(Correspondent: Xu Xinhui) On the afternoon of April 16, 2026, an academic event was held in Lecture Hall 313, Arts Building, Liufang Campus of Wuhan Institute of Technology. Centering on the theme Process Oriented Design and Practical Sharing of Smart Foreign Language Courses," the lecture invited Professor Zhang Weiwei from the School of Foreign Languages, Huanggang Normal University, who is also the person in charge of a National First Class Undergraduate Course, as the keynote speaker. She delivered an in-depth sharing on the transformation of foreign language education in the AI era for foreign language teachers and students of relevant majors across the university.
Professor Zhang opened her lecture by analyzing three common challenges confronting foreign language teaching in the new era. First, the dilemma of positioning: the popularization of AI translation has rendered the traditional training model focused merely on linguistic skills ineffective, which calls for re defining the uniqueness of foreign language majors. Second, the dilemma of content: the single faceted knowledge structure and obstacles in integrating curriculum based ideological education restrict the cultivation of “Foreign Language +” interdisciplinary talents. Addressing these challenges, she put forward her core viewpoint: Technology empowers humanities rather than replacing them. She stressed that smart courses are oriented toward fostering humanistic qualities such as critical thinking and cultural understanding, with technology serving as a tool to advance conventional humanistic teaching methodologies.
Building a Smart Curriculum System to Reshape the Ecosystem of Foreign Language Teaching
Regarding the reconstruction of teaching objectives, Professor Zhang advocated shifting from conventional "skill indoctrination" to the new model of human machine co learning. She illustrated in detail the pathways for objective upgrading for foreign language courses covering listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation:
· Listening speaking teaching: shifting from sound discrimination, word recognition and correct expression to the cultivation of multi modal situational analysis, auditory reasoning and dynamic adaptive capacity.
· Reading teaching: shifting from comprehension of textual information to in depth interpretation and critical re creation supported by human machine collaboration.
· Translation teaching: shifting from linguistic equivalence and skill training to semantic comprehension and stylistic representation empowered by human machine collaboration.
Innovating Teaching Process Design for "Dual Line Integrated" Classrooms
Professor Zhang shared a four-stage AI-empowered foreign language teaching workflow: Situation Driven → Inquiry-Oriented Collaboration → Creative Presentation → Reflection and Transfer. She emphasized that smart curriculum design shall attend to two threads simultaneously: the logical thread and the emotional thread.
Innovative Teaching Practices: Constructing the Three-Phase HMI Learning Path
As the course lead for the national first-class undergraduate course Translation Skills and Practice, Professor Zhang highlighted her innovative pedagogical practices in translation courses: the three-phase HMI translation learning path and the SD·er teaching model.
The three-phase HMI translation learning path structures translation teaching into three progressive phases:
· Phase H (Weeks 1–4): Human-only Translation — consolidating foundational competence
· Phase M (Weeks 5–8): Human–Machine Comparison — reinforcing critical thinking
· Phase I (Weeks 9–16): Human–Machine Interaction — unlocking creative performance
The supporting SD·er teaching model forms a complete closed-loop pedagogy encompassing six components: Self directed learning, Debate driven translation, Evaluation, Interaction, Elaboration for knowledge transfer, and Reflection.
The well-substantiated lecture featured rich case studies and actionable strategies and resonated strongly with attending teachers. Many attendees remarked that Professor Zhang’s presentation shed new light on foreign language teaching reform in the AI age and resolved numerous perplexities encountered in developing smart courses. Several teachers engaged in in-depth exchanges with her, discussing practical issues, including the application of AI tools and tips for smart course project applications.
This successful event of the Zhixing Lecture Hall has vigorously promoted the in-depth integration of artificial intelligence with teaching and learning, offering valuable references for the university to develop high-quality smart courses and improve talent training quality.
Reviewed by: Yang Jianbing
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