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Address by Zhang Bo, Deputy Director of Chongqing Library

At 9 a.m. on November 4, the 2018 English Teaching Forum (Chongqing) jointly organized by the Consulate General of the United States in Chengdu and the Chongqing Library was held in the Multifunctional Hall of the Chongqing Library. More than 100 experts and scholars engaged in the research and practice of English education, together with foreign English teaching experts from the English Language Exchange Program of the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State stationed in Chinese universities, had conducted in-depth discussions on the basic English teaching practice in the context of the current Internet in China.

Zhang Bo, deputy director of Chongqing Library, attended the opening ceremony of the seminar. In his speech, he pointed out that English teaching, as an important part of basic education in our country, is paying more and more attention to cultivating students' practical ability to use English. Through language learning, students can gain a deeper understanding of the culture of English-speaking countries, cultivate students' world outlook and improve their intercultural communication ability.

As a window of cultural exchanges with foreign countries, Chongqing Library actively builds a bridge of cultural communication between China and foreign countries. Through holding English teaching forum with the Consulate General of the United States in Chengdu, Chongqing Library and experts and scholars from the American educational circles discussed with each other on an equal basis, shared resources, exchanged in depth, promoted international cooperation and advanced the long-term development of English education in China.

Hence, the cultural assistant of the US Consulate General in Chengdu, briefly introduced the American English training program of the museum, sharing English teaching resources and platforms in the form of online learning, coursework and online academic seminars, so as to realize the information of English teaching.

After a brief opening ceremony, the seminar officially began. There were four workshops in this seminar. Ian Baecht and Stephen Perrot, English teaching experts from Southwest University and Xi'an International University, were the keynote speakers. The topics of the seminar included English writing, grammars and sentence analyses, reading strategies and listening instructions.

The whole event was compact, rich in content, targeted, relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, and enthusiastic discussions with foreign experts. This free form of seminar increased the opportunities for teachers to exchange and interact with each other, and truly achieved the purpose of the seminar. The teachers who attended the meeting responded positively and highly praised the two foreign experts. They said that their trip was a worthwhile one after another, which was of great benefit to both teaching practice and the improvement of language ability.

This forum has created a platform for teachers to speak freely and communicate with each other. It has aroused great enthusiasm for English teaching and provided new ideas for them to carry out English classroom teaching activities more effectively.