The School of Foreign Languages was founded in 2000 on the basis of its predecessor, the Department of Business English. It currently consists of the Department of College English Teaching, the Department of Business English, the Department of Asian-European Languages, the Research Institute for Translation, three teaching assistance sections (the School Office, the ServiceCenter for Audio-Visual Facilities and the Youth League Sub-committee) and the social service agency (also the TrainingCenter for Foreign Languages). The school offers Master’s degree programme of Foreign Languages and Literature as the first-grade discipline as well as the four-year undergraduate programmes of Business English and Japanese.

The teaching staff is reasonably structured. Currently there are altogether 120 staff members. Among them, 107 are full-time teachers with 7 professors, 27 associate professors, 7 supervisors of MA candidates, 12 Ph.D.s with Ph.D. candidates included, 77 Masters, 2 teachers in the postdoctoral research station, 1 young and middle-aged discipline pathfinder of institutions of higher education in Jiangxi and 3 young and middle-aged backbone teachers of our university.

The school’s construction of academic disciplines has taken the lead among disciplines of its kind in Jiangxi. In 2005, the school received the approval of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee (also Department of Postgraduate Education) to grant Master’s degree in English Language and Literature programme, which then was listed as one of the leading academic disciplines in the provincial “Eleventh Five-Year” plan by Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education in 2007. From 2010 onwards, we are honored with the inauguration of Master’s degree programme of Foreign Languages and Literature as the first-grade academic discipline.

The research and innovation abilities have been increasingly strengthened. Recently, the school has seen great achievements in the publication of articles, monographs, textbooks and translated works. Three national projects have been approved, more than thirty provincial and ministerial projects finished, and six achievements awarded the provincial research prizes. Likewise, more than 200 research papers have been published in some flagship academic journals dedicated to the research of foreign languages as well as other fields of humanities, such as Chinese Translators Journal, Translation Quarterly, Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, Journal of PLA University of Foreign Languages, Foreign Language Research, Foreign Languages Research, Foreign Language Education, Chinese Science & Technology Translators Journal, Shanghai Journal of Translators.

We have made remarkable achievements in the construction of the teaching quality project. The experiment center for College English teaching was established as one of the 65 demo bases by the Ministry of Education in 2007, and in 2008 it passed the mid-term assessment. In the meantime, the experiment center has been made as one of the provincial demo bases. Our achievements can also be seen in the fact that the passing rates of CET4 and CET 6 are at the top of the list in Jiangxi.

The internationally cooperative programmes have been pushed forward steadily. In the construction of the teaching staff, forty-three teachers were sent to universities in ?xml:namespace>America, England, Australia, Austria, Japan, etc., and they attended refresher courses or took summer school training, or engaged in studies as visiting scholars. In terms of academic exchanges, the school has invitedmany experts of national or international reputation from mainland China, America, England, etc. to give lectures. Our undergraduate programme has also achieved satisfactory result, that is, we have signed an agreement of friendly cooperation with OkayamaShokaUniversity in Japan. From 2012 onwards, our Japanese majors can apply for the university’s one-year or two-year undergraduate programme.

In the management of students’ affairs, aiming at improving the teamwork and fulfilling the goal of “high quality and excellence”, we have organized an influential series of activities, whose organization is based on our understanding of the spirits of inheritance and innovation. The activity of “Valuable Time” morning reading has built up the students’ basic knowledge of their majors. Such activities as English Host Competition, English Fun Game, Model UN Conference, and Public Speaking Contest have tested the students’ knowledge, broadened their vision and built up their confidence and courage. In recent years, our students’ comprehensive quality has been fully recognized by the society, and there is a steady increase both in the students’ employment rate and in the proportion of the graduates who take up an MA degree programme.

The school will conscientiously carry out JUFE’s strategy and policies devoted to the development of the university’s “soft power” and explore continuously new progress and innovation so as to make greater contributions to the cause of foreign language education.