JOURNALS

All of China’s Universities and colleges publish an in-house journal. They are all published in Chinese. Even China’s three most famous foreign language universities publish exclusively in Chinese. The Beijing Foreign Studies University, Shanghai Foreign Studies University and the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies refuse any article written in English. (There may be the occasional exception for an article in English by an internationally famous linguist.) This policy can be viewed as racist or bigoted because it precludes articles written by the 250,000 foreign teachers working throughout China and it keeps the foreign teachers in the dark about developments in Chinese higher education.

The primary reason given for this “Chinese only” policy is that the readers are all Chinese.  This is a self-fulfilling policy. Of course only Chinese, or those who know Mandarin, will read something written in Chinese.  Articles about teaching English in China will primarily be read by Chinese teachers of English.  If they are teaching English, they certainly should be able to read an article in English about teaching English. If not, they should not be teaching English.

However, a high English Department official claims that a person who can’t write good English can still be a good teacher of English writing. This coincides with the widely held opinion in China that anyone who can speak English can teach English. This is profoundly ignorant and demeaning to the teaching profession.

The language of communication of most, if not all, Chinese university English Departments is Chinese.  The main reason given is that they want to be precise in the message conveyed and certain it is understood. In other words, the English staffs have poor English. These are the very people teaching English. In one study, only eight out of forty Chinese teachers of English have sufficient English skills to teach in the target language, ENGLISH.

Apparently Chinese teachers of English do not know enough about second language acquisition to realize that the only way their English is going to improve is by reading, listening, writing and speaking more English. This brings us back to the Foreign Studies Universities journals published in Chinese only. They could be part of the solution by publishing articles to be written and read by Chinese teachers of English, in English. This would force them to write and read more English. The journals are reflective of the school’s leadership who also communicate exclusively in Chinese.

The Chinese university journals do not reflect China’s opening up but continue the secretive closed door of years past.  Instead of being part of any solution, they perpetuate the problem.  English in China Today at Harbin Institute of Technology is the first Chinese university publication in English about Chinese teaching English in China.  It gives our teachers a learning experience through the editing process and affords them an opportunity to write and read more English.  This effort constitutes a paradigm shift from English learning to English acquisition and puts Harbin Institute of Technology on the cutting edge of effective and meaningful reform of English teaching in China.

Chinese university journals should refuse to publish articles about the English language or the teaching thereof, unless they are written in English. Anything else is as useless as lipstick on a pig.

A post-grad student adds:

Andy PG6 Harbin Institute of Technology January 1, 2012

In my opinion, many English teachers write the article is just for the leadership to see, so they can only write Chinese, China’s title appraisal system hurt them. They must publish a number of papers in core journals, which are closely related with their title and bonuses. Second, English teacher live a long life in Chinese atmosphere, so when they write the articles, the first response was not in English but Chinese. They have been used to the translate Chinese into English.

So the failure of the English education, English teacher is an important reason, if English teacher doesn’t change, China English teaching will not have the hope! I hope English teacher from the primary school began to require himself to write in English, to read English and recite English together with his students, so as to build an English learning atmosphere.