School of Foreign Languages (SFL), founded in 1985, is one of the earliest schools/departments of South-Central Minzu University. Composed of three departments, namely, English Department, Japanese Department and College English Department, SFL currently has MA programs in Foreign Language & Literature (first-class discipline), Foreign Linguistics & Applied Linguistics, English Education (in cooperation with University of Wisconsin-Platteville, USA), MTI (Master of Translation and Interpreting), and BA programs in English Language & Literature and Japanese Language & Literature, Korean Language and Business English. The school offers five languages such as English, Japanese, German, French and Korean to 1241 language majors (84 MA candidates and 1157 undergraduates), and College English to over 10,000 non-English majors (including undergraduates, master and doctoral candidates). 

Boasting a highly competent teaching staff, comprehensive teaching and academic materials, and advanced modern facilities, English Language and Literature has been authorized by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission as a key discipline. At present, SFL has a teaching and administrative staff of 135, including 7 professors and 36 associate professors. Among the teaching staff, there are 23 PhD candidates or PhD certificate holders, and 86 MA holders. Throughout the year, the school invites 5 guest professors and 7 foreign teachers to give lectures or offer courses.

Following the teaching conception of “solid foundation, wide scope and top quality”, SFL has been attaching great importance to strengthening teaching management and deepening teaching reform, and has cultivated qualified foreign language talents who are welcomed by their employers in all parts of China, especially in its minority areas. In recent years, students in the school have done extraordinarily well in foreign language proficiency tests (includingTEM-4 and TEM-8), speaking contests and debates as well as in innovation activities at various levels. The school claims 15 advanced multi-media language laboratories equipped with over 840 computers linked to rich intranet and internet resources, which provide students with an intensified advantageous foreign language and culture environment. Consequently, teachers’ rigorous teaching attitude and excellent teaching approaches, together with varied and colorful cultural activities, have widened students’ scope of knowledge and improved their comprehensive competence.

Meanwhile, the school also lays emphasis upon academic research. Housing three institutes, the school has achieved a lot in academic research. Teachers in SFL have undertaken approximately 40 projects at various levels (including 1 project commissioned by China's National Social Sciences Plan, 1 project commissioned by Ministry of Education), published nearly 40 monographs, 8 series of textbooks, and over 300 academic papers. A series of textbooks on Business English have been appointed as the “11th Five-Year Plan” teaching materials by the Ministry of Education. The school has been expanding academic cooperation and exchange with other colleges and universities both at home and abroad. An increasing number of teachers have attended influential conferences held inside and outside China and aired their major academic voices. Each year, some teachers are sent abroad to conduct academic exchanges or further their studies on the short-term and/or long-term basis. 

In the 21st century when international communication is increasingly frequent, facing the new challenges and opportunities brought by the launching of “quality project” in China’s higher education, all the teaching and administrative staff and students in the school are endeavoring to the utmost to build SFL into one of the first-class schools of foreign languages in China.