On November 7th-8th, 2020, the annual meeting of the Sub-committee of German Major of the National Administry Committee on Teaching Foreign Language and Literature to Majors in Higher Education under the Ministry of Education undertaken by the School of Foreign Languages of Southwest Jiaotong University was successfully held online. About 100 people attended this magnificent gathering, including all the members of German Sub-committee under the Advisory Committee of Foreign Language Teaching of the Ministry of Education, directors of German departments in domestic universities, representatives of Goethe Institute and German Academic Exchange Center in China. The opening ceremony combined both offline and online forms.
After the opening ceremony, Professor Jia Wenjian, Director of German Sub-committee under the Advisory Committee of Foreign Language Teaching of the Ministry of Education, Vice Chancellor of Beijing Foreign Studies University delivered an address and gave a keynote speech. He particularly mentioned the close connection between the theme of this annual meeting “German Major and Excellent Classification” and the background of new liberal arts construction.
Mr. Jan Sprenger, Vice Dean of Beijing Goethe Institute and Ms. Ruth Schimanowski, Chief Representative of German Academic Exchange Center in China also respectively delivered a speech.
Professor Jia Wenjian analyzed the “excellent classification” of foreign language major from the perspective of disciplinary culture. Professor Liu Qisheng from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies introduced the classroom ideological and political practice and “classroom discussion + social practice” teaching mode of the first-class German language and literature courses. Mr. Jan Sprenger, Vice Dean of Beijing Goethe Institute summarized the key content and main achievements of the institute’s language work in China during 2020-2021. Doctor Gudrun Lörincz, a language expert in German Academic Exchange Center and the International Education College of Tongji University reported the challenges and new developments in the subject, German Language and Literature.
Experts and scholars who attended the meeting were divided into four groups. And each group respectively set off a heated discussion about following topics: “the exploration on the pattern of disciplinary extension of German major”, “the integration of classroom ideological and politics education into the teaching of German major”, “the combination of professionalization trend of German major’s talent cultivation and humanistic quality fostering”, and “the online and off line blended teaching mode of German major in post-pandemic era”. Liu Guanlong, Director of German Department in our college attended this meeting on behalf of the German Department. He had an in-depth discussion and exchange with colleagues from all over the country, from which the gains would be bound to better guide the discipline construction and talent cultivation of the German Department.
