On the afternoon of January 8, School of Foreign Languages (hereafter referred to as SFL) held its annual meeting to summarise the work in 2020. The meeting was hosted by Zhu Yifan, Vice Secretary of CPC SFL Committee.

Chang Hui, Executive Associate Dean of SFL, made a speech on SFL’s annual work. While formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan, SFL has comprehensively and thoroughly promoted its construction in the year 2020, and achieved remarkable success in party building, talent training, scientific research, faculty development, internationalization, and cultural construction. In 2020, SFL successfully convened its first CPC Congress, and the First Session of the Fifth Teachers’ Congress and the Fifth Trade Union Congress, with SFL’s new CPC Committee and Trade Union Committee elected. SFL responded actively to COVID-19 by embracing online course construction and deepening the reform of foreign language teaching and talent training mode, with three courses listed in the first batch of national first-class undergraduate courses. The Centre for Ideological and Political Education in Foreign Language Teaching was established, gaining encouraging results in various teaching competitions. The number of national and provincial level projects grew steadily, and a breakthrough in provincial research awards was achieved.

In recognition of the advanced teachers who made outstanding contributions and exerted exemplary leadership in frontline work, the 2020 SFL Annual Contribution Awards were announced.

Huan Changpeng, Ding Hongwei, Yang Li, and Huang Jianxiang won the first prize. In their acceptance speeches, they shared experiences on teaching, research, management services and student affairs.

The second prize went to Pan Zhixin, Wang Zhenhua, Yang Dongdong, and Wang Pin. 

Ding Jian, Secretary of CPC SFL Committee, announced the decision on the commendation of advanced learning performance on the “Xuexi Qiangguo” app in the fourth quarter. Making the most of the learning resource, all branches of CPC SFL Committee studied Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New era in depth, with SFL recognised as SJTU advanced unit in the fourth quarter of 2020. Ding Jian, Xing Lianqing and Zhu Yifan presented awards to SJTU’s and SFL’s advanced party branches and individuals.

Zhang Li, on behalf of the Centre for Ideological and Political Education in Foreign Language Teaching, introduced the latest progress of the centre. SFL took the lead in establishing the centre in November 2020, explored the construction of ideological and political education in foreign language curriculum, and integrated related elements into classroom lectures, teaching workshops and homework papers, thereby exerting influence on students spontaneously. SFL has already achieved some milestones in the construction process – the teaching team of “Academic English Writing and Speaking”, also the only winning team in Shanghai, received the first prize in the First National Ideological and Political Teaching Competition of College Foreign Language Courses; the teaching cases of Zhang Li and Zhang Xuezhen were selected into “Xinhua Ideological and Political Teaching Resources Service Platform”.

Finally, Ding Jian delivered a speech to conclude the meeting. He expressed his heartfelt thanks for the contribution made by all faculty members and students to the smooth running of affairs in response to COVID-19, as well as to the significant achievements and ongoing development of SFL. He called for efforts to hold fast to the positions, prevent and control the epidemic scientifically, and strive for the establishment of first-class foreign language discipline and the creation of warm and caring environment of SFL in the coming year.