The School of Foreign Languages was established in 1993 and started offering undergraduate education in 1996, followed by graduate education in 2007. It provides master's degree programs in Foreign Languages and Literature, as well as a Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) program. Our Foreign Languages and Literature program is recognized as one of the top disciplines in Henan Province. The school offers a wide range of languages, including English, Japanese, Russian, French, Spanish, and German, as part of its undergraduate courses. Currently, the school has a total of 873 students, consisting of 66 postgraduates and 807 undergraduates.
Educational Philosophy
The college's vision, encapsulated in the motto "Rooted in Central China, Serving the Nation, and Facing the World," reflects our commitment to moral education and individual development. Guided by the philosophy of "Holistic Education," we strive to shape our students into individuals who:
• Possess a comprehensive understanding of foundational theories and knowledge in foreign languages and literature.
• Stay informed about the latest developments and trends in the field of foreign languages and literature.
• Demonstrate strong academic integrity and cultural appreciation.
• Exhibit robust research capabilities, practical skills, cross-cultural communication abilities, and an innovative spirit.
• Embrace both national sentiments and international perspectives, fostering interdisciplinary insights.
• Are high-quality, multifaceted foreign language talents capable of contributing to national and local foreign exchange efforts, as well as economic and social development.
Faculty Achievements
The college has 112 dedicated staff members, including 96 full-time teaching faculty members responsible for undergraduate courses in English and Translation, as well as teaching and research in public foreign languages for undergraduates, master's students, and doctoral students across the university. Notable achievements of our faculty include:
• 42% of the faculty holding senior professional titles.
• 24% serving as master's degree advisors.
• 25% holding doctoral degrees.
• Over 40 faculty members having visited and conducted research in renowned universities in countries such as the UK, the US, and Australia.
• 30 faculty members having won awards in provincial-level or higher teaching competitions, such as the Henan Provincial Undergraduate College Teachers' Innovative Classroom Teaching Contest.
• 2 faculty members having been recognized as Outstanding Teachers of Henan Province.
• 3 faculty members having been acknowledged as Academic and Leading Technicians by the Education Department of Henan Province.
• 1 faculty member having been identified as an Innovative Talent in Science and Technology in Henan Province's universities.
• 1 faculty member having been named a Prominent Young Teacher in Henan Province.
• 2 faculty members having been honored as Outstanding Teachers within the Henan Education System.
• 15 faculty members having been awarded at the provincial and university levels as "Teaching Pacesetters."
• 3 faculty members having been recognized as "Top Ten Moral Education Models" at the university level.
• 2 faculty members having been highlighted as Key Young Teachers at the university level.
• 2 faculty members having been granted as Renowned Teaching Experts at the university level.
• 1 faculty member having been noted as a Renowned Teacher in Ideological and Political Education at the university level.
Disciplinary Development
The school has the authority to grant master's degrees in Foreign Language Literature and is also authorized to confer a master's degree in MTI. Our primary discipline of Foreign Language Literature is recognized as a pivotal discipline in Henan Province, encompassing sub-disciplines such as English Language and Literature, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in Foreign Languages, and Japanese Language and Literature. Our discipline has carved a niche with pronounced features and expertise across four realms: foreign language research, translation studies, foreign literature analysis, and cross-cultural research of regions and major nations.
To capitalize on our discipline's innate strengths, we engage in interdisciplinary cooperation. We align with national strategies, bolster local advancements, uphold the institution's "Double First-Class" vision, cultivate top-tier talents, deliver a globalized educational experience, and strengthen the school's cultural spirit.
Program Development
Our school offers two major undergraduate programs: English and Translation. The English major was established in 1996, while the Translation major was introduced in 2016. Our English major received accolades in 2019 and 2022, distinguished as a top-tier undergraduate program both at the provincial level in Henan and nationally.
In our pursuit of academic excellence, we have introduced four premier provincial undergraduate courses, supplemented by two provincial online courses and a provincial course focused on ideological and political models. Our commitment to quality education has been acknowledged with two provincial teaching achievement awards and a provincial textbook honor. We have successfully implemented four educational reform projects at the provincial level or higher and have developed two textbooks in line with the provincial “Fourteenth Five-Year Plan”.
As of 2023, based on the Soft Science rankings, our English program has achieved a B+ rating, while the Translation program has attained a B rating.
Talent Cultivation
Adhering to the philosophy of “student-centered, outcome-oriented, continuous improvement” and following the construction approach of “focusing on direction, cultivating talents, upgrading platforms, highlighting features, and serving society,” we prioritize the new talent scheme. Our goal is to establish courses that align with the criteria of “two ideologies, one degree,” deeply implementing curriculum system reconstruction and content system iteration. We aim to enhance our professional strengths and maintain a stable enrollment size.
To achieve this, we have developed a first-class course construction system that spans the levels of college, school, province, and country. Guided by top-tier courses, we emphasize online teaching and a blend of online and offline instruction. With the support of provincial-level outstanding teaching teams, teaching champions, renowned educators, and the college teaching guidance committee, we have built a top-notch course team through lectures, training, and teacher observation at the Teacher Development Center. Our training mechanism focuses on "Foundation+Application+Research+Innovation," and we have created a practice-and-innovation-advancing model of "Competences-Training-Research-oriented Practices-Innovation" centered around the dimensions of Course, Base, Platform, and Competition.
In recent years, our students have achieved remarkable success, winning over 40 national and provincial awards in academic competitions. We have also obtained provincial-level approval for 4 student innovation and entrepreneurship training projects, with 2 projects recommended at the provincial level. Undergraduate students have published 12 papers. The pass rates for TEM4 and TEM8 have shown an upward trend annually, and our average graduate school admission rate stands at 23%, ranking at the top among the humanities faculties of the university.
Our efforts in talent cultivation have been recognized through various achievements. The "Research and Practice on English Teaching Reform for Postgraduates" project won the second prize of the Henan Province Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award in 2021. The pass rate for anonymous review of postgraduate dissertations is 100%, and our qualification rate for spot checks conducted by the Ministry of Education is also 100%. Postgraduates have published high-level papers in prestigious journals such as "Foreign Language Teaching and Research," "Foreign Language Teaching," and "News Enthusiasts." We are committed to continuously improving the quality of talent cultivation.
Scientific Research
Our school possesses various research platforms, including the Provincial Shaolin Martial Art Translation Research Center, the Research Center for the International Communication of the Study of Central Plains, the Zhengzhou Municipal Research Base for Philosophy and Social Science, the Research Center for the Translation and International Communication of Characteristic Culture in Central Plains, the Belt and Road and Cross-cultural Research Base, and the Henan University of Technology Education Innovation Training Base.
Through fundamental theoretical research and applied practical research, we deeply integrate with various disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, computer science, cultural studies, international communication studies, artificial intelligence, urban studies, sports science, and medicine. Our integration highlights our strengths in areas such as English-Chinese comparative language research, typological linguistic studies, research on ethnic languages and scripts, second language acquisition studies, narratology research, ethnic literature studies, literary tourism research, translation and dissemination studies of Chinese traditional culture (including martial arts culture, traditional Chinese medicine culture, grain culture, Central Plains culture, Yellow River culture, etc.), corpus-based translation studies, and regional and country-specific studies in East Asia.
Teaching Resources
We have established over 30 multifunctional language laboratories, including cloud-based language labs, networked language labs, simultaneous interpretation rooms, computer-aided translation training rooms, virtual scenario language interactive teaching training rooms, recording classrooms, film screening halls, and foreign language teaching radio stations. Our course websites offer resources for “Advanced English,” “Basic English,” “Translation Theory and Practice,” and “Cultural Walk: An Overview of Chinese and Western Cultural Comparison,” providing high-quality online course materials at the provincial level. Our teaching resources include specialized language lab systems like Blue Pigeon, Ji Yu Classroom teaching system, Cloud Wing cloud desktop management system, ITEST intelligent testing system, FiF oral training system, fully automated recording system, immersive virtual scenario interactive spoken language teaching and training system, TDL Trados machine-assisted translation teaching and training system, Tmxmall multifunctional corpus platform and corpus alignment tools, and cloud-based team project alignment management system. The college library houses a collection of over 13,000 volumes of books, more than 72 journals, and over 1,200 audio materials to support teaching and research activities.
International Exchange
We are fully committed to supporting the university’s internationalization efforts and the training of international talents. We actively promote open schooling through various levels, directions, and fields of international exchanges and collaborative education. We have initiated programs funded by the China Scholarship Council, internships with international organizations, voluntary services for international organizations, talent training and visits to international organizations, and paid internships in the United States. These initiatives enhance our students’ understanding of international organizations and global governance while boosting the international competitiveness of our talent cultivation. We have established exchange programs with renowned institutions in the USA, UK, Australia, and other countries to foster international perspectives and cross-cultural communication skills.
Our faculty members have diverse international education backgrounds, with many having graduated from internationally renowned universities in countries such as Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, South Korea, Spain, among others. They possess expertise in various languages including English, Japanese, Russian, French, Spanish, German, Korean, Malay, and more. In recent years, six teachers have been sponsored by the China Scholarship Council to study overseas, 24 students have pursued master’s degree programs abroad, 12 have participated in exchange programs, and three have volunteered to teach Chinese abroad. We actively engage in international academic exchanges and collaborate with international publishers like Springer to publish academic works.
Community Service
Adhering to our educational positioning of being rooted in Central China, focusing on industry, serving the nation, and facing the world, our institution has leveraged its disciplinary strengths and distinctive features to achieve outstanding results in technology services, university-enterprise cooperation, volunteer services, and social practice. We have built a large national multilingual corpus for grain and martial arts, providing linguistic services for national food security and the high-quality development of the “three-chain isomorphism” grain industry. Additionally, we have actively participated in projects such as the construction of China Grain, the regulation of Public Signs Translation at Provincial and Municipal Levels, and the international standardization of Chinese martial arts. We have a long history of providing translation and volunteer services for the Ministry of Commerce’s foreign aid training programs and have been involved in remote training missions in countries like Latvia. Our volunteer service brand “Outstanding Henan” won the bronze award in the National Youth Volunteer Service Project Competition. Furthermore, we undertook the English translation of the “Shaolin Martial Art” book, part of the “Chinese Origin·Henan Story” series under the “Translate Henan Project,” which was globally published and recognized as one of the “Top 10 Outstanding Cases of Foreign Communication in 2020.”
Honors and Awards
Through the collective efforts of our faculty and students, our academy has received numerous accolades, including:
• “National May Day Women’s Pioneer Post”
• “Advanced Grassroots Party Committee of Henan Province”
• “Women’s Pioneer Post of Henan Province”
• “Advanced Collective in Henan Province for Safeguarding the Legal Rights and Interests of Women and Children”
• “Provincial Model Faculty Home in Sectors of Education, Science, Culture, Health, and Sport”
• “Advanced Women’s Work Collective in Sectors of Education, Science, Culture, Health, and Sport at the provincial level”
Furthermore, our College English Teaching Team was awarded the “Provincial-level Teaching Team of Henan Province,” and our English department was honored as an “Excellent Grassroots Teaching Organization at Provincial Level.”
