Shanghai Foreign Language School
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Shanghai Foreign Language School (SFLS, 上海外国语学校) is located in 295 Zhongshanbeiyi Road（中山北一路）, Hongkou District（虹口区）, Shanghai, China. It has been founded as one of China's seven earliest foreign language schools in the metropolis. The school is affiliated to Shanghai International Studies University.
It is a full-time boarding school specializing in foreign language education. Receiving allocated funds from China's Ministry of Education, it is a key middle school in Shanghai supervised jointly by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Shanghai International Studies University (SISU).
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[edit] Teaching Methods
SFLS adopts "An Integrated Course of English" as its teaching material. Teaching activities are conducted in a small class with an emphasis on cultivating the students' oral and written abilities to communicate in the foreign languages. Some of the teaching activities are conducted by foreign experts and the school is equipped with advanced audio-visual equipment. As far as the teaching methods are concerned, the school has shifted from the traditional teaching methods centering on translation and grammar to a set of "elicitation method of teaching in situations". This emphasises the students' audio-lingual skills by training their pronunciation and intonation. This shift is done on the basis of the study of the actual conditions and of unswervingly exploring, researching and absorbing the advantages of different foreign educational theories. Because SLS has adopted the elicitaion method, the classroom atmosphere is lively and effective.
[edit] Teaching Focus
The teaching is focused on cultivating the students' abilities in practice and application. For instance, in foreign languages teaching, besides the emphasis on cultivating students' ability in all kinds of practical activities, the way of "going out and inviting in" is practiced. The so-called "going out" means that a number of students are provided with the opportunities to study abroad as exchange students, such as Sukura Nobirin College in Japan, Christina College in Hamburg, Germany, and La Salle College, Hong Kong, and The Culver Academies, Indiana, U.S.A.. The so-called "inviting in" means that the school frequently invites foreign visitors so as to provide the students with the opportunity to practice what they have learned in school. Every year, more than 100 students in the school have got the chance to receive foreign visitors including the members of government delegations, foreign students as well as foreign reporters.
In order to extend the students' scope of the knowledge, the school provides additional courses in the form of the Second Classroom, such as:
- Second foreign language courses
- Selective courses in foreign language study (e.g. Newspaper Reading in Original, Foreign Literature, Foreign History, and Survey of the Countries in the World, etc)
- Public Relations
- English of Science and Technology
- Cultures & Customs Worldwide
- Selected Reading on Patriotic Ancient Poems
and so forth. From these courses and lectures, the students have received proper cultivation and training in all kinds of fields.
[edit] Seminars
In Activities courses, there are seminars on Spare-time Politics school, and many saloons such as "Green-Grass" Literature, Cartoon, Computer, Film Review, Chinese Calligraphy, Sketch, Wind Band, Chorus, Piano, Food Sculpture, Handcraft, and so on. With the help of the League Branch in each class, the school organizes the students to read books in groups. The Senior class has a mobile bookshelf whereas a mini library is found in the Junior class. Now half of the classes have put this program into full play. SFLS is the head of the National Association of Foreign Language Teaching and Research of foreign languages schools in China. Research results of the association are exchanged at the annual meeting.
[edit] Spare-Time Language Education
With the guiding principle of running the school in various forms, SFLS has set up an "International Department" to cultivate foreign-oriented talents at the intermediate level for foreign countries. To meet the demands for a large number of reserves of foreign language talents in the reform and opening-up, especially in Shanghai, SFLS provides spare-time foreign languages education for children. The number of the students is five times as great as the one of the school. Taking the advantage in foreign language teaching, SFLS plays an active role in demonstrating "an example", "radiation" and "participation" in foreign language teaching for the whole society, contributing its share to the present reform and opening-up as well as to China's going to the world arena.
[edit] Awards
In 1999, SFLS was awarded Advanced Secondary School in moral education in Shanghai. The SFLS students have won a variety of prizes at vaious levels: the first prize in the National Japanese Speech Contest, two special awards in the National English Oral Contest (Junior and Senior respectively), the 3rd, 5th and 7th prizes in the National "World of Water" Contest in German (mainly for Chinese college students). And the students of the "Five Elements Group" in SFLS, as the only representative team from Shanghai, after the competition on the Internet, were sent to the USA for the Summit of International High School. SFLS students have won many other rewards, such as the first awards, Junior and Senior respectively, in Sino-USA Students' Speech Contest in using the other party's mother tongue; the first and third awards in the global Math Model Contest for college students as well as the first award for 4 years in a succession in Shanghai's Popular Science English Contest.
[edit] Modern Technology
To meet the development of modern science and technology, SFLS provides courses like English of Science and Technology, English Newspaper Reading, and so on. It has invested 100,000 Yuan to offer science courses to cultivate students to be compound talents with a strong sense of science as well as foreign language proficiency. The improvement of social and economic interest of SFLS has favorably supported and guaranteed the improvement of quality education in an all-round way, the school's scale, and the enrollment to meet the social demands. For the past three years, SFLS has spent 300,000 Yuan on relief funds, Hope Project, financial aids to the students in the straightened circumstance, and to the underprivileged students, reducing the fees of government-funded students who study aboard. By running the chain school, SFLS outputs the mode of school running and strengthens the radiating power for other schools in this way. The operating "International Branch" tries its best to establish the brand name of SFLS in school running and to hold a place in the international education market.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Yang Jiechi, Foreign Minister of China.
- Wang Guangya, China's Vice Minister of foreign affairs and permanent representative of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations. Wang was also President of the UN Security Council for the month of February 2004.
[edit] See also
List of Foreign Language Schools in China
