FROM CAMBRIDGE SCHOLARS PUBLISHING, LONDON (Book Series)
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ENGLISH IN CHINA TODAY AT HARBIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Vol. I
http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/English-in-China-Today-at-the-Harbin-Institute-of-Technology1-4438-3716-4.htm
FROM THE DEAN:
FROM THE EDITORS
The Chinese Government, Chinese teachers of English and Chinese school administrators all claim that China has a National EFL (English as a Foreign Language) program.
Chinese who go abroad to an English speaking country become fluent in English within four to six months.
Foreign students who come to China to learn Putonghua become fluent in Putonghua within four to six months.
Chinese students learn English in China for up to sixteen years and graduate functionally illiterate, unable to produce comprehensible oral or written English.
There are two main reasons for this National disgrace. First and foremost, there is no English Speaking Environment (ESE) anywhere in China, not even on the campus of China’s Ivy League (C-9) universities. This is akin to receiving sixteen years of swimming instruction on the river bank but never entering the river.
Second, China does not have a National EFL program. In reality, China’s National English program is ESP (English for a Special Purpose). Students in China learn all about English for test taking purposes. Middle school students study English for the National College Entrance examinations. University students study English to pass the National TEM or CET examinations. Nowhere in China is English learned or acquired for communicative purposes. English is taught just like any other subject.
Although “English Fever” is running rampant throughout China and is claimed to be “market driven,” the rush to institute English learning nationwide, with more than one million Chinese teachers of English who are themselves, for the most part, unable to produce comprehensible oral or written English or teach in the target language, has miserably failed to meet market needs.
The goal of universities and colleges throughout China is to have students pass national English competency examinations such as TEM 4, CET 4 and CET 6. Setting aside, for the moment, the fact that these national English competency examinations bear little or no relationship to comprehensible output, the pass rates have become the exclusive focus of administrative attention and false pride. This is in part due to demands of Chinese employers who are misinformed that passing CET 6 is the evidence of an accomplished English speaker.[1] Wang Shugua, President of Harbin Institute of Technology is quoted as saying: “I recognize CET as a good tool to promote English studies but I am against the practice of regarding a CET certificate as the prerequisite for graduation, which is totally misleading.” He tried to eliminate the requirement for a CET certificate in order to graduate from HIT, but gave up without success: “I had to reconsider the usefulness of CET certificates in job hunting for our graduates. Almost all employers want their recruits to have a CET certificate, so I had to push my students to pass the CET for their good, although it is against my will.”[2]
The market need for graduates who can produce comprehensible English output has been completely ignored. Consequently, foreign employers, Joint Venture employers and Chinese companies doing business abroad are hiring university graduates from India because they are better able to produce comprehensible oral and written English, than their Chinese counterparts. Imagine more than five million Chinese university graduates, who have learned English for sixteen years, many of whom are being passed over for Chinese jobs in China. This is simply unacceptable! English is one of “the ten most popular disciplines that saw low rates of employment last year.”[3] Chinese universities are under tremendous pressure to change curriculums to meet the needs of the job market. Instead, they are simply reducing enrollments in certain majors.[4] Yang Weiguo, associate professor of Beijing based Renmin University, said that “One of the reasons for the difficulty in university graduates finding employment is that they are unable to satisfy the needs of employers,” and that the universities needed to adjust their teaching methods and content quickly to conform to social development and demand.[5]
While there is a need for specialist terminology, the greatest need of international employers is to have employees who can communicate successfully in English. Thus, communication and accommodation should be emphasized in language instruction; the mastering of perfect grammatical forms is an added bonus that can be reserved for later refinement. Flexibility is just as important as the mastering of prescribed forms, if not more so. In order to communicate across international boundaries, students must learn to adjust to their interlocutor in order to facilitate understanding. Moreover, because of the growing use of English as a global lingua franca, students of the language need to be exposed to a wide range of English accents in order to increase their abilities to understand the people they are likely to encounter in an international career. Furthermore, it is not only formal but informal language skills that should be practiced at university; students should be made aware of the different genres and registers in English, so that they can determine the appropriate use of the language in the various situations in which they are likely to find themselves . Finally, students should be taught skills that allow them to mediate between languages and cultures. Thus an intercultural approach is needed in language teaching, so that future employees are “able to view different cultures from a perspective of informed understanding” (Corbett 2003, 2). An approach that has the goal of successful intercultural communication at its core will prepare students for the relatively unpredictable needs of language use in corporate Europe.[6]
All Chinese university students are required to study English, both English majors and non-English majors. In many instances, the English skills of non-English majors are better than those of English majors. A small minority of students have advanced English skills. However, these students have ether studied abroad or improved their English through self-study. Stated in another way, these students have not allowed the Chinese educational system to hold them back, to retard their development or defeat their goal. They are from the same bolt of cloth as Li Na, the 2011 French Open Tennis Champion from China. She also went outside the Chinese education system to hone her skills and become a World Champion.
From a purely educational view point the solution is simple. Chinese students learning English require an English speaking environment, language immersion where western culture is not severed from English. Each Chinese university that requires all of its students to learn English needs to become a little English enclave, an English village where the students will acquire English 24/7.
Linguists agree that Language and Culture are inseparable but China is adept at separating them for English teaching purposes. From a purely political point of view, it is doubtful that the CCP would allow creation of 2,400 plus little foreign enclaves throughout China, or even one. “International forces are trying to Westernize and divide us by using ideology and culture,” Hu wrote in an article in Qiushi: “We need to realize this and be alert to this danger.”[7]
China’s current English ESP is void of real English culture. Current language policy allows learning all about English but does not foster English for communication because that would cause too much western spiritual pollution of the Chinese students’ mind.
China’s vice president orders more thought control over students
Xi Jinping, the Chinese Vice-President, who is tipped to take over from President Hu Jintao later this year, has ordered universities to increase thought control over students and young lecturers.
By Peter Simpson, Beijing
His call for more ideological indoctrination comes amid a ratcheting up of propaganda ahead of next autumn’s keynote Communist Party congress, which is likely to see Mr Xi unveiled as China’s next leader.
“University Communist Party organs must adopt firmer and stronger measures to maintain harmony and stability in universities,” Mr Xi said told Communist Party members at a meeting attended by the country’s universities chiefs in Beijing.
“Daily management of the institutions should be stepped up to create a good atmosphere for the success of the Party’s 18th congress,” he added.
The Party’s grip on universities is seen as crucial in cementing its ideology among the influential middle classes—and campuses have long been regarded as source for discontent.
In the past, aggrieved students have received public sympathy and support, most notably during the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protest which was crushed by PLA tanks and troops.
Mr Xi’s directive comes as the ruling Communist Party tries to engineer a trouble-free leadership transition amid growing internal threats to its political control.
The increasing number of riots, demonstrations and strikes sparked by official corruption, land seizures, widespread pollution and labour disputes over low pay has deeply unnerved the secretive government.
The Arab Spring uprisings, which led to online calls for copycat revolts in China, have also rattled the leadership.
And the increasing influence and popularity of internet social media sites—especially among young Chinese—is also causing great anxiety.
In response to the myriad of threats, the government has issued national orders for officials to get a grip on ideology and push “socialist core values.”
Mr Xi, the “princeling” son of Communist veteran Xi Zhongxun, also told university chiefs to closely monitor lecturers, especially those starting their academic careers.
“Young teachers have many interactions with students and cast significant [political and moral] influence on them,” Mr Xi said.
“They also play a very important role in the spread of ideas,” he added.
A paramount task for universities is to “instruct” the thoughts of young lecturers and recruit more of them as party members, Mr Xi said.
National newspapers were on Thursday also reporting instructions from senior leaders to intensify “propaganda work.”
Li Changchun, a Standing Committee member of the Communist Party’s Politburo, told propaganda officials to enhance “the ability of opinion guiding and international communication, and strive to create an objective and friendly international public opinion environment in favour of our country.”[8]
So for now, China continues to teach knowledge of English just like any other subject, but not for its intended purpose, communication. Learn to swim on the riverbank.
The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position of the administration of HIT or the School of Foreign Languages.
[1] Yuankai, Tang, 9/6/07 Beijing Review, Education Feared to Raise Robots http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/txt/2007-08/31/content_74644.htm (accessed July 10, 2008)
[2] Beijing Review., Education Feared to Raise Robots http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/txt/2007-08/31/content_74644.htm (accessed July 10, 2008)
[3] http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-06/27/content_6799171.htm Beijing-based survey company Mycos HR
[4] “Hot Courses Won’t Secure Good Jobs” (Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2008) http://www.china.org.cn/china/national/2008-01/12/content_1239129.htm (accessed October 10, 2008).
[5] 20% University Graduates Fail to Find Jobs in 2007 (Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2008). http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/239233.htm (accessed October 1, 2008).
[6] Erling and Walton 2007, English at work in Berlin, English Today Volume 23 Number 1
[7]http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/03/bloomberg_articlesLX7DTP6JTSEC.DTL (accessed January 2, 2012).
[8] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8995123/Chinas-vice-president-orders-more-thought-control-over-students.html (accessed January 2, 2012).
OPINION
Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.
For more than the past thirty years, ESP (English for Special Purpose) has been taught in China to pass exams, College Entrance exam, TEM and CET. The entire English pedagogy and methodology, from primary school through college or university, is test driven. The text books are specifically written and the course teaching plans are designed to maximize test scores.
China annually produces more than five million college and university graduates who know more about English than most native speakers but who are functionally illiterate, unable to use that which they have studied for up to sixteen years. They are simply unable to produce comprehensible English.
The tests have been roundly criticized but the test authors mount a rousing defence. To quell the opposition and maintain the test royalty income, the test authors fine tune or tweak the tests from time to time. They staunchly maintain the efficacy of the tests even in the face of the reality that the tests inappropriately drive the curriculum and produce functional illiterates. They tinker with tune ups when a major overhaul is mandated.
China’s tertiary education system is like a factory assembly line, producing more than five million end products (graduates) each year. Most responsible factories have quality control personnel who inspect and weed out defective products. But China’s colleges and universities produce over five million defective Human Robots each year, i.e. functionally illiterate graduates. TEM and CET are the quality controls but they are flawed quality inspection tools that are incapable of discovering product defects.
“We have CET4/6 for non-English majors and TEM4/8 for English majors which are being regarded as a stepping-stone to get a decent job. Unfortunately CET4/6 or TEM4/8 doesn’t equal to accomplish English successfully. Most of us have been learning English since we are 10 years old, but we still can’t surmount the obstacle of communicating with foreigners”—Shelley PG3 Harbin Institute of Technology.
A factory which produces flawed products cannot remain in business, yet China’s colleges and universities have continued to produce defective products for over thirty years.
Some efforts have been undertaken to eliminate the tests.
Wang Shugua, President of Harbin Institute of Technology is quoted as saying “I recognize CET as a good tool to promote English studies but I am against the practice of regarding a CET certificate as the prerequisite for graduation, which is totally misleading.” He tried to eliminate the requirement for a CET certificate in order to graduate from HIT, but gave up without success. “I had to reconsider the usefulness of CET certificates in job hunting for our graduates. Almost all employers want their recruits to have a CET certificate, so I had to push my students to pass the CET for their good, although it is against my will.”[1]
Chinese graduates who go abroad for further study find their English so poor that they are required to take expensive and time consuming remedial English courses before being allowed to participate in the foreign school study.
Albert Einstein would call this insanity.
China must develop an English pedagogy, curriculum and methodology that develops graduates who can produce both oral and written comprehensible English output, with confidence.
Then a testing system should be developed that actually measures the efficacy of the curriculum instead of the current system where the curriculum measures the efficacy of the tests.
Producing functionally illiterate graduates is a National disgrace, a monumental waste of time and resources and does NOT contribute to a better off, harmonious society.
The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position of the administration of HIT or the School of Foreign Languages.
[1] Beijing Review, “Education Feared to Raise Robots”
http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/txt/2007-08/31/content_74644.htm (accessed
July 10, 2008).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
From The Editors
Foreward
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 ……………………………………………………………………………….
COLLEGE ENGLISH EDUCATION AT HIT – AN INTRODUCTION
LI Xiaohong (李小红), LIU Xiaodan（刘晓丹) and LI Fei（李斐）
CHAPTER 2 …………………………………………………………..………………….
EXCESSIVE ASYNCHRONY AND PRIORITY INVERSION IN CHINA’S ENGLISH EDUCATION
TIAN Qiang (田强) and LI Jiehong（李洁红）
CHAPTER 3 ……………………………………………………………………………….
HOW TO OVERCOME UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ANXIETY IN ENGLISH CLASS
CHANG Mei (常梅)
CHAPTER 4 ……………………………………………………………………………….
RESEARCH INTO IDIOM TRANSLATION STRATEGY
WANG Xiangyu (王祥玉) and WANG Qianyu (王倩玉)
CHAPTER 5 ……………………………………………………………………………….
APPROACH TO TRANSLATION ERRORS: A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
ZHENG Shuming (郑淑明)
CHAPTER 6 ……………………………………………………………………………….
THE ROLE OF CHINESE LINGUACULTURE IN ELT IN CHINA
Song Li (宋莉)
CHAPTER 7 ………………………………………………………………………………
SURVEY & ANALYSIS OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR UNDERGRADUATES’ VOCABULARY LEARNING MODES
ZHAO Longwu (赵龙武) and LI Huijie (李慧杰)
CHAPTER 8 ……………………………………………………………………………….
DIALOGIC APPROACH TO CULTURAL TEACHING IN COLLEGE ENGLISH
XU Liying (许丽莹)
CHAPTER 9 ……………………………………………………………………………….
A STUDY BASED ON NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION UNDER DIFFERENT CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS
MENG Yu (孟宇)
CHAPTER 10 ………………………………………………………………………………
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF AMERICAN AND CHINESE TEACHERS
DISCOURSE IN COLLEGE ORAL ENGLISH CLASS
ZHOU Hua (周华) and CHENG Cheng (成城)
CHAPTER 11 ……………………………………………………………………………….
CASE STUDY ON THE BI-FOCAL SCHEME OF ENGLISH TEACHING
FOR THE UNDERGRADUATE-AND-MASTER INTEGRATION PROGRAM
MA Jun (马骏)
CHAPTER 12 ……………………………………………………………………………….
THE ADVANCEMENT OF LLS THEORIES AND RESEARCHES IN SLA
LI Huijie (李慧杰)
CHAPTER 13 ……………………………………………………………………………….
KRASHEN’S THEORY OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND THE IMPLICATIONS IN GRADUATE ORAL ENGLISH TEACHING
LIU Xiujie (刘秀杰) and YU Yunling (于云玲)
CHAPTER 14 ……………………………………………………………………………….
AN EMPERICAL STUDY OF BILINGUAL TEACHING AT HIT
LI Jiehong (李洁红) and ZHAO Jiaying（赵嘉颖）
CHAPTER 15 …………………………………………………………………………………
THE EFFECTS OF RTA ON NON-ENGLISH-MAJOR POSTGRADUATES’
READING PROFICIENCY
CHANG Mei. (常梅)
CHAPTER 16 ……………………………………………………………………………….
EMPIRACAL RESEARCH IN VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION: BASED ON A WEB INVESTIGATION OF AUTONOMOUS LEARNING
ZHANG Lingyan (张凌岩) and CHEN Ying (陈莹)
CHAPTER 17 ………………………………………………………………………………..
DEVELOPING GENERIC POWER IN EFL READING
CHEN Nan （陈楠）
CHAPTER 18 ………………………………………………………………………………..
EFL: CRITICAL READING ABILITY – AN INVESTIGATION OF SCIENCE STUDENTS
LI Xiaohong(李小红), SUN Shengping(孙盛萍), XU Lili(徐莉莉)
CHAPTER 19 ………………………………………………………………………………..
AN EXPLORATION OF POSTGRADUATE ENGLISH AUDIO-VISUAL-ORAL
CURRICULUM
LI Xue (李雪)
CHAPTER 20 ………………………………………………………………………………..
DEVELOPMENT OF ACADEMIC ENGLISH PROFICIENCY OF DOCTORAL CANDIDATES at HIT
HUANG Furong (黄芙蓉) and CHANG Qing (常青)
Authors
Submission requirements
Parody
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