As a part of the 2017 International Exchange Exhibition organized by the International Affairs Office, a series of lectures were given by the foreign teachers of HWU.

The three foreign teachers, Michael David Paterson, James Lloyd Smith and David William Findley, from the United Kingdom and the United States, have been working at HWU for about two years. Michael, graduated from the Applied Music Department of the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, is good at playing guitar and piano and singing. James got his bachelor’s degree in both political science and Foreign Language (French) in Tennessee State University, US. He was an international student in Tianjin Polytechnic University of China and Universite de Caen of France and worked as an English teacher in various countries such as US and France. David, once a bachelor student majoring in philosophy at University of Memphis, completed his first book Metaphysics of Being and Nothingness soon after his graduation. He had been an international student at Beijing Language University during 2009 to 2010 and Renmin University during 2011 to 2012. Moreover, he once served the US Army as a medic.

On Nov.7, Nov.21 and Nov.30, they respectively gave lectures in the chorus room of the Performance Buiding and Room 201 of Duxing Building. Their topics are: Scotland and Its Culture, Traditions and Personalities, Learning English from Video, TV and Movies, and Pyramids: Secrets of an Ancient World.

Michael lectured on the history, current status, celebrities in old and modern times, food and beverage, Celt culture and Gaelic language in Scotland, and sang the traditional Scottish songs Auld Lang Syne and My Love is Like a Red Red Rose written by Robert Burns and Gaelic ballad named The Freedom come a' ye.

James shared his opinions on English videos suitable for English learners and a diversified of methods of improving the listening and speaking competence for English learners. For example, delay subtitles for 2-3 seconds, write subtitles for others, learn and do, talk about it, watch again and again, join the group and do the activities. James has also applied his methods to teaching by setting up a wechat group called “Learning English with Videos”. He shares English videos every day with his students and organizes discussions sometimes. Till now, there are about 200 English learners in his wechat group.

David explained the history, construction technique and various mysteries of the pyramids of Giza through pictures, data analysis and videos. In the interactive part, David answered questions from the students and communicated with some of the students after the lecture.

The lectures have promoted the interaction between the foreign teachers and the students at HWU, expanded their international vision. What’s more, they improved the students’ English and created sound English learning atmosphere at HWU. (Written and translated by Long Min from the International Affairs Office)