The department of Foreign Language Education was founded in July 1985. At present, it has a faculty of 78:

• 3 professors (two doctoral supervisors)

• 30 associate professors (14 of whom hold PhDs)

The faculty is comprised of three academic units:

• The academic division for undergraduates

• The academic division for graduates

• Thepostgraduate and PhD programsof Foreign Language Studies and Applied Linguistics

The department offers a wide range of language courses to more than 10,000 undergraduates and 3,500 master and doctoral candidates at XMU. In addition to English, the department also offers Korean, Malay,Arabicand Italian courses.

The department has made significant strides in the reform of curricula and teaching methodology in line with the “Requirements for the Teaching of English at Higher-education Institutions” issued by China’s Ministry of Education. Since the inauguration of the College English Test (CET) nationwide in 1985, XMU students have consistently outperformed their peers at other nationally-recognized institutions in terms of both overall and sectional scores in the tests.

In 2008, the department was awarded the second prize for teaching excellence by the university in recognition of its successful implementation of aptitude-based English teaching. In 2013, as part of its further reform initiatives, the department introduced the “2+2” curricular model, under which students receive two hours of classroom instructions and two hours ofWeb-based tutoring per week. Under this particular model, language classes are made accessible outside of the classroom with the help of the Internet, and the interaction between the teacher and students is no longer confined to the classroom.

XMU students regularly compete in a wide range of English contests, consistently earning top prizes at the annual FLTRP Cup English Speech Contests, at both the national and provincial levels.

The department also operates aForeignLanguageTestCenter, which every year provides services to candidates taking educational and occupational tests in English and other languages, including:

• TOEFL

• IELTS

• GRE

• GMAT

• BEC

• TOEIC

• J-Test

• PETS-5

Please feel free to email theTestingCenterat: itcenter@xmu.edu.cn or visit the Center’s webpage at:http:/tc/index.asp.