School of Foreign Languages, SNU
Founded in 1953, the School of Foreign Languages , Shenyang Normal University has five departments. They are English Department I (1st-2nd year teaching), English Department II (3rd-4th year teaching), the Russian Department, the Japanese Department, and the French & German Department. The School also has two research institutes (the Institute of English Teaching and the Institute of Japanese Culture ), one administrative office, and five other offices.
The School offers 6 bachelor-degree programs: English Teachers Education, English language, English & Chinese Interpretation, Russian language, Japanese language, and French language. Of these programs, the English Teachers Education program is the model program in Liaoning Province . In 2005, the School for the first time began to recruit students at the National Undergraduate Level (B). Since 2006, the School began to provide English Teachers Education, English Language, and E-C Interpretation for those who have two years of basic training in English.
The School has 2 master-degree programs (Foreign Linguistics & Applied Linguistics and English Language & Literature) and 1 ME program for those who pursue their graduate English Education on a part-time basis. The program in Foreign Linguistics & Applied Linguistics has 5 sub-programs for graduates. They are General Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, British & American Literature, Translation Theory & Practice, and Japanese-Chinese Translation. There are 3 sub-programs for post-graduates of English Language & Literature: British Literature, American Literature and Comparative Literature.
With the joint and devoted efforts of 54 years, the School enjoys a pride in having 102 faculty and staff members including 8 professors and 29 associate professors. The School is currently being assisted by 11 foreign experts and teachers who came from America , Russia , Japan , and France . At present, the School has a Lead Professor at the provincial level and a Renowned Teacher at the university level, 3 guest professors, a responsible professor, a leading researcher, 17 graduate tutors at the university level and 11 graduate tutors at the college level. The School has an enrollment of 1782 full-time students: 1604 undergraduates and 178 graduates in the spring of 2006.
Over the past decades, the School has attached great importance to the principle of integrating teaching into research, program development with subject construction, and of advancing research with teaching while facilitating teaching with research. In the past three years, the School has undertaken 13 research projects in social sciences sponsored by the Liaoning Education Commission , 6 of which are of A level, and 7 B level with 5 projects in foreign language teaching reforms. The School has also participated in 3 research projects at national level and has had 26 books, textbooks and reference books and 91 academic articles published. Additionally, American literature, a research course offered in the School, was assessed as a Course of Excellence at provincial level and 4 courses taught in the School were named as University Model Courses.
The School provides its students and teachers with a comfortable learning teaching and research environment, with 21 professor offices, 12 language labs, a special room for training in simultaneous interpretation, a multimedia lab, a digitalized language lab, three multi-functional visual-lingual classrooms, an Internet-and-School-server-connected classroom, an equipment-filled room for teachers to prepare their digital and multimedia lessons, a digital editing system, a satellite program-receiver, a recording facility, mobile multimedia teaching equipment, and 2 Dell servers. There are 20,907 books and 5,000 language tapes and disks for teaching and research. Each year the School subscribes 30 journals in English, Japanese, Russian, French, and German.
In recent years, the School has taken the lead in the TEM 4, TEM 8 exams and the International Japanese Proficiency Test among universities and colleges in Liaoning Province . There has been an increase in the number of our graduates who are enrolled as MA or Ph.D. candidates in national key universities. I n the 9th English Debate Competition organized by the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, the Shenyang Normal University team won second place, outdoing many teams of key universities in China . The graduates of the School are highly praised for their solid academic foundation, broadened knowledge, rich expertise and professional devotion.
The School of Foreign Languages places stress on international academic exchanges and cooperation, keeping long-term academic relations with the University of Wales, Bloomsburg University, the Irkutsk Normal University, Hokkaido University of Education, the American Consulate General in Shenyang, the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, and the Russian Consulate General in Shenyang. The School sends key teachers abroad to study, and the students of excellence are also sent to study in the United States , Great Britain , Australia , Japan , and Russia . Many international scholars and teachers are regularly invited to the School to give lectures or to teach.
The School of Foreign Languages has test centers for IELTS, PETS (levels1-5), Cambridge Young Learners English, NAETI, and the International Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
In 2005, the School was awarded by Shenyang Normal University Model School in Talents Cultivation, Advanced School of the Year, and Excellent School in Teaching Management. For three consecutives years, the School won honors of Model School of SNU and Model School in Teaching Management .
With English language teachers education as its main characteristic and E-C interpretation as its focus, the School will reinforce Japanese teaching and systematically improve the teaching of Russian, French and German. It will follow the view of scientific development in an all-round way, and redouble its efforts to build itself in 2010 into a first-class school in Liaoning Province and to become well known in the country.
Last Modified: 9/10/2007