AY 2007-2008 Projects - East Asia and Pacific

Country                       China
City                              Chengdu
Host Institution           Southwest University

Project Description
Southwest University (SWU) is directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education in Beijing. There are 40,000 full-time students and another 40,000 students in the distance learning and part-time divisions. Southwest University's College of Foreign languages has more than 2,000 students (including undergraduates, postgraduates, and Ph. D. candidates) and over 200 faculty members. The EL Fellow will teach the following courses:

1. Second/Foreign Language Acquisition to postgraduate English majors @ 2 class hours/week
2. Evaluation and Assessment of Teaching to English teachers and postgraduate English majors @ 2 class hours/week
3. ELT Methodology (general theories and Micro-skills) to English teachers and postgraduate English majors @ 2 class hours/week
4. Learner Autonomy in ELT to English teachers and postgraduate English majors @ 2 class hours/week

SWU regularly organizes a training course for its young teachers in each academic year in order to improve their teaching skills and competency, with a special emphasis on English Language abilities. Each year, SWU sends a group of faculty members (at least 30 teachers per year) to be trained at the University of Wales in the UK in bilingual teaching methodologies while conducting collaborative academic research. Its emphasis is also, to some extent, on the improvement of English Language. The EL Fellow can train the faculty prior to their departure. SWU has also an in-service training center run by the College of Education to train teachers (including English teachers) from the whole country. The EL Fellow will deliver some lectures there. SWU has a College of Training where intensive training courses are held. The opportunity will exist for the EL Fellow to give lectures there as well. The EL Fellow will be responsible for preparing some supplementary materials for compiling books about teacher training. SWU has a large affiliated high school, and the EL Fellow is welcome to conduct seminars with the English teachers there, as well as help English teachers upgrade their skills. As time permits, the EL Fellow will conduct train-the trainer seminars in Chongqing's rural teacher training institutes and give lectures in other universities in Chongqing.

Project Objectives
The EL Fellow will conduct his/her program at the College of Foreign Languages which focuses on cultivating English teachers teaching at high schools and universities. During his/her stay in the university, the EL Fellow will teach classroom courses for postgraduates who will for the most part become unviersity English teachers. Courses include Second/Foreign Language Acquisition, Evaluation and Assessment of Teaching, ELT Methodology, and Learner Autonomy in ELT. Concurrently, the EL Fellow will help improve English teaching methodology of both university English teachers and high schools teachers by training the teachers at university's in-service center and College of Training as well as conducting seminars at its affiliated high schools. The most important aspect is that other universities in Chongqing, especially Chongqing's rural teacher training institutes, can also share this valuable English teaching expert. The EL Fellow will also be able to teach, depending on his/her specialty area, "English for Special Purposes" classes to English teachers/postgraduates in law and economics/business.  The post also plans to arrange some seminars for the EL Fellow to teach for Chengdu high school teachers since the post frequently receives requests for assistance from Chengdu high schools, including Middle School #7, the top school in Chengdu.  

About the Host Institution
Southwest University (SWU), located in Chongqing (the youngest municipality in China) is a comprehensive key university under the direct jurisdiction of the State Education Ministry and is also a "211 project" university receiving preferential support in its construction and development from the Central Government of China. It occupies around 600 hectares of floor space. It is a well-known cultured garden-like university, which offers 11 disciplines including Philosophy, Economics, Law, Education, Literature, History, Science, Engineering, Agronomy and Management. There are over 80,000 students of different levels, of whom more than 40,000 are full time undergraduates and postgraduates on campus. In addition, there are many overseas students from more than 20 countries or regions who study at SWU every year. SWU has established cooperation and exchange relationships with universities and research institutions from over 30 countries.