INTRODUCTION
In 2009 China expects 10 million1 new college students to attend its +2,2362 public colleges and more than 1,300 private colleges. 3
“The Ministry of Education launched a new campaign to reform EFL education at the turn of the 21st century. The reform aims to modernize EFL teaching on campuses, pushing it out of its traditional track and equipping it with better technology.”4
From a western perspective the mandate from the Ministry of Education evokes visions of full scale implementation of current 2nd language acquisition pedagogy and methodology, multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries and the creation of English speaking environments.
A 2009 survey of Chinese colleges and universities failed to yield evidence of the mandated reforms.
MULTI-MEDIA CLASSROOMS
DEFINITION: A theater style tiered seating classroom with audio-visual equipment programmed in English, sound equipment, projection screen and blackout curtains.
COLLEGE SURVEY: In the rich coastal cities of Dalian, Shanghai, Qingdao, and Xiamen, the 1st tier, 2nd tier 3rd tier and even 4th tier colleges and universities visited had the requisite facilities for English teaching. All of the multi-media equipment had Chinese programming as opposed to English programming. 50% of the multi-media classrooms had flat floors instead of tiered floors. One Shanghai 2nd tier Joint Venture University actively discouraged actual use of the multi-media equipment because of the high cost of electricity and the 3,000 rmb cost to replace the projector bulb.
In Central China and Western China a completely different situation was observed. 2nd tier universities, 3rd tier and 4th tier colleges claim to have numerous multi-media classrooms for English instruction. But the observed reality is that only 1 in 10 has operable equipment, some inoperable for as long at 5 years, (all with Chinese programming), most lacking blackout curtains and most with flat floors. No 1st tier university was visited.
In Southern China 1st tier and 2nd tier universities were observed to have an ample number of operable multi-media classrooms for English instruction. The equipment was programmed in Chinese and the floors were primarily flat, although a few exceptions for tiered floors were noted.
The 3rd and 4th tier colleges appeared to suffer from the same deficiencies as were observed in Central and Western China.
COMPUTER LABS AND SOUND LABS
DEFINITIONS:
A computer lab for English instruction should be a room with English programmed and networked computers with at least one printer, sufficient in quantity to meet the needs of the number of students, and available not only for class assignments but also for research and free choice reading, which requires access to the World Wide Web.
A sound lab for English instruction should be a room with English programmed equipment designed for English audio and visual input in individual stations in sufficient quantity as to meet the needs of the number of students.
COLLEGE SURVEY: Throughout Eastern and Southern China it was observed that an adequate number of computer labs and sound labs exist with an adequate number of computers or stations to meet the students’ needs. Maintenance programs kept the equipment in proper operable condition. None of the labs were programmed in English. None of the computer labs had access to the World Wide Web. Only one computer lab had a printer. Two of the 1st tier universities visited provided a computer in every student dormitory room with access to the school intranet. For an extra fee, the students can obtain access to the World Wide Web but filtered through the school intranet firewall.
In Central and Western China there was a paucity of both computer labs and sound labs.
The labs that did exist were programmed in Chinese, could not meet student needs and were in various states of inoperability. Some labs had as high as a 65% inoperability factor. At one college the computer science majors learned the computer via a PPT lecture. They never received any hands on instruction or experience.
At one school all 8 sound labs were 100% inoperable for an entire semester.
At another school there was a computer lab with 40 computers for 10,000 students. 18 of the computers were inoperable and too old to repair.
ENGLISH ACQUISITION LIBRARIES
DEFINITION: A collection of English books and magazines covering a multitude of subjects and interests, written at varying degrees of difficulty, that can be freely accessed by all students wishing to engage in free choice reading.
COLLEGE SURVEY: A random selection of 3 – 1st tier, 3 – 2nd tier and 2 – 3rd tier colleges and universities in Shanghai revealed that no such 2nd language acquisition English library existed even though each school boasted a School of Foreign Languages with an English Department. A 2nd tier university had an English research library but students were not allowed entry because they would “wear out the books.” A 1st tier university had an English research library but students had to pay an entrance fee each time they entered.
In Central China, a visit to 2 – 2nd tier, 2 – 3rd tier and 2 – 4th tier colleges and universities revealed that no such 2nd language acquisition English library existed even though each school boasted a School of Foreign Languages with an English Department. A 3rd tier college recently constructed a US$5 mil. library for its 10,000 students. The college has 1,100 English majors but not one single English book in its 4 year old library.
In Beijing, a visit to 4 randomly selected 1st tier universities revealed that no such 2nd language acquisition English library existed even though each school boasted a School of Foreign Languages with an English Department. English research libraries were the norm.
In western China a visit to 4 randomly selected 2nd tier universities revealed that no such 2nd language acquisition English library existed even though each school boasted a School of Foreign Languages with an English Department.
In Southern China a visit to 2 – 1st tier, 2 – 2nd tier and 3 – 3rd tier randomly selected colleges and universities revealed that no such 2nd language acquisition English language library existed even though each school boasted a School of Foreign Languages with an English Department. 1 – 1st tier university had a freely accessible English research library. And 1 – 1st tier university had a small English acquisition library within the School of Foreign Languages.
A visit to 5 Joint Venture universities; 1 in Beijing, 1 in Dalian, 1 in Guangzhou, 1 in Shanghai, and 1 in Shenyang, revealed that each school had a 2nd language English acquisition library. These libraries are primarily used for assigned reading and only available for free choice reading one hour each day. Books may not be checked out.
The survey results are not surprising since China teaches English learning for test taking to the exclusion of English acquisition. The communicative approach to English learning concentrates on memorizing set phrases and parroting them back in oral English class.
There are also monetary policy impediments to the acquisition of English books from abroad. When the strict policy hurdles can be overcome, it is usually for the acquisition of science and technology books.
ENGLISH SPEAKING ENVIRONMENT
DEFINITITION: There are two required elements to a proper ESE. A proper ESE is one where the students are inundated with comprehensible English input and where it is easier to communicate in English rather than in the native Putonghua. An English speaking environment is defined as: “An environment where English is the dominant language.” Or, “an environment where people are compelled to speak English”. 5
COLLEGE SURVEY: Speak with any Chinese university foreign language department administrator and they will extol the virtues of creating an English-speaking environment (ESE) for the English majors. But take a close look and you will quickly discover that there is no ESE on campus.
The hiring of some foreign native English speakers and holding weekly English Corners is the total extent of efforts to create an English speaking environment. These English speaking opportunities contribute little or nothing to the creation of an ESE.
An ESE is all about comprehensible input, i.e. immersion. Almost all of China’s colleges and universities hire foreign English speakers and hold weekly English Corner. But finding a single university with an ESE was impossible.
CONCLUSION
Very clearly there is a complete failure of the western “vision” of the Ministry of Education’s mandate to “modernize” the teaching of English as a foreign language in China. Possibly something is lost in translation.
It was noted that the Administration of each college and university surveyed possessed numerous late model luxury sedans while student facilities languished in an inoperable state of disrepair or nonexistence.
- China expects drop in number seeking college degree, http://en.ce.cn/National/Education/200905/31/t20090531_19211543.shtml (accessed July 1, 2009) ↩
- List of universities in the People’s Republic of China, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_the_People’s_Republic_of_China (accessed July 5, 2009) ↩
- Non-government Colleges Seek Help, http://service.china.org.cn/link/wcm/Show_Text?info_id=100414&p_qry=university%20and%20enrollment (accessed July 1, 2009) ↩
- A Recent History of Teaching EFL in China, http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=1901&DID=11103 (accessed July 16, 2009) ↩
- Creating Authentic Dialog: ESL Students as Recipients of Service Learning, Stephanie Marlow, Boise State University (Boise, Idaho, USA) “An environment where authentic dialog with native English speakers occurs on a regular basis presents ESL students with the possibility to grow both linguistically and socially” . http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Marlow-ServiceLearning.html ↩
I have firstly say that I totally agree with this article that the reform which the Ministry of Education promised seems to be useless and of little impacts on the modernization of the English Teaching in China. Take myself for example , in the several yeas that I studied in this university , I can count the times that I use the facilities. One main reason for this is these facilities always go broken and it will take a long time to repair them. In addition, my university is one of the top 10 famous universities in china and we also spent so much money on there equipments , but the result is not satisfactory ,so we can guess the status quo that in many other smaller universities which can no get much support from the government.
On the other hand , we also have to admit that , everything has steps. We can not expect one who is thin to be a fat person over night. So although it’s not so good at the present ,we could have time to make some suggests and support and gather together to push the reform process.
To some extent, the reform is a failure. It mainly emphasizes on the hardware but neglects the software muchu more. Up to now, I never see a computer or classroom made in full English,not to mention to use them. I don’t what a acquisition library is although maybe ther really exits one and even I have had classes in it, but i have done nothing available with it. An English speaking environment is so difficult to establish. English as a dominant language in China is also impossible.
Frankly speaking, there are many shortages in China’s education system. We need education reform, but how? Nobody knows. Some education officials argue that we should increase the investment in education. Yes, he (she) may be right, but what will the increased investment be used for? Buying equipment or computers for students? No, it is not the right way. We should change the traditional way of our English teaching and learning. We mustn’t learn mute English any more, we should read, listen, write and speak more.
Reform in China is always formalistic,and isnot paid enough attention to the essence.Seemingly,China has spent much money on education,bought many advanced machines such as computers,projector and so on,built many multi-media classrooms,and bought many books for high-schools’ libraries,and many things else.However,the fact is that,examinations are still the goal of education,there are still little difference between multi-media classromms and normal classrooms under the teachers’ use,and a ture English Environment in university is still not built.The most important thing is that,the education ideology and style don’t get through any variety at all in the reform!Zhou ji,the secretary of education,has been removed from the office,so I wish the new secretary to bring us a miracle,not disappointment.
I don’t know the situation in other universities. But I think SYSU has done its best to reform EFL education. There are many multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs in the campus. And there is a large collection of English books, even larger than that of Chinese books, covering almost every subject. The only thing that SYSU fails to provide is the English speaking environment. But it’s very hard to make students speak English if everyone surrounding them speaks Chinese all time. As is said in my comments of “Mute English” and “The Chinese Puzzle”, the first step of the ELF education reform should be the reform of English examinations, students should learn English for communications instead of passing English exams.
It is not the single news that the policy from central authorities are not carried out by the local governments. China consists of 23 provinces, 4 municipalities, 5 autonomous regions and 2 special administrative regions. Some of them are able to refuse or delay the policy; some of them treat it passively; some of them really have some big trouble. There are different reasons in different districts and Central government cannot do the whole thing all by itself. However, dislike the revolution, reform needs more time before the problems are resolved. I think the Ministry of Education’s mandate is a good beginning.
It is necessary to make some reforms in the teaching English to make some progress that base on the reality that it does need to make better. Something need to be done is both the hard environment or the hardware and the soft environment or the software. They are the same important for the inform, we don’t look out of the software while we pay attention to the hardware.
The hardware is the foundation of the teaching English. In my opinion, the software is just the essence of teaching, such as the thoughts ,the way and so on. There will have never better progress, if there are no coordinations between the hardware and the software. For example, there are many good teaching facilities ,however, there are hardly students to take advantage of them .they are profligacy.
In a word , we should make some progress in our teaching English, especially the software .
I didn’t know that the Ministry of education has laughed a reform campaign at the turn of 21st century until I finished reading the article. As a student of SUN YAT-SEN University, I had studied in a multi-media classroom and used computer labs and sound labs. I am very happy for this reform, but my English proficiency is still poor and can’t produce any comprehensible English output. I don’ know whether there is English acquisition libraries until now at SUN YAT-SEN University. I just know an ESE doesn’t exist in our campus. The reform has happened, but the Ministry of Education doesn’t focus on how to acquire English instead of set phrase and lots of lists of vocabulary. The way is wrong. None of university exists an ESE is the best evidence.
As professor Martin mentioned, the reform of English education is facing serious problems. But in my opinion, it is really hard to change the teaching concept and environment according to the current situation of China. The schools and the relevant department of education should pay more attention to the reform of English teaching. Although some measures and reform has made, I hope relevant departments should take more radical and effective reforms to change the present English education environment to improve students’ learning and using English ability. Creating a really ESE for student!
English as we all know is the most important language in the communication of the world. With the development of China, there are more and more chances for us to work together with other countries. So we chinese pay much attention to the English education. But the reform of EFL(English as foreign language) education launched by the Ministry of Education in China did not get the result what we want. Why? I think it is not only the problem of money but the aim and style. We learn it for communication not for exam only. So I think the Ministry of Education can do more pilot schemes for English education besides the contents mentioned in the passage. In some schools cancel the exams and set rule to estimate. CET4 and CET6 should change to assess the ability to use English in communication in daily life or some special fields. And pay more attention to the places where they can not afford to the equipments for English education. It may be a long way for this reform to go and what must be done.
When talking about reform, there will be many definitions. Please let me evaluate it in both policy and implementation. Nowadays, Chinese has already realized the importance of developing the condition for EFL, and The Ministry of Education launched a new campaign. Frankly speaking, the government has done good to those students who are eager to learn English well, and these policies sounds great. But the implementation is the key point that stands in the way of government’s willness, it does not work at all. As Mr. Martin mentioned above, the learning and teaching conditions are still poor now. My question is that how does the local government and schools spend their money? No doubt, they spent some money for their own needs, but for the EFL program. As a English learner, I feel so disappointed about that.
Reform, this is mentioned in many fields. If there are some factors what are against for the development of this field, it is very necessary to reform. As noted above, there are so many problems in EFL teaching on campuses which are against for learning English. China, as a Developing country, has many changes in many fields such as economy, polity etc. But there are still many defects in the education especially in the TEFL. From ancient to today, education is always an important role among a country’s development. English, as the international social language in today’s world, should be well studied for everyone. Now under the situation of modernization and globalization, Chinese is more necessary to study well. So the reform of Chinese TEFL is imminent.
I really think that our English learning can be more effect on our future work and lives. But now so many Chinese students learn English,the number of those who can use the language freely are so little. Why? I think that the important reason is the system of English learning is not too suitful to us. Until now on, I have been learning English for ten years.The result is that I still feel shy when I speak with a foreigener and hard to open my mouth to say a word. We really need reform our way to teach English. We can have the standard by how much grade did you get. The important thing is that if you really can speak with others in English.
As far as I am concerned, the reform in China has the same meaning as improvement, which is usually mentioned in the newspaper and official website. However, reform should an action that can breakthrough the traditional. It is quite hard to break the tradition because of the old men are usually unwilling to retire or abdicate. In such situation ,the reform can not be very exceptional, and the measures in the reform can just be something quite unrealistic. When the reform conflict with the benefit of the officer, who have the power to determine whether the reform should continue, the reform is likely to be stopped or replace by some useless action. As a result, the reform in China can never take place in large area. What’s more, the reform is from upside to downside, hardly had any voice from the common peole be heard. It is the voice from upside that decide the process and the result.
Think it over, I have learned English for more than ten years by now. But I can’t still spaek English quite well or communicate with others smoothly in English. We just learn English in class, but don’t try to practise it in life. Mostly, we learn English for tests which don’t require oral English, so most of us can learn English in silent and get a high scott. This make us easily ignore practising English,Including teachers and students.So it’s difficult for us to find an English speaking evironment in schools. Maybe if oral English become a part of the tests ,then we can improve the predicament described in the article.
Reform is a long and arduous process. China’s reform and opening up have lasted for 30 years before the situation of today. As the same, China’s education reform is a long and arduous. But what does reform mean? What should we do about education reform? In my prospects, reform does not only mean superficial changes but should deep into the essence. Since the reform and opening up of China, more and more schools and universities were established around of China. Teaching facilities are more and more complete. For example, there are multi-media classrooms, computer labs, sound labs and library in some schools and almost of Universities. But in some extent, we can’t make a full use of these teaching facilities at some time. Meanwhile, something happen often that teaching facilities have problems but no one can make them out timely, resulting in some inconveniences in teaching. After China entered into WTO, China government required more people to learning English. But how can we learn English better? Do government and Educational institutions offer students a good language studying environment.I think we should take these issues into consideration before the education reform.
As I think, something is not lost in translation, but lost in herald. The Ministry of Education wanted to make a better English learning condition for the students in college and in university, but when this was heralded to each province, to each city, to each university, something lost. Sometimes the students didn’t have a English library or some other conditions, sometimes they had better conditions but it was charged, and there were even sometimes they were forced to use those modernized equipment so that no fun, no gain.
Maybe it is the tradition which resulted in Chinese government’s failure to herald the spirit of those orders. Maybe this is the thing that should have a reform first!
In my opinion, the thing that are most needed to be reformed in EFL education is to create the English speaking environment. The other thing such as multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries is easier to be improved with money. Maybe the equipment in many universities is not as good as our expectations. But as the universities increase the fund, things are surely gonna change step by step. On the contrary, the English speaking environment has nothing to do with the money thing. While the school should take responsibility to call for students, the students should take active participate in it. However, this implementation is hard here. Because Chinese is our official language, we cannot speak English every whole day everywhere. It still takes time for us to figure out a way to solve this problem. If not, this reformation is meaningless.
I began to study English when I entered junior school, and I studied it in traditional ways such as learning words and reading on following teacher’s reading and writing. Later in my English study life, it seemed the same just like my junior school. There weren’t any muti-media classroom, computer labs, sound labs, English acquisition libraries and foreign teachers. When I entered the university, it was a little better than before. We can study in the sound lab and muti-media classroom, but it was not enough for our English study because of our little practice in oral English. In my opinion, the new campaign to reform EFL education is a great activity, but it should create an English study environment which can best attract our interests to study oral English well.
In my opinion, we should combine things together to explain something. In general our society has a serious problem. We tend to do the facial things. No matter how bad it is inside. As long as it looks good, everyone satisfies. But how long will this last? It does harm to everyone in the end. This is the same considering the modern facilities in English teaching. We have lots of these stuff, but we seldom use them. The reason? Because these things are mainly for the face of the college. The leaders will be satisfied after seeing these, and the students will be happy when they first enter the university. Yes, this is the real situation here. How can we solve this while the whole society is the same? Some serious actions? Well it seems it will take a loooooong time for the English teaching system to get healthy. Deep reform is badly needed right now. Do or die, where shall we go depends on the hands of ourselves.
Everything is always developing. No matter what it occurs at the form or at content. From the vision of dialectical materialism, productivity decides the dielectric structure of production relations. So I think that the equipment could favor the reform—modernizing EFL teaching on campuses, pushing it out of its traditional track and equipping it with better technology, said by The Ministry of Education.
Objectively speaking, these equipments with better technology exist in the higher universities or colleges, do not play a due role, and not to pose the key role. In my view, some universities or colleges in China, there are many teaching facilities as modern and high technological as the western, even more than it. For example, multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, and English acquisition labs. However, we always do not take advantage of them well. Why? Maybe the system hinders it. As Teacher Martin showed in the article, some universities have no devices. And others’ are just furnishes in these labs. Even some students are forbid to enter them. So no ESE, no progress.
What does reform mean? It means time for show. This is a very common phenomenon in china. Disregarding how strongly the superiors contend, and how desperately the public appeal for, the middle managers always consider reform as show time that pleasing the superiors and handling the public.
They viewed and made English as “the gatekeeper” to higher education, employment, even economic prosperity and social status. But they do not provide sufficient facilities for us to acquire English. I want to ask how dare they do this to us. We need real changes from inside, not a useless show on outside.
I can’t agree more with this article. It’s good that the minister has a great dream. However, there is much more to do in order to reform our EFL. In fact, the reform just means something surface. That is, we can buy a lot of equipment and build many multi-media classrooms to meet what the reform need. But we actually don’t do anything to make the reform more effective. We just equip facilities, but, leave them alone and need remind of it unless some experts are going to on-the-spot investigation.
It goes without saying China has spent much money on education reform. For example, the Ministry of Education launched a new campaign to reform EFL education,including build multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs.I know their aim is to create a better English speaking environments for us.But maybe they pay too much attention on the hardware. In fact, there are still little difference between traditional classrooms and multi-media classrooms. Because what teachers must do is to make their students receive high marks in the examinations, not to create a ture English speaking environments around their students.So I think the first step of the EFL education reform is to reform the English examinations, to find out the root cause of Mute English.
The reform of a new campaign to reform EFL education may be failure. In fact, the Ministry of Education is also very frustrating. On the one hand, countries require tens of millions of people to learn English, but it has failed to provide adequate hardware and software facilities. On the other hand, most people learn English is not to master the language, but rather passively in order to cope with exams and college entrance examination, four or six test and other school examinations. In this process, a large part of students neither to learn English well and wasted a lot of time and resources. Even some people loss opportunities of continuous learning because do not well at the English. This is a great national tragedy.
I think to modernize EFL teaching on campuses ,updating the facilities is far from enough to improve the general situation of teaching EFL in China.Compared to the “hardware”, the “software” seems to be of more importance.Personally, I think the way to teach English is not proper. Ask a college student why he learns English? A lot of students would say “To pass the CET test thus can be graduated and find a job.”And in the terms without English courses,they would never practise and learn English. If the purpose of learning English is to pass some kind of tests, how could you expect the students to improve their English? So this reform has focused on a secondary subject ,and it needs to be changed.
It’s difficult to modernize EFL in China because China is a huge geographical country and a large number of people live in here. It needs a large amount of money to carry out reforms in education. Meanwhile, it also needs many teachers who could use these technologies skillfully. But now these circumstances in China don’t permit us to finish reforms in a short time. We need a long time to reform. And before reforms finished, we couldn’t give up. That’s as important as the reform itself.
In my opinion, teaching English in China surely has some problem to solve. The biggest one has to reform is the teaching system. But I think that this system was made by the condition of our country. We should analysis the concrete condition when we want to solve problems. And the attitude we how to use English also has influence on our teaching system. So if we really want to learn English, listen more, speak more, write more and read more. We can create our English speaking environment. We can be succeed.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to reform. Maybe it can work in some way, but I believe it can’t improve the bad situation of English learning. There is a saying that interest is the best teacher, so I think the school should focus on increasing the student’s interest more than only improving the equipment of learning English. Besides there are so many students to learn English, only depending on that few equipment it can’t improve the situation. Maybe the school can improve the teaching way and can organize more activities which can increase the student’s interest of learning English.
It goes without saying that great changes have taken place in China since 1978. It is widely accepted that reform is not very easy,we must consider many factors ahead of time,especially in China.However,it is clear that China has spent much money on reform, such as the education, the environment pollution and so on.As a popular saying goes,”Actions speak louder than words.”We should believe that China will be more prosperity in the near future.
I agree with the author’s opinion that the Ministry of Education’s mandate to “modernize” the TEFL in China is a big failure.The real needed and useful approach to improve Chinese students’ English is not that we only concern about the hardware of the education,but also we need to pay attention to the creation of some software,such as provide an English speaking environment for our students,change our evaluation system about English ability in China and so on.
Other efforts should be done to make further change about our countries’ English education,and I hope that some good and useful experiment can be done by our government.,and give us a real reform about it,then lead a bright future about English learning in China.
It is said that no reform, no progress. The Ministry of education wanted all students to learn efficiently, so they
launched a new campaign to reform EFL education at the turn of the 21st century. From then on, more and more Multimedia
Classrooms began to emerge. The reform aims to form a good environment that can make students learn by a modern way.
Although the reform can bring many benefits, the effects is not so good. In my opinion, the most important way of reform
is to improve teachers’ teaching skill which can make student interested in studying English. What’s more, an ESE is very
important, in that case, we can communicate with each other in English. Unconsciously, our English improve day by day.
Frankly speaking, I can’t lend all my support to the opinion the article held. It is ture much policies of the Ministry of Education didn’t work in a desirable way, but most of the policies do make a difference to the students in China. Taking SYSU as an example, little progress have we achieved in constucting an better English speaking environment, except the sole corner. However, it is undeniable that we have come a long way in the facilities and equipment of teaching these years, including multi-media classrooms, computer labs, English acquisition libraries mentioned in the article. In one word, it is absurb to bring the reform to a halt due to the unsafisfying progress. Instead, what we need is to deepen the reform and make a complete reform.
English education reform is one of the most pending issues in our country. And I think the biggest problem is how to change people’s attitude on English studying. Because English is a kind of knowledge. Simultaneously itis a language. We cannot master English until we can speak it loudly! Most Chinese students just feel too shy to speaking English publicly with frineds and teachers. Of couse I used to be one of them. And this is exactly why we cannot do it great enough.
I think the first thing to do is encourage all people use English as more as possile in our daily life. People should realize that speaking English is something fun and fashion. It doesn’t mean we should ignore Chinese. It is just the process of English learning. Our final goal is propagate Chinese culture to foreign friends all over the world.
The reform is not very good,although The Ministry of Education has decided to make ESE better,the colleges and the universities carry out the policy not very good.This is the one aspect.The another aspect is that building the multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries and the creation of English speaking environments is not very easy.We are now a developing country,so we have not so much maney to support all.We only can achieve our goal little by little.I think the most important aspect of the reform is that we should train more qualified teachers. The reform is a important movement for the future, maybe it could fail.Then we will make another better reform!
I am luck because these modern and better technology equipments are all existed in my university–multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries and English corner. However, unluckily, few students use this high-ranking implementation frequently. The fact is that our multi-media classrooms are used to show PPT, there are only approximate ten available computers linking to internet in our computer labs, our English teachers use sound labs as ordinary classrooms, the books and journals in English acquisition libraries are boring and old, most students never go to English corner…
I have to admit that we only waste money on the modern technology. Reform cannot be only the full scale implementation. The more important is that we should put more wisdom and energy to change our education system, but not only the equipment.
From the article, I also agreed that it was a complete failure of the Ministry of Education’s mandate to “modernize” the teaching of English as a foreign language in China. Take my own experiences in the SYSU for example, the facilities is only used in class. Students rarely used them after class. In south China, if the students need it, they claimed for, maybe they can allowed to used them. But many students have no passion to learn English. They learned English only to pass the exam. They rarely used in the daily life. Take myself for example, I learned English only to pass the exam. I rarely learns English after class except that there will be a exam. That may be the other reason why the mandate failed.
I like this empirical style. I wonder whether the Ministry of Education which launched the new campaign to reform EFL education at the turn of the 21st century has done such a survey by going to the colleges and using the equipments to check whether they operate properly. Our Chinese government keeps emphasizing the importance of education while the money putting into educational reformation is still a small proportion of governmental expenditure. There are indeed some advances in our language acquisition pedagogy and methodology, multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries and the creation of English speaking environments, but there are more things we can do to improve our English educational environment when we acknowledge what is the real state of the English educational environment in china.
I’ve grown up in Kunming. It’s a city in western China. For Western China, Kunming is a kind of ‘rich city’. But I still remember when I was in middle school we listen the English type which was paired of out text book from an old recorder. By the way, my middle school was the best one in the city. But in Kunming we had so many foreigners, some of them were businessmen, some were teachers, most common were visitors. So for me, I didn’t learned much in my school time, I learned English in church beside my home and a teahouse near my school (the boss of the teahouse was an American, he taught me how to enjoy the country music). In Western China, people are really poorer than other places, so is the government. Sometimes we can’t blame that we do not have good environment to study. Especially English, in my opinion, we can learn it anywhere and with anyone at anytime. It’s an attitude and interest problem.
Yes ,you are right. There are so many things in China that needs to be reformed. Although the Chinese government has made great effort to improve our educational facilities, it can not be changed over night. For China is such a big country with so many colleges and students. And I think the ENGLISH SPEAKING ENVIRONMENT is the biggest failure of our educational reform. There is little English speaking atmosphere in most universities of China. So most students who have learned English for more than 10 years cannot even speak or write English comprehensively.
I do think it is true that China invests to much in the English Teaching but gains little.In China,children begin to study English from their primary school hood.Their are so many English teacher in Chinese.What’s more,parents want their children learn English well may invite family teacher to teach their children English.In words,Chinese people do whatever they can to learn English.However,all of this seems don’t work,and their English still very poor.Here,in this article,the author told us how to change our circumstance.Yes,we should create an English speaking environment..Only speak English in English class is not enough.We should say English as more as we can.Only learn written English is also not enough,we should speak more other than listening our teacher said.In summary,Chinese Ministry of Education should give some more reforms in EFL education.Maybe the reduction in Mute English should be considered.
I heard a story about some history study on some aspect about Qing dynasty from one of my undergraduate professors whose major is history of Qing dynasty. He praised a foreign researcher whose mayor is also history of Qing dynasty to be very empirical. One of a problem in the research realm of Qing dynasty has been rounded by many Chinese researchers, because to address this problem a researcher has to dig himself in to mountains like files and may come out without finding the answer. But this problem is solve by a foreign researcher on Qing dynasty history. Reform should be empirical if we want to have a happy ending.
In fact, we know the reforming is very necessary. When we see that China’s universities to train students with the knowledge staynng on paper, but can not speak. we will be able to fully experience it. Perhaps the key of the problem is implementation. Despite the Government’s education in English has spent considerable resources, but little effective. This is a very worthwhile review. English as a universal language, master it is very necessary. We are carrying out reforms should have this belief, in order to get things more better and it can be a more efficient use of existing resources. Of course, China as a developing country, the economy is not very good. The reforming can be properly upgrade ourself.
Reform of China attached so much importance means that state place high attention to English and school education. The government is making efforts to improve the hardware facilities of the school, in order to create a good environment for students. I think we should treasure the resources and make full use of teaching resources to learn English seriously.
In answer to your question: How can TEFL in China be reformed to graduate students who can produce comprehensible oral and written English?
I have identified seven key areas where the Chinese academic sector is severely lacking:
Lack of consistency in foreign teachers
Lack of standardization and quality control
Lack of regulatory oversight
Lack of accountability
Lack of public awareness
Lack of educational activities fostering creative thinking and problem solving
Lack of coordination
It has been pointed out that foreign teachers are often temporary workers, given the fact that a high percentage of them are guitar-touting, illegal drug-consuming recent college graduates finding a cure for wanderlust and discovering themselves. Troubadours rather than teachers. This greatly hampers any ability to promote tenured professionals who can carryover curriculums and build on past experience. There are several applicable solutions to this problem: First, recruiting agencies require higher standards of excellence and face-to-face contact to ensure the professionalism of prospective employees. An idea with potential is for agencies to tour top Universities in English-speaking countries giving presentations on the benefits of taking a job as English language tutors in China. This can feasibly be for-profit. Second, institutions hiring foreign teachers and incoming foreign teachers both require an increase in awareness concerning the ideas of “cultural differences” and “hospitality” – culture shock goes both ways and Chinese employers need to be able to professionally accommodate a foreigner. Finally, standards of foreign teacher training need to be increased and reinforced to ensure that teachers with absolutely zero experience and training are not immediately given responsibility for language learning.
One of the difficulties of China’s political structure is a widespread lack of standardization and quality control. This manifests in discrepancy between education levels, application and effectiveness of the law, and levels of corporate and academic social responsibility across administrative regions. While drastic nation-wide standardization may be directly against Beijing’s interests in its current policy agenda, it remains an option. The other, more attractive, solution is to encourage the spread of information among industry peers through regularly scheduled local, regional and national conferences and events – both for Chinese English Teachers and Foreign English Teachers. These would be excellent grounds for spreading new methods of standardization and quality control.
Touching briefly back upon regulatory oversight: while the benefits of promoting a socially harmonious society through the local application of law have been noted, this opens the door for corruption at the local level. Cases in point are the acceptability of poor performance, misallocation of finances and resources, and bribery. One effective method of dealing with social issues on a societal level is through cinema. National blockbusters could be manufactured that specifically demonize these traits in positions of responsibility. Financial accountability is a far more difficult situation, as much of the financing is given by higher levels of government. The solution here would require stipulations to be attached to how government financial assistance will be utilized, followed by sustained oversight to assure capital is allocated as intended (and not on the latest BMW luxury models). Perhaps this is the most difficult to achieve, given existing cultural norms.
Lines of communication and the flow of information, despite the level of technology in the country, remain blocked or closed. This is both a social and a government phenomenon. Social in that the majority of the Chinese population remains largely immobile; government in that the state effectively censors domestic information distribution networks and often information is contained regionally. The result is a lack of public awareness in many key issues resulting in “uncomfortable truths”. In the context of developing an overarching policy to improve education levels, this can be circumvented easily to spread information pertaining to English education once a network of necessary lines of communication is realized. This should include national, regional and local government institutions; primary, secondary and tertiary school English departments and student union officials; and the private sector.
Traditional education practices in China discourage critical, independent thinking and creativity. While this serves very well for social cohesion, a balance can be struck where individuals are capable of problem solving while still maintaining the Confucian social philosophies that form the foundation of China’s respectable ability to maintain a stable social order given its size. Critical reasoning, problem solving and creative thinking can all be fostered through an application of teambuilding games and activities that depend on these attributes for success. A database of such activities is readily available: The United States Scouting Service Project. This group of Boy Scouts associations across the US has compiled a deep database of games and activities that can directly meet our needs: http://www.macscouter.com/Games/. These activities can be implemented through existing English Clubs, which exist at most schools or can be readily developed. ESEs (as per your description) in these endeavors are a must.
Finally, many Universities across China operate independently. They fail to participate in any unified provincial, regional or national activity. In the United States, one example of such an overarching body is the NCAA, which coordinates collegiate athletics and provides excellent organization to foster competition and success. Most Universities in China that have English programs also have an English club. It would be practical to connect these clubs and encourage Universities to develop their English communities across cities and regions through quarterly conferences and monthly inter-collegiate English club meetings (accomplished in the setting of an ESE). This would provide an excellent networking opportunity for students, as well as a forum for English language development.
Conclusively, the academic English language industry in China has great potential. An overarching plan combining disparate teaching methods and ideas into an applicable framework of ideas is the first step towards a solution. Holistic English provides such a platform, but it needs to be expanded from Spoken English and Business English into other fields, including Film & Cinema, Western Cultures (broken into American cultures, European cultures, African cultures, Pacific cultures and South African cultures), and specialized fields (law, sport, economics, politics, the arts, the sciences, etc.). Dr. Martin Wolff’s application of Holistic English at Sun Yat-sen is a phenomenal starting block, as it legitimizes a method that can be carried as the flag for this initiative.
Moving forward, central nodes of information for foreign teachers to draw on are required. Dave’s ESL Café is one very informal example. An unrelated model is the aforementioned United States Scouts Service Project (USSSP), which can be applied to English Language teaching in China (and, perhaps, globally). These nodes can potentially be constructed as several competing web portals operated independently, on national and regional levels and used to assemble information, distribute information pertaining to industry meetings, establish newswires and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas. A blogosphere or social network may also have potential, similar to SeekingAlpha’s contributor platform combined with an integration of an instant messaging program similar to or with the support of QQ (or a competitor).
Chinese students of English must also be encouraged further to study abroad, in order to provide them with language immersion. This is crucial for language development, as well as cultural development, and many Universities in China lack semester- or year-long study abroad programs. Hand-in-hand with Study Abroad is the opening of lines of communication between Universities within China – as very few Universities cooperate in forums together. More needs to be done to encourage city-wide consortium programs – a prime example of this can be seen in the DC Consortium, an effort by 14 Universities in the District of Columbia to compile resources to foster learning and education. This can be used as an excellent model.
A unification of purpose is mandatory. All state-run English-related regulatory institutions, the Universities, national-level private organizations (Web, New Oriental, New Concept, English First, Aston English, New Dynamic), foreign universities working in concert with Chinese universities, and capable foreign experts need to be brought together with a common vision. A yearly conference with representatives of these institutions can be a starting point for this initiative, complete with guest speakers and hosts to direct thought and banquets and forums to encourage dynamic thought. The World Economic Forum provides an example of such a meeting in its annual Davos summit – a prime example of forward-thinking decision-making by industry leaders.
In closing, note that this website’s detailed documentation of University teaching in China leaves out a hugely important factor: the private sector. This industry is teeming with growth and development and the market is still nacsent.
Also note that my information is incomplete – my apologies for any redundancy in suggesting these ideas as many of them may already have been implemented in some form or another.