On May 31st, the eighth “i Read”activity was jointly hosted by the School of Foreign Studies, Cheongsam Association, Library of HNUST and Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press in this early summer to welcome the 70th anniversary of HNUST and the PRC.
Besides Li Lin, Vice President of HNUST, this activity was attended by more than 300 experts, professors, scholars and English lovers at home and abroad, who were from the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), Shanghai International Studies University, Hunan Normal University, Hunan Female Calligraphers Association, etc..
Performers from Cheongsam Association in various styles of cheongsam, fans in hands, were walking slowly down the stairs to the music of My Motherland and I and their varied performing forms won great credits and applause. “The teachers’ performances are excellent, especially the one in eye-catching red cheongsam standing in the middle in the opening show，” said Liu Bei, a student from the School of Humanities.
Ear-pleasing poetry reading themed with HNUST, I Want to Say to You was presented by English Language Artistic Association, which expressed gratitude to their beautiful alma mater. Then, the showPainting and Calligraphy Embraced by Chinese Zither, was collaborated by a student and a teacher. As Chinese zither soared, the painting brush set accordingly. The painting, Magpie Heralds Spring was finished as a gift to Professor Schweninger Lee from UNCW. At last, the scene play Alice in Wonderland, the climax of the event, won the Best Performance Award. It restored the story vividly by performers’ excellent acting. The actor Shang Ping, a student from the School of Foreign Studies who played Alice said that they sacrificed their leisure time to its preparation for two months and a sense of achievement rose when their show gained audience’s recognition.
The event was also attended by two overseas students from the International Education College, Ishak and Ally, from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan respectively, who jointly performed a recitation of Kids, Please Listen to Me, which added brilliance to this activity.
The charm of culture was further demonstrated by wonderful performances such as the role-play of The Great Gatsby, the display of quaint painting and calligraphy, the melodious performance of Chinese zither, the fascinating sitcom of The Old Man and the Sea, the affectionate recitation by professor Schweninger Lee, the visual feast of When Alice Grows Up and the amazing display of Female Scripts.
Librarian Huang Hua believed that the event could not only enhance the students’ understanding of various cultural works, but also enable them to improve their full range of abilities in a happy learning atmosphere. She said, “This study method in which students can fully exhibit their talents for performance and appreciate the charm of reading, is worthy of promotion.”
Lv Aijing, Vice President of the School of Foreign Studies, deemed that “i Read” was a new pattern with changes in teaching content, teaching mode and evaluation mode as well as a kind of extension in time and space, which was beneficial to promote the informational construction of teaching and the modernization of education.Through holding the reading sharing meetings regularly, writing reading responses after reading foreign classics, inviting domestic and overseas experts and scholars to carry out academic exchanges and other activities, “i Read” enabled students to take delight in reading and comprehend the charm of classic works through practice.
Launched in 2017,“i Read”is a series of practical teaching activities initiated by the School of Foreign Studies of HNUST. It aims at introducing the classic literary works of China and the West to students by a mixed teaching mode combining online and off line teaching. Furthermore, its online courses have exceeded 130,000 hits since it landed at the online Autonomous Learning Center in June, 2018."i Read: Introduction of English classic to College Students" won the Excellent Innovation Case Award issued by Education Department of Hunan Province in 2018, and won the Provincial Online Quality Public Course Project of the year.
(Translated by Lu Ziyao and Shu Zizhao)
