In 2004, the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Department of the College of International Cooperative Education of Harbin Engineering University was officially established. At first, we were mainly responsible for the teaching of English (IELTS) courses in international cooperation programs of our school, such as China-UK, Australia, China and Russia, and organized French training from 2009 to 2011. At present, we are focusing on language teaching and IELTS training in international cooperation projects between our university and British universities.

Currently, the English teaching team consists of 7 well-qualified teachers with outstanding performance, including 2 professors, 3 associate professors and 2 lecturers. All the teachers, with experiences of either studying industriously overseas or visiting prestigious universities abroad, are IELTS invigilators, and experienced in English teaching and international English test training. The majority of them have won awards in various high-level education teaching competitions. In addition, they actively participate in teaching reform and academic research, compiling a bunch of textbooks, presiding over the projects of the Philosophy and Social Science in Heilongjiang Province, and projects of Education and Teaching Reform in Heilongjiang Province, and publishing a number of journal articles in SSCI, CSSCI and Peking University

Meanwhile, the team is concentrated on the language courses in the “3+1” international cooperation project between Harbin Engineering University and Swansea University and University of Aberdeen, shoulder the English teaching work of the University of Southampton Joint College, and provide international English test training services for all teachers and students of our university. Since its establishment, the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Department has taken various measures to assist students in international exchanges and promote the international development of the school. It has been efficient in the English learning of more than 2,000 students in international cooperation programs, and has helped more than 1,000 undergraduates and postgraduates in our school to successfully pass the authoritative international English proficiency tests such as IELTS and TOEFL, providing language guarantee for the smooth implementation of international cooperation programs in our school.

In addition, the team is also actively exploring the teaching mode of integration of interdisciplinary subjects with English. With the development of education internationalization, and the increasing demand for students to participate in international academic exchanges, the number of the courses with English as the medium is on the rise, further highlighting the importance of academic English and English for specific purposes. In order to achieve effective integration of English teaching and accelerate the cultivation of professional talents, the English teaching team, bases on the subject matters of students in the international cooperation program, focuses on academic English in the engineering field, and actively explores a new teaching model that integrates subjects and English. The English teaching team, in cooperation with the School of Foreign Languages, published “Academic English for Engineering” in Higher Education Press in 2022. The textbook selects language materials that are closely related to the fields of science and engineering to help students learn English for academic purposes in a relatively familiar disciplinary context. In addition, the “Training Course Textbook of Academic English Listening for Engineering”, which combines IELTS listening and engineering English listening, is under preparation.

He who has a long way to go, does not choose a place to live. The English teaching team will continue to invest in our school’s English education and teaching reform, serving the students where needed, constantly innovate teaching methods, optimize the teaching content, innovate the ideological education model, improve the quality of the moral education, and contribute to the double-first-class construction and the internationalization of the school.