The first Beihang Undergraduate Online Academic Speech Contest recently came to an end. The contest was hosted by China English for Academic Purposes Association (CEAPA), and its organizers were the teaching team of General Academic English under the University English Teaching Department and the Elite Class of Spoken English of the School of Foreign Languages.

With a theme of “enabling college students to use English to talk about interesting research”, this contest was the first of its kind to provide Beihang undergraduates with the campus atmosphere and culture of “Research Day”, attracting 160 competitors and receiving 46 entries in the form of academic speech videos. It both showed the caliber of Beihang undergraduates and a new direction in extracurricular activities for college students.

The contest embodied the guiding principles of the Ministry of Education and had multi-faceted significance. It developed integrated abilities in Beihang undergraduates from the aspects of academic performance, innovation, research, major and English. It also enhanced the development of first-class undergraduate courses and general academic English courses at Beihang and facilitated teaching and learning together. Enriching the life of Beihang undergraduates studying at home, the contest also provided materials for the Corpus of Beihang Undergraduate Academic English Big Data, which promoted the digitalization of foreign language courses and the collection of big data from these courses.

The online contest held on Tencent Meeting

The online contest held on Tencent Meeting

Different from traditional speeches, academic speeches emerge from the domestic popularization of academic English and general academic English education and teaching. The first national undergraduate academic speech contest in China was held in 2017.

A group photo of some competitors

Some entries of the contest

Reported by Sun Mei

Reviewed by Ma Shuwei

Edited by Jia Aiping

Translated by Li Mingzhu