COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHOOL

The School of Foreign Languages of East China Normal University (ECNU) was established in 1951, and was called the Department of Foreign Languages back then. Born out of the merge of the English departments of Great China University and the School of Liberal Arts of Kwang Hua University, the department consisted of two majors,  English  and Russia. In 1954, in response to the call for leanring from the Soviet Union’s experience in education in a comprehensive and systematic way, ECNU received instructions from the Ministry of Education, which called for learning from, and cancelled the English major. The original Department of Foreign Languages was changed to the Russian Language Department, and the enrollment of vocational students came to a halt. In 1956, the English program was reinstituted. In 1961, the department’s British language and literature program was divided into two majors, English language and English literature. In May 1972, the university  merged with several universities in Shanghai, and was renamed Shanghai Normal University.In September of the same year, the department began to enroll students in German, Japanese, and 3-year French teacher training programs  In October, it started to offer language training classes. Until then, the programs provided by the department increased to five.

After the Cultural Revolution, the university’s enrollment was back on track. In 1977, the university reused its original name, East China Normal University. At the same time, the enrollment of students in our department also returned to normal. Based on previous English and Russian programs, the department started to recruit undergraduates for four-year study. By then, the layout of common development of multilanguage programs took shape.

In 1993, the School of Foreign Languages was established. Today, the school has an authorized first-level doctoral program in foreign language and literature, five authorized second-level doctoral programs in Japanese, Russian, French, linguistics and applied linguistics, six authorized graduate programs in English language and literature, Russian language and literature, French language and literature, Japanese language and literature, German language and literature, linguistics and applied linguistics, and two professional graduate programs in education and translation. For undergraduates, there are seven programs, namely English, Russian, French, German, Japanese, Translation, and Spanish. These programs showcase the school’s full-fledged discipline system.