QUESTION:
What Chinese industry has been around for at least 30 years; targets children; bleeds over 2 billion $ from the Chinese economy annually; employs more than 1.0 million Chinese and approximately 250,000 foreigners; provides no nutritional value; contributes little or nothing to the development of a better off – harmonious society; and puts more than 5.0 million defective products into the stream of commerce every year?
ANSWER:
No, the correct answer is not McDonald’s.
The correct answer is Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).
IN THE BEGINNING
It all began when a misguided U.S. President Richard M. Nixon met with Chairman Mao in 1972, for the express purpose of opening China’s vast market of 2 billion plus people to western profit seeking business interests.1 Little did he realize that in actuality, he was opening the west to Chinese Government owned monopolies who would flood the west with cheap Chinese export products and in the process amass great fortunes at the expense of western economies.2 The great U.S.A. came to rely on China to purchase its treasury bonds to finance its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to fund the economic recovery stimulus package of 2009.3
In 1978 China officially opened its door to the west. Shortly thereafter the first wave of native English speakers entered China to teach in China’s universities.4 With the 1991 fall of the USSR5 and 1987 recognition of China by the USA’s President Carter;6 ENGLISH FEVER descended upon China like a plague; spreading from east to west, north to south, invading every school from kindergarten to university and spawning a new brand of Joint Venture higher education schools.7
WHY?
Previously, when China believed that the USSR would become the post-WW II economic and military super-power of the world, most Chinese universities taught Russian language. This abruptly changed when China and Russia had a political falling out and the reality of the U.S.A.’s rise to the number one position was foretold by Chairman Mao’s world famous handshake with President Nixon and the subsequent demise of the USSR. Chinese teachers of Russian were retrained to teach English, with Russian language remaining in only a few key universities in Heilongjiang Province and Beijing. English became the rage all over China.
Learning English became a National obsession.
Private EFL/ESL schools (kindergartens, primary, middle, high and college) have proliferated to such an extent that according to statistics from the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee of the NPC, about 54,000 private schools had been set up in China by the end of 2000, with 6.93 million registered students. (People’s Daily, 5/23/01).
The teaching of English as a Foreign/Second Language (EFL/ESL) in China has become a nationwide endeavor pursued at all academic levels, from the kindergarten to the University. In the past ten years there has been an explosion in the development of public school English programs and private English language schools throughout China. EFL/ESL has become very big business in China (China Daily, HK Edition, October 9, 2002.) Reports show that ESL has become a 10-billion yuan business in China. Of the 37 billion yuan annual book sales, ESL takes up as much as 25% of the market share. And a few ESL teachers in Shanghai command an hourly rate of 1,000 yuan (US$120). Even on average, a student pays 10-20 yuan (US$1.2-2.4) for one hour of ESL training.
China’s reasons for learning English were well summed up twenty years ago by a team from the U.S. International Communication Agency after visiting five cities and many educational institutions in China: “The Chinese view English primarily as a necessary tool which can facilitate access to modern scientific and technological advances, and secondarily as a vehicle to promote commerce and understanding between the People’s Republic of China and countries where English is a major language.”8
At first blush, it may appear admirable that China has so wholeheartedly made such a concerted effort to adopt English, the international language of commerce, as its second language. On October 24, 2002, Zang Xinsheng, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Education reportedly said: “With China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and the approaching Olympics in 2008 more than ever is it a priority for young Chinese to learn and improve their language skills” (China Daily, 10/25/02). The same article states “Beijing is striving to reach its goal of teaching citizens to speak English to improve its image as an international metropolis.” Beijing wants its 13 million residents to speak English to enhance its image as a cosmopolitan metropolis (China Daily, 10-05-02). China’s Ministry of Education wants all young people of China to learn English due to China’s WTO membership and China’s hosting the 2008 Olympics (China Daily, 10-05-02). Certain municipal governments in China require all of their civil servants to learn some English (China Daily, 10/05/02)
These goals or objectives beg the question, WHY?
Market studies, market analysis and affirmative recommendations from experts in the fields of business, math and linguistics should support each of the forgoing propositions, but do not appear to have been conducted.
What is the mathematical probability that each of Beijing’s 13 million or so residents will need to be able to speak English for an intended or even accidental encounter with a single English speaking foreigner during the 2008 Olympics? Probably not very high.
Does a market study support the proposition that Beijing’s image will be enhanced in the eyes of foreigners if all the residents of Beijing can speak English? Further, would such image enhancement translate into increased economic benefit for Beijing? If so, how much economic benefit will accrue to Beijing and does it offset the social, cultural and political costs that must be paid along the way by the people of Beijing? These questions do not appear to have been addressed by any formal study.
How many bilingual (Chinese-English) jobs will actually be created in China due to China’s World Trade Organization (WTO) membership and hosting the 2008 Olympics? Does the number of new jobs requiring English support the need for all of China’s young people to learn English? Answers to these questions are not readily available. And about the bilingual jobs created by the 2008 Olympics: How long will they last? A few months? Why should someone spend three or four years studying English in College for a job in 2008 that will only last a few months? Post Olympics what becomes of these Chinese English speakers? What is the mathematical probability that all municipal government civil servants, in any particular Chinese municipality, will need to use English in their daily work? Very slim.
THE TEFL CURRICULUM
The entire English curriculum is based upon learning to the exclusion of acquisition.
English is taught in 4 separate, distinct and disconnected courses, i.e. reading, listening, writing .and speaking. The entire emphasis is on memorization; memorizing extensive lists of English words, memorizing extensive set phrases; and memorizing pronunciations.
Not even the slightest attention is paid to Krashen’s 2nd language acquisition theory or immersion, or any other 2nd language acquisition theory.
There is no disagreement that the results are dismal. China produces over 5.0 million college graduates every year. Most of them have learned English for 16 years but are unable to produce comprehensible English output. Those fortunate enough to matriculate to graduate studies are further compelled to engage in additional English study, no matter what their major. This is because their undergraduate English study was only adequate to pass the National English Proficiency examinations but they remain functionally illiterate, unable to produce comprehensible oral or written English. At the post-graduate level, the same pedagogy and methodology that failed for 16 years is utilized for another semester, in the hope that it will work.
Chinese college graduates know more about English than most native speakers. Unfortunately, they can’t use a language that they have studied for 16 years. This is a terrible waste of time and resources. In the west it would amount to a National disgrace.
In China, TEFL employs more than 1.0 million Chinese teachers of English.9 Less than 40,000 of these teachers are accomplished enough in English to teach English using English. Imagine,10 960,000 Chinese teachers of English who teach English in Chinese. UNBELIEVABLE. It is no wonder that the Chinese students can’t produce comprehensible English when their teachers can’t.
REFORM IS ESSENTIAL
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.11 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.”12
The market need to have 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 5 million Chinese university graduates, who have learned English for 16 years, many of whom are being passed over for Chinese jobs in China. This is simply unacceptable! English is one of “the 10 most popular disciplines that saw low rates of employment last year.”13 Chinese universities are under tremendous pressure to change curriculums to meet the needs of the job market. But instead, they are simply reducing enrollments in certain majors.14 “One of the reasons for the difficulty in university graduates finding employment is that they are unable to satisfy the needs of employers,” he said. (Yang Weiguo, associate professor of Beijing-based Renmin University) He said the universities needed to adjust their teaching methods and content quickly to conform to social development and demand.15
Both “in house” and private corporate English training centers are proliferating throughout the business hubs of China. The curriculum is usually industry specific and amounts to ESP (English for a specific purpose), i.e. the teaching of technical language and phrases to meet the perceived need to limit English communication to a standard or formal form of English related to a specific discipline such as medical English, legal English, architecture English, IT English, etc.
“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’.16 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.”17
REFORM IS IMPOSSIBLE
Wholesale reform of the TEFL curriculum is impossible under current circumstances.
There are simply too many vested interests in English learning. It begins with the National English Proficiency examinations. Graduation and employment decisions rely heavily on passage of these tests. A school’s academic standing depends upon the pass rate for these tests. These examinations primarily test knowledge about English and memorization skills. They do not adequately test functional literacy.18 The authors of these tests have a vested economic interest in residuals every time the tests are used. Although some famous Chinese linguists have criticized the tests19 as inaccurate and irrelevant; the supporters launched a strong defense.20
There are literally thousands of textbooks written by Chinese scholars intended to assist students in passing the National tests. The scholars receive economic royalties on the sale of their books. Some include foreign coauthors or editors but these are mainly window dressing.
Less than a handful of State Owned Publishing Houses, usually attached to a famous university, have a monopoly on publishing texts for English study. They have a great deal invested in publishing English learning texts. They have no motivation to publish English acquisition texts because Chinese scholars have no motivation to write them because they are perceived as useless in passing the National examinations and they would not conform to the curriculum designed to support the tests. The test authors have no motivation to change the tests.
Chinese teachers of English have no time to acquaint themselves with acquisition theory, pedagogy or methodology and they have no incentive to do so. Plus they are limited by the students’ need to pass the National examinations.
When suggesting reform of an industry generating more than 2.0 billion $ a year, one must necessarily tread very lightly.
The native English speaker is utilized as little more than an encourager as opposed to a real language teacher.
http://www.networkesl.com/english/web/48_73.html (accessed 7/15/09)
SOLVING THE CHINESE PUZZLE
For those unfamiliar with China, the obvious answer may be to simply have the National Ministry of Education hand down an edict that acquisition must become a part of the EFL curriculum. Nothing in China is that simple. China is much more complicated than “One China – Two Systems.”
When Beijing speaks, not everyone is required to listen. China has 2 SAR’s, 7 semi-autonomous regions and 4 semi-autonomous municipalities. These areas are basically immune to National mandates. They can take or leave Beijing’s advice with certain limitations. Even the Provinces have a great deal of freedom through their provincial Departments of Education.
Reforming TEFL in China is a monumental task, sort of like eating an elephant. Of course the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Possibly the way to reform TEFL in China is one teacher at a time, one classroom at a time, one school at a time, one province at a time. A much quicker way would be to reform or do away with the National English proficiency examinations. Or, find a cure for English fever.
CONCLUSION
QUESTION:
How can TEFL in China be reformed to graduate students who can produce comprehensible oral and written English?
ANSWER:
That is the 2 billion $ question.
If I knew I would surely tell you!
SOLUTIONS FROM THE PUZZLE MASTERS
The following are unedited attributions:
The only magic process I’ve ever seen to work is the total immersion into L2 for at least a year (as I did). I started to seriously learn English at age 18 a few months before I emigrated to Canada. (True, in Austria, we all had English for four years “in der Hauptschule” but with the same dismal success as China has). After arrival in Canada, after a brief survey of what works and what doesn’t, I decided to stay away from all German-spoken people for at least a year, which I did. Actually, I neither called nor wrote home to my family in Austria for almost two years . . . with the result that I learned to sound like a native Canadian, even without going to school. If the Chinese did something similar, meaning working in an English-only environment while living in an English-only community with a native roommate, they would also acquire English the way I did . . . the way natives do . . . through role modeling what they hear.
Can that be done without leaving China? I think it could in a convoluted sort of way, but the easier answer would be to simply have a youngster commit to the use of “English only” for at least a year, somewhere, preferably in an industrial environment–learning some marketable skills, rather than a scholastic one–to acquire more (questionably useful) knowledge.
The second important solution: China needs to put more emphasis on the value of learning skills if she wants to remain a role model to the world. Yes, knowledge, per se, has been the West’s major export over the last fifty years; yet, as valuable as it was a few years ago, with the advent of the Internet, knowledge has become a public commodity . . . it has virtually lost its market value. If Chinese students would start to use the English section of their library more, they would discover this for themselves. In fact, to me, it seemed almost criminal how little research was done by our NCC students here at NJU last year. But this mindset is not likely to change while the powers to be focus on the passing of “knowledge” tests rather than the acquisition of comprehensible output (by both teachers and students).
Joe Anthony Blum, MA TESOL
For those of us who have been around for awhile and have seen the fruits of China’s foreign language program, it is obvious that what the Chinese really want is for the rest of the world to learn Chinese. Absolutely you can quote me. In fact, I just went on record with that position in an article I wrote for EzineArticles.com titled Teaching English in China—Debunking the Myths.
New Oriental as well as English First have both added Chinese language programs for foreigners. One school in Haikou I still consult for, Hainan YuDa, has applied for an educational license to teach Chinese to foreigners. Of course, Chinese universities have been doing this for awhile but now everyone is going to get in on the act. At least it’s honest.
As inefficient as the mainland Chinese government is, if they really wanted their citizenry to speak English, they would be speaking English by now. The whole thing was just for show in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games, just to prove how “international” China really is (a point you have made numerous times). There was never any real intent. That’s obvious based on the result.
Gregory Mavrides, PhD, Professor Jinan University.
As for the “Puzzle” you mentioned, it is really a puzzle for me, and also for lots of Chinese teachers of English, I think. However, the puzzle stems from a variety of factors, such as economic, military, political, technical , scientific development and the change of the world, I think. CET-4 or CET-6 can not shoulder all the blame and responsibility. In fact, English as a foreign language, has been raised to a higher position because of CET-4 and CET-6, without which many students of science may choose to put more time on their majors though it may not be a bad thing……So, you see, it’s really a puzzle.
Jane Li, Chinese teacher of English
I don’t think any of us can change China. However, we can all change the corner where we work. Each year I train teachers and a whole district has now given me a document that through my effort they have a large pool of good local English teachers and that the level of English in the district has been raised.
As for, why teach English? Some of the respondents seem to have over looked the fact that Russian was universally taught in China for many years. When there was the fallout with Russia, Russian had to be replaced, and so, long before Nixon came to China, the teaching of the “international language” had already begun. For proof of this, read WILD SWANS.
There weren’t any English teachers then, so the Russian teachers were told to use the international phonetic symbols to learn the English and teach it. All of today’s teachers still copy their teacher’s method even though they know it is ineffective.
It is possible to turn a country around one degree at a time. You will not move people 180 or even 90 degrees by just being adamant. Now when you apply that to a conglomerate like China, it becomes even more obvious, that is the way an egoistic nation like China is.
That is why I only train teachers with the total backing of the Education Authorities in the area where I am working and go back to see how it is implemented. Great changes have taken place and I make it clear that this is a work in progress, not that my training is the last they will need in their lifetime.
In our lifetime we will not see a total change, but from 1992 until now I have seen a lot of change and I know this will continue. Stop looking at what is not, but start implementing the change you can. Maybe my training is so successful because it is done without any gain to me, except the satisfaction that I am making a little difference in one corner of this great land.
Ria Smit, China Foreign Expert, Zhengzhou, China
Just think of the puzzle game. A puzzle game consists of many pieces which are “locked” to each other in a special way. One piece doesn’t make any sense. The key to solving the puzzle is to start from the edge, first make a line, then a small area, a big area, finally the whole picture will show up.
An old saying in China: “The outsider sees the most of the game”. Chinese students and teachers are the pieces of the puzzle. Foreign experts are the outsider. For this reason, you can see the situation objectively. English is a foreign language in China. The government should invite foreign experts to design the English curriculum, course and textbooks, and to train teachers. This can also avoid the problem of vested interests.
Yu Yi, Chinese teacher of English
http://japanese.china.org.cn/english/2006/Apr/165139.htm accessed July 7, 2009
http://china.org.cn/business/2008-09/19/content_16505870.htm
http://mdjnkj.china.com.cn/english/2002/Mar/28035.htm (accessed July 1, 2009)
Beijing-based survey company Mycos HR (accessed May 1, 2009)
The Issues In The Current College English Test
Niu Qiang
Foreign Language Teaching and Research (bimonthly)
Mar. 2001 Vol. 33 No. 2
Gu Xiangdong, (2002) Suspicion and Misunderstanding -A Review of the article “To the Quality or the Test” in Wen Wei Po, Foreign Language World, No. 6 2002 (General Serial No.92)
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There do have many problems in Chinese English teaching,and we have to reform it,but it’s realy a long way to go.First ,I think we need lots of foreign teachers that learn much about China,such as Chinese language,Chinese history and Chinese culture,so that they can understand Chinese students well,and know what to do to help students learn English well. Second, we need lots of indigenous teachers that have a high level in English,and a advanced view of English teaching.
Yes, it’s a real puzzle in China! I have learned English for about 11 years,but I just cannot express myself correctly when commucating with foreigners! And sometimes I failed in the English writing because of lots of wrong spells and incorrect sentences. Why this? I often ask myself.
On one hand, English is really hard to learn, it’s so complicated including reading, speaking, writing, and listenning. It’s impossible to learn it very well in a short time.
On the other hand, in China the exam-oriented system has made students pay more attention to scores, which only includes reading, sometimes writing and listenning. Therefor the students will never be careful with oral English, in other words, “dumb English”，just like me.
In conclusion, there is a long way before us to go, including every student and our country’s system.
We used 16 years in doing nothing except learning mute English and continue making mistake. It is a puzzle not just in English teaching but in the whole education system.
Year and year we learn English just for pass the examinations, such as cet-4 and cet-6 and so on. Nobody will think it’s a tool used to communicate with others.
With the development of technology, the earth becomes a village, along with economic globalization and something else. Why we repeat the same thing again and again.
What we can do is trying our best to create an ESE, read more, listen more, write more, and speak more.
It is quite a puzzle that nobody knows the exact answer. As far as so many complicated examinations exist, TEFL is not an easy job. In that case, we always treat English as a science subject but not a tool for communication. But without these examinations, we can not find a better way to measure the proficiency of English by now. There are usually too many competitors for a vacancy, when English proficiency is an important factor for determining whether the competitor is quanlified for it. So a national program of assessment is needed. And so teaching and learning English as a science subject is inevitable, or students cannot win in such a complicated examination.
We have opened the door of our country to the world for 30 years. Our government has realized at the very beginning that it’s necessary for us to learn English for communicating with the whole world. But for a country like China, developing and some conservative, there was no better way to put it into practice at the beginning, except exam oriented policy. As we can see, with the development of our country, some new reforms of English learning have come up rencently, such as, crazy English leaded by LiYang, new oriental English and so on. Although, they are not popularized in schools officially, these reforms undoubtably help us a lot in English learning.
With the popularity of Holistic English leaded by Prof. Martin, our government will consider new reforms of English teaching and take more advantages to create a more friendly and efficient English acquisition environment.
I want to state here that learning English is undoubtedly important, or say, indispensable, and even more obvious when one is taking post-graduate courses like us. English fever, is much more like a phenomenon mistaken for the purpose of passing the tests like CET or Business English, etc. So we have two questions here, that is why should we learn English and how should we learn English. The answer to the first question is quite simple: to learn and communicate more effectively. One must be frustrated that why under definite purpose there isn’t appropriate methods.
So the conclusion is, sadly, we are misled over ten years, on learning English.
Since the answer to the second question is not clear, I would like propose a likely possible method, that is just pretending we are native English speakers and have a quick consideration in the English-speakers’ way every time before spitting out a word or write down a sentence. If hard to carry out, it’s at least fun.
It is no doubt that learning English is the require of China reform policy. I have studied English more than 10 years,so do many students.But most of us can’t speak and write English well.All of us are puzzled,why we learn English such earlier and learn English for such many years?We only read some articles,listening is poor,writing is poor,speaking is poor.I think I waste time.Although my English level is improving as I learn English,my writing,oral English is still poor.At college we learn English in order to pass CET4 or CET6.After gratuating,we don’t use English at all.The whole nation are encouraged to learn English after China join in WTO and hold olympic game.
The education department must reform English edution in order to become useful to every student.By doing so,the English education is successful.
After resding”A new Chinese puzzle”,I am in a state of profound shock,because I am one of the victims of English study.Exhusted and depressed ,struggling to study English ,I went to a junior high school.In high school,studying English for the College Entrance Examination.When I enter university,studying English for CET4,CET6.Even I go to graduate school,stuying English for getting good job.English never be utilized as a communication tool.I don’t know this is my failure or our country education’s failure.
This article tell us that the problem of learning English in China, but I think it is not only Chinese puzzle but also many anther country’s puzzles. In my opinion this puzzle is inevitable. Because English is not our country’s native language, we cannot speak it fluently. But as the economy develops, English is more and more important, so learning of English especially oral language learning is more attention. Now we have to correct the mistakes of the learning methods, and word hard in English.
Although we started studying English from primary school, up to now, nearly ten years, finally proved of little avail. Why? There is an important reason, that is in China, English is a FOREIGN language, not a SECOND language. When I was in senior middle school, every week we have 12 English lessons, about 10 hours. But during 10 hours, how long can we speak in English? After class, lots of us have no chance to use English and only a small number of us study English initiatively. Generally speaking, the English Education in China centre on the EXAMNATION, it can’t slip the leash of the EXAMINATION-ORIENTED education system.
The reason why we can not communicate with an English native speaker is that we can not dream in English. As we hear a sentence, we always try to translate it into Chinese and think about how to answer it in Chinese. We just do a lot of practice in order to gain a good mark in an exam, but the way of exam pay more attention to reading and grammar. we have ignored that the aim of learning English is to communicate with other people. In order to change this phenomenon, we must change this education system!
I was shamed when I realized that I can comprehensively express my idea in English which I study for already 10 years. I also asked myself why？Language as a communicate tool, the most important thing should be the speaking, but in china, we study English not for speaking English, just for watching English. in the recent days, I attended a lesson which is in English and the final exam of the curriculum is to do a presentation of our group’s research in English, and my group partner is a Germany student so we should cooperate and communicate in English, and in the cooperate process, I found sometimes I can’t express my idea cleanly and which causes trouble for us. It is my sadness, but also it reflects our country’s English education’s failure, our school just teaches us to watch English and pass exam, but did not emphasize our oral English. And It is high time for the government to take some measures to improve the problem, in my opinion, an available approach is to add the oral English text in the exams, which will be a stimulate point for the school teachers to emphasize the oral English and the students to practice their oral English.
Tens of millions of Chinese students have thought about this problem for tens of millionns time ,but still can not thought out a way to solve this puzzle.For example:if you want to have a good job ,you must submit your cet-4and cet-6 certificates first.but when you finally get access to this company,you suddenly find that you will not use English in the company fou a thousand years.because clients are domestic!My God!Why do they want these diplomas?
Again,i have to say that they,good will persons,have forcused on a wrong point.
I also think the answer to this Chinese puzzle roots in the process of teaching and learning, not the way how we test and measure.If they really want to solve this puzzle,please listen to us,students.
I have been studying English for nearly 16 years, that is to say English has come to my life when I was a little girl. Why I still can not produce comprehensible English output, that really make me upset. In the past 16 years my teachers told me again and again that English is very important, so to me, I have been studying English day after day in the same way, just like workbook exercise, exam and workbook exercise. We seldom create the environment for English speaking. I fall into the puzzle. All we know that something must change, but the way to reform is still in dark, how to change, we really don’t know. So we hope our our government to take some action for reformation, but they just do some exterior modifications in CET 4 and CET 6. The problem still exist. Maybe we would still be in puzzle for the near future.
It is not surpriing that such fact appears in China who owns a unique education system. Exam culture is a most important part of the Chinese culture. We used to set exams to see whether an object is good or suitable enough. In ancient China, the emperors used exams to select officers, now, we use only exams to make sure who shuold go to universities. For most Chinese students ,English learning is just taking exams and passing them, score is much more significant than speaking it.
So, once aware of this, you’ll realize why most of the Chinese students can’t use good English orally.
Our dad and mum did not know any word of my English book, but they know English is very important for their baby’s study career. Chinese take it seriously in English learning. Child in the preschool is study ABC because they want loses the advantage on the starting line. The Chinese parents spend on children’s English learning is a huge number. But it is obviously most of our student only take mute English. So it is the time for us to think a way to learning a useful skill but not a tool for test. In fact, not all of us use the English in life, just for somebody who use frequently he have to learn this language in a system progress. Actually if just use English for a common life communication, we did not devote so much time. We just spend much time on the unnecessary active which we did not understand.
As matter of fact, the puzzle has been popular for a long time. I donot think it is a good idea for English study. However, everyone commits the mistakes, including the people favored by heaven. It took a long time for us to realize the mistake. In the past few years, we wasted too much time on a wrong way to learn English. Now it is time for us to face the mistake, and try another way.
Maybe it’s a feature of China that most of the Chinese spent 16 years or more to study English but still cannot produce comprehensible English. I guess this is a puzzle arouse in every Chinese people’s heart sometime in their education. But it seems that no one can solve it for such a long time. I can’t agree more with the point that reforming TEFL in China is sort of like eating an elephant. China is such a big country with a great population, and the conception of English study and education is formed through a long time. We all know that reform is essential, but it cannot be done in just a blink. It takes times just as the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. We should face the problem instead of avoiding it and take actions right now. The earlier we started, the sooner we could change the current situation.
I think this puzzle has something to do with the policy of education in China.Examination is a main way to select personnel.When it comes to language learning,such exams as CET-4 is criterion to test how well you master English.So much has been spend to help students get a good mark in the exams,including time and money.We all know what is the problem,but we do not know how to solve it.If we want to change this situation,maybe we must change our education system at fist.
With the development of chinese economic, more and more foreigner enter to china and conducts business with chinese. It requires more chinese people can speak english. Education is foundational way to learn english.so,from kidgarden to postgraduate,we alway study english.but it is a common phenomenon that we could not communicate with other well.our teaching emphasize on reading and preparing for the ,but ignore the english oral and writen,so that after studing english many years,it still difficult to write comprehensible english.
I think that it is a time for us to take steps to reform english education.
I don’t agree with the opinion saying that “Reform is Impossible” which posted in this article. From this article, the situation is so severe that all Chinese people were involved in. But the government must had know the big puzzle and may have something changing around us. The President of Harbin Institute of Technology, Wang Shugua tried to make it, but finally succumbed to reality. There is a long way to go, and there will be many vested interests to be involved in. But we can do it and we must do it. If not, our country will cost too much money to cope this problem; the cost of learning English is and will be very expensive. We should to do some action to change that. And we do not want to be a functionally illiterate, but to be the person who can produce comprehensible English output. That’s all.
It really a big puzzle for me. During our school-days, we spend much time to recite the words,but for people who do not work in foreign company, they may not use english again after they graduate. If they use the time that they spend on learning english to learn other useful things, they may do much more contribution to our society. For english is the International Language, our country needs English talents, but it doesn’t means that all of us students must learn English. What our country really need is talents of different profession but not generalist.
It is really a puzzle for me to have learnt English for 16 years and can’t produce comprehensible English. I don’t know what I have done for learning English during the last 16 years. It is unbelievable. I spent so much time and it doesn’t work. Language is different from other science subjects, just like physics or mathematics, which we can learn just by passing the exam. Language is a skill which we can only learn by using it in communications. There are many problems in China’s education, especially in English learning. It takes times to solve the problem one by one, one step by one step. The government and all nations should pay more attention to the education reform.
I think it’s not wrong that our country emphasises on learning English and pays lots of money for it,but I don’t agree with the method she has taken.She always regards English as knowledge,but not a communicating vehicle.If a person’s method isn’t correct,he will not succeed despite he have paid out a lot.It’s the same to our country!Under the English educating systerm now,most of students only can read and write,but can not speak.It’s real that China is a developing country,but we shouldn’t use it for our excuse!If we want to develop,a lot of things have to reform!
It is true that teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is a very complicated question.
As an important language tool, it plays an essential role in our daily life. But what we learn in school can’t meet requirements. Actually, when we began to learn English, what we done was just to meet the examination. And the teacher’ aim is not to guide you to master the language but to pass the exam.
It was Chinese English educators’ exploration and innovation, although we haven’t seen excellent achievement yet. It is impossible to find an omnipotent way to resolve all problems. It refers to the whole Chinese education system. So I feel pessimistic about the future of Chinese students’ English learning.
After nearly 16 years’ learning English,,we still find that we could speak and use English as possible as it should be.Yea,it is really a puzzle to we students as well as to all the Chinese teachers of English.Also,it is reaally a big problem.However,after China has opened to the outside world,especially we have entered WTO,English is so important for us as we should rise our status in the world even to become a leading role.So we all have to learn English well.But ,after so many years ,we still have not found the real ringht way to teach English well,and learn English well.Yea,it is the time for changing now.No matter how little we could do ,no matter how long will it be,we should improve step by step. I think after years maybe decades,we surely could reach our goal.
As it is known to us,English is more and more important with economic globalization.The people who grow up in the same times with me began to study English when we come to middle school,it is more than 10 years as long as we’re postgraduate.It is unfortunate for us that we are still mute English learner,we cannot communicate with others in English. Our government and our school are making efforts to improve our conditions. Such as buying adevanced teaching facilities and employ foreigner teachers. We could do a litter better than before with the help of them.But I think we should do better.So in my personal view,our education must reform,we learn English not just for examinations.
As we can see in this article, the whole nation spends too much time and money to learn English.
But our English is poor, it’s a quip, it’s also indeed a puzzle.
China is a developing country so that there are many problems to disposal. The education system is one of the problems. The educate system reform is imperative and it can’t complete in a short time. Great change may not made right now, but small better than none. What we should do is to change ourself.
The connect between the teachers and the students is very important no matter for the foreign teachers or the native teachers. Teaching English as a foreign language is not the good method to study English. But it is impossible that English as the first language in China cause there is thousands of years of traditional culture in China. But if we study English as our interest we will study it well. That needs the interaction between the teachers and students. The teachers is everyone who communicates with you in English, I think.
As we all know English plays the dominate role in today’s transaction. And most people want learen English well. But you can see a special performance that when someone is communicating with foreign peoples, he/she cannot get correct calculation of their “words and useful phrases”，and their sentences are bitty. We have being learned English for more than ten years, but we almost paid no time and attention to oral English.
If the Chinese do something similar, meaning working in an English-only environment while living in an English-only community with a native roommate, they would also acquire English the way natives do. Sometimes it really puzzles me that we have learned English for more than ten years, but many students could not hear and speak English very well. In our class, the exam is the most important, but we don’t have an English-only environment, we are unable to produce comprehensible English output. If we stop learning English for several months, then we will forget many English words, and our written English and oral English will be very poor.
We need Carrot and also stick .we need criticize and also inspiration . this article give us some critical thinking about the situation of education . For theory , discover a problem is more important than solving a problem , but for practise , saying is much easier than action . personally , I would like to see the sunny side of things . of course we are not arrived , not we are on the way .
I guess such reform would hardly appeal to most of our English teachers in high schools and universities, to whom the current pedagogy is much easier. What we can do now is keep telling as many people as possible the importance of “Steel sharpens steel”, and showing them the proper way to make comprehensible English output. Only the persistent accumulation of tiny steps can give birth to a significant leap.
I am shamed as an English learner so many years which I didn’t speak it frequently.How to solve this puzzle .I think we have two aspects which were not right,One is that our government,who maybe realize this problem or even didn’t know this problem.The government have not take any actions deal with it,The leader just put their main energy on economic development.Anothor reason is that ourselves,we just didn’t creat an English speak environment to learn engkish.If we want to change this phenomenon,we must take an positive attitude to learn it instead of an negative attitude.
During the past years of learning English, I also had similar puzzles above in the article, which had bad influences on my English study. However, after my study in the university, I may have conquer the psychological block. Well, anyway, it is good for us to learn English. Now in society, especially because of the Olympic Games held in China, more and more people, young and old, learn English, which is a good phenomenon. Learning English makes me know more and learn more. The most important thing is correct and positive attitude. Insisting on learning English, and we will understand how beautiful it is.
Obviously, it is really a puzzle. We learned English from junior high school, by this time it has been 11 years, but we couldn’t speaking and writing. We spent a lot of time learning English than other subjects for attaining high score in exam to enter better school. Is it a Chinese education system question or our lacking autonomic learning? Frankly, the puzzle is interrelated the two above.
At first, in school, teachers have been taught us how to remember more vocabulary than to speak. The environment of speaking English was such terrible, in my view, the puzzle could be solved difficultly.
Secondly, on the ground that we lack of some autonomic learning, we think little the purpose of studying English. We not only grasp the grammar and vocabulary, but importantly communicate with others in English.
So if we make changes, begin with improving the awareness of speaking English.
It’s really a puzzle whether we should learn English or not and how can we learn it well.
Yes, the Chinese government has a long way to go on English-teaching reform. They should do more research to find a proper way of teaching English, maybe every method is not that perfect, but there should be some way more suitable for Chinese students.
Universities should cultivate students who can satisfy the requirements of employers. They should not focus too much on the passing of “knowledge” tests”, they should also realize the value of a course and formulate appropriate teaching plan. The most important is that they should care more about how students USE knowledge in society.
To ourselves, we also have a lot of things to do: we should find a better study method for ourselves and enjoy the course of learning, if learning English is a must.
Yes, it is really a puzzle, but it is not new more. When I was in high school, I have lots of difficult in English learning. And I was puzzled why I must study English. You know, in china, English school is acting as a very important part of you knowledge in high school. You can dislike English, but you can not get low score in English. If it happens, you fail and you would not get into the college.
Though, Chinese Gov pays lots of attention to English, the Chinese not. Most of the Chinese study English during the life, but not all of them can even speak smooth English. What happen then?
It is really a long way for Chinese to master English!
I think if we learn English is just for fun or interest, rather than to pass the exam, how the current English learning situation will be. I have learnt English for more than 13 years, but I often lose my confidence in my poor English. Why？That’s my puzzle. There are a lot of reasons, maybe. For me, frankly speaking, in the pass, the purpose of learning English was to pass the examination like CET4, CET6. And I spent too much time and energy to learning English words and grammar. But it can’t produce my comprehensible English.
In China, most of students use the way to study like mine. The tradition English teaching style is also to teach the method to pass the English competency examinations. Our EFL education system may be the root, according to the article. So, in my opinion, the reform of EFL education is necessary, though it is a long way to go. Anyway, this puzzle is not only we students should think about, but also the government.
Frankly, there are some problems in the Chinese education system. Especially in foreign language teaching, these problems is more outstanding. Most of the students are constantly pursuing credits,and ignoring the oral training. The results of this Phenomenon is that some students can get high points in various examinations,but in daily life, it is difficult to use English to express themsevies. This is what we call the mute English. To solve these problems, we have done a lot of reform。Admittedly, there exist some problems of the reform process。But we must also see the progress. Several years later, I’m sure this will not be confused。
It is necessary for us to learn English if we need or like to. Learning more is harmless. However, how to learn it?We always learn English by remember the English words and grandmas.,so we can read and know what the English sentence`s meaning,but most of us are unable to produce comprehensible English output. Why? The Chinese education system lead us to learn English not for communication but for score. It is imperative for China to make a Chinese education reform.
As China’s exchanges with the international community become increasingly frequent,English become more and more important in our daily life.Our government recognizes this and put a lot of money and the power of teachers in English education. So we have learned English about 14 years.But we still can’t speak English fluenyly ,write English articles smoothly.Right,it is a new chinese puzzle.
There are many reasons, I am tired of narrative. I want to say that English as our second language and a very useful tool in our future study and work,firstly,we must have a strong desire to learn it.And then we must change our mode of education and learning methods.
China’s English Education must be changed. After studying English for many years, our English is still insufficient. Many people blame this situation on CET4 and 6. Now, CETs have been reformed, but that is not enough. English education reform especially in the universities is not going well and wasted a lot of taxpayer’s money.
I think the Ministry of Education should be more consideration to idea of foreign experts and the views of the community. Yu Minghong,the initiator of New Oriental, used to teach in the university. But his method was not accepted by leaders of school. At last he success by establishing his own schools.
School administrators do not know how to teach English and how to learn English. So it is hard to make reform by their leading.
I was always too busy to practice my poor oral English. But if someone told me if I couldn’t speak English well, I would try my best to improve my english , I think what dicide our level is attitude, not ability. However，as to the English study，we students will try our best to be NO.1，if we have the interest and it is necessary under the acceptable circumstance. that would be fine.
However there are also many problems and puzzlements need to be deal with, as mentioned above. It is a long process to solve these puzzlements, and also needs everyone of us to make joint efforts. I don’t uglify the English education section but it do have problem in our present English teaching system. Our government takes so much effort to improve the English level of the whole country, But the problem is that the aim of learning English pays too much attention in the exam rather than ability in use and overstates the evaluation of English, that is what we don’t want to see. We must change the teaching methods! It is a tough task and we have a long way to go.
A Chinese learning English,just as a foreigner learning Chinese,they will have the same puzzle. English is the most widely used languages around the world,while Chinese is the largest number of people used languages. Nowadays, China’s growing influence on the world will lead to more and more foreigners to learn Chinese .As we do not require a foreigner to master Chinese, we do not need to demand that every Chinese should learn English well. It depends on each person’s interest.Learning English is helpful for the individual to survive in this economic globalization society , no doubt about that.
As we all know, 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.But few people really think a problem-why do our students learn English good though they learn English very hard?So,we should find reason and take some measure to sovle it.beacause any who ignore this will pay a heave price ,couldnot afford it.Only do this,may we have a bright future in the long run.
There are most of the ideas in this article, what I can’t agree more.
There are many problems in our education, not only in English education, but also other education. As the article shows, Teaching English as a Foreign Language has been around for at least 30 years in China, but I can’t see much progress of our English. Although that, our education is changing bit by bit, some teachers have noticed our problems. I think we will be better soon.
English, as a second language in china, it has a high position in recent years. Most of us Chinese want to study English, and the problem has coming. For the foreign teachers of teaching English in china, they didn’t agree with the traditional way of teaching English. And how can TEFL in china be reform is becoming a new Chinese puzzle.
It’s true that there are many problems for the tradition teaching way, including the CET4 and CET6. But without these exams, not all of students will insist on studying English for so many years, so the reform really became a puzzle, and it will be a long way to going down.
From English education we can see some common faults in chinese education system :too much emphasis on academic knowledge but lacking essential attention on practical operations and skills.This serious imbalance results in too many graduates find it is difficulty for them to acquire a post corresponding their major in colleges.Consequently,more and more people conclude that study is useless.Last year ,especially ,because of the finance crisis originated in American,many people were severely discouraged .Even in some areas there are considerable students given up college entrance examination which is always known as a opportunity that could change one”s fate.So it is not only a question for English education,but for the whole system.It is high time to make some changes.
Every thing in china is never be easy .The population is such a huge number.You can teach one student very well.How about 100.1000,but the number far bigger than this .So I think we chinese is do our best to make things better ,it’s hard to say when we can get to the standard level ,but we are always studying.That’s enough.