In recent years, with the rapid development of the internationalization of higher education, a large number of foreign students come to China to learn the knowledge of civil engineering, which makes the universities put forward new challenges to the teaching of foreign students. Therefore, in order to improve the teaching quality of overseas students and cultivate more professional and international civil engineers, The teaching method of the course "Basic Principles and Design of Steel Structure" based on the questionnaire of overseas students of grade 14, 15 and 16 of Zhejiang University of Technology has been discussed.. The survey showed that in the teaching of overseas students, there are many problems such as the poor foundation of mechanics, the lack of English ability of teachers, the traditional teaching methods, the poor integration between practice and theory and the unreasonable assessment etc. The teaching effect of the course of “Basic Principles and Design of Steel Structure” in terms of the aspects of teaching goal, teaching content and teaching materials, teaching methodologies, curriculum design and examination evaluation system has been discussed and analyzed. This is based on the nature and characteristics of this course and the consideration of the particularity of foreign student group in China. Further suggestions are came up with in the article to elevate the teaching quality of overseas student group so that it can help to improve the competency of these overseas students and to supply the industry with more practical practitioners who can adapt with the rapid change of the industry. Meanwhile, reference for the delivery of the main course in Civil engineering was also provided.