Zeng, who was born in a small village in Kaili city in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, knows how important education is for ethnic students to upgrade their lives.

She has obtained two master's and one doctorate in education, applied linguistics, English and literature, but since her college years, Zeng says she faced difficulties in learning English compared with many other classmates whose mother tongue is Mandarin.

When studying applied linguistics at the University of Luton in the United Kingdom, she says she spoke in a heavy accent influenced by the Miao language.

"That made me frustrated, and I was determined to improve my pronunciation and find better ways for ethnic students to learn foreign languages," says Zeng, who later worked on optimizing teaching methods and the curriculum so ethnic people could learn a third language easily, and she put the research results into her doctoral dissertation.

She also did survey in some primary schools in Guizhou's rural areas and found that the students used to learn English vocabulary and grammar by rote and pay less attention to the pronunciation.

"There's a pressing need in rural areas for more qualified teachers capable of helping them learn the language through exposure to grammar and vocabulary in context," Zeng says.

Zeng, who's also the director of the GMU's school of international education and head of its international exchange and cooperation office, has been a witness of the progress made by the university in working with overseas counterparts over the past decade.