The School of Foreign Languages
A Survey of the School

History of SFL

Foreign language teaching at Southeast University boasts a history as long as that of the university itself. As early as 1902, Sanjiang Normal College, predecessor of SEU, began to offer Japanese language courses. When the College officially opened in 1903, it offered up to 17 types of courses, two of which were English and Japanese. Among our best-known milestones are the founding of China’s first English Specialized Section in 1917, the establishment of Foreign Language Teaching and Research Section in1983 and of Foreign Language Department in 1987. In 2006, the Department was renamed the School of Foreign Languages. Through the past century, foreign language teaching and research of SFL has been supported and inspired by numerous famous scholars such as Wu Mi (Harvard educated, poet and one of the founders of Chinese comparative literature), Mei Guangdi(Harvard educated, scholar in western literature), Lou Guanglai (Harvard educated, literary translator and expert on Shakespeare) and Zhang Shiyi (Columbia educated, widely-respected educator).

Programs

SFL offers Ph.D. degree programs, postdoctoral research positions and six master’s degree programs in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics of Foreign Languages, English Language and Literature, Japanese Language and Literature, Russian Language and Literature, Spanish Language and Literature, and Translation & Interpretation. In 2013, SFL was approved by China’s Ministry of Education (MOE) to offer the first dual master’s degree program in partnership with overseas universities. The School offers bachelor’s degree programs in English (accredited as key B.A. program of national level), Japanese (ditto) and Russian, and offers dual bachelor’s degree program in English & Information Engineering (the first program of its kind in SEU), and Japanese & Information Engineering. The School is included in the key academic disciplines of Jiangsu Province (class A, the 14th Five Year Plan) and the state first-class courses for undergraduate program. 

School Structure

SFL is comprised of five departments and four teaching & learning centres:

1)Department of English

2)Department of Japanese

3)Department of European Languages and Literature

4)Department of College Foreign Languages

5)Department of English Teaching for Graduates of Non-English Majors

6)Centre for MTI (Master of Translation and Interpreting) Education

7)Centre for Language Testing and Teaching Assessment

8)Centre for Extracurricular Activities Management

9)Centre for Foreign Language Learning

Alongside the Department and Centres above, SFL boasts a national-level pilot site for College Foreign Language Teaching Reform, a MOE training base for globally competitive talent, a MOE pilot site for new liberal arts research, a provincial-level research institute, college-level research institutes and provincial-level internship programs for graduate students. At present, SFL is a branch of foreign language research under China Association of Higher Education. All this provides a supportive platform for integrating research and teaching, talent nurturing and staff training. 

Faculty overview

Our school has 137 full-time research and teaching staff. Of them, 19 hold a  professorship, over 60% have a doctoral degree and over 98% have overseas experience as research fellows, participants of exchange programs or postgraduate students.

Highly motivated and committed to teaching and research, our faculty members have won multiple awards and honors, including the National Award for Outstanding Teaching, the special government allowances of the State Council, the Provincial Award for Outstanding Teaching, the Top-Level Talent Program 333 of Jiangsu Province, the Young Academic Leaders Program of Jiangsu Province, and the Outstanding Young Teachers Program of Jiangsu Province. Alongside the full-time staff, over 20 celebrated scholars and experts at home and abroad have been invited and appointed as Guest or Honorary Professors.

Teaching, Research and Community Service

SFL has been dedicated to the continuous pursuit of teaching, research, community service, cultural conservation and innovation, and international cooperation -- five functions of higher education. The School is committed to nurturing talents with cross-disciplinary knowledge, patriotic feelings and global vision. In the past century, numerous SFL graduates have grown into scholars, experts, and intellectuals. To implement the national blueprints in the new century, SFL lays greater emphasis on teaching knowledge and skills in line with social demands. We are constantly striving for bridging the gap between college education and job market by initiating cooperation programs with enterprises and industry leaders, which contributes to greater competitiveness and higher employability of our graduates. Additionally, SFL provides language courses (first foreign language and second foreign language) for non-English majors at Southeast University. Our innovation-oriented teaching modes and achievement in bilingual talent training has been widely acknowledged and awarded for teaching excellence at national and provincial level. With a focus on the above fields, SFL is making steady progress in the research competence and community service capabilities, as seen by the substantially increased research funding, increasing number of high-level grants, a robust growth of scholarly publication and active engagement in serving the social need. The School is also the authorized test centre for Japanese Language Proficiency Test, IELTS and TOEFL.

It is the time-honored teaching excellence, spirit of reform and innovation, as well as the contribution by our faculty and students that have illuminated our past journey and will light our way ahead. We believe that we can and shall work together for developing SFL into new heights as Southeast University endeavors toward a world-class university.