School of Foreign Languages at East China Institute of Technology (ECIT) was founded in 2005. The origin of the School goes back to the Teaching and Research Section ofForeign Languages in the Basic Course Department, mainly responsible for the foreign language teaching of undergraduates. Named as Department of Foreign Languages in 1999, it then began to offer Bachelor’s degree program.
On June 2005, School of Foreign Languages was restructured from Department of Foreign Languages and thus formally established.
The School consists of the Department of English, the Department of Japanese, the Department of College English and the Institute of Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. Presently, it offers 2 undergraduate language programs: English, Japanese. The School has an annual enrollment of about 300 full-time undergraduate students. At present, the total number of the students is 1166, in which 797 are English major and 369 Japanese major. In addition to the regular teaching activities for majors, it assumes the responsibility of teaching both the college English and the postgraduate English courses in ECIT.
Presently, the School has 122 full-time staff, including 108 full-time instructors. Among them are 2 professors, 28 associate professors, and 78 lecturers and assistants. Two faculty members hold PhD, 75 hold bachelor’s degrees and 3 teachers are candidates for a PhD. Each year about 20 foreign experts work in the school.
With the training mode of "foundation integrated with modules", the school has always been focusing on the improvement of its teaching quality, aiming at cultivating the talents of versatility and capability with solid foundation of foreign languages and relatively extensive knowledge of science and culture. Through the mutual effort made by the teachers and students, the learning construction of is outstanding and the output is conspicuous. Over the years our students of English have passed TEM -4 at an annual average rate of 85%, high above the nation's average level. The passage ratio of TEM-4 in 2010 is high above 93%. Students have won lots of prizes and honors in nationwide and provincial competitions and contests of foreign language proficiency. In order to enrich students’ extracurricular life and nurture a sound-learning environment for foreign-language studies, the school has been organizing a variety of extracurricular activities. Graduates completing the undergraduate training are expected to master the basic professional knowledge of their major and to be successfully qualified for the domains such as scientific research, business activities, culture exchange, tourism, education.
The school is committed to improving its capacity of scientific research. It has established close academic exchange relations with quite a few universities both at home and abroad. In the past 5 years, the staff have published a total of more than 100 papers in academic periodicals; they have written, edited or translated 10 academic books or textbooks. And an increasing number of research projects of our staff have been approved. It is creating conditions for the enrollment of master-degree students in the near future.
The School is equipped with up-to-date teaching facilities. Currently, it possesses 20 well-equipped language laboratories, two self-access foreign language learning centers, one simultaneous interpreting laboratory, one English FM broadcasting station, one international trade process laboratory, one digital audio broadcasting system and sufficient multifunctional classrooms. In addition, the school sets up 7 practice bases to provide students with internship opportunities. The School library has a collection of 4,000 books and more than 20 kinds of journals and academic periodicals. The teaching facilities provide a comfortable teaching environment and convenient learning resources.
