Shaanxi Normal University (SNU) is one of the institutions of higher learning directly affiliated to the Ministry of Education of P.R.C. Situated in the famous historical-cultural city of Xi'an , with the verdant Qinling Mountain Range to the south, and Weihe River to the north, SNU benefits greatly from the nurture of the profound and rich Chinese culture. In the last few years, with considerable progress in discipline construction, qualified personnel training, and campus environment beautification, SNU is becoming a teachers-training-centered and research-based comprehensive university. The College of Foreign Languages (SFL) ， its predecessor being The Department of Foreign Languages set up in 1972 ， was established in 1998. SFL is authorized to award Master Degree in English Language & Literature, Foreign Linguistics & Applied Linguistics, and Master of Education (English). SFL establishes for the first two programs research orientations in English Linguistics, British & American Literature, Theories & Practice of Translation, Western Cultures, and English Teaching. Major courses offered are General Linguistics, Semantics, British Literature, American Literature, English Thesis Writing & Literature Retrieving, Historical Commentaries on Chinese & Western Translations, English-Chinese Two Way Translations, Western Commentaries, History of Western Cultures, Methodology of English Teaching, Second Language Acquisition, Phonetic Systems, Psycholinguistics, and 20 optional courses. SFL is applying for the authorization to award Doctoral Degree in English Language & Literatures, so as to further its academic discipline construction.
SFL supervises three teaching units: English Department, Russian, Japanese & German Department, and Foreign Languages Service Department. There are three undergraduate programs, English, Russian, and Japanese, with 662 students at present, including 624 students of English, 20 students of Japanese, and 18 students of Russian. The qualities of the graduates of SFL are well recognized by the communities and the employers. The employment rate of the graduates has been over 98% in the last few years.
There are 137 faculty members, among which are 122 teachers including 40 full professors and associate professors (32.78%), 40 lecturers (32.78%), 40 assistants (32.78%), and 2 practitioner assistants (1.63%). Ladder-shaped structure of the teaching and research team has taken shape, consisting of 7 Ph. D holders (5.73%), 48 Masters Degree holders (39.30%), 67 Bachelor Degree holders (54.91%). Besides, 3 to 5 foreign experts are engaged as teachers on the long-term basis in SFL.
In addition to teaching undergraduates of the three departments, SFL assumes the responsibility of teaching foreign languages to doctoral, masters, undergraduate, and junior professional students. The teaching quality has been steadily improved, with the annual passing rate of English Majors' Test Bands 4 and 8 and Non-English Majors' Test Bands 4 and 6 increasing. A pride of SFL is that for 2005 National English Majors' Test Band 8, 86.4% of the students passed, ranking among the best of normal universities. The courses of Comprehensive English, Advanced English, College English are key courses of SNU. All the teachers are raising their research-doing consciousness and trying to establish their orientations to promote their research capabilities. In the past few years, more than ten monograph works and textbooks have been published, and 45 papers are published in the prestigious journals. A state-funded project of social science and 13 province or university-funded projects are being conducted. All this helps lay a solid foundation for discipline construction of SFL as well as for promoting its routine teaching.
SFL covers a building area of 3 500 ㎡ , part of which is used for the language teaching center, one of the five basic course teaching centers of SNU. SFL boasts 18 sophisticated labs, a foreign language teaching radio, a ground satellite station for making aural and visual resources, a 50-seat multimedia interactive electronic reading-room, two multi-purposed classrooms with big-screen projection. A simultaneous interpretation lab and a workshop for making aural and visual resources are to be built. SFL also boasts a library with a storage of 20000 book, worth ￥ 80,000. These facilities strongly support the teaching and research SFL.
The 4-year undergraduate English Program is designed for would-be teachers, awarding bachelor degree of arts. Courses offered for this program are Comprehensive English, Advanced English, Visual and Aural English, English Speaking, English Phonetic Practice, English Writing, English Teaching, English-Chinese Translation, Bachelor Dissertation Guide, Chinese Language, Second Foreign Language, etc. The optional courses are British Literature, American Literature, English Linguistics, English Lexicology, English Grammar, Selected English Newspaper Reading, Introduction to Britain and the United States, Appreciation and Evaluation of Famous English Movies, Theories and Techniques of English Testing, Practical Modern Education Technology, etc. Students in this program are trained to be university and key middle school English teachers.
The 4-year undergraduate Russian Program is a non-teacher training program awarding Bachelor Degree of Arts. Courses offered are Essential Russian, Advanced Russian, Russian Grammar, Russian Speaking, Visual & Aural Russian, Russian Writing, Theories & Practice of Translation, Selected Russian Newspaper Reading, Selected Russian Literary Works Reading, Linguistic Theories, History of Russian Literature, Russia's Domestic Situation, Chinese Language. The objective of this program is to train qualified composite professionals with strong adaptability to meet the needs of the society for intermediate and advanced Russian translators, and for personnel working for international trades and Russian teaching.
The 4-year undergraduate non-teacher training Japanese Program awards Bachelor Degree of Arts. Courses offered are Essential Japanese, Advanced Japanese, Japanese Program Watching & Listening & Speaking, Japanese Speaking, Japanese Writing, Japanese-Chinese Translation, Japanese Grammar, Communicative Japanese, Second Foreign Language, etc. Optional courses offered are Japanese Linguistics, Chinese Language, Introduction to Japan, Japanese Extensive Reading, Japanese Lexicology, Japanese Phonetics, History of Japanese Literature, History of Sino-Japanese Relationship, Japanese People & Japanese Culture, Selected Japanese Newspaper Reading, etc. The objective of this program is to train personnel working for foreign affairs, economic trades, tourism management, and so on.
