By Niu Meng

The winter holiday was approaching, and the foreign teachers’ lectures of this semester had come to an end. The series of lectures, which were hosted by the School of Foreign Languages, not only cultivated students’ interest in learning foreign languages and strengthened their ability to learn it, but also deepened their understanding of foreign cultures. In this term, four foreign teachers’ lectures were held from September to December. The lecturescovered a wide range of topicsincluding music, habits of successful people, the buildingofalearning-oriented society and so on, allhaving managed to attract many students.

The first lecture was related to complying with the development of society. Mr. David Koenig illustrated the influential factors as well as the importanceofbuilding a learning-oriented society. And the lecture made the students think more about this profound topic.

The second one was about study habits. Ms. Catherine Williams introduced a successful man called Stephen Covey and his book named ‘Seven Habits of Highly Efficient People’ . The explanations for the seven habits such as ‘Be proactive’ ‘Begin with the end in mind’ and ‘Put first things first’ had strengthenedthe students’ convictionin moving forward to successstep by step.

The third one was given by Mr. David Whitlock about a famous experimental composer named John Cage. Mr. Whitlock introduced several works of him presented by audio and video, with ‘4 minutes and 33 seconds’ included. The works made the students recognize the close connection between music and life, as well as the necessity of being absorbed inlistening tobeautiful music in our lives.

The fourth one was a lecture about foreign language learning given by Dr. Franka Kermer. The students got to know more about the theories and approaches dealing with the aspects of foreign language learning and bilingualism. And they also learned the influential factors of foreign language learning. What’s more, Dr. Kermer also discussed the benefits of learning a foreign language with the students. The students felt the importance and interest of learning a second language.

The four lectures were so wonderful as tohave made the students become keenly aware of the charm of languages and stimulated their enthusiasm of learning English. Although the lectures had come to an end, English learning is still on the way, and the students will continue to explore the pleasure and secrets of foreign language learning.