Overview
The School of Foreign Languages, Dalian University of Technology (DUT), was founded in the early days of DUT. Formerly known as the Department of Russian Teaching, it was responsible for DUT’s public foreign language teaching. In 1985, the Department of Foreign Languages was established, with an undergraduate major in English. In 2001, another undergraduate major in Japanese was established, and the right to confer master’s degrees in the sub-disciplines of “Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics” was granted. In 2003, the Department of Foreign Languages was restructured into the School of Foreign Languages, and gained the right to confer master’s degrees in the sub-disciplines of “English Language and Literature”. In 2010, the School of Foreign Languages obtained the right to confer a master’s degree in “Foreign Language and Literature” and a master’s degree in Translation and Interpreting (MTI). In addition, two master programs in sub-disciplines were initiated, namely, “Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics” and “Japanese Language and Literature”. In 2012, the undergraduate major in translation was created. In 2013, the School established undergraduate majors in Russian and business English (Panjin Campus). English, Japanese, and translation majors are national first-class undergraduate majors, and Russian and business English majors are first-class exemplary undergraduate majors in Liaoning Province.
The School of Foreign Languages consists of six teaching units: the Department of English, the Department of Japanese, the Department of Russian, the Department of Translation, the Department of Postgraduate English Teaching, and the Department of College English Teaching. The School of Foreign Languages at Panjin Campus includes the Department of Business English Teaching and the Department of General Foreign Language Teaching. The Development Zone Campus has a Foreign Language Teaching Center. Furthermore, the School of Foreign Languages has a variety of research institutions, including Liaoning Public Culture Research Base,theInstitute of Japanese Studies,theResearch Center of Contemporary Discourse,theResearch Center of Classics Translation and Cross-cultural Communication,theInstitute of Theoretical Linguistics,the Institute of Literature and Philosophy,the Research Center of Language and Cognitive Science, etc. Moreover, the School of Foreign Languages has been approved as a “Ministry of Education’s Innovation and Practice Base for Cultivating High-level Talents”, with a Foreign Language Practice Center and a Foreign Languages Test Center. The academic journalForeign Language Education & Research is currently hosted by the School of Foreign Languages.
Currently, the School of Foreign Languages has a high-level teaching and research team, composed of both domestic and foreign teachers. There are 149 faculty members (135 full-time teachers), 20 professors, 52 doctoral degree holders, 1 recipient of Government Allowances of the State Council, 2 prominent teachers of Liaoning Province, 2 “Baosteel” excellent teachers, and 1 excellent tutor of Liaoning Province. In the past five years, full-time teachers of the School have presided over 23 projects supported by the National Social Science Fund of China, and 21 humanities and social science projects supported bytheMinistry of Education. More than 100 high-level research articles have been published both at home and abroad, including many appearing in top international and domestic journals. Furthermore, over 40 academic monographs and 32 translated works have been published.
The School of Foreign Languages has gained many achievements and awards, including more than 10 Provincial Awards for Philosophy and Social Sciences, 6 Awards for Teaching Achievements of Liaoning Province, 1 national first-class course, 31 provincial first-class courses, one National Award for Textbook Construction and one Provincial Award of the same category, among 12 published textbooks. The reputation of teachers at the School of Foreign Languages has been notably improved in domestic and international academic circles, and 10 of them are currently serving as vice presidents or executive directors on national academic committees.
Relying on the disciplinary platform at DUT, the School of Foreign Languages has been committed to inter-disciplinary development and a problem-oriented approach, under the concept of “New Liberal Arts”. According to national strategic demands and first-class talent training, literature, history, and philosophy have been integrated with science, engineering, and medicine. Based on these concepts, the School of Foreign Languages has five distinguished areas of research: language and cognitive neuroscience, foreign literature, foreign linguistics and applied linguistics, translation studies, and area studies. With their unique features, specific research directions are as follows: cognitive and neuroscience linguistics, literary hermeneutics, legal linguistics, critical discourse studies, translation of classics, studies on Japanese issues, and language acquisition. In the last five years, the School of Foreign Languages has made great progress in disciplinary development, ranking in the top 11% in the country, 25th among China’s foreign language disciplines, according to Shanghai Ranking in October 2019.
With the principle of cultivating people with moral integrity, the School of Foreign Languages has been dedicated to training talents with all-round development, including moral integrity, intellectuality, physicality, and aesthetics, to meet the needs of China’s socialist modernization. Talents fromtheSchool of Foreign Languages will demonstrate their solid academic foundation and strong innovative ability, with feelings of national identity and international vision. As high-level versatile talents in foreign languages, they will make their efforts to help the School of Foreign Languages gain a higher reputation in teaching, research, and talent training both domestically and abroad.
