1. Overview
The Department of Foreign Languages continues to pursue a model of collaborative innovation by building high-level platforms for academic exchange, expanding its international cooperation networks, and strengthening the global outlook and professional influence of its faculty. These efforts provide sustained momentum for foreign language teaching reform and the department’s continued academic development.
2. Academic Exchanges
In recent years, the department has deepened its partnerships with universities and academic institutions both in China and abroad, gradually establishing an integrated faculty development system that spans on-campus and off-campus programs, short-term and long-term initiatives, and both online and in-person formats. More than half of the faculty have undertaken academic visits or teaching exchanges at leading institutions worldwide. In alignment with national trends in foreign language education reform and digital transformation, the department organizes faculty participation in a wide range of academic conferences, thematic workshops, and university-level research activities each year. These include high-level forums on foreign language education, seminars on teaching achievements and instructional reform case studies, training on AI-enabled language teaching, programs on discipline building and faculty development, as well as workshops on education internationalization and talent cultivation in key areas.
3. Teaching–Research Synergy
The department maintains a regular schedule of lectures, workshops, and teaching exchange activities. Guest speakers include prominent linguists and distinguished language educators from China and abroad, as well as accomplished instructors with strong research backgrounds from within the department, such as leaders of model courses in ideological and political education, instructors of research-oriented teaching demonstration courses, and winners of national-level teaching competitions. Multi-tiered academic exchanges and systematic sharing of research outcomes continue to enrich classroom instruction and foster the coordinated development of teaching and research.
4. Distinctive Achievements
This multifaceted faculty development system has generated substantial progress in curriculum innovation and teaching reform. In recent years, the department has achieved a series of notable distinctions:
In 2025, its teaching reform achievements were selected as a Beijing Municipal Model Case in Education and Teaching.
In 2024, College English was recognized as a Beijing Outstanding Undergraduate Course.
In 2022, the teaching team won the national First Prize and the Beijing Special Prize in the FLTRP “Teaching Star” Competition.
The team has twice earned second prizes in the BUCT Teaching Innovation Competition in 2022 and 2024 respectively.
College English was recognized as a BUCT Research-Based Teaching Demonstration Course in 2020;
College English was recognized as a BUCT Model Course for Integrating Ideological and Political Education in 2022.
In 2019, the online writing course Graduate English was selected as one of the first courses launched on a major international online teaching platform.
Together, these accomplishments highlight the department’s strong performance in teaching reform and curriculum development.
5. Talent Cultivation
The diversified faculty development system has been a strong pillar in enhancing the quality of public English courses. Despite reduced classroom hours for College English courses, the teaching staff have actively explored online-offline integrated teaching models to maximize instructional effectiveness within the limited time. Thanks to these coordinated efforts, students’ overall English proficiency has steadily improved. The pass rate for the national CET-4 examination has remained above 80% on the first attempt, and students’ postgraduate entrance English scores significantly surpass the average of comparable institutions.
Students have also earned an increasing number of high-level awards in provincial, national, and international English competitions. They have won gold, silver, and bronze medals in major events such as the “FLTRP·Guocai Cup” National English Reading, Writing, Speaking, Comprehensive Ability, and Short Video Contests, the “Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Cup” National Intercultural Competence Competition, the International Competence Competition, and the National Academic English Forum on Energy and Power. These achievements fully demonstrate the sustained improvement and outstanding effectiveness of our university’s English talent cultivation.
