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Eight teachers of our institute joined six training classes jointly held by National Research Center for Foreign Language Education and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in Beijing this summer holiday, and each of these six classes were of different themes. Every class lasted for about two days, and its contents included theme lecture given by about five experts. After the lecture, there were some interactive sessions such as Q-A section, demonstration lesson and panel discussion, reflective journal, etc.
In order to absorb the favor of this year’s seminar to maximum limit and impact, after repeated consideration, the leaders of our institute decided to diversely sent Hu Yonghui, the vice director of English Department and other eight teachers from the English Department of the university including Wang Ting, Zhang Liping, Cai Rong, Wu Ting, Miao Limin, Wu Min, Bao Min and so on to separately join the training classes of all themes and contents.
The lecture on The Teaching and Research of Effective Courses was given by Professor Zhou Yan from School of English Studies of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) and Professor Yang Luxin and the associate professor Xu Hao, full-time researchers from the Foreign Language Education Research Institute of BFSU. Professor Zhou mentioned that reading and writing is an act of interaction of language, cognition, society and culture in the context of multiculturalism.
When illustrating the concept and practice of the teaching of reading, Professor Yang indicated that teachers should change the teaching methods based on the learning characteristics of students. The associate professor Xu guided them to design vivid and effective writing courses from aspects of skills, knowledge and process, the activity of expanding knowledge, process-oriented activites, writing assessment and suggestions.
These teachers have made progress in theory and practice in the course of designing the teaching plan and activity program of reading and writing and improving them with experts and other teachers who attended the seminar.
The seminar on Course Designing and Teaching Methods of Translation was divided into two directions: translation and interpreting. The organizer of it invited many experts and scholars to give lectures, including Professor Zhong Weihe, the president of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Professor He Gangqiang from Fudan University, Professor Wang Dongfeng from Zhongshan University and Professor Liu Heping from Beijing Language and Culture University. They elucidated in great depth the establishment and discipline development of translation, the qualities required of teachers and interpreting theory research, and had a discussion with all the teachers.
The seminar on the writing and publication of academic periodicals and thesis was aimed at promoting teaching research, advancing the development of teachers, discussing the writing methods of academic periodicals and thesis. The content of the seminar included exploring research subjects, analyzing academic trends and academic periodicals, addressing research designing and raising standards of writing.
The experts illuminated frontier concepts and methods of International Language Testing, explained the measuring objective and task designing of ability testing for reading, writing, listening and speaking, and demonstrated the statistical method of testing for foreign languages.
The seminar on the topic of Test for Foreign Languages---Theory and Practice was hosted by Professor Han Baocheng, Yang Lifang and Xu Hongchen, renowned experts in the field of foreign language teaching and research for language testing. They put forward many effective strategies and approaches aimed at large-scale examinations, teaching and testing objectives, effective subjects designingb and testing effects analysis.
The experts who gave the forum speeches at the monographic seminar of ‘The Research and Application of Digital Educational Technology in Foreign Language Teaching’ were Professor Gu Yueguo from Institute of Online Education of Beijing Foreign Studies University, Researcher Hong Huaqing from Nanyang Technological University and Professor Dong Jianqiao from Jiangnan University. They introduced foreign language learning in digital environment and multimoding development tendency of teaching and management as well as explained mixing learning concept and model of teaching. Meanwhile, they discussed and experienced new interactive classroom-teaching model with the combination of college English teaching and led the teachers to use and participate in the design of digital courses effectively.
Teachers of our school who have participated in this seminar generally claimed that they had benefited a lot from it. During the process of study and training, they could not only listen closely to the experts, but also could be able to have extensive exchanges with forefront teachers from fellow colleges. Things studied by these teachers were of great technicality and practicability, with abundant contents presented in various forms, for the purpose that teachers of our school would further improve their foreign language teaching. Teachers sent by our school works with positive attitude and performs well. In this seminar, they overcame obstacles, worked hard, studied assiduously, explored bravely and practiced boldly. Among them, Mr. Bao Min were awarded the title of "outstanding students".
