On 9 December 2021, in Beijing, the Open University of China (OUC) held a seminar on English teaching. The meeting was held at its headquarters, with 164 branch English-course coordinators and teachers attending via video link.

Fan Xianrui, OUC vice president, gave a speech, and Zhao Liling, president of the Xi’an Branch, and Xiong Kun, vice president of the Shenzhen Branch attended online. Zheng Jipeng, vice dean of OUC Faculty of Foreign Languages, presided.

Fan Xianrui praised the advances in the teaching of English and other foreign languages, educational reforms, quality of learner development and teaching-team building, and innovations on the basis of tradition for ideological and political education. A student-centred approach within the open-university system is expected to substantially enhance teaching quality, while teaching-team construction and ideological and political education integrated into courses will propel the development of English teaching in the “new era”.

Zheng Jipeng gave an overview of the past and present of work in the faculty with an emphasis on curriculum-based ideological and political education, teacher development, teaching reforms, degree-conferral English examinations, the importance of the student-centred approach, moral education, and instructional design.

Professor Wang Boran of Northeastern University gave a lecture titled “Ideological and Political Education within College English from the Perspective of Identification”, offering both practical and theoretical guidance on integrating ideological and political education into English courses.

Practical tips were given by Wang Xiaohong, Peng Xuefeng and Huang Hua from the Fujian, Shanghai and Sichuan branches respectively, covering tutoring, preparation for degree-conferral English examinations, and collaboration on ideological and political education. The winners of the OUC English Teacher Instructional-design Competition for Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Education, including Xu Wei from the Zhejiang Branch and Wang Xu and Shi Qianying from the Shanghai Branch shared their experiences with instructional design.

Thanks to the great number of participants and wide coverage of branches, the meeting laid a solid foundation for the next stage of work.

Written by Liu Ning; photo by Miao Miao, OUC