Source by: School of Foreign Languages
Written by: School of Foreign Languages
Translated by: Yin Lishan
Proofread by: Deng Ni
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On October 29th, 2017, the “FLTRP Cup” Uchallenge English Contests (Guangdong Province) of this year was held in Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University. Three students from Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) attended the contests. Lin Yuhong (School of Foreign Languages), Liang Xinlu (School of Foreign Languages), and Daizhang Zhuoran (School of Sociology and Anthropology) won the champion of English Public Speaking Contest, English Writing Contest, and English Reading Contest respectively, signifying the best performance of the University ever in the “FLTRP Cup” English Contest.

The 2017 “FLTRP Cup” Uchallenge English Contest includes three component contests: English Public Speaking Contest, English Reading Contest, and English Writing Contest. Hosted by the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and co-organized by the National Foreign Languages Teaching Advisory Board under the Ministry of Education, the National Advisory Board on Teaching English Language to Majors in Higher Education under the Ministry of Education, and National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education, the Uchallenge English Contest aims at bringing excellent students all over the country together to provide them with a comprehensive platform to show their capabilities of foreign languages, communication, as well as critical thinking.

On the morning of October 28th, 98 contestants from 49 schools in Guangdong province participated in the English Writing Contest; on the afternoon of 28th, 92 contestants from 46 schools in the province attended the English Reading Contest. On the morning of 29th, 67 contestants from 55 schools joined the semifinal of the English Public Speaking Contest, and 13 contestants entered the final in the afternoon.

In line with concepts of “preparing for contests with learnt knowledge” and “stimulating learning through contests”, students who major in English and other subjects in SYSU fight together in the contest, presenting outstanding achievements under the guidance of talents training objectives—cultivating students with “virtue, talent, leaders’ traits, and love for home and country”. It is reported that the School of Foreign Languages (FLS) tightly combines the first classroom with the second one to put the requirements of strengthening construction of undergraduate education, as well as promoting scientific construction and quality of talent training system into practice. On the one hand, FLS practices undergraduate tutorial systems among students who major in foreign languages; the School also invites experts and scholars in fields of culture, education, and society, etc., to introduce literature, linguistics, and translation studies to students in the form of lectures; FLS also offers foreign minor courses to all the students in the University. On the other hand, the School also organizes an instructor team, an undergraduate research group, and a contest steering group to develop students’ capabilities of academic researches and foreign languages application, realizing the aim of "studying at SYSU, and striving for excellence”.

The Center for English Education at SYSU’s School of Foreign Languages started the work of guidance and selection in September. After finishing selective contests in the University and determining the list of contestants for the provincial contest on October 22nd, the instructor team began to provide contestants with targeted counselling and training. In early December, three provincial champions will go to Beijing with their instructors for the national final of the “FLTRP Cup” Contest.