Overview

Set up in 2004, the Department of Foreign Languages is one of the earliest departments established at the college. Adhering to the department motto of “studying the ancient and modern，connecting Chinese and foreign”, the department focuses on cultivating students’ international vision and patriotism with the aim of cultivating high-quality international applied talents with a sense of social responsibility, innovative spirit and practical ability. In the past three years, it has been reported by many national, provincial and municipal media such as People's Daily Online, Guangming Online, Public Network, Qingdao Daily, and Peninsula Network because it far exceeds the average postgraduate entrance examination rate of ordinary colleges and universities in China. Teachers of the department have repeatedly achieved outstanding results in the Foreign Language Research Institute Teaching Competition and the Shandong Provincial Young Teachers Lecture Competition. The competition videos of the championship and first prize winners are displayed on the official Weibo of the Foreign Language Research Institute and the website of Shandong Teacher Training Center of Universities and Colleges.

Meanwhile, students have achieved excellent results in the TEM 4 and TEM 8 over the years. The pass rate of English majors (Deep Blue Class) is over 90% for TEM 4 and 75% for TME 8. In 2020, a total of 45 people won awards in various national, provincial and municipal foreign language speech contests, interpretation and translation contests, essay contests, writing contests, debate contests and other activities. Furthermore, the domestic and foreign postgraduate entrance examination rate of 2020 undergraduates surpasses 30%, of which the postgraduate entrance examination rate for English majors exceeds 44%, and the postgraduate entrance examination rates for business English, Chinese international education, German, French, and Russian are all over 30%, and the employment rate is as high as 98%.

In terms of foreign exchanges, the Department of Foreign Languages is actively cooperating with nearly 10 well-known universities in Germany, France, Russia and other countries. It has established cooperation and exchange programs such as teacher-student exchange and undergraduate credit recognition, and has established extensive academic cooperation with many  well-known universities at home and abroad. Undergraduates have the opportunity to study abroad in a partner university for six months to one year.

Majors

Faculty

More than 40% of the department teachers are associate professor or above, more than 60% are teachers with overseas study background, and all full-time teachers have master's degree or above. In the past five years, the teachers have presided over more than 10 provincial and ministerial projects, and more than 50 other vertical and horizontal projects; published more than 200 papers in academic journals above the provincial level; published more than 40 textbooks and monograph. Meanwhile, there are more than 80 awards of the Department of Foreign Languages, including 1 “provincial excellent teacher”, 1 first prize in the provincial teaching competition, 1 national championship, 2 third prizes, and 2 first prizes in the multilingual "Teaching Star" competition of the Foreign Research Institute, 1 “Qingdao Famous Teacher”; 1 provincial-level first-class course in 2019; 1 undergraduate course launched on the "Wisdom Tree" online teaching platform in 2020, and more than 50 self-built courses on the "Superstar Fanya" platform.

Teaching Features

1. The leading domestic talent training model of “dual foreign language + industry foreign language”

In order to improve the quality of teaching and cultivate international application-oriented talents, the Department of Foreign Languages has established industry foreign language courses for all majors since 2012 to improve students’ knowledge structure and cultivate their industry practical capabilities, and has been adopting the compound talent training model of “dual foreign language + industry foreign language”. “Dual foreign language” means “English + a minor language (German/French/Japanese/Russian)” or “German/French/Russian + English”. Students can choose English, German, French, Russian, and Japanese as their second foreign language to study continuously for four years.

At present, the industry foreign language courses of the Department of Foreign Languages has been expanded from the original 17 to 23, including English for Science and Technology, Foreign Secretary English, Cross-border E-commerce English, International Engineering English, Logistics English, Management English, Exhibition English, Automotive Engineering German, Construction Engineering German, Tourism French, Luxury French, Petroleum Russian, etc., which are available for students to choose independently. The improvement of industry foreign language courses can enrich students’ industry knowledge and develop thier industry skills, thereby effectively enhancing their employment competitiveness.

2. International Course System (IELTS and European Standard Courses)

Since 2019, the Department of Foreign Languages has begun to vigorously promote the construction of an international curriculum system, integrating the concept of internationalization into the training of talents. In accordance with the society’s demands for foreign language talents, a series of European standard courses and a series of IELTS courses have been opened to broaden students’ international vision and benchmark international foreign language standards. At the same time, all majors continue to enhance the depth and breadth of international cooperation and exchanges, and have established exchanges and cooperation relationships with many well-known foreign universities, providing students with free exchange opportunities abroad, and encouraging more outstanding undergraduates to study in high-level foreign universities for further study.

3. Featured Practical Courses: Second Classroom Activities

(1) Foreign Language Corner & Chinese Corner
In order to broaden students’ international horizons, improve students’ ability to handle foreign language, and develop their cross-cultural communication skills, the Department of Foreign Languages has been providing second-class activities in the form of “Foreign Language Corner” and “Chinese Corner” since 2017. The content of the activities mainly includes two aspects: “module” and “topic”. “Module” includes listening, speaking, reading, writing, translation, and vocabulary; “topic” covers politics, economy, culture, history, film, television arts, and customs, etc. There are various forms of those activities such as special lectures, encyclopedia knowledge contests, inviting foreign students to come to the school for exchanges, translation contests, speech contests, calligraphy contests, note-taking contests, etc. The Second Class activitives effectively enhanced students’ enthusiasm for language learning, and improved students’ oral and cross-cultural communication skills.

(2) Training Camp
Since September 2019, the Department of Foreign Languages has set up second classroom activities in the form of “training camps”, which consists of foreign language speaking, listening, writing, reading, and grammar training camps. More than 1,000 students in the whole department have actively signed up to become official trainers according to their personal expertise. After systematic language training, the students’ foreign language thinking and application ability have been improved, and the interest and enthusiasm of learning foreign languages have been fully stimulated.

(3) Extracurricular Practice
Professional teachers designated by the Department of Foreign Languages guide students one-on-one to participate in national foreign language competitions, serve as volunteers in international competitions, take part in Model United Nations, multi-country summer camps, winter camps and other activities, aiming to strengthen international exchanges and enhance foreign language application skills. Students have enriched their international perspectives in a variety of competitions, strengthened their cultural self-confidence, and deeply planted patriotism.

4. School-enterprise Cooperation

At present, the department has signed school-enterprise cooperation agreements with more than 60 companies, such as many enterprises in Qingdao Sino-German Ecological Park, the well-known online education brands under the Good Future Group — Xueersi Online School, Hailier Pharmaceutical Group, Youchuang Data Co., Ltd., Qingdao Zhongqinglin Group Co., Ltd., and Qingdao Jinshi Education Technology Co., Ltd. etc.

Facilities

Graduates Development

Foreign language graduates are generally recognized and widely praised by employers due to their strong bilingual ability, cross-cultural communication ability and practical ability. The employment rate is as high as 98%. The main employment directions include government agencies, schools, training institutions, foreign trade, culture, tourism, e-commerce and other industries. The rate of domestic and foregin postgraduate entrance examination exceeds 30%, and many students entered 985 and 211 domestic universities or well-known universities in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, Russia, Austria, Switzerland and other countries for further studies.