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 ↩
The old system does have many disadvantages. I started to learn English when I was 12 years old, while I still cannot communicate with foreigners without any obstacle, especially when I am very nervous! But I could get high scores in many exams, because few of the questions has direct relationship with oral!
I hope this reform can help the students to leanr better!
Ivy – Zhongshan University
REAL EFL REFORM THAT HELPS
“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.” The utter failure of this effort is chronicled elsewhere.
Yet, as late as 2009 every Chinese college and university has a Chinese L1 intranet system. The system is beyond the use of most L1 English speaking foreign teachers and requires students to go through a maze of Chinese pages before reaching an English department page.
In the early years of Holistic English development, Chinese students were encouraged to make use of http://www.usingenglish.com to ask questions and post resumes for correction. The web site owner was most gracious and even set up special forum topics for the Chinese students. He even established a China EFL page for China EFL articles for free download.
Unfortunately this placed the students beyond the reach of the Holistic English teachers and subjected them to opinions from experts and crackpots, neither of which knew nothing about the Chinese educational experience. There were problems with moderators and a lack of timely communication with the web site owner. In the summer of 2009 the situation simply became intolerable and a new web site was established, The Official Home of China Holistic English. http://chinaholisticenglish.org There is not one single Chinese language character appearing anywhere on this web site.
Certain relevant and current topics are posted and the Chinese students of English are given a limited amount of time to read the topic and post their comments. This eliminates a paper shuffle, saves a few trees and makes correction much easier. The final product becomes a part of the public record which the students can show their grandchildren in the future.
Elimination of interaction with Chinese language and full utilization of modern electronic technology is true EFL reform you can count on.
oh，I know we pay little attention to English.But there are improvements.Although far way to go.And we shall pay more attention and time in English.”Read more, Listen more, Write more, Speak more ENGLISH.”Now there are more and more Chinese people learning English.I believe the ESE will be better in the future.And the equipment will be better too.
As far as I am concerned，the reform is put forward with the development of the economy and other social progress. The old system candidly have many disadvantages，but the effect of the old one is rooted in the culture. Therefore，it is a long way for the new one to perfect itself. And with the complement of the reform，the new problems will be detected，and modified. Thus，though the reform of the education still exists problems，with our consistent efforts，we will achieve the aim one day .
In China, many education reforms seem to be fashionable at one time and then disappear completely at another time. A lot of universities don’t take the demand for EFL reform seriously, they claim that they have the facilities for creating an English speaking environment only to pass an investigation or for the ranking of universities. They seldom care about whether the students can make an improvement in their English. As for students, what they know is that if they can not pass the English test or the CET tests, they can not graduate from the schools no matter how fluent English they can speak. The preparations for those tests not only take up a large proportion of time of the students but also have no help in the acquisitions of the students’ use of English. I think if we really want the EFL reform to take place and function, we should first reform our whole university education and finance to create a real English speaking environment for the students. The students should also change their attitude of English learning and try to create an English speaking environment among themselves.
In my opinion, educational system should part those students who want to learn English well from those who view English not such useful. Since not every student need to learn English, why should not economize the limited resource to give better equipment and environment to those intent to learn well students. Give them more chance to read more, listen more, write more and speak more English. Students’ determination and desire to learn well plus better equipment and ESE would improve the students’ English ability more effective.
Reforms is always derived from ordinary practice, if there is a big problem, some measures will be taken to solve. EFL reform is the same. When the first flood of English teacher came to China, they didn’t know which way is better, maybe they followed their way as before or made a new way for China, it is just a test. If some problems came out, reform had to be made to solve. Maybe it should experience many times that finally we will find our best way to learn English. Just as learning English, patience and sensitive reflection is a key point.
Much has been discussed recently on English teaching at college, Someone says that it is a total failure. To some extent , it is reasonable to say so, for after ten-year English learning, most graduates can’t properly communicate with foreigners, nor can we translate between languages, let alone write in English. Where are the problem?
To begin with, English teaching at college, to a great extent, teacher-centered, turning a language class into an information class. It is still very common in the classroom that the teacher explains every language point in detail, while students take notes all the time.
Secondly, culture is neglected in English teaching because of poor text design. Some redundant unrealistic materials and a great deal or grammar and structure exercises in the text lead to students memorizing a large vocabulary and a lot of English rules. Few students know how , when and where to use them.
Finally, test-oriented education, in a sense, misleads and impedes college English teaching in China. For example, colege English Test Band Four or Six is so overemphasized in some colleges that teachers teach to the test, sacrificing learning for the sake of test results, and students only learn to pass the examination. As a result ,students actual language competence is weakened though the passing rate has increased.
In conclusion, Chinese English teaching is to be reformed. Students should be centered on , culture knowledge ,should be introduced in language teaching , and examination should be dealt with appropiately
In my school life before college, there were multi-media classrooms, computer labs, sound labs and English acquisition libraries. But the point is that I had never heard them or even touch them before I left the school. For us, all the students, they were luxurious decorations. They were not tools, but the symbol of reform.
Last year I came back to my alma mater. I noticed something strange. All the rooms as I mention before are available for the whole school. My teacher told me she gave the lessons all by the multi-media equipments, but not writing everything on the blackboard.
I have an optimistic attitude toward the reform. Even though it seems the externalism of some education, I believe it will improve our modernize EFL teaching little by little.
In China, from the nation, many policies including the reform are good, but in the implementation process, they all become formalism. Local governments are often respond to higher levels of government by doing surface-work, but not doing the work really. A lot of good policies have not really implemented, because there was no specific monitoring system to do a long-term monitoring, they just do a short period monitoring perfunctorily.
I think only relying on the substantial quantity of hardware facilities to reform EFL education is not nearly enough. Because it is usual to see that the hardware facilities in many schools are no more than furnishings, students use them only in a limited time and classes. What’s more, students can not use them in a correct way. Take the computer labs as an example, many students use the computers only for QQ、games or other things which have nothing to do with their studies. So how to use these hardware facilities effectively and correctly is another aspect we should take into account.
On the other hand, it is delightful that so many schools, colleges and universities have fallen to reforming EFL education, there will be a much better English Learning environment for students in the near future.
What does reform mean? In my point of view, reformation not only means the equipments updating but also means the optimization of the system. Equipments such as sound labs, computer labs, multi-media classroom, etc may help us to improve our English, but this is far from enough.. And to establish the English speaking environment is not easy, for many students would not speak English quite often. So, the most important thing for reformation is education system reformation: to tell the students that using English fluently but not getting a high score is the purpose of learning English; to evaluate students not just by means of marks but taking their capacity into consideration. Only this can help the students to acquire English but not learn English.
The colleges make so many different classrooms/labs to found up a better environment for students to practice English. Those devices can assist students to learn English. Because we don’t speak English in daily, most times we don’t want to use it. In that condition, we need some place which is just for speaking English, and we aren’t afraid of making mistakes. Many students are shy, they are very afraid of being laughing at, so they will not speak English to avoid making mistakes. This is caused by the nature which foreigners can’t understand. Even in Chinese class, those modern equipments, they can help teacher to show his class much vivider. This is in line with the tradition of having fun while learning. Every country has own history, and the people are accustomed to a particular teaching method.
As we know, English education and environment in Hong Kong are much better than that of the inland universities. Economy may be one of the major factors. However, top-grade universities in coastal cities are never lack of funds. This reflects that the policy implement is the point. Dream is always good, while reality is hard. Anyway as students, we should strive to learn more, speak more English. I never stop to pursuit the opportunity to talk to the foreigners, despite that I know it is far from enough.
As a matter of fact, my university I have studied in have some multi-media classrooms,but I have never used it.I don’t know whether the audio-visual equipment has some function to improve our English.It is useless if those modern equipments can’t be fully utilized,even if we have much more equipments.The real reason is halfway implementation.I wonder their intentions that some schools bought these expensive equipments is for the purpose of completing government’s polices perfunctorily or in order to creating much better English learning environment for our students.Reforming Chinese English education still has a long way to go.I do not expect the outsider world could provide some great learning environments or equipments in the short run,what I believe is improving our English by ourselves.
Well, I think, this reform, in some way, is good for the English acquisition of Chinese students. But I doubt how many of this so call reform can be enforced fully in the universities and how efficiently will they work. Perhaps they will just turn out to be a vacant propaganda. Besides, in some places of China, especially in big cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou, maybe the main problem is not that we don’t have the facilities to improve our English. It’s the problem that we don’t use them properly. That means, we don’t know how to make good use of them. Just like the English library, we have English books in the library, the problem is “How many students will get them and read” I guess only a few students will do so.
I am so disappointed with our equipment,for example,this website,I did my comment just now and press “Submit Comment”,but this web page answered with out of connection.What I had did disappeared and I only want to fuck the web designer.
Well, I have seen that “in 2009 China expects…”and “A 2009 survey”. China is a large country and there is a sad fact that the efficiency in China is always very low. We spent many years to stop people spitting in the street. Making an English Speaking Environment is much more difficult than stop spitting. We know that it is lack of hardware and software of English Speaking Environment now in universities. But the universities do not give up to perfect the conditions and we students still tried to speak more English. Although it may be seems like completely failed now, I believe that it would changed ten years later.
Reform is a good thing, which make changes for improvement. However, there always are obstacles on the way to all kinds of reforms, so is EFL reform.
The Ministry of Education’s mandate to modernize the teaching of English is and will be usefull for we students. Multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries and English speaking environment, all of these are excelent ideas and need a lot of money, So there are different statuses in different places, for the different economics.
Anyway, we are improving. I believe we can succeed in EFL reform.
I think equipment reform is not most important. Because in some places of China like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and so on, where the equipments are very good but there are many students whose English are also not well. In my opinion, the problem is that our learning styles and teaching styles is not very well. We should speak more.
Because China is a country that develops lopsided , it is common tha the equipment has great discrepancies in different area. so does the students’ English level. Many area don;t have money to afford so expensive equipment, especially in the weat areas and remote areas. The teachers’ only responsibility is to teach the students to obtain knowledges and pass the English exam.
So ,it is important for us to reform the current education system and change our lagging mind. Of course, it is not a easy way, but I believe it would change and be made a progess for some years with the development of economy and people’s awareness!
What does reform mean?I think that reform is required in China EFL nowadays.So far from the past,wo are taught to pass the English exams,we are learning “Mute English”.Therefore,we must not only reform in the environment,equiment of English learning,but also in the teaching mode and the examination System.
Although there exists many problem,I think it will be better if we try to it.
In my point of view, we do need TEL reform. Why not separate the students who want to learn English well from those who don’t want to learn English since not everyone need to learn English in China. We should economize the limited resource to students who intent to learn English well. The school should update the equipments such as sound labs, computer labs, multi-media classroom, establish the English speaking environment for those students. So they can have more chances to read more, listen more, write more and speak more English. Only in this way can students acquire English and produce comprehensible oral and written English.
I haven’t seen any true reforms of education in China, not to mention that there isn’t one of EFL. Most of the so-called reforms are complete bullshit. There won’t be any effective reforms as long as we rate a student by mark only. The victims of all the reforms of education in China by far are students and teachers. So just forget about the reform.
I start to learn English when I was 14 years old. I still remerber that there was only a teacher ,a book and a blackboard in the class.We reading ,writing,speaking but no listening.Because we have no equipment for listening!Can you believe that until the final exam we listened for the first time using a radio.Amazing,is not it? As the developing of China ,the economic level have a great improment.Now Multi-media classrooms, computer labs have been used for English teaching.So we have the facilities to improve our English now.But there still exit many probloms,for example ,the oral English .
But China is growing ,I think the probloms will be solved later or sooner.
Obviously the problems that Professor Martin points out exist in our country,and I beleive they will still exist in the future.Insofar as it can be ascertained,our governments don’t pay much attention to the reforms and they won’t try hard to solve the problems which occur in the reforms.And our teachers don’t care much about the reforms. To improve the overall level of English of our society,there is a long way to go.
To help the students to learn English, the reform initiated by Ministry of Education supply better equipments for the colleges.
As a fact, the better equipments, for instance, multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries are not fully used. The equipments are usually used for the teaching in the class. When the class is over, the students are not permitted to use the equipments or there are lots of limits on using them. Why did it happen?
Because the leaders of the colleges think that the equipments are expensive. If the equipments are open to be used by the students, it will cause much more extra work. Accordingly, the equipments are not fully used by the students because of the laziness of the staffs in colleges. The reform failed in most areas of China.
Generally speaking, reform only on the equipments is not enough. The most important reform depends on changing the thoughts.
The government has made the efforts to improve people’s English, but have not got the achievement.However, in my opinion, the leaders didn’t get the key problem. The most important thing to promot the present situation is to make better English environment, not the instrument or bring in foreign native Engish speakers.I think the education system should be changed. And we should know English is a kind of language that need to use and speak from people’s mouth, not just use it to pass the exam.
What does reform mean？It doesn’t mean that some of the skin-deep changes, but it means that changes taken places in deeper system. We Chinese need open our mind and do things without blindness. The overseas students study foreign language also, Chinese, Japanese and the others, most of them can be divided into two parts: one, they want a job there; second, they get interested in foreign language. So we can do some comparison with them. English is a necessary subject of every student in every stage of their study. Is studying English so important? I don’t think so, and I’m wondering what would happen if the same efforts were paid to economics or some other subjects like architecture.
I have never thought of these equipment. But nowadays, most of the students in the university have their own PCs or the opportunity to use a PC. I think it’s only a matter of attitude.
But for the universities, it’s their duty to provide the students with sufficient resource and a comfortable environment to study. If they really buy a lot of luxuries, while the studying facilities are in an inoperable state of disrepair or nonexistence, they are the ones to be blamed for.
Through the college survey, we know that the modern equipments are either of no service or used in an improper way. The reform of the Ministry of Education was proved useless. Who is to blame for this, I have no idea. I have seen quite a lot of good policies turn out to be formalistic, as the old saying goes, the higher have policies while the lower own ways of getting around them. In my opinion, it is the teaching methods rather than the equipments that need a reform.
China is a developing country, and east of china develops faster than the western, Economic develops unevenly. Reform requires our country make measures according to the specific conditions. But I want to say is that English reform is not just equipment updating, we should reform the education system. Most universities have had lots of excellent facilities, but there are many students cannot speak English either. Why? As to English teachers, they should focus not only on the achievements but also the practical application. As to learners of English, they should speak English, CET4 and CET6 is not the point. Teachers should change their way to teach students, learners should change methods to learn English. So I think the education system is supposed to reform. Such that a reform is a real reform, a reform is a effective reform. The reform of China’s English language will take a very long way to go.
“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.”
From the comment above, we may easily know that the reform is not succeed. Though trying so hard for several years, achievement is too limited to be mentioned. I think the main reason for the failure is that the reform is limited in the teaching form, but the fundamental factor–how can one be considered excellent without exam —is not yet determined, only can we get a higher mark to prove our ability. The more way to prove, the easier the reform will be. Now the resistance mainly lies in the teachers, who are unwilling to change for their salary hook up with the mark.
In my opinion, our Holistci English teacher really set a good example. The website undoutedly benefit us. It is also a new form or way to elevate students’ holistic English level.
Also I think that our country need TEL reform, we shoud optimizely used the means of multi-media, and make the students learn English comprehensively! We shoudn’t waste the resources we have. There is also a very long way to go!
When we talk about reform, lots of rules and limits will be followed naturally. So it is quite difficult to achieve our ambitions. Obviously, there might be some modern equipments for English learning in our school, but the fact is that we never use it. What’s more, I think those just contribute to the Evaluation of Instruction in some ways.
Therefore, we must try our best to change this situation, and it is not easy. In a word, we still have a lot of work to do.
In my opinion,the motive of The Ministry of Education to reform EFL education is good,but there is a gap between the ideal and the reality,so the reform cannot carried out successfully.There are a lot of reasons.Firstly,the reform should be carried out according to local economic level,some place cannot afford the expense of the reform.Secondly,in some place,the reform is just formalism,the reform cannot carried out in accordance with original desire.The policy implement is not a new problem.Some schools buy a lot of expensive equipments just for the purpose of copying with the inspection from the superiors,not for the use of promoting students’ study.In spite of this,I still think we should improve our English by ourselves,not the reform.
What does reform mean? Just like the article says: The aim is to modernize EFL teaching on campus and to push it out of its traditional track and to equip it with better technology. But what we see in the university? No reform or inappropriate reform!
There is no English multi-media classrooms, no English sound labs and no English acquisition libraries. Because the staffs know little English so they do not know how to operate with an English program and then all the program are in Chinese.
To reach the aims of the reform, the chief administrator should increase the intensity to improve the facilities and play an paramount role to create an English speaking environment.
As we learned from this article, the reform launched by the Ministry of Education do has some deficiencies. But actually, I think reform may be a kind of gradual progress, which can only be achieved step by step. There will be one day in the future the Ministry of Education realizes the lacking and makes a better and more reasonable reform.
Yeah, real EFL reform that helps. I remember that there was a sound lab in my middle school. But we didn’t use it very often, it just for the inspection of the leaders. There are so many colleges in China that it’s difficult to carry out the reform in all the colleges. Many of us do not know the reform. The ministry of education should publicize the reform effectively. And the government should spend more money to help some colleges that do not have so much money. This is a long term work. I think we can improve the whole English level in our country if we insist on the reform.
I am sure that our Chinese government has done something to reform the English education system. And I appreciate it, but I have to say that the effect of the reform is so little that it cannot be contrasted to the input of money and time to the reform, such as the money and the time of multi-media classrooms, computer labs, sound labs and English acquisition libraries. I hope our Chinese government can reform our system after serious thinking about it, so we can reform it more efficiently.
We need the English education reform.But I think the equipment reform is not so important as those ideas mentioned in “4 lies”. In fact it is easier to push a equipment reform than change people’s mentality. We need change our attitude to English learning.The ministry of education should review the system and reform the system.
Reform Means reform , I can understand the teacher what did you think .you know china is a developing country and has 1.3 billion people. Many colleges or universities share a few money that government offer, but it is far from what the colleges need. But China has a huge population so that it give little money to the school. Although the government promise me to improve the equipment , the government do as much as possible. The other country usually deny their promise.
In general, reform takes a long time to implement, especially the reform of pedagogy and methodology. After a few years, many colleges in China are well equipped with multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs and even English acquisition libraries. All colleges would like to increase the modern equipments to improve their influence but they do not pay more attention to create English speaking environments which are so intangible from that the administration of the college cannot get the interest.
Now China Ministry of Education specify the new orientation of the English education reform: create English speaking environment. I think that is a great step to improve the so-so situation of English education in China, though. Although that may become an armchair strategist, we find out the proper way at least. Therefore, in the future China Ministry of Education should figure out how to bring these new measures into effect.
At least in my eyes, there is no shadow of the reformation, at least no useful way we’ve get from the reformation. I have to say that Chinese government is surely willing to reform successfully, but everyone knows that it’s so long a way to run. People shouldn’t expect to have a beautiful sight quickly in such a short time. Even they have not find the best right way to reform. So what we can do is to learn more, to think more and maybe one day we can get a idea from what we learn that make our reformation better.
Yes, it is the point. In English learning method, we still have a long way to go. But I believe our educated system will be better and better.
I think the reform is good,though there are still many problems it faces and it owns.But we can not count on it to change everything over a night,which is impossible.After having the facilities ,what we have to do is use them properly and adequately,do not leave them only to be a propaganda.
Actually,we have make great effort to reform our English education system,it did make great progress in recourse supply,such as equipment,courses,books in library.However,it seems to be useless to appeal to us for English study.In essence,the public just focus on our marks,and they ignore that how we can put the knowledge into pratise.So the reform became an approach for evaluation of education quality.The more English education recourse we have,the better we learn English.We can not deny the fact that the administration of colleges don’t recognize the core of English study.It dues to the attitude,and reform is also decoration of surface.It’s very common to operate the reform of that kind in China.
When it comes to the English speaking environment ,i’d like to say that we ingnore its exsistence more or less in our daily life no matter how friendly it is.for example,you can try to express what you thought about in english when you are in front of a buiding which has a style of Oriental laste or came across an old fashiond song.
May be if we had done this or at least made an effort to reach it,we had been lernning english well,moreover,there is no reason for us to wait for the prepared English speaking environment , i beleieve.so just do it!
We all know that china has a large population and the territory is large too .In china ,you can easily tell a lot of differences between the easten and western or center .every aspect developing in china is unbalanced , including the english learning .
I had been teaching badminton for two monthes this summer ,most of the players are aged from 9-13 . during the training , some kid would blurte out word or sentence in english .I found that their english is much better than our generation when we are at their age .People in china learning english is becoming earlier and earlier , and the mean level is getting higher and higher .
We need reform indeed. Just like the article says:though we have the equiments those are needed to improve our English level,we do not make full use of them.Using them few or even never.It is a waste of not only money but also resource.It is time to operate the reform.There must be a lot of difficulties especially at the beginning ,we should insist on it for the future not only the students’ but also we China’s.