The College of Foreign Languages, Guizhou University

The College of Foreign Languages (CFL) is one of the oldest divisions of Guizhou University. Established in 1942 as “the English Department”, the CFL has now grown to include a range of study programs, both undergraduate and graduate, in three languages—English, Japanese, and Burmese.

At present, the CFL has 184 employees, including 161 faculty members, of which 67 have (associate) professorships and 34 have doctorates. Half of the faculty have overseas study or work experiences. Multiple have won official recognition from China’s Ministry of Education or Guizhou Province for their outstanding work in teaching and research.

The CFL’s student body consists of 1,000 undergraduates majoring in English, Japanese, or Burmese, as well as 300 graduate students studying foreign literature, linguistics, translation, or international Chinese education. Largest within the CFL, the English undergraduate program is a certified national first-class program, and the Japanese undergraduate program is a provincially certified first-class program. The college also teaches English, Japanese, Russian, French, German, Korean, Spanish, Burmese, and Thai as second foreign languages for our students. In the 2024 Shanghai Ranking of degree programs offered by universities in China, the CFL’s English undergraduate program was rated “A” and ranked among the top 17% (83^rd of 459) of similar programs in China and the Japanese program was rated “B+” and ranked among the top 31% (80^th of 257) of its kind.

The graduate degree programs offered by the CFL include academics-oriented master’s programs in English Language & Literature, Foreign Linguistics & Applied Linguistics, Japanese Language & Literature, and Translation Studies, in addition to two professional degree programs—Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI, English/Japanese) and Master of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (MTCSOL).

Another major component of the CFL’s work is the foreign language courses it provides for the whole GZU community, which yearly benefit over 20,000 students of all levels. The college has been named an exemplary institution in English education reform at the collegiate level in Guizhou Province, an honorable role that can fully attest to the excellent work of our award-winning faculty members.

At the CFL, academic research is also a high priority. As such, we have in recent years set up a range of research centers that serve the resource and logistic needs of researchers in cross-cultural studies, Japanese studies, foreign linguistics & applied linguistics, and Sino-Western linguistic philosophies. The research grants earned by CFL faculty in the last five years include 5 research projects sponsored by the National Social Science Fund, 21 projects funded by provincial or ministerial organizations, and 15 provincial or national teaching reform projects. The outcomes of these research projects have won high accolades in their fields.

The value of international cooperation and exchange also receives full recognition at the CFL. So far, we have set up partnerships with over a dozen higher-learning institutions in Korea (Konyang University), Japan (Yamaguchi University, Hiroshima University & Musashino University), the United Kingdom (Cardiff University & University of Lincoln), the United States (Colorado State University, Presbyterian College & West Chester University), the Netherlands (The Hague University), etc. Our international cooperation also extends beyond universities and now involves non-academic organizations. For example, the CFL has worked closely with the Japanese Consulate in Chongqing and the Japanese Foundation to set up Sino-Japanese friendship organizations and organize cultural celebrations.

The CFL regularly hosts several internationally recognized English and Japanese proficiency tests, including IELTS, BEC, JLPT, and TOEFL. It is also home to the only officially accredited foreign language training center of the Education Department of Guizhou Province, offering high-quality training programs to multiple government organizations and state enterprises.

In its eight-decade-long history, the CFL has proudly had a number of eminent faculty members and alumni, in addition to the numerous teachers, translators, civil servants, and entrepreneurs that, with the knowledge and skills acquired at the CFL, have been contributing to the betterment of society. Here is a list of some of our most distinguished former faculty and alumni: