-visual-oral English, English films and videos, English theoretical grammar, selected readings in British literature works, selected readings in American literature works, introduction to British society and culture, introduction to American society and culture, English rhetoric, linguistics, translation of practical writings, selected readings in American poetry, Bible stories, selected readings of American short stories, selected readings of British short stories, American history, English newspaper reading, and English stylistics.
The Translation major specifically has the following courses:
Chinese culture, Western culture, Chinese history of diplomacy, social science knowledge, lectures on natural science, interpretation basics, translation basics, alternating interpretation, consecutive interpretation, simultaneous interpretation, stylistics translation, literature translation, translation of practical writings, research and practice in translation of literature, introduction to western translation theories, translation theories and skills, interpretation theories and skills, and language and translation.
Moreover, all the students can choose relative courses of other majors as selective courses at SISU and other universities.
M. A. programs at SISU have two main majors (English Language and Literature, and Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics), including seven research directions:
1）Linguistics, 2）Literature, 3) Translation and Interpreting, 4) Teaching Methodology, 5) British and American Cultures, 6）Testing, and 7) Intercultural Communication.
The SISU Ph. D. program offers two majors (English Language and Literature, and Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics), including 20 major research directions:
1）English linguistics, 2）Second language acquisition, 3）Pragmatics, 4）Language Testing, 5）Formal syntax, 6）Language cognition, 7）Language philosophy, 8） Systematic functional grammar, 9）Sociolinguistics, 10）Cognitive semantics, 11）FLT theories, 12）British literature, 13）American literature, 14）Shakespeare studies, 15) American poetry studies, 16）Western modern literary studies, 17）translation research on A Dream of Red Mansions,18）Interpretation, 19）English-Chinese comparative study and application, and 20）English rhetoric theories and application.
Through all-round quality education and solid professional training, students are to be equipped with the high-level English language expertise and broad professional knowledge that provide solid foundations and pave the road to be outstanding talents in all walks of life.
Overview of Research
The curriculum development in the College of English Language and Literature has been facing five opportunities and challenges, including international competition, national development, local economic construction and social development, the university’s development, and the rapid development of teaching and research among similar higher learning institutions in China. The College exercises vigilance, grasps opportunities and furthers reforms, keeping the concept of scientific development at the core to lead the College’s construction of subjects and aiming toward establishing ‘a high-level research and teaching oriented English college’ as its development goal.
With the basis of maintaining the historical ‘state-level leading academic discipline’ ranking, it focuses on promoting the teaching and research level of ‘English Language and Literature’, ‘English-Chinese Bilingual Translation’, and ‘Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics’ and strives to develop ‘English Literature’, ‘Theoretical Linguistics and Applied Linguistics’, and ‘Foreign Language Testing’ into national top research programs, thus making it a first-class foreign language college and a cradle of excellent English language talents in China.
The College of English Language and Literature has developed seven research centers which play a leading role in the course of promoting SISU to a ‘research and teaching oriented university.’ These are:
1）The National Foreign Language Teaching Materials and Methodology Research Center
2）The English Literature Research Center
3）The Language and Translation Research Center
4）The English Testing Research Center
5）The Training Innovative Talents Research Center
6）The Chinese-Western Comparative Culture Research Center
7）The English-speaking Countries Research Center
The College of English Language and Literature sticks to performing the education concept of ‘research leading teaching, teaching promoting research, putting equal weight on research and teaching, to cultivate highly qualified builders of socialism and reliable successors,’ and it firmly holds to the educational attitude of ‘seeking truth and performing pragmatism, being active in progressing and innovation, striving for being a first-class college’, thus making magnificent achievements in research and teaching. In the past couple of years, the college was recognized as having one national top quality course and four Shanghai top quality courses, which ranked the highest among similar higher learning institutions in China; many times it was awarded both state-level and Shanghai municipal excellent awards of teaching achievements and excellent awards of teaching textbooks; many times got both state-level and Shanghai excellent awards of scientific research; a handsome number of teachers took over many state-level and Shanghai research projects several times, which made huge contributions to the nation’s foreign language teaching and research. In the last three years, English teachers in this College published 165 academic books and textbooks, published 233 papers of teaching and research in Chinese and overseas core journals and all kinds of academic publications, and took over 48 projects at all levels with 28 projects above the provincial level.
Overview of Overseas Communication
The College of English Language and Literature continues to establish significant cooperative relationships with many distinguished overseas universities, including three universities in the United Kingdom: the University of: Westminster (2001), University of Leeds (2002), and University of Nottingham (2006) ; four universities in the United States: the University of Maryland (2001), Towson University (2001), University of Florida (2002), and University of North Carolina (2006); two universities in Canada:
CORRECT PROBLEM: the University of Otago (2001)
is in New Zealand. Should this be the University of Ottawa?
and Carleton University (2005); Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (2001) in New Zealand. Moreover, the College signed a long-term cooperation agreement with the University of Nottingham, including undergraduate programs, M. A. programs, and Ph. D. programs, which provide the College with solid foundations to cultivate talents and carry out academic communication and international cooperation. Additionally, the College frequently holds fairly influential national and international academic conferences.
Overview of Student Activities and Job-hunting
As the largest college at SISU, the College of English Language and Literature also plays a leading role in students’ activities. To make students’ after-class life colorful and enriching, each year it holds many significant activities which also help students to cultivate character and promote their knowledge and abilities. Through many years of development, the College has developed a series of model activities, including a students’ English speech contest for freshmen, the ‘Shakespeare Festival ’for sophomores, and English debating competition for juniors, all of which are very influential and formative activities at SISU. The College earnestly implements the spirit of the ‘16th Central Document’ and strives to create a new situation for the education of the ideological and political work for students. It further arouses and mobilizes the enthusiasm of assistants and supervisors and strengthens the cooperation and communication between them, thus enabling teachers to know students’ current situations regarding ideology, life and study, to help students develop a correct world view, healthy outlook on life and values, and to lead students to hold correct learning goals, beliefs, attitudes and methods. The College earnestly and pragmatically carries out the work of recruiting party members from among university students, and in line with standards of quality, each year increases the recruitment number. The work puts emphasis on an active approach to guiding the students as the main goal, and waiting them to be mature as a subsidiary objective. The College also pays special attention to needy students and ethnic minority students. It set up the ‘Assistantship Fund of the English College’ with many assistantship prizes which are important complements of the university’s assistantship fund. Additionally, our faculty members often donate money to needy students to help them finish their study, thus creating a cooperative atmosphere in the college.
Employment
Students in the College of English Language and Literature are very highly sought out among employers and our graduates have jobs all over the world. Feedback from employers shows that the professional level and comprehensive quality of graduates in this College receives approval and praise from the broader society. Students in all kinds of programs from the English College have long been well-accepted in all walks of life. In the last five years, all the employment rates of our undergraduates are over 96% (data collected in June of each year). The main fields employing our graduates include state-level institutions (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Xinhua News Agency, Committee of Economic Trade for Foreign Countries), Shanghai government institutions (Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office, Committee of Shanghai Economic Trade for Foreign Countries), consulate generals of foreign countries in Shanghai, enterprises with foreign investment, foreign trade companies, news institutions, financial institutions, international consulting institutions, international accounting firms, international advertising companies, large state-owned enterprises, publishing organizations, higher learning institutions.
Contact Information
Dean: Mei Deming, Professor
Email: meideming@shisu.edu.cn
Tel: 8621—67701059；8621—65311900—2325；
Fax: 8621—55395556
Updated January 2008 |
