This paper focuses on the philosophies and paths of building the College English Courses (CEC) Virtual Teaching & Research Center led by Zhejiang University. Based on the concepts of “fostering virtue through education, integrating research with education, connecting the east with the west, and contributing jointly for shared benefits”, the CEC Virtual Teaching & Research Center commits itself to boosting core competitiveness featuring “innovation in course concepts, optimization in the course system, improvement in teaching and assessment, and enhancement in technological application”, and developing its organization system with “five elements”, namely serving the nation, perfecting the system, integrating research with education, innovating curriculum design, and contributing for shared benefits. The building of the CEC Virtual Teaching & Research Center reflects the efforts to actively explore innovative forms and modes of basic teaching organizations, which conforms to the requirements on College English teaching in the information age and responds to both the growth need of student individuals and the strategic need of national development.

Based on the wordlist of COCA, and with reference to the other two wordlists of BNC and JDEST, a 10 000 wordlist has been worked out to meet the needs of English learning, teaching and testing at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). This paper introduces the background and purpose of the SJTU-EPT wordlist, analyzes the deficiencies of the wordlists attached to college English teaching syllabi, presents the basis and methods of developing the SJTU-EPT wordlist, and explains in detail the steps and process. The paper also discusses the profound impact of the SJTU-EPT wordlist on national college English teaching and school-based tests.

Playing an important role in learners' L2 writing development, engagement with feedback is jointly affected by individual factors and environmental factors. The application of automated writing evaluation (AWE) system has furnished L2 writing pedagogic practice with a new environment of integrated feedback. This study examines the impact of the integrated feedback environment on learner engagement and L2 writing performance. The findings reveal that: (1) integrated feedback significantly outshines teacher feedback in improving learner engagement and consequently L2 writing performance; (2) in the integrated feedback environment, cognitive engagement has the greatest impact on learners' L2 writing performance, followed by behavioral engagement and affective engagement, and regarding cognitive engagement, the use of metacognitive strategies significantly contributes to a valid prediction of learners' writing performance.

This study adopts a 5-dimension error scoring system including fidelity, fluency, terminology translation, style and cultural reception to compare the English-Chinese translation qualities between a group of translation learners majoring in English and a Neural Machine Translation (NMT) system. The results show that the NMT's total error score and fidelity error score are significantly lower than the translation learners' mean error score, but its fluency error score is significantly higher than the translation learners' mean score. The differences between human and machine translation in terminology translation, style and cultural reception are not statistically significant. In view of the results, translation instructors should make efforts to alleviate learner anxiety, guide and supervise the proper use of machine translation technology, and reform measures of translation teaching assessment.

This paper first probes into the evolution of Blended Language Learning (BLL), focusing on the debate over the legitimacy of BLL, the broad versus narrow BLL, and the concept of BLL versus CALL. Then it analyses the multi-layer BLL construct from such dimensions as physical space and time, technology application, SLA and pedagogical theories. It proposes that BLL involves developing a language learning ecology which expands from blending space-time to integrating multiple SLA theories and building communities of inquiry. By adhering to systematic epistemology and integration of multiple research methods and theoretical models, future BLL research needs to adopt an evidence-based approach to address three key issues of learning mechanism, evaluation and system design from the perspective of blended learning ecology, aiming at promoting the development of blended foreign language teaching theory and practice with Chinese characteristics.

From the perspective of learning engagement, and with 714 translation major undergraduate interpreters as the subjects, this study drew on the “I-E-O” theoretical model proposed by Astin, applied structural equation modeling to the questionnaire data, and constructed a path model of the interpreting process with “Input-Environment-Outcome” variables to explore the influence mechanism of learning engagement on interpreting competence. It was found that: (1) the environment variables including classroom environment, institutional support, interpersonal interaction and learning engagement had significant positive effects on interpreting competence; (2) learning engagement had the strongest effect, followed by institutional support; (3) learning engagement mediated the relationship between other variables and interpreting competence; (4) classroom environment, institutional support and interpersonal interaction were significantly correlated. It is thus crucial to optimize students' learning engagement for interpreting competence development by increasing environmental support and promoting effective classroom interaction.

This paper explains the definition and education objectives of strategic top-notch foreign language talents. By drawing on Ausubel's three-dimensional achievement motivation theory and taking Honors College of Shanghai International Studies University as a case, the paper proposes three cultivation mechanisms of multi-college education, multi-link honor education and multi-level incentives. It further details on curriculum system construction, academic training and practice, values-led education, liberal arts education, national conditions and internationalization education, the evaluation system and the rotating flow system, which serve as the main cultivation paths of top-notch foreign language talents.

Research on English listening comprehension difficulties of Chinese EFL learners is still in its infancy. The present study explores the inner structure of listening comprehension difficulties based on the language comprehension theory, and investigates the relationship between listening comprehension ability and difficulties. The results show that English listening comprehension difficulties are composed of difficulties at three stages of perception, parsing and utilization. Freshmen majoring in English encounter listening comprehension difficulties in a similar pattern, most frequently at the stage of perception, then utilization, and least frequently parsing; the lower their listening comprehension ability is, the more frequently they may encounter listening comprehension difficulties at three stages. The findings provide some implications for teaching of English listening.

Based on China's Standards of English Language Ability (CSE), this study explores an implementation path of assessment for learning (AfL) in college English writing, including two implementation stages of CSE application and assessment practice. At the stage of CSE application, scale descriptors are properly processed to clarify writing ability, design writing tasks, and develop rating scales, so as to ensure rationality and feasibility of AfL implementation. The stage of assessment practice places emphasis on the combination of formative and summative evaluation, encourages students' full participation, and actively adopts new technologies to help teachers and students receive high-quality feedback. The construction of the AfL implementation path is a helpful attempt to give full play to the role of CSE, and provides some implications for more effective English writing assessment.

Adopting a mixed design based on the Latent Growth Curve Modeling and Retrodictive Modeling from a Complexity Theory perspective, this study investigates the macro, meso and micro developmental features of English writing competence in a group of English-major freshmen across one year. It uses lexical complexity, sentence complexity, accuracy and fluency as the variables, and finds that: (1) the students' CAF development is not linear, faster at the beginning and the end than in the middle; (2) the students' English writing competence can be longitudinally classified into three prototypes, namely the continuous stable type, bouncing first and then stable type, and alternate bouncing and stable type; (3) the CAF development of the typical students indicates that the dynamic correlations among the sub-systems are different in three prototypes, and distribution of cognitive resources, initial writing habits, feedback and motivation are the driving forces of different outcomes. The results have implications for teaching of English writing.

This paper introduces the background of virtual teaching & research centers, and sketches foreign language virtual teaching & research center projects approved by the Ministry of Education in 2022. It then gives an overview of the development of the Virtual Teaching & Research Center of College English Curriculum Development. Based on the proposed virtual community of practice model, the paper further illustrates its intended implementation from the aspects of theoretical basis, organizational management and community of practice.

The Project-based College English Virtual Teaching & Research Center was among the first batch of national experimental virtual teaching & research centers approved by the Ministry of Education. It aims for innovativeness in theoretical research, modes of organization and operation, and focal areas of work, and for excellence in course and teaching materials development, teaching methodology, and pedagogical research. To this end, the center coordinates collaboration in course development, resource construction and faculty development among school-based or virtual teaching & research groups, and encourages the sharing of academic and teaching resources, expertise, and pedagogical research achievements.

Self-efficacy in the L2 context has been increasingly explored by researchers both at home and abroad. Evidence shows that it could significantly predict academic performance, but its relation with L2 language proficiency has not been conclusive. This meta-analytic study aims to quantitatively synthesize the extant literature on the relation of these two constructs and explore potential moderators. With 57 independent samples included, the study finds that self-efficacy is moderately related with L2 language proficiency (r=0.458). Moderator analysis reveals that genders, majors, and culture significantly moderate the relation of self-efficacy and L2 language proficiency.

Through questionnaires and background data mining, this study explores the level of English reading flow state, its influencing factors and the relationship between flow experience and reading performance of 101 English major freshmen. Descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple linear regression analyses find that: (1) the overall level of reading flow is low, and nearly two thirds of the students have no flow experience; (2) the learner factors affecting reading flow include reading interest, reading confidence and reading skills, among which reading interest has the greatest impact; (3) flow experience is significantly correlated with reading achievement, amount of reading and reading speed, and there are significant differences in these three aspects of reading performance between the students with and without flow experience. Flow experience is an important predictor of reading achievement, but there is no correlation between flow experience and reading duration.

The world today is going through major changes unseen in a century. Amid the new trend, how to boost a steady and sustained development of the foreign language discipline has become a new task for the academia of foreign languages. This paper explains the dialectical relationship between “going steady” and “going far”, analyses the challenges and opportunities faced by the foreign language discipline, and discusses the ways to enhance the high-quality development of the foreign language discipline.

The English curriculum for junior vocational colleges aims at developing students' four core competencies, i.e. competency in international communication in vocational settings, competency in multicultural exchange, competency in advanced thinking and competency in higher-level learning autonomy. The four core competencies are related to, support and differ from each other, jointly forming specific objectives for accomplishing the fundamental task of fostering students' virtue through vocational education. This paper first introduces the basic principles for proposing the four core competencies in the Junior College English Curriculum Standards for Vocational Education (2021 Edition). It then explains in detail the reasons for setting up each core competency and the relationship among them. Finally, the paper elaborates the objectives of each core competency in terms of three elements, i.e. correct value-orientations, indispensable character traits and key abilities.

This study examined the effects of output task types on EFL learners' acquisition of different types of vocabulary knowledge in sentence contexts and the extent to which the effects were moderated by the learners' genders and test intervals. Ninety university students were randomly assigned to one of the three output tasks, namely English-Chinese translation, paraphrasing and sentence writing. After completing passage reading comprehension exercises and separate word-focused activities, all the task groups were given tests of the knowledge of word spelling recognition, parts of speech and meanings immediately and a week later. The results showed that except for the significant superiority of the sentence writing task over the translation task in immediately acquiring the knowledge of word parts of speech, all the tasks fared equally well in facilitating vocabulary acquisition, independently of genders and test intervals. The study partially supports the Involvement Load Hypothesis, and suggests a reconsideration of the roles of elaboration and contextual novelty in task-based vocabulary acquisition.

This study applies meta-analytical techniques to synthesize existing empirical findings of the continuation writing task, and explores the extent to which it generates alignment and the moderating factors which influence the alignment effects. The random-effects model analysis of 25 effect sizes in 19 published articles shows that the continuation writing task can produce alignment with a moderate effect. The moderator analysis shows that genres have a moderating effect on alignment. The results indicate that the continuation writing task has alignment effects on different linguistic dimensions in foreign language learning, and promote acquisition of different target languages for students at different educational stages and in different majors.