With the establishment of Anhui Institute of Architecture and Industry, the Office of College English Teaching was founded to fulfill English teaching for non-English majors. In 2002, English Department was founded and undergraduate majors of English were enrolled. In 2013, School of Foreign Languages was founded.
School of Foreign Languages consists of three teaching and research sections, namely, The English Department, Teaching and Research Section I and Teaching and Research Section II. Faculty in these three sections fulfill English teaching for undergraduates of English majors and for undergraduates and graduates of non-English majors. There are 355 full-time undergraduate students majoring in English.
At present, there’s a teaching staff of 63 full-time members, including 56 full-time teachers, 4 administrators, and 3 experimenters. There are 2 professors, 10 associate professors, 8 PhDs, 4 PhD candidates, 1 Outstanding Teacher on provincial level, 1 academic and technical leader on provincial level and 2 Honor Teachers on provincial level. Foreign experts are also employed to fulfill teaching tasks. In recent years, there is a sharp increase in both quality and quantity of academic achievements. During the past five years, the teaching staff have published more than 300 academic papers, including 27 journal articles in SCI、SSCI、A&HCI、CSSCI etc. In recent years, the teachers have taken charge of two topics of the National Social Science Fund, two items of the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Planning Project, as well as more than 57 items in Anhui Social Science Planning Project. There are three fine-quality course, video course and shared course on provincial level. In recent years, the staff have taken three provincial level revitalization projects, 24 provincial level fine-quality teaching projects and have been awarded with one first prize and one second prize in provincial level teaching achievement as well as one second prize in “Three Research Topics in Social Science” honored by Anhui Social Sciences Association.
There is a language laboratory center with eight autonomous-learning classrooms on the north and the south campus with 702 seats (2 on the north campus and 6 on the south campus). There is also a simultaneous interpretation laboratory with 36 seats. The autonomous-learning classrooms and simultaneous interpretation laboratory occupy 1000 square meters and can provide students with favorable environment for online study. The center has adopted the model of joint-development accompanied with market purchase to endeavor to guarantee quality of the software as well as the learning effect. As to the book resources, the center has closely cooperated with the publishing presses in foreign languages and installed platforms including New Horizon Online Learning Classroom, iTEST College Foreign Language Training and Testing System International Trade Teaching and Training System with the value of about 4123000.00 yuan in total.
The college attaches great importance to talent cultivation and sticks to the principle of student-centered teaching philosophy and reform in teaching practice. In college English teaching, relying on the items of the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Planning Project as well as provincial level projects, the school has carried out a series of reform in teaching practice and established a unique “five guaranteeing mechanisms” to guarantee the leaning effect. In 2013, “Study on Autonomous Learning Model of College English”has been awarded as provincial level outstanding achievements promotion project. In the major cultivation scheme, the applied talents training model has been adopted. In the first class and second class, knowledge acquisition, reasoning ability developments as well as culture deposits cultivation have been emphasized in the whole course system. Meanwhile, basic knowledge in fields of English education, foreign-related projects and international trade has also been taught in class.
The school has endeavored to promote innovation education and the liberal education. Subject competitions in English speech, writing, reading as well as second class activities like English speech simulation competition，adapted short play in Chinese traditional culture in English have been carried out in the university every year. During these competitions and activities, students have acquired opportunities to improve their ability in language acquisition and develop their comprehensive ability.