Introduction to the School of Foreign Languages

Since its establishment in 2005, the School of Foreign Languages has become a teaching and research unit with international faculty, innovative education and teaching, diversified research achievements, specialized personnel training and has been committed to developing itself into a compound and applied foreign language talent training base with an international vision. At present, there are English and Russian departments and a Public Foreign Languages Teaching Department, as well as the Center for Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies, the Center for Russian Studies, and the Cross-Cultural Research Center.

The School now has 67 faculty and staff members. The faculty is composed of  57 full-time teachers, including 4 professors, 12 associate professors, 35 lecturers and 6 foreign teachers. Nine teachers hold PhD degree.

The School of Foreign Languages adheres to the road of “internationalization” in the cultivation of applied talents and expands international exchange internship programs. The School has established international cooperation relationships with Lomonosov Moscow State University, Voronezh State University in Russia, Perm National Research Polytechnic University, Lipetsk State Pedagogical University in Russia, Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, Dhurakij Pundit University, Western Sydney University, Kyiv National Linguistic University in Ukraine, and the Institut de Management Europe-Asie in France. It carries out Work & Travel USA internship programs and summer study tours to St. John’s University in New York, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, providing foreign language students with more opportunities to experience foreign cultures and improve their language application and intercultural communication skills.

The School also implements a long-term mechanism of effective integration between classes and extracurricular activities, and the teaching practice of “speaking foreign languages”. In addition to innovating teaching modes and improving the quality of classroom teaching, the School also enriches and expands its extracurricular activities. It has been carrying out a series of activities such as English Platform, Russian Club, Shakespearean Plays and the Foreign Language and Culture Festival to cultivate and improve students’ foreign language ability, learning ability and innovation ability.

The School focuses on practical training and social practice, and highlights the “foreign language +” inter-disciplinary, and application-oriented talent training in accordance with the requirements of the new liberal arts innovation. It has developed a talent training program in line with the overall plan of Hainan Province to enhance the “environmental responsiveness” of the degree programs, and refine the knowledge, abilities, quality and core competencies of foreign language talents. In accordance with the principles of “aligning professional settings with industrial needs, curriculum contents with vocational standards” and “aligning teaching processes with production processes”, the School works with industry experts and internship units to study the precisely positioning and distinctive training objectives of foreign language majors. Revolving around the strategic core of “students’ competitiveness”, the School aims to cultivate students with inter-disciplinary and applied talents to have an understanding of basic international cultural etiquette, respect for different cultural customs, the ability to communicate with and provide services to foreigners, an international awareness, cross-cultural communication skills, and the ability to engage in the business of public relations, management, training, interpretation, documentary, customs clearance, secretarial work in the fields of trade, business, English education, cross-cultural communication, etc.

English and Russian undergraduate programs highlight the concept of application-oriented foreign language training, focus on serving local economic development, and cultivate the inter-disciplinary talents in foreign languages with international vision and broad knowledge. In recent years, the average employment rate of graduates from the English Department is 97%, and that of the Russian Department is 99%. The graduates have strong practical ability and are well received by employers.