The rapid development of China’s foreign trade has put forward higher requirements for the cultivation of international trade professionals, and students should not only have a high level of professional knowledge, but also have an international perspective and a high level of professional foreign language learning and application ability, therefore, many universities are trying different forms of full English teaching reform and practice.
However, full English teaching involves the renewal of teaching concept and the adjustment of teaching content, which should not be an embellishment and accompaniment in the reform of professional teaching at the expense of professional knowledge and time. Therefore, how to locate full English teaching from theory and practice, grasp the design of teaching links, evaluate the teaching effect of full English teaching courses, so as to provide effective implementation plans for the reform of full English teaching in colleges and universities, is a problem worthy of deep consideration.
Factors to be considered in the design of teaching sessions of international trade full English courses
(A) The selection of teaching time and objects based on students’ English proficiency
The uneven level of students’ professional knowledge and English is an inevitable problem in the process of full English teaching. If all students of a major are required to accept the full English teaching mode without any selection, it will often bring academic pressure and psychological burden to a large number of students, which will lead to a significant reduction in the absorption of professional knowledge. .
At this point, we can consider dividing the classes according to the relative differences of students’ English level and learning ability, and students with strong knowledge learning ability and interest in English learning will be the first to be taught in full English, while students in other classes can be gradually involved in the teaching process in the form of auditing.
Generally speaking, the object of full English teaching of international trade can be set for junior undergraduate students, such students have already had the foundation of English level 4 or above after the first two years of public English study, and have a certain understanding of relevant professional knowledge and terminology through the previous mandatory courses, so that they can better understand professional knowledge in English and think about how this knowledge can be expressed in English, thus solving the problem of students’ thinking The way of thinking of students from Chinese to English change.
(B) the progressiveness of the international trade course content
International trade course content can not be set to emphasize the full coverage, the curriculum should be set to the mastery of professional knowledge as the main goal, within the acceptable range of students for the design of teaching content and hours, in order to ensure that students learn English and the adaptation process of thinking. International trade courses in English are mainly elective courses, and more attention should be paid to the study of pre-course support materials and the application of heuristic and interactive teaching modes in the course of lectures to stimulate students’ strong interest and desire to investigate problems, encourage them to think independently, find and ask questions, use their original knowledge in the process of solving problems to form the ability to learn by example, and exercise their creativity and independent thinking skills. (3) Full English teaching faculty
(C) Construction of English teaching faculty
At present, the teachers who undertake full English teaching in universities mainly come from two aspects: one is local and “returnee” teachers; the other is overseas experts and foreign visiting professors. However, overseas experts need a lot of financial support to teach in English, which is not suitable for the full promotion of full English teaching, and it is necessary to promote the comprehensive construction of full English teaching faculty through the participation and learning of teachers in the university. The Chinese scholars usually have the background of domestic study, which is convenient to carry out classroom teaching and post-class communication with China’s foreign trade practice and Chinese students’ educational background and learning ability.
Design of Teaching Sessions of International Trade Full English Course
(A) the selection of teaching content
The content of the international trade course mainly includes the following five parts, each part of the teaching content needs to be selected according to the students’ professional level and comprehensive ability.
The first part mainly introduces typical historical events affecting international trade in chronological order to stimulate students’ interest in the course; at the same time, it uses detailed data and cases to introduce the basic concepts and basic classifications of international trade, which helps students read independently the reports of international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, UNCTAD and OECD and Internet materials.
The second part uses microeconomic analysis tools to focus on the theoretical explanations of traditional trade theories (including absolute advantage theory, comparative advantage theory, Heckscher-Russian theory, etc.) and new trade theories on the basis of trade, trade gains and trade patterns.
The third part analyzes the trade costs, the geographical concentration effect of industry and the international division of labor theory of production from the perspective of industrial organization.
The fourth part analyzes in detail the tariff and non-tariff measures, anti-dumping, subsidies and countervailing measures, and the implementation of these measures in China in the context of the World Trade Organization and the relevant legal regulations of China.
The fifth part introduces the World Trade Organization and the theory of regional economic integration from the perspective of economic integration, focusing on the regional economic integration practices of the European Union and China.
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Teaching International Trade Full English Course
Based on years of experience in teaching international trade courses in English, students’ feedback shows that they generally agree that full English lectures improve their learning and thinking skills in professional English, and that they are more willing to use English to communicate directly with the teacher in class than written assessments. The vast majority of students believe that learning relevant knowledge through Chinese first will help the learning effect of English lectures, and they hope that more English courses will be offered. In general, the mode of progressive all-English course teaching can better improve the overall teaching effect, and has a good value of promotion.