The Department of English

Established in 1944 during the university’s formative years, the Department of English at Beijing Foreign Studies University has long been a cornerstone of English language and literary studies in China. Our distinguished legacy includes being among the nation’s first departments designated as a National Key Discipline and authorized to offer a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature. This tradition of excellence continues through our postdoctoral research station and our recognition as a “First-Class Major,” a title awarded at the national level in 2019 and the municipal level in 2020. For decades, the department has been renowned for attracting top-tier students and faculty, united by a shared commitment to pedagogical innovation and academic rigor.

Our four-year Bachelor of Arts program is designed to cultivate intellectual depth and advanced linguistic proficiency through a dynamic, two-stage curriculum that integrates foundational skills with specialized, interdisciplinary knowledge.

The first year is dedicated to building a comprehensive and sophisticated command of the English language. Moving beyond traditional drills, our students engage in an integrated suite of core courses designed to foster critical thinking from the outset. This foundation provides intensive training in critical reading and analysis, develops advanced oral communication skills through debate and discussion, and guides students through a progression of writing courses covering narrative, expository, argumentative, and academic forms.

This strong foundation is enriched by a shared core of interdisciplinary courses that bridge the humanities with contemporary social and scientific inquiry. All students explore foundational topics in literature, linguistics, contemporary China, Western civilization, and intercultural communication. Crucially, our forward-looking curriculum includes mandatory courses in Digital Humanities and Language Intelligence, ensuring every graduate is equipped to engage with our increasingly digital world.

From the second year, students channel their interests into one of three specialized concentrations, each offering a rich array of required and elective courses:

● Literatures in English: Students delve into the British and American literary canons and beyond, exploring diverse genres from poetry and drama to the Victorian novel. The concentration emphasizes advanced training in literary criticism, theory, and cultural analysis.

● Linguistics and Applied Linguistics: This concentration examines the science of language, covering its structure, meaning, and cognitive dimensions. Coursework explores key fields such as second language acquisition, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and computational linguistics.

● Social and Cultural Studies: Employing sociological and anthropological frameworks, students in this concentration investigate the complex interplay of society and culture. Topics include sociological theory, cultural studies, gender and society, and both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Throughout the program, our pedagogy emphasizes a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach. All instruction is conducted entirely in English, culminating in a final thesis of original research. This immersive environment ensures graduates achieve not merely linguistic proficiency, but true academic and professional expertise.

The success of our approach is demonstrated by the achievements of our graduates, who are highly sought after by leading employers across government, diplomacy, multinational corporations, finance, and media. Many choose to pursue advanced degrees, with approximately half of each graduating class continuing to top-tier graduate programs. Annually, about a quarter of our graduates enroll in world-renowned institutions such as Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, while another quarter gain admission to leading domestic universities, including Peking and Tsinghua University. This dual pathway prepares our graduates for leadership in both international and domestic contexts.

Looking ahead, we continue to expand our academic offerings with initiatives like our new Honors Degree and a micro-major in Foreign Language Education. We remain committed to our role as a national leader in English studies, preparing the next generation of scholars, critical thinkers, and global professionals to excel on the world stage.