College English Courses for Non-English Major Undergraduates
The School of Foreign Language Education (SOFLE) of JLU offers foreign language courses to all the Non-English major students enrolled in the University, either in undergraduate or graduate programs. The main courses cover three categories, from English as a foreign language (EFL) compulsory courses, and EFL elective courses to English for General Purposes (EGP). Meanwhile, SOFLE periodically organizes colorful extracurricular activities as part of the University campaign of “Foreign Languages and Campus life”. Besides, faculty members of SOFLE also take the responsibility of marking examination papers of various foreign language tests, such as the College English Test - Band 4 and Band 6 (CET-4 & CET-6), the College Entrance Examination, thePublic English Test System (PETS), among others. Some excellent faculty members are even selected to teach in Confucius Institutes overseas.
As is stipulated in the Credit System of JLU, freshmen of the University are required to take the English Placement Test and be enrolled in courses of various levels according to their performances in the Test. In each term, students, after having completed the course and passed the final examination, will get 3 credits; those who fail in the final exam ought to retake the course. Totally, there are 246 class hours with 64 each term in the first four terms. Undergraduates of JLU are required to get 12 credits in English for graduation and degree conferment.
Intensive Reading Courses
The recommended textbooks for intensive reading courses include New College English Integrated Course, New Horizon College English, New Experiencing English, New College English, New Standard College English, Language Leader, and Experiencing English, with online resources as supporting teaching materials. SOFLE has always been putting emphasis on cultivating all-round language abilities and creating sound language learning atmosphere through active interactions between teachers and students and among students themselves, as well as through face-to-face instructions.
Listening and Speaking Courses
The recommended textbooks for listening and speaking courses include New College English Listening & Speaking Course, New Horizon College English Viewing, Listening & Speaking, New College English View, Listen and Speak, New Standard College English Real Communication, Experiencing English Listening & Speaking, with online resources as a supporting teaching material. SOFLE has always been putting emphasis on cultivating and training students’ listening and speaking abilities through active interactions between teachers and students and among students themselves, as well as via multimedia platforms.
Extensive Reading Courses
The SOFLE offers students extensive reading courses, in which teachers give instruction in class and students study after class, with the ratio of 1:2 for in-class hours and after-class time.
After the implementation of the Pilot Scheme for Top-notch Students from Basic Science and the Plan for Educating and Training Outstanding Engineers (PETOE), JLU has set up a series of experimental classes or programs for top-notch innovative undergraduates and graduates, such as Tang Aoqing Program, Outstanding Engineers Program, Kuang Yaming Program and Li Siguang Program. Correspondingly, SOFLE has also tailored the courses for these programs, which are co-lectured by selected Chinese and international teachers, 8 hours per week, with special attention to the teaching system and steps. By taking advantage of the teaching and research resources in applied linguistics and advanced theories home and abroad, SOFLE has been gradually implementing a procedure-oriented holistic teaching assessment system through a contrastive analysis of teaching efficiency in the stages of pre-teaching, during-teaching and post-teaching.
Apart from EGP courses, SOFLE offers academic courses from process-oriented writing, English writing strategies and skills, practical English writing, critical thinking cultivation, to English speaking, public speaking with a view to satisfying the students’ needs in further development. As for English for specific purposes (ESP), SOFLE sets courses such as Business English, Spoken English in Foreign Trade, English for Finance, and English for Tourism. Elective courses are also included in the School’s curriculum, such as Surveys of Great Britain and USA,Comparison between Chinese and Western Cultures, Introduction to US Culture, Appreciation of English Movies and TV Series, Survey of Japan, Russian History & Culture, Japanese (Second Foreign Language), German (Second Foreign Language), English & Chinese Culture and Translation, etc.
Extension-Curriculum
Extracurricular Activities
To enrich after-class campus life, with the help of the student club in design, organization and implementation, SOFLE actively implements extracurricular activities on campus to promote students’ motivation and enthusiasm in language learning.
“Foreign Languages and Campus life”
The campaign “Foreign Languages and Campus Life” takes the forms of forums, lectures, English club activities, and social practices. With the success of English Summer Camps in the year of 2012, 2013 and 2014, as well as the 2014 English Living Week，the 2015 English Summer Camp and the 2015 English Living Week gained great success. With joint efforts of Chinese and international teachers, spoken English tutorials, English culture salons, English microfilms and field trips were successfully held in the Summer Camp. During the English Living Week, students performed various programs under the guidance from the teachers.
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
SOFLE supports teachers to participate in Top-quality MOOC Plan. Many a course has been selected into the plan, including Process-Oriented Writing, Introduction to English Culture, English for Law, Western Culture in Movies, and American History and Culture. The above courses are under construction with steady pace. Among them, the pilot course, Process-Oriented Writing, has been selected into the MOOC plan for its unique CHED teaching mode (Cooperative，holistic，engaging, and dynamic) and will definitely be one of the model classes in SOFLE MOOC. No wonder this course was listed among the second group of the JLU MOOC plan in 2015.