On September 8th, Professor Zhang Wenzhong of Nankai University gave a lecture on Building an Empowering Type of English Class in the School of Foreign Languages of South China University of Technology (SCUT). The special lecture was hosted by Professor Cai Jingting, Dean Zhong Shuneng, Secretary Zhouhao, and Professor Li Yingyuan with many students participating.
    
    Professor Zhang Wenzhong giving his speech

    Professor Zhang Wenzhong started his lecture by illustrating the variances between collective and household systems concluding the ultimate difference lies in the fulfillment of rights and responsibilities. He compared school study with farming and put forward the idea of a “full capacity” orientation.

    By explaining the relation between capacity and rights, Professor Zhang claimed that the goal of teaching and learning in school is to empower students. In addition, he analyzed the current English teaching environment ending on the cramming method of teaching—teachers are always the explainer and duck-feeder, while students are the passive listener and note-copier is effective or efficient.
    Finally, he presented the core concept of his Building an Empowering Type of English Class to the audience. Essentially through the empowerment of content, methods and teacher-student roles, he put forward the concept of the “5i-show”—interest-driven, informing, involving, inspiring, interactive.
 
 

    Professors and students are listening attentively
 
                                     Q&A Part
    At the end of the lecture, both students and teachers from our school discussed details about Wang’s opinions and raised some questions according to their own knowledge, which were responded to by Professor Wang with very interesting answers.
                                                                            Translated by Xufang