The history of School of Foreign Languages (SFL) can be dated back to 1985 as the Department of Foreign Languages, and since 2002 under the present name, SFL continues to build on its heritage of academic excellence. SFL has been enrolling English-major undergraduates since 1988, and Japanese-major undergraduates since 2003. It began to offer university-wide English-minor courses in 1995, and set up dual major and dual degree classes in 1999. SFL currently provides two M.A programs: one in Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics which was set up in 1993 with the approval of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, and the other in English Language and Literature.
In order to rationalize the structure of disciplines, optimize the educational resources for the further development of SCUT, School of Foreign Languages was established with the approval of SCUT Committee of CPC on January 1st, 2002.
SFL is responsible for the English major, programmes for MA and public English teaching in the whole university, and it consists of Foreign Language Department 1（English major and academic master degree）and Department 2 (Japanese, German, and Russian ), College English Teaching Department 1 and 2, Non-English Major Postgraduate Foreign Language Teaching Department, Foreign Language Training Center, Research Institute of Foreign Languages & Culture, and SCUT Test Site of the National College Spoken English Test. SFL currently has a faculty of 119, including 108 teachers, 10 teaching assistants. Among the teachers, 7 of them are professors, 34 are associate professors, 13 of them with doctorate degree. With the cooperative and strenuous efforts of the staff, SFL has developed its unique characteristics in training talented students of science with a good command of English and English majors with inter-disciplinary knowledge. And thus it has played an important role in developing the overall quality of the undergraduate and postgraduate students, and cultivating specialists with a high level of proficiency of English.
SFL adheres to the people-centered policy, pays much attention to construction in ideology, organization and working style. At the same time, SFL stresses on rigorous scholarship, collaboration, innovation and the style of study, motivating the staff, especially the young teachers to take an active part in teaching reform and scientific research, and emphasizing the cooperation, honesty, self-discipline and dedication among the leaders, by constructing the working style.
Undergraduate education of SFL focuses on two special areas: Technical English and Business English, enrolling a total of 388 students. For its master program in foreign linguistics and applied linguistics, there are seven well-established research areas: theoretical linguistics/syntax, English linguistics, applied linguistics, pragmatics, culture studies, college English teaching theory and practice and translation theory and practice, enrolling 54 full-time postgraduate students. Moreover, training courses for MA will be organized in order to enhance the faculty's theoretical proficiency of language andthe practical ability, foster talents of English teaching, develop the team of teachers and nurture experts on English. Students from SFL always play vital roles in society and enjoy good reputation for their professional proficiency, sufficient practical experience and great potential for further development.
The College English team was awarded state-level teaching team in 2008. The College English course has been designed, instructed, and evaluated exactly according to the instructive policy promulgated by Ministry of Education. In recent years it has attained remarkable achievements through reform in the realm of its teaching contents, methods, assessment, training, environmental constructions and teaching research.
The Foreign Language Teaching Department for Non-English Major Postgraduate takes on heavy responsibility of foreign language teaching for masters and doctoral postgraduates. Especially in recent years, despite the problems of enrollment expansion, teachers of SFL have extended their talents, attaining great achievements in both teaching and research work.
Foreign Language Department 2 is responsible for the instructions of German, Japanese, and Russian, which serve as the compulsory courses for English majors, optional courses for non-English majors, students with dual majors in SCUT, and students from other four universities in Shipai Area. All the teachers from SFL enjoy great reputation for their devotion and decency.
Previous leaders of SFL and its predecessor, Department of Foreign Languages, attach great importance to books and reference materials and the construction of teaching and research facilities of foreign language. They successfully raised funds for acquisition of related facilities and subscription to academic works and publications that reflect the latest research findings of this discipline. At present, the School library has a relatively complete category of original books, the number of which is increasing every year and has reached a certain scale. The collection of books and reference materials has not only laid a solid foundation for our school to carry out teaching and research activities, but has also provided an important guarantee for enhancing teaching and research level.
Presently, SFL possesses such collocation facilities as multimedia classroom, multimedia studio, recording studio, FM studio, Speech Lab, computer, printer and scanner. In addition, South China University of Technology has advantaged conditions in the aspect of computer network, which enables us to be in the front rank of similar faculties of the whole country in launching and using the Internet.
With sustained efforts of the faculty and the previous leaders, the constitution of teaching staff which is stable and of good qualities is now next to reasonableness; the teaching management is scientific and standard, and the teaching reform is deepening while the quality of teaching is improving year by year; the scientific research work is booming and the academic atmosphere is increasingly active. So we believe that SFL will enjoy a brighter and more splendid future.
