In order to help College English teachers make use of the opportunity of guiding students to prepare for the CET-4 and CET-6 to improve students’ language ability, Mr. Yi Hong, the vice dean, gave a lecture on “Teaching CET-4 Translation and Improving College English Students’ Language Ability - Training CET-4 Translation Ability for Freshmen” to all teachers of the Department of Engineering English in the afternoon of Nov. 3 in Room 30802.

At the beginning of the lecture, Mr. Yi firstly explained the reason why he chose to give this lecture: College English teachers should not only not only be limited to their own lessons, but should start their daily teaching from the perspective of the school, on the overall situation, in line with the attitude of responsibility, their families and even the whole society, and with the idea of helping students to pass the CET-4 and CET-6 and obtain a degree, and then alleviating the severe employment situation they are facing now. By guiding students to prepare for the National College English Level 4 and 6, teachers can largely achieve the goal of promoting students' language skills.

In the following process, Mr. Yi first took his own teaching class as an example and shared with the teachers how he built the students’ English academic data chain on his own. Mr. Yi obtained first-hand data on students’ learning behaviors by analyzing the freshmen’s high school entrance exam English scores and entrance placement test scores, combining students’ study hours and progress in their daily studies, and comparing the CET-4 practice exams with the first course exams, in order to analyze students’ learning situations, find the causes, find coping strategies and identify targets for attention. He emphasized that only by understanding the students’ English learning situation to the greatest extent can we find practical ways to improve their language skills.

Then, Mr. Yi mentioned the situation of the translation section of CET-4: considering the fact that the section is worth 15 points, the average score of students did not exceed 5 points, which greatly reflected the dilemma of students’ insufficient vocabulary accumulation, lack of grammar knowledge and weakness of language expression ability. In view of this, Mr. Yi demonstrated how he made full use of class time to let students practice within the allotted time: while introducing the grading criteria for translation, he made students realize the importance of ensuring correct spelling of words, learning to use simple expressions to replace complex meanings, and striving for complete sentences through on-site error correction, so as to quickly and effectively help students improve their language skills, including translation skills. The School of Foreign Languages of SWJTU has been one of the official marking sites for the essay and translation questions of the CET-4. As a senior expert in translation, Mr. Yi Hong has accumulated rich experience and insights in translation scoring standards and problem-solving techniques. Mr. Yi Hong’s experience has given the teachers in the audience new inspiration on how to improve translation scores and how to help students improve their English language skills effectively in a small way.

Mr. Yi’s lecture not only made all teachers in the Department of Engineering and English realize the necessity of paying attention to students’ learning conditions and providing targeted counseling, but also made teachers realize the importance of putting effort into reforming and designing classroom teaching contents and methods to improve students’ English ability, which will play a leading and driving role in their future teaching practice.