The 1st English Writing Summer Course was held in International Campus, spanning a total of two weeks. Students participating in this course represent over 20 diverse colleges and departments of Zhejiang University, including Zijingang, Zhoushan and other campuses. The International Campus’ immersive learning experience allows a rigorous yet rewarding course, of which many of the participants appreciated. "The overall arrangement of the course is different from what I had envisaged. Previous writing courses focused on sentence structure, vocabulary, etc., but this course focuses more on expanding my thinking, and what I learnt exceeded my expectations," said a participating student.
Enhancing Logical Thinking Skills
"I have encountered a lot of problems in writing English academic articles, so I want to see if this writing course can help me." Xue Yiwen, an undergraduate student of the 2021 Medical School, said. At the beginning of the course, she always felt at a loss, but the lively, relaxed nature of Dr Flanagan's class allows her to confidently ask questions during the lecture. After repeated discussions with the teacher and many revisions of her essays, she felt immense improvement in her critical thinking skills, paying more attention to the structure and balance of her writing, being able to convey information better, and more critical in expressing her opinions. Overall, she feel her English has become more professional.
“Dr Flanagan” that Yiwen talks about is Dr Ryan Flanagan from UIUC in Illinois, USA. In his opinion, writing is never a pile of rhetoric and empty words but is an effective expression under the organization of thinking and logic, which in turn solves practical problems. He used the words "Innovate, Solve, and Contribute" to summarize the effect of writing.
Many students said that they chose this course to improve their academic writing skills, and after completing the course, they could not only meet their expectation in improving their language level, but also expanded their horizons, opening them up to cultural and thinking differences that they had never noticed before. "It was stressful but very, very rewarding!" After two weeks of intensive training, students commented that the program was "very important and extremely practical".
Learning to Apply, Assisted by Small Group Seminars in Full English
In the past few years, students often attended online classes with foreign teachers and rarely had face-to-face communication. In the past two weeks, students were very excited to have a one-on-one communication with the lecturer every day. 2022 Zhu Kezhen College's Cheng Manxuan said, "From the beginning, I couldn't quite catch up with the English teaching mode, but later on, I gradually gained more and more interest and confidence, and I gained a lot from Professor Ryan's relaxing and interesting classroom."
This small class teaching model for English is a major feature of the International Campus' teaching model, which enhances students' cross-cultural communication and critical thinking skills through interactive teaching. Zhou Jinqi, Director of the Department of Education and Teaching at the International Campus, said, "Principles of Writing class is a very classic course in the UIUC writing class, which has been offered on the International Campus for seven years, and every year Chinese undergraduates participate in the ‘UIUC Undergraduate English Writing Competition’ and write better essays than the native speakers of English to be the winners, and the winning essays may be selected into the textbook and become model essays for future students to learn."
"The small class size encouraged me to engage with my teachers and classmates, which allowed me to learn more in a short time," laments Han Meilin, a student from the School of Public Administration in the class of 2022, "I hope that next time, I will have more opportunities to get to know the Haining Campus,” she concluded.
It is understood that Zhejiang University has been creating both Chinese and English writing programs since 2021, and thousands of students benefit from the writing program every year. Unlike in the past, this year's English Writing Summer Course at International Campus is a small-but-fine attempt to rely on the international environment of International Campus to give full play to the advantages of excellent teachers and teaching resources, to effectively stimulate the students' interest in learning, and to enhance cross-cultural communication skills while improving the level of English writing. Students who have completed this course and passed the assessment will be awarded 3 credits, and another 3 credits for the internationalization module.
HAN Wei, Deputy Director of the Academic Affairs Office of the Undergraduate School of ZJU said, "Writing ability, especially the ability of critical thinking and creative thinking embedded in it, is an important quality to cope with the development of the society and the development of the individual, and to face the uncertainty of today's society with ease. Many thanks to the International Campus for the careful arrangement."
Article: XUE Qian, LUAN Haiyan
Photography: LIU Shuaiyin, TANG Wei
Editing: LI Yinan
Editing in charge: WU Fengbin
Translation: ZHANG Sanchu
English Editing: Loigen Sodian