English Department

1. History

The English Department of the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures can trace its origin to the Department of Foreign Languages of the College of Arts established in 1932. After the adjustment of departments in 1952, the staff of the Department of Foreign Languages were relocated to the Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Office. In 1978 Chongqing University began to recruit undergraduates majoring in English for universities teaching staff. In 1985 the Department of Foreign Languages was resumed, and continued to enroll English major undergraduates in 1986. In 1995 the School of Foreign Languages was established. In 2000 Chongqing University was merged with the former Chongqing Architecture University and the former Chongqing Higher College of Construction, and the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures was officially set up. The English Department has since incorporated the one of Chongqing University and the other of former Chongqing Architecture University.

2.Strength

The English Department, Under the Discipline of Foreign Languages and Literature, has a good discipline platform. Its BA program was listed in 2007 as the first batch of Distinguished Specialty in Chongqing Municipality, was selected in 2015 in “the Three Distinguished”Specialty Construction Plan of Chongqing Municipality, and was ranked as Five-Star in 2014-2015 and in 2018-2019 respectively in the Chinese Universities and Disciplines Evaluation Report. In 2019 the BA program was ranked into the first batch of National First-Class Undergraduate Programs Scheme.

The Department is staffed by 14 professors and associate professors, two of who have been awarded New Century Outstanding Personnel Support Program by the Ministry of Education. Over half of the staff have obtained the doctorate, and the vast majority have studied or visited prestigious universities abroad. The Department has developed research specialties in English Fiction, English Poetry, Comparative Literature, Interpretation, Literature and Media, and British-American Society and Culture.

The Department attaches great importance to the quality of talents training and the cooperation with universities in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as foreign universities. It has established friendly cooperation, academic exchanges and joint training programs for students with renowned universities in countries and regions such as the UK, America, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan. Graduates enjoy a high percentage of pursuing further studies in prestigious universities at home and abroad, and are preferred by companies for their high comprehensive quality

3.Feature

The Department excels herself to cultivate a solid foundation of English language, strong expertise in literature, culture, linguistics and translation, and deep understanding of the social, historical, cultural and economic profiles of major English-speaking countries. It aims to provide students with strong ability to use English, skills for intercultural communication, and preliminary steps for scientific research. Students are expected to acquire humanistic quality, international vision and local devotion, and to be innovative and competitive after graduation in the fields of foreign affairs, education, culture, commerce, management and media.

Taking the coordinated development of "Knowledge, Quality and Ability" as the core, the Department has implemented a personalized research-oriented, interdisciplinary and international talent training model, with a multi-dimensional curriculum system centering around courses such as English language skills, English Literature, English culture, English-Chinese translation, English linguistics and Chinese-Western culture. The training model is designed to prioritize the content input leading to training and research of language skills. Moreover, the Department contributes to a shared platform of courses provided to both BA program and MA program students in the School, thus ensuring the quality of talent training in terms of depth and breadth.

The Department focuses on integrating classroom teaching with second classroom language practice by virtue of Drama Performance, Speech Contest, Debating Competition, Writing Contest, Model United Nations, Undergraduate Boya Forum, and Research Training Program. The integration aims to improve students' ability to use language in practice, to intrigue them by the issues closely related to disciplines, and thereby to boost their intellectual capacities for critical thinking, problem solving, and lifelong learning .