The English Department consists of English major and translation major. As the first major to recruit students after the establishment of the College of Foreign Languages, the English major, which has a history of 20 years, was established in 2001. The translation major was set up in 2018, and it has recruited 155 students till now. After years of practice, the English Department has gradually formed the mode of “English + module”, that is, students choose module courses on the basis of specialized language course to expand their knowledge. Currently, English major opens three modules courses which includes English language and literature, education and teaching, agriculture and translation. Meanwhile, translation major offers students modules as translating and interpreting, language and culture, agriculture and translation and language skills.
In recent years, the educational background of teachers has been improved rapidly. The teachers with Master’s Degree account for 100% of the staff, and all of them have strong professional foundation and high teaching level. All professors in the English department give lectures to undergraduate students. Centering on the construction of core courses and teacher training, the “1+N” mode is adopted to construct professional core courses, which means one senior teacher and one or two intermediate teachers teach the courses jointly for students. Many teachers of the English department have gone abroad to study, and 5 of them have been studying for a doctorate in English linguistics. One teacher has been nominated as national Counselor of the Year and has been awarded the prize of the Counselor of the Year of Yunnan Province; four teachers won prizes in the National Teaching Competition of the SFLEP. One teacher won the first prize and another won the second prize in the Teaching Competition for College Teachers in Yunnan Province. As the only representative of Yunnan Province, one teacher participated in the online demonstration of “Ideological and Political Teaching Design and Demonstration Teaching of College Foreign Language Courses” organized by SFLEP.
Teaching facilities has also improved a lot. Two scene simulation and digital laboratories, one translation laboratory, two language laboratories and three professional practice bases are constructed, which provides a good platform for the curriculum construction and practice of English and Translation major.
English Department pays much attention to cultivating students’ practical ability and gives full play to the role of the second classroom. Competitions such as English speech, drama, foreign language writing, talking about hometown in foreign language and English story telling are held to enrich students’ extracurricular life. Students have won awards at or above the provincial level in various speech competitions. In 2021, Liu Hao and Nong Xiyin won the first prize at the provincial level in the FLTRP English Speech Contest. We also have won the first prize at the provincial level in the same competition in 2019 and 2020. Zhang Yuxue, a student of translation has won the first prize in the 6th National Academic English Vocabulary Competition. In 2019, Zhuang Jinqi, Zhuang Jinqi, a student from grade 2016, won the third prize in the 24th China Daily “21st Century Coca-Cola-Cup” National English Speech Contest for College Students on behalf of Yunnan Province. Xu Dehang, a student from grade 2018, participated in the National Speech Competition of Agricultural and Forestry Universities on behalf of our school and won the fourth place. Besides, a large number of students have won various awards in National English Competition for College Students, FLTRP English Writing Contest, FLTRP English Reading Contest and various interpreting and translating contests.
We increased communication with employers and carried out online and offline employment lectures. We carried out postgraduate entrance examination lectures and counseling by grade, actively improved the employment quality of students, and offered one-to-one assistance for students with difficulties in employment. We increased support for innovation and entrepreneurship projects, and hired teachers as innovation and entrepreneurship mentors. Teachers of cooperative enterprise are invited to participate in the guidance of students’ practical courses.
