1. Overview of the Major
Approved by the Ministry of Education of P. R. China, the Department of French has begun to enrol students since 2001. In 2018, about 50 students are enrolled and divided into two panel classes each year. Since 2010, a programme of French minors has been offered to all students on campus and with an enrolment of about 30 students each year. There are 11 Chinese teachers and 2 contracted French teachers. Among the Chinese teachers, one has doctoral degree, 9 have master's degree and one has double bachelor's degree. All the Chinese teachers graduated from well-known universities at home and abroad, such as Beijing Foreign Studies University, Shanghai International Studies University, Wuhan University, Xiamen University and Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3. In particular, all the Chinese teachers are under the age of 40, making a young, vigorous and competent team.
2. Orientation and Vision
We aim to cultivate all-round, application-oriented and globally-minded talents with a solid foundation in French language and literature as well as encyclopaedic knowledge, who can undertake the affairs of translation, culture and education, research and administration in fields of foreign affairs, economy and trade, culture, press and publication, education, scientific research and tourism.
3. Major Stratification and Curriculum Design
The French major is divided into two specific orientations: translation and culture, and business French. Students will be stratified in the third year according to their interests. After choosing their orientations, students are required to select some specialized courses in addition to further study and training in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating of French.
4. Exploration of Teaching Mode
Committed to deepening the reform in teaching and attain the goal of cultivating all-round, application-oriented and globally-minded talents, we have been innovating teaching methods and content. Since 2009, for example, we have been cooperating with Université de Genève and Department of Chinese of Institute National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales to set up an ‘eTandem’ Online Video Course in which more than 300 students participated up to now. The ‘eTandem’can facilitate students to practice speaking centring on certain topics on a one-to-one basis, namely, one French student majoring in Chinese and one Chinese student majoring in French form a group and help each other during practices. There are language tasks, enquiries, assessment, homework on Moodle where students need to find partners to practice speaking, post their homework, summaries in native languages and evaluation on their performance. The success of ‘eTandem’ resulted in the second prize of the ‘Teaching Achievement Award’ of Hubei University in 2016. Moreover, the ‘eTandem’model was reported by China Youth Daily (November 6, 2013), attracting widespread attention.
5. Prospect of Employment
According to statistics of employment in the past four years, the total employment rate has exceeded 90% every year, and the highest employment rate has amounted to 96%. To promote employment of French majors, we have established long term cooperation with Hubei Provincial Health Planning Commission and many other enterprises. In recent years, graduates recruited were officially assigned to work in Africa. Besides, more than 25 percent of graduates have been enrolled in universities at home and abroad for further studies over the past few years.
Year |
Number |
Employment with Agreement |
Going Abroad |
Enrolled as Postgraduates |
Flexible Employment |
Freelancer |
Employment Rate in Total |
2013 |
49 |
32 |
12 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
96% |
2014 |
49 |
28 |
9 |
6 |
4 |
0 |
96% |
2015 |
48 |
23 |
15 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
95% |
2016 |
42 |
27 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
93% |
6. Academic Atmosphere and Achievements
The French majors are highly-motivated and keen on study, and have clear academic goals to pursue. Also, they are outstanding in professional and comprehensive competence. In the past three years, our French majors have won 5 and 3 awards in contests at national and provincial levels respectively. A shining example fell on the year of 2016 when our French majors participated in the French Drama Festival in Central China and won the first prize as they stood out from those competent sister universities like Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Central China Normal University. The passing rate of our French majors in TFS-4 was the second best among that of all the universities in Wuhan, only next to Wuhan University. Over the recent years, the average passing rate of our French majors in TFS-4 and TFS-8 is 85.8% and 86.9% respectively, much higher than those of other comprehensive universities in China. |
Statistics of TFS-4 in Recent Three Years
Year |
Passed (%) |
Good (%) |
Excellent (%) |
2014 |
81.8% |
38.6% |
11.4% |
2015 |
86.0% |
44.1% |
41.9% |
2016 |
70.5% |
23.0% |
0.0% |
Statistics of TFS-8 in Recent Three Years
Year |
Passed (%) |
Good (%) |
Excellent (%) |
2014 |
82.5% |
27.5% |
17.5% |
2015 |
88.6% |
45.2% |
16.1% |
2016 |
75.8% |
45.5% |
6.1% |
|
Major Courses:
Advanced French, Audio-visual French for Speaking, French Listening, French Speaking, French Writing, Translation, Interpretation, French Literary History and Selected Reading, French Translation Practice (for Translation and Culture Orientation), France Society and Culture (for Translation and Culture Orientation), International Trade for Practical Purposes (for Economic French Orientation), International Economic Law (for Economic French Orientation).
Minimum Credits for Graduation:
154 credits (including 122 credits for compulsory courses, 28 credits for optional courses, and 4 credits for extracurricular innovation and practice)
Tuition Fee (per year):
RMB 5850 yuan
