Established in March 2013, the Postgraduate Department of Foreign Studies is mainly responsible for the construction of first-level master’s program in foreign languages and literature and master’s program in translation and interpreting, the research in international and regional studies under the supervision ofthe Ministry of Education, the enrollment and cultivation of foreign language postgraduates, as well as the teaching of their courses and the reviewing of the qualifications for their degree conferral, etc. After years of development, the School of Foreign Languages boasts a strong faculty, including 17 professors, 30 associate professors, 39 doctors, 1 national celebrated teacher, and 5 provincial renowned or excellent teachers.
The faculty members of the Postgraduate Department of Foreign Studies have high academic level and strong scientific research capacity. In the past five years they have secured 8 national Social Science Fund Projects, 11 Humanities and Social Science Fund Projects of the Ministry of Education, and more than 60 Provincial Social Science Fund Projects, with their research funds totaling approximately 10 million yuan. Nearly 100 research articles have been published in journals from SSCI, A&HCI, CSSCI and core journals at home and abroad, including Learning & Instruction, Discourse & Society, Language Learning & Technology, System, Lexicos, Foreign Language Teaching and Research, Foreign Literature Review, Foreign Languages, Modern Foreign Languages, Chinese Translators Journal, Foreign Literature Studies, etc. Furthermore, more than 50 monographs have also been published.
In the course of constructing the first-level discipline of foreign language and literature, the department has developed four relatively complete and distinctive disciplines -- foreign linguistics and applied linguistics, foreign literature, cross-cultural and translation studies, and international and regional studies. “Foreign linguistics and applied linguistics” covers languages such as English, Japanese, French, German, focusing on theoretical research on language ontology such as stylistics, as well as language application issues concerning language testing and foreign language textbook compilation (won the National Teaching Achievement Award twice). It includes stylistics, cognitive linguistics, functional linguistics, corpus linguistics, and second language acquisition, etc. The characteristics and advantages of this discipline lie in the application of theories of stylistics, cognitive linguistics and corpus linguistics to explore the similarities and differences and the construction mechanisms of stylistic and grammatical constructions in different languages, and to study the acquisition of a series of grammatical constructions in English and Chinese by second language learners. “Foreign literature” specializes in the studies of literary aesthetics, western cultural trends and ideologies, foreign writers and their works, and the history of the literature of such foreign countries as UK, USA, Japan, France, and German. The characteristics of this discipline mainly lie in the analysis of foreign novels, poetry and dramas by applying contemporary literary theories, with a particular focus on Faulkner, Hardy, Dickinson, Larkin and other writers and their works. A series of achievements have been attained in the theoretical exploration, text analysis and the translation and introduction of foreign literary works. The characteristics of literary aesthetics are mainly reflected in the study of the relationship between literature and the world, highlighting the study of literature and history, the ethics of literature and the subjectivity of literature. “Cross-cultural and Translation Studies” involves the study of cultural comparison, translation studies, and discourse and cultural communication. This discipline emphasizes the application of cultural theories and discourse analysis to explore the similarities and differences between Chinese and foreign cultures and the mechanism of reconstructing the context of culture. It also studies how to carry out cross-cultural and translation studies from a global perspective, so as to promote the translated works of Chinese culture going global, spread Chinese culture and serve the national strategy of the Belt and Road Initiative. “International and regional studies” is an interdisciplinary research orientation cultivated by the International and Regional Research Center of our school, with the characteristics and advantages of relying on various commissioned research projects undertaken by the International and Regional Studies Center of the Ministry of Education. Aiming to serve the major strategic needs of the country, it is committed to strategic, forward-looking and original research on the island countries around the Indian Ocean, and exerts the functions of academic research, consulting services, talent training and international exchanges. The research covers the society, history, politics, economy, religion, media, language, culture, natural resources of those countries and their exchanges with China, with special attention to seven island countries around the Indian Ocean -- Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Maldives, Madagascar, Reunion, Seychelles and Comoros.
Always adhering to the aim of “fostering virtue through education”, the department has cultivated a large number of high-end foreign language talents. In recent years, the faculty firmly implements the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s speech at the National Conference on the Ideological and Political Work in Colleges and Universities, further promotes the campaign of learning the party constitution and regulations and the series of speeches by President Xi Jingping and becoming a qualified member of the Chinese Communist Party, and improves the ideological and political education system and the evaluation system, in addition to completing each task successfully and cultivating the qualified builders and reliable successors of the socialism with Chinese characteristics. The past five years have witnessed the graduation of 308 postgraduates and 100% employment rate, and 21% of them have been admitted to well-known universities at home and abroad to pursue their doctorates.
MA Supervisors’ Profiles:
http://sites.scut.edu.cn/sfl/1334/list.psp
http://www.scut.edu.cn/admission/
Department Dean: Deng Renhua
Contact: rhdeng@scut.edu.cn
Address:
381 Wushan Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510640
School of Foreign Languages
South China University of Technology
