The Foreign Language Department of Hunan University of Finance and Economics was founded inMarch, 2007, on the basis of the former Foreign Economic and Trade Department, which was composed of one teaching and research office for English Major and two offices for CollegeEnglish. Now the department includes one teaching and application research institution for ESP, and four teaching and research offices: one for English Major, two for College English, and one for Financial and Economic English. Three bachelor’s degree programs are provided, including English (FinancialEnglish and Business English), Japanese (Financial Japanese), and translation. It also provides one junior college program, that is, Foreign-oriented Secretary.Altogether there are about 800 students in this department. 51 full-time and part-time teachers areemployed, among whom, there are 9 professors and 15 associate professors (accounting for 42%), 23 lecturers and 4 assistant teachers. 43 teachers have Master’s Degree, accounting for 84% of the faculty. Five teachers are pursuing Doctor’s Degree. Besides, the department also hires a group of international faculty with more than 4 members. The newly founded foreign language departmenthas formed a teaching-and-research-based faculty with the teachers with Master’s Degree and middle-or-high titles as the main body, the young and middle-aged teachers as the hard core, showing an advantage over the departments in other universities at the same level.
Discipline construction and specialty construction are actively carried out in the department, having achieved a lot on both teaching and teaching reform. The past three years saw: 5 teachers studying in some famous universities as visiting scholars; fruitful scientific researches, including four monographs, 28 provincial and ministerial research projects funded by Social Science Planning Office of Ministry of Education, Hunan Social Science Planning Office, Hunan Social Science Association and Education Department of Hunan Province, 18 teaching reform projects funded by the university, 30 thesises with initiative ideas published on Chinese corejournals, 150 thesises published on other foreign language journals and university journals; one third prize for Provincial Teaching Achievement Award; the course of Foreign TradeEnglish Letters and Telegrams as the provincial high-quality course; the second teaching office for College English as the provincial excellent teaching office; and the discipline of English Language and Literature as the key discipline in this university.
In the spirits of pragmatism and innovation, a set of new teaching methods have been established in the foreign language department for its everyday teaching practice, with complete theoretical and practical teaching system, continuously improved teaching level and talent training level. The faculty not only teaches the 800 students in its own department but also teaches college English for nearly 7,000 students ofother majors in this university.
In 2005, for the first time the students inour college won the third prize in the final of the 2nd National Practical English Speaking Contest for Professional College Students. After that, the students and teachers in the department won a succession of awards in different kinds of contests. In 2006 the contestant from our college won the second prize in the same speaking contest. In the same year, two teachers wonthe first and the second prize in the Provincial College Teachers Multimedia Courseware Design Competition respectively. 2007 saw the first prize group in the 13th Provincial College Students English Speech Contest, 2008 the first prize group in the competition of science, technology and business English translation organized by Hunan Translator’s Association for Science and Technology. In 2009, in the 15th Provincial College Students English Speech Contest, the contestants from our college won the third prize group inthe three-year college groups, while in 2010 and in 2011, the second prize group. In 2012, in the 18th Provincial College Students English Speech Contest, the contestants attended the contest in the regular college groupsfor the first time, and won the second prize groups (in the first place among the second prize groups).
It is equipped with complete modernized teaching facilities, with multi-media and multi-functional digital language laboratory, simultaneous interpretation laboratory, students’ self-study center and English radio station, plus the other 20 language laboratories and 40multi-media classrooms in the university, which can fully meet the language teaching needs for the whole university.
The employment rate of the graduates in thedepartment keeps at 93%. Graduates are greatly welcomed by government, financialsystem, educational institution, overseas-funded enterprise, and various industries concerning foreign languages.
Under the wise leadership of the party committee and executive directors of the university, based on the principle of “all for the students, for all students, and for all aspects of the students”, the faculty and staff of the Foreign Language Department will focus ondiscipline construction, enhance characteristic specialty construction, increase high-quality curriculum, cultivate creative talents, and strive for aharmonious, innovative, and qualified university foreign language department,which is not only influential in Hunan province but also in the whole of China.
