On the afternoon of June 24th, the Second Stimulated International Conference Presentation & Award Ceremony of Academic Writing Contest for Graduate Students of Non-English Majors was held jointly by Graduate School and Foreign Languages School of SEU in Sipailou Campus.
At the beginning of the event, Prof. Jin Baosheng, Vice-president of Graduate School, delivered a speech, briefly reviewing the background of the current reform of English teaching. He positively affirmed the reform of English teaching for the graduate students of non-English majors and eagerly hoped that the graduate students could make efforts to improve their abilities in English academic writing. Moreover, he wished this event a complete success.
The attendees also included Prof. Xiong Hongqi, Vice-president of Graduate School, Prof. Yuan Liudi, Head of Office of Graduate Training, Prof. Chen Meihua, Dean of School of Foreign Languages, Prof. Zhu Hongqing,Vice-dean of School of Foreign Languages, Prof. Zheng Yuqi, Prof. Liu Xuming and some other teachers from School of Foreign Languages. Meanwhile, some English-major graduate students also attended this activity.
The theme of this academic writing contest was “PM2.5 Control—from the perspective of _________ (Analysis of the causes of PM2.5 and their countermeasures)”. Graduate students from different majors were required to write papers in English based on their own research interests. These papers were instructed and modified by their English teachers for times, after which they were submitted to be involved in the paper selection at the end of the semester.
Eventually, there were three groups of the contestants winning the first prize. Eight groups and eleven groups won the second and third prizes respectively. Besides, seven English teachers were awarded the Title of Excellent Instructors.
This activity adopted the form and procedures of common international conferences. Besides one main session for the keynote speeches, three parallel session presentations were also presented, discussing about different issues under the conference theme. All the presentations were conducted with the combination of both divisions of work and cooperation of team members.
At the end of the contest, Prof. Zhu Hongqing made a wonderful comment on this event. He began with sincere thanks to the teachers who participated in the reform and organized this event. Then he summarized the performances of the contestants and pointed out drawbacks in their presentations. He also emphasized some issues worthy of due attention in presentations at international conferences. All the contestants and the audience benefited a lot from his comments.
The academic writing course of this semester and the academic oral English courses of the previous semester constitute a whole in the current English Teaching Reform for the graduate students of non-English majors. The contest of this year took simulation projects under academic research as its carrier, driven by language output via oral reports and academic writing, and aimed at cultivating comprehensive abilities. As a whole, the activity plays a significant role in the English Teaching Reform for the graduate students of non-English majors in our university, which has highlighted the integrity, technicality and authenticity during communication.
“We still have a lot to do though the English Teaching Reform has taken a solid first step.” said one of the English teachers from School of Foreign Languages.
(Translated by Shi Yaoyao)
