Postgraduate College English Division

The Postgraduate College English Division is responsible for the English teaching of nearly 5000 postgraduates and doctoral students of SJTU. Compulsory courses of foreign languages have been offered to postgraduates and then doctoral students. Based on the needs of SJTU and its students, courses for skill enhancement and academic purposes are offered by the division, which include “English Public Speaking and International Communication”, “Appreciating English from the Screen”, “English Culture and Communication”, “Translation”, “Practical English Writing”, and “Academic English”. Since the autumn of 2015, academic English courses have been offered to all postgraduates in SJTU with the purpose of enabling them to write and publish professional papers in English, which should be an essential ability of today’s university students.

Since 2011, with the strong support of SJTU and the graduate school, the Division has been vigorously advancing educational reform through the SJTU “985” constructive program to improve the curriculum system and carrying out reforms in teaching methods and materials. The aim of the Division’s educational reform is to better serve SJTU and the Graduate School in talent cultivation and to help SJTU make its way into the list of “double first-rate” universities. To tune the objectives of courses to the cultivation of talents, the educational reform focuses on enhancing students’ ability in international academic exchanges, English academic writing and intercultural communication. In terms curriculum system construction, it aims to cultivate talents capable of conducting academic research with an international scope through top-notch applied linguistic courses.

As for the curriculum model, it changes the methods of assessment from “one-vote negation” to the combination of formative and summative assessments. English centers are also built in the form of workshops for all postgraduates in SJTU, with teachers of the Teaching and Research Department as their tutors. Meanwhile, the reform highlights the strengthening of the teaching staff by carrying out regular lectures and activities, inviting world-renowned scholars to give lectures and learning from other colleges and universities in China.

The educational reform conducted by the Division has been recognized and supported by the Graduate School and SFL. It has been funded by Phase III of 985 constructive program and the SJTU project for teaching development and reform. Several projects on course and teaching reform have been successfully declared, among which “The Construction on the Curriculum System of Postgraduate College English” has been successfully completed. The textbook “Postgraduate Academic Communication English”, as one of the project outcomes, has been published and used among the students. In addition, faculty members have been directors and active participators in several provincial-level social science projects and school-level teaching reform projects, and have published a bunch of papers in important academic journals. The Postgraduate College English Division is currently staffed by 15 faculty members. Among the faculty, there are 1 professor and 9 associate professors. 7 members hold Ph.D. degrees.