The2018 Sichuan College English Challenge Competition（Uchallenge –“FLTRP · ETIC Cup” English Public Speaking/Writing/Reading Contest) was held in Southwest Jiaotong University on October 27 and 28. The Competition was sponsored by Sichuan Education Department, co-sponsored by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and undertook by Southwest Jiaotong University. Jiang Yajun, Vice Director of Sichuan Education Department, Song Yalan, Vice Director of Higher Education Department, Wang Haiyan, General Manager of Southwest Marketing Center of FLTRP, Dai Benwen, Director of Southwest Information Center of FLTRP, Feng Xiaoyun, Vice President of Southwest Jiaotong University, Cui Kai, Director and Liu Chaohui, Vice Director of Office of Academic Affairs of Southwest Jiaotong University, and Li Chengjian, Dean of the School of Foreign Languages of Southwest Jiaotong University attended the award ceremony.

More than 500 students from 100 universities participated in this competition, including Sichuan University, University of Electronic Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University and Southwest University of Finance and Economics. Breakthrough was made by students from SWJTU in the undergraduate group competition held on October 27. All the 15 students got excellent results: three first prizes and two second prizes. Shao Zimeng, from the Civil Engineering College, was the second-place winner in the provincial writing competition, would go to the national competition. Yu Yu, a student from Zhu Kezhen College, was selected as the third-place speaker in the provincial English Speech Competition who would be qualified into the Final. At the same time, as the organizer of the event, SWJTU won the Excellent Organizational Award, which was our best achievement in this provincial competition in recent years.

"Uchallenge College English Challenge Competition" was composed of English Speech, Writing and Reading Contest. It was a platform created by Unipus, a foreign research institute, for national college students to show themselves and make their self-realization. It was also an innovative and communicative medium for China's higher foreign language education. It was co-sponsored by foreign language teaching and Research Press, Steering Committee on College Foreign Language Teaching of Ministry of Education, Steering Committee on College English Professional Teaching of Ministry of Education and China Center for Foreign Language and Education Research and undertook by Beijing Foreign Research Online Digital Technology Co., Ltd. and China Foreign Language Evaluation Center. Since 2002, the "FLTRP · ETIC Cup" series had gone through 16 years. Over the past 16 years, the competition had been expanding in scale, enriching in content and innovating in form. It had now developed into the brand competition of Uchallenge and become the only English competition in China to be listed in the "Training of Innovative Talents in Chinese Universities and Evaluation of Discipline Competitions".

After the cut-throat primary and final competitions, our university selected the excellent students to go to final competitions of Sichuan Province. During the preparation period for the provincial competition, the students accepted the one-to-one guidance from Chinese and foreign teachers. Foreign teachers Dominic, Ferdie and Chinese teachers Yin Siyi, Yang Qiong and Zhang Liyue helped the students many times to improve their speeches in the details like tone, rhythm, posture, gesture and facial expression. Teacher Yin Sijing, the instructor of the reading group, organized the participants to study the assigned reading bibliography, practice the sample tests, communicate actively with the previous winners, and provided continuous counseling and answering various questions for the students. Professor Xu Xiaoyan and Dr. Jia Tuo and other experienced teachers, the instructors of the writing group, provided contest preparation tips like the composition of expository and argumentative articles and the diversity of grammar and vocabulary for students.

The full effort of the instructor team and the hard training of the competitors led to the excellent results of the contest. The competition preparation team of the School of Foreign Languages will continue to make great efforts to help more excellent students to enter the national finals!