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 ↩
My answer is every student in china need to learn English rather than everyone in china.because they have no chance to use English in their daily life. While those students in classroom, who mean the promising future of our country, do need to learn English. We are living in a global community, more and more international information must be input and exchanged. To catch up with the outside world, every student should learn the worldwide official language-English.
To stop these lies,we can change our attitude—if you really need English,just know that there is a long way still to go,and there is no short-cut.Studing English in life.You are never too old to learn.
In china, it is true that the article mentioned. There are few colleges and universities which have enough multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries in our country. The important reason is my country is not too rich to shoulder the vast fees. We have many other matters to solve. Such as the people who were living in the death of the edge, some remote place’s traffic questions, the science and technology’s improving and so on. That is all urgent problems. Otherwise our country is improving to modernize which casts more money and manpower. So in lots colleges and universities can appear that circumstance. But if the schools have this good condition, it is false that they could not completely open to students. About this question the ministry of education should reform it.
Now every school is reforming the condition of learning English for students. So it is impossible to reform absolutely one time. We can achieve the reform step by step.
Yes, the education in china has many many problem, but in this article, i just see it is only about the reform arranged by the education department of china, and it simply said better than done. Many Universities in different areas of china cannot afford such reform. It need money, but how can people put their attentions to education in spite of they are hungry, especially in western china. What a education reform mean, I think it need more people to know this, more people to participate in, and more people to know how the education reform is going on, how the money are using. The education means develop to China, means existence in the future to Chinese man. NO ONE CAN NEGLECT IT.
Is the reform of hardware important? Maybe yes. But all my schools from elementary to college have the multi-media classrooms, my English is always poor. They just show the high level of one school, not for English. Before college, we can use the multi-media classroom when the leaders from superior listened to the lesson. In the college, it was only convenience to help teachers ask question for students. I didn’t feel its other function. I don’t think it is good for studying English. So the only hardware reform is not useful for English teaching. The point is how to use it, and who use it. If no one use it well, it can’t show its good function.
It is true that a lot of colleges and universities are lack of multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries, and an English speaking environment as well. There are many reasons contribute to this, such as lack of money, the number of English speakers is small, and so on. So some things should be done to solve this problem.
The first thing we should done is to change our minds. Most students’ main purpose to study English is to get credit, pass examinations, and obtain a good job, but not to communicate with others in English, and enjoy learning English. So when learning English is a burden on our shoulders, how can we enjoy learning English and improve our English consciously.
So the first thing to do should be the change of people’s incorrect ideas. If this has done, some things will be changed and different from what we observe now. Next step should be the reform of equipment and environment.
It reveals to us that the deficiency of device(such as multi-media rooms,computer labs,English acquisition library)and English speaking environment still exist everywhere in China.Implicitly that means the mandate of reform has not been implemented.
Why don’t they want reform? Because of it is absolutely wrong or it do not benifit to do so? Reform means to change the ineffective English education system into an effective one.It has to deal with the problem of vested interest.But as they can change Russian teachers into English teachers how could it be impossible for them to train English teachers into effective teachers?In this way who benifits from the old system do not
have to give up their interest,what they need is to do their job by a new way,maybe the correct way. It is easy talking than doing.
First we must admit Chinese government do care about English teaching, much money has been invested, but they ignore the executive force of colleges, though we have good hardware systems, students still gain little from it. We can’t use multi-media classrooms except English lessons; I doubt how students can make progress if we can use it only once a week. Besides hardware, software is also important, including active English speaking environment, attitude toward English learning. It’s true that interest is the best teacher, how to make students be interested in English and learn actively should be considered mostly, which can’t be solved by merely adding some technical machines.
China is a country with a great population. And the universal education is a great problem to China. Do we have enough money and supplies for the education constructions? I think we don’t, due to the huge number of Chinese people and the developing economic status. So I think the lack of great equipments for English study is accessible. I witness to the improvement of English education environment in my twenty two years living in China. Maybe the English education system, including the education equipments and environment, is not that perfect yet. But I believe it will be better and better day by day as China develops. We just need some time.
I think the reason why many colleges don’t use the multi-media classrooms is the national English competency exams. Teachers rather expect their students to spend the time doing more test papers to prepare their CETs instead of attending multi-media class. They believe it is a waste of time watching any English videos. And a lot of students think English is just a tool to assistant their research. Therefore, they don’t think much of English.
In China, we often see the phenomenon that universities buy many sets of devices to help the students study English, but the effects are not very satisfying: the students just passed the varieties of examinations, but actually their English-communicational skills don’t developed very well. I think the viewpoint of this article is very corret, reform is needed on today’s Chinese campus, both on the enviroment and equipments.
I am a little disappointed for this survey but I am not very disappointed for the government or the school. Maybe they didn’t try their best to meliorate the environment, but at least I think it is OK in my school. As now as I know, nearly all the classroom in my university has multi-media and there is a English library too. However, I can infer that our school is one of which own the best English teaching equipment. Then the survey is really credible. I suppose that some school in the center and west china may be in a poor condition of no multi-media classroom or any English lib. I hope this actuality will be changed as quickly as possible with the development of the economy.
In another hand, the English speaking environment is really not good. There is few teachers inspiring the students to do it and also the undergraduate do not try their every effort to improve their oral English and create a English speaking campus. As a result, most of the people have a poor tongue. It needs us to try hard to construct a effectual and scientific English learning environment.
Maybe because I was in 1st universities during my undergraduate and grad, I didn’t feel much inconvenience learning English with multi-media equipments and English libraries. But after I read the survey, I felt a little shock that so many colleges in our country were lacking of the basic equipment for English learning. That was sad. The Ministry of Education was totally responsible for it. However, there may be some reasons: the colleges were lacking of expenditure to improve their equipment; the ministry of education could not afford all the requests so that they could only satisfy the 1st university and so on. I hope this situation would get better.
According to the surveys in this article, the polarization between the rich area and the poor area is still a hard nut to crack in China. The Ministry of Education has launched a campaign to reform EFL education by equipping campuses with better technology. For students in the eastern or southern China, we never worried about the multi-media classrooms, the computer labs, the sound labs and the English acquisition libraries. We never consider it as a big deal. Now we know that in the central and western China, students are still in poor English acquisition condition. They’re lack of equipments. The government said they want to make part of the people become rich firstly, and then the next step, all of the people become average rich. What a bull shit. I don’t think this policy is suitable for education reform. With unfair policies, maybe it’ll take thousands years for the poor area to catch the rich area.
After I read the article, I have some thinking. Of course, the facilities such as projector, multi-media classroom, computer labs, sound labs can improve our teaching quality. But why many schools and universities which have these advanced facilities do not take full advantage of them. And when the facilities are broken, no one will go to repair them until leaders require or leaders will come to inspect. So sometimes many facilities are decorations. While the facilities can help students learn English, in my opinion, schools and universities should make full use of the facilities but not leave them unused.
Nowadays in china as is mentioned in the article, it is true that many universities or colleges especially those in the west of china are lack of enough basic facilities such as multi-media classrooms, sound labs and English acquisition libraries, for students to learn English. There are many reasons, I figure, could account for this. First of all, China is still a developing country with a large population, there are still more than 20 million people living at an extremely low economic level. The most urgent task for china government now is to eliminate poverty radically. More over, the east-west gap between rich and poor in china is increasing widen, and more money are needed to improve the infrastructural construction such as traffic, basic medical insurance and so on. What’s equally important, corruption in china is serious. This is the real situation in china. China was founded just sixty years, building a strong, prosperous, democratic and harmonious society there is a long way we need to go.
It is a fact that the article mentioned, this is also a common defect and phenomenon exist in china “there is very different between saying and doning” when the Ministry of Education launched a new campaign to reform EFL education,china has also bulit multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries and the creation of English speaking environments, but there are a lot of unqualified and just a phenomenon, is not the case.
So we need to real reform.
First of all, I have to admit that multi-media classrooms, sound labs and English acquisition librares do have great help to learn English better. And it is fact that many colleges those in the west of china are lack of such staff for the financial reasons. But what is the point? We get a lot of other ways to learn it well.
It is true that lots of colleges and universities are lack of multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries. many reasons contribute to this phenomena, the biggest problem is lack of money, that is a situation we can not avoid in a developing country especially for china, whose population is 1.3 billion. but in the same time, we should take more faces into account. most universities in china provide enough multi-media classrooms to students, and they are free to use it. But why so many students can not speak fluent English? So the point is that reform is not only refer to hard software reform, but also refer to software reform. Specifically, we should improve our education system ,also our attitude towards education, especially English learning.
This passage may reflect the actual situation of Chinese reform on English teaching in some way. However, further discussion should be raised about the evidence mentioned above. Now it is the true that multi-media classroom development is out of phase in the big China. Well, it can be comprehended because the nationwide popular multi-media classroom needs a process. It cannot neglect that the wifi-notebook is introduced into some mountain areas in China. This is just one example of our efforts to push the process faster. There is a similar situation on the English acquisition library.
What’s more? The case, which the Administration surveyed possessed numerous late model luxury sedans while student facilities languished, is also turned up in the USA. It is just like the CEOs still get a huge salary during the company facing the bankruptcy in the financial crisis. Shame on them!
Education in China is a big and long-lasting problem. Our prime minister Wen Jia-bao has written several articles questioning the education in China. About one week ago, the “Father of China’s Atomic Bomb”, Qian Xue-sen died. In the late of his life, he was worried about China’s education, and intended to find out the crux and solution. Pity that he couldn’t see the essential reform of education, and his well-known question “why couldn’t China produce outstanding sholars?”, is left to the public.
The problems in English education more or less reflect main problems in the education. Like low educational input, eudcational corruption, educational system problems, poor educational fundation, etc.
Recently, the secretary of education has been changed, and some new policy has been worked out to improve the educational condition in China. Hope that they will work.
I am shocked that the reform is totally ineffective and abortive, it is costly and exhausting but disappointing. But why? From the article, we can see the lack of investment though the large quantity of financial subsidy, and the relatively adequate equipment without full use. I admit that there is short of construction, but definitely there are extravagance and waste all over the Chinese universities; and it is true that the students are given insufficient opportunities, but no doubt there are a lot of idle facilities around them. So maybe it is our thought that needs to be transformed. As the article says, An ESE is all about comprehensible input instead of many foreign native English teachers and endless boring English Corners. In my opinion, firstly we have to hold strong passion and desire to speak English, and then we can take full use of whatever we can use to make an improvement voluntarily.
Nowaday chinese universities have big enrollment for students, the number of university students is increasing , the teaching of universities english has gradually become a large group teaching.At the same time, because people are misunderstanding the concept that what the girls have comparative advantage to learn English language, leading to college english teachers are being young and feminine direction, and that the discipline of english is very detrimental to the development of EFL in china.
Reform is always easy to proclaim but hard to implement. Government and schools have realize the important of English and try to reform in several ways mentioned above in the article such as building multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries and so on. However, concerning the unbalanced development between areas, the educational resources distribute disproportionately, that means it is really not the case for some solitude schools to have something as the multi-media classroom.
In the other hind, reform relies on the will to reform, if you have a strong will enough, you can do so. A school which is money limited can make effort to build an truly English Speaking Environment in school. Some time, building an ESE do not need so much money, and it is the true way to make most effect. So does reform need more practical conditions or more will? It has to be continually discussed.
Multi-media classroom, computer labs, sound labs and English acquisition libraries are common in university now. However, few effects are come out. For example, we can only use the multi-media classroom when we have English class. In our spare time, we cannot get inside and use the equipments. Also, none of the equipments are programmed in English. It is impossible to improve your English when you are still in the Chinese environment
These modem classrooms are meant to improve the users’ English level. However, few of them provide English speaking environment as mentioned in Martin’s article. Nowadays, EFL education is the current to learn English, but we should use it properly and try our best to build the ESE, even though the details. Build an English speaking environment is very important to our English study.
As we can see from the article, although many universities have been equipped English teaching facilities, they can’t meet the needs for acquisition English. Almost all of them are programmed in Chinese, and some of them are even out of work. So, the universities haven’t fully executed what the ministry of education said. But it is glad to see that our country has spared an effort to English education and we find the problems.
During the next step, we should focus on creating English environment. The teaching facilities should be programmed in English. The staffs who work in the English classrooms are supposed to be able to speak English with the students. In a word, all the words in the English teaching classroom should be English so that the students can truly acquire English.
China is a developing country,so some devices are not very good.Lots of schools take the cost into consideration so most of the devices are unavailable except taking classes.Frankly speaking,devices can make us learn english more convient,but I think it only play a less important part in learning English.What should be reformed is the educating system.Only the teaching methods are changed,it will benefit English learning
It is good news that the ministry of education wants to do some changes. It is true that there are many universities lack of modernization equipment. But what university in China really needs is not equipment but the English speaking environments. Even if each university has enough modernization equipments, there still will be many students who can’t speak English fluently just like now. The real reform we need is the English speaking environment. It means that what we need is the change of policy but not only the increasing of education finance.
Having study in Sun Yat-sen University for four years, I don’t think SYSU is lack of enough basic facilities, such as multi-media classrooms, computer labs, sound labs and English acquisition libraries for us to study English. There are many multi-media classrooms, computer labs, with lots of new computer with access to the World Wide Web, and sound labs to meet our need to study English, especially in Zhuhai campus. And the libraries in all our four campuses have lots of English books of almost every subject. Unfortunately, few students make full use of these facilities to improving our English.
However, a lot of schools in west area of China are lack of these basic facilities, which should be attached importance to by the ministry of education.
I have not thought about the reform problem until I read this paper.I thought the schools were not trying to build up English study environment most similar to that of other countries.It is really hard for them to do than to say when they would like to perform a reform in TEFL.I was sure that basic facilities were necessary for studying English.While the most important problem was that our determination to gain it.
It is true that there are many different teaching conditions between the West and the East. China has vast territory and a large population,. With the economic developing, the East run fater than others, for its convenient traffic and appropriate natural environment. Every industry develops well because of the fast economy. And the educational surrounddings would be better. It needs a process to make two sides come to a balance. In fact, the difference of educational situation is common in many countries. Our country support the poor area in education every year. One day, students in the West will have multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs to study in. Creating English speaking environment is an effective way at present.
Although madern classrooms meat to improve user’s level, few of them really make full use of the mentioned rooms’ function. I think , learning by heart is really important.
I always try to believe that I will a bright new education experience, when the Ministry of Education lanched some campaigns boasting they would reform the education. But again and again, I found nothing much reformed. China is such a large country with such a large number of people. It’s too difficult for every school to reform as the Ministry claimed. Even the officials of the college insist on reforming, they can only reform the hardware. The most important thing of English education is the how the teachers teach and the how the students are examined. If these two things are not changed, reform is just a hollow word.
As is mentioned in another article, it is complicated. When one is in that position, in that situation, he or she may be forced to ignore some facts though he or she doesn’t mean to before. As for us common people, we just try our best to make our living and hope to bring some good influence on the people and environment around us, for a brighter future of our country. But it is really a pity that students and education aren’t paid as much attention to as they should because they are the future of the country.
As far as I know, there is few schools that could make all the representations—multimedia classroom, computer labs and sound labs, english acquisition libraries, english speaking environment. But it doesn’t mean a complete failure of the Ministry of Education’s mandate. I believe there exist some objective difficulties that couldn’t be overcome immediately. First, running a school needs adequate funding, which can be raised from the government, the society and the students. Limited to China’s actual condition, we have to pour the finite funding into the basical facilities rather than the full scale implementation for english acquisition. Some well-developed areas can achieve the goal first, and subsequently bring along other areas. Second, most often these modern facilities might be serving some people actually for not everyone could afford much time on english. So the suggestion would get some support but no full support. In a word, the standpoint of the reform is great, but it just need time and energy to push ahead in more sound and pratical ways.
To change our thought for the English teaching .Take is as a pleasure thing,not for a misson that is horrible.Just for this ,we only can rise our interests in English.
To add more English equipment for our English teaching classroom .English teaching is not like this: the teacher explain each word in the platform,the students listen the lecture,and do what the teacher allowed.
To use English in our ordinary life and study. Just for this ,we can have the chance to improve our English attimulate,and make our English level higher.
I spent the 15 years ahead in my hometown in inland area and transferred for high school education and college years in coastal area of China. I have seen many differences and resemblances in English teaching styles.
We were taught English from Grade 1 in junior high school in hometown. I have seldom seen English books in our school library. Though we had so-called English multi-media classes and computer labs& sound labs, school authorities seldom permitted using them in classes. It was only for superior inspections.
When I spent high school years in coastal areas I found it’s all the same more or less. Although school had much better and more equipments, we have never used it; We have foreign teachers for oral classes once two weeks, but we could hardly set an ESE environment. I can say that’s because the extreme pressure of college entrance examination and we just couldn’t do it such way, same as our teachers and school.
Firstly,one of the reasons of many colleges or universities in China don’ have enough multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries is that the country can’t affort the vast fees. And sometimes, the resources, including educational resource is gathered in some areas where the utilization rate of resources is high. That’s one of the basic principles of economic geography, especially in the developing countries in which not enough resource can be distributed to everywhere.
Secondly, some schools have nough facilities mentioned in the article, but they don’t fully use them. The reason may be the examination system imposed by the ministry of education.
Thirdly, reform can’t be carried out one time, but the situation can be improved step by step.
I have never thought about this problem before.After reading this article,I realise it’s ture that the reform is not mean.But this question is hard to solve.Government’s education funds are limited.It can not meet all the requirements of colleges and universities.However, in recent years, the government has stepped up its support for education in central and western areas, this situation is solved partially.As for why school leaders have money to buy luxury cars, maybe they have their own reasons,this is not our student could talk about.
Known to the people all around the world, china is a developing country. Although our economic progress has some achievement, the educational foundations are still strong enough to support all the demands of the universities in china. In general, reform takes a long time to implement, especially the reform of education. In the 21st century, 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 the money is really a big problem. So it has nothing strange to see that numerous of schools in poor area have no modern teaching equipments as well as numerous of school leaders keep corrupting. Sometimes the social system is the root of this harsh problem, but we can’t change it.
From this article I can see the true meaning of “reform” , and I realize what Chinese schools have done are beyond this definition and standard. We are in a state of deficiency of multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs, English aquisition libraries and ESE. I think that administrators of English department have considered the definition of “reform” differently.
China is a country with large population so it will might be a long time to complete the process of reforming EFL. I can remember we had little multi-media facilities when I was in junior school, not talking about computer labs or ESE. But in ten years, we have already had multi-media classrooms in nearly every universities although some of them are inoperative or defective. The point is we don’t have the right definition of “reform”, especially about creating an ESE. Perhaps what we can do is suggesting our administrators creating a good English learning environment, such as computer labs and sound labs, English aquisition libraries and ESE for us. Besides, the most practical one is our creating ESE by ourselves.
What does reform mean? This question is worth thinking. According to the surveys in this artcle, a lot of equipments such as muti-media classrooms, computer labs, sound labs and Englsih acquisition libraries in many universities and colleges can’t work. Why does this phenomenon come up?
In my opinion, to begin with, with China’s economic developmen, the ministry of education makes efforts to modernize EFL teaching in campus. Moreoveer, many problems in China is waiting for being done. So the reform should go ahead step by step. Then, the managers of equipments don’t want students to enter muti-media classrooms and computers labs. Because the students entering muti-media classrooms and computers labs may be produce rubbish and destruct equipments, which will bring them much trouble. Third, the president of universities may be think there aren’t so much money to maintain equipments and students entering the labs may be not study Englsih. Fourth, teachers believe that it is not useful for students to the labs where they often play computer games. Fifth, students themselves don’t attach importantce to learn English in the labs.
The reform has long way to go. It needs all the people to take part in. I believe, as time goes and with China’s economic development, the reform will be successful.
First i admit Chinese government do care about English teaching, much money has been invested, but they ignore the executive force of colleges. We can’t use multi-media classrooms except English lessons; I doubt how students can make progress if we can use it only once a week. Besides, software is also important, including active English speaking environment, attitude toward English learning. How to make students be interested in English and learn actively should be considered mostly, which can’t be solved by merely adding some technical machines.
It is time for our goverment start to arouse the interest of our english studing.And it is also a curcial role that student do their utmost to get down to english studing.
There is no doubt that these equipment are necessary .It is a truth that lots of universities are short of the facilities such as sound labs, English acquisition libraries.Why?Are these unimportant?No,because China is a developing country and has lots of problems which need to be solved, adding that the budget is limited.So the situation can not be changed during the short period .However,there are other things we can do. We should pay more attention to improve our soft environment.For example,improving the interesting of classes.as the saying goes”the interest is best teacher”,contacting the family,let the parents create the English environment.such as putting some English songs,English TV and so on
What does reform mean? Reform means changing the situation to make more progress.
In china, “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.” They set up many hardware equipments .such as, MULTI-MEDIA CLASSROOMS COMPUTER LABS AND SOUND LABS ,ENGLISH ACQUISITION LIBRARIES, ENGLISH SPEAKING ENVIRONMENT and so on. However, they so not work! So this reform does not mean! It just wastes out tax!
Why do these conditions occur? In my opinion, this contributes to this reason which we are too eager to achieve success ignoring the truth of the teaching English.
In China, we must recognize that the problem of uneven development. From the article, we can see the lack of investment though the large quantity of financial subsidy, and the relatively adequate equipment without full use. I think it is a very normal phenomenon. Of course, the phenomenon of the article reflected is bad.
The title of the article is Does Reform Mean? Of course not. The definition of reform in our country is to make coastal regions get rich first, and then coastal areas help the central and western regions to get rich. Therefore, it was impossible to achieve the Balanced development in the whole of China.
The Western world, do not impose the set of equality, freedom and democracy to China now, we will eventually realize common prosperity in the future.
Lots of efforts have been done to EFL education reformation in China, but the effect is not so marked. Maybe it is a common phenomenon in China which we are unwilling to face. Many reformations are necessary for English learning such as English speaking environment. English Corner is far from enough. Universities need an environment that can fully influence each person. That will require greater efforts in the future.
Maybe we should criticise the phenomenon from comprehensive ways. Indeed, we have lots of equipments some of which are inoperable, but it should be realized that we have too many problems to resolve, such as equal access to education and limited maintenance program funds. From my view of point, multi media classroom and language laboratory are not as important as creating an English Speaking Environment. Therefore, determinations, brave heart to frustrations,
right concepts and encouragement from the public is enough to acquire English as a foreign language through creating an ESE. Maybe we can have a change in English learning if National Ministry of education can have a complete reform of English education system and our university students put acquiring English in practice diligently. Still, the National English Test such as CET-4 and CET-6 which have had some positive effects on English education, should not be abolished before a better English-acquiring promoting system are constructed.
According to Wikipedia, reform means beneficial change, or sometimes, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state. Reform may be no more than fine tuning, or at most redressing serious wrongs without altering the fundamentals of the system. Reform seeks to improve the system as it stands, never to overthrow it wholesale.
It’s a disappointment that the survey shows a complete failure of the Ministry of Education’s reform on EFL education. It’s a fact that most of the universities lack of teaching equipments, because the Administration of each college and university didn’t realize the necessity of English learning. All they do would be just decorating the exterior. They might be satisfied with their vested interest. They would not like to take a risk. Maybe these are all caused by the public cognition – in China, Chinese is OK, there is no necessity of speaking English.
To those who are forced to learn English, the language acquisition pedagogy and methodology play weak roles. Multi-media classrooms, computer labs and sound labs are just labs; English acquisition libraries and the creation of English speaking environments are useless.
It’s above reproach that we have to update the hardware of English learning. The government is not to blame for spending so many money with little outcome, they just wish well. They have to do these updates for the situation of developing economy.
To those who are willing to learn English better, they can do well even without any reform of the hardware. What they would like to do is just keep their self-awareness.
I have no idea, who can say. Reform is a double-edged sword. Maybe the multi-media classrooms, the computer labs and sound labs, the English acquisition libraries and the creation of English speaking environments could explain it to some extent, But that’s not for all. We also have much to do. And it’s not an easy job. However, our country has spared no effort to improve it. And more efforts will be made. English speaking environments will come one day.
There is not any concrete reform in China. I think you took too long time to realize that. Your survey is full of details. You did a lot of work to show us the true condition of English education in China. Under present circumstances, it’s quite difficult to make changes because people have already gotten used to the old form of English teaching. Further more, if the defective examination system of English level continues to exist, the ability of practical application of English would never be paid more attention to. I wish your efforts would take effect in the not-to-far future.