On November 16th, the National Finals of “Yixue Cup” Cross-border Digital Marketing Challenge of the 2024 iCAN College Students' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and the National Finals of the 8th “Yixue Cup” National Business English Practical Skills Competition came to a successful conclusion in Zhengzhou. The team composed of five students who major in Business English, namely Wang Wenjing, Zu Jiawen, Guo Meiling, Liu Yongxia and Liu Yueyue, with Tu Huijuan and Mao Fanyu as their instructors, won the second prize in the National Finals. The other team led by teachers Lv Shuming and Li Feng won the second prize in the provincial competition.

This competition is hosted by the Organizing Committee of the iCAN College Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and Committee for International Business English Studies of CCOIC Commercial Chamber of Commerce and co-organized by Fujian Yixue Education Technology Group Co., Ltd. It is listed among the disciplinary competitions for college students across the country by China Association of Higher Education. Moreover, it is currently one of the disciplinary competitions for Business English majors in China that has the longest history, the highest value and the widest influence. The competition requires contestants to conduct market analysis, market positioning, formulate marketing objectives and marketing strategies, work out marketing implementation plans, monitor and evaluate the marketing process and others  by combining simulation with actual practice according to the requirements of the theme. These moves are aimed to form marketing planning proposals and display the project achievements with whole-process English explanations in the form of short videos and on-site roadshows.

This year’s competition was launched in June. Since the launch, the Business English Department of SFL carefully organized, led teams and guided students to prepare for the competition. They successfully completed the computer-based test of the knowledge module, participated in the Cross-border E-commerce Entrepreneurship and Industrial Transformation Summit Forum for Chinese (Jiangxi) Brands Going Global, conducted research and interviews with Jiangling Motors Group Co., Ltd., wrote marketing plans and filmed videos of simulating live-streaming. With these efforts, the team members of JUFE eventually stood out from more than 600 teams of over 300 colleges and universities across the country, ranking first in the provincial competition and seventh in the national pre-final, and entered the national finals.

During the competition, the contestants from JUFE closely adhered to the theme of cross-border digital marketing, combining research with simulated live-streaming, deeply analyzing the target country’s market, scientifically formulating marketing objectives and strategies, and carrying out both simulated and practical cross-border live-streaming. Besides, they stayed committed to the four major goals of foreign language learning throughout the competition, namely, comprehensively mastering professional knowledge, analyzing, sorting and applying big data well, actively promoting team communication and cooperation, and cultivating good professional qualities.

As a major construction site of national first-class undergraduate, the business English major of JUFE has always regarded cultivating talents with great virtues as its fundamental task and the student’s improvement of comprehensive qualities and cultivation and international vision as important evaluation indicators. In this competition, the students of JUFE interpreted JUFE motto of “Faithfulness, Diligence, Integrity and Fortitude” with a good mental outlook, demonstrated practical abilities in Business English and cross-border digital marketing with solid professional knowledge, and presented the training results of the Business English major’s commitment to cultivating compound talents with high comprehensive qualities and cultivation. These practical experience well substantiated the training goal of cultivating “foreign language +” applied talents，namely compound and applied foreign language talents,  with a four-in-one combination of critical thinking, foreign language skills, economic and management knowledge, and business practice, which was proposed during the construction period of the major construction site.

By Wangkang and Du Jingping