Preview

Adapting Communicative Language Teaching Approach to China’s Context

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2838 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Adapting Communicative Language Teaching Approach to China’s Context
1. Introduction
With the development of market economy, China is accelerating its steps to join the world family in commerce and cultural partnership. With the recent accession to the WTO, the long-awaited Olympic Games in Beijing, China has made learning English a national priority. English, with its unique status, has been taught in China for more than 100 years. Today, English is becoming more and more popular. It is a compulsory course for all Chinese students from primary school to university.
Clearly it is relatively easy to demonstrate the importance of English in current China. This essay intends to argue that to achieve success in English learning for Chinese students the methods of teaching must be reconsidered. Therefore this article is structured as follows: First, analyzing different types of English teaching methods in China and then focusing on the CLT Method. By analyzing and contrasting these English teaching methods, the need to change current English teaching methods in China will be discovered. Finally, explaining the problems of adopting the more modern CLT Approach and giving suggestions on how it may best be adapted to the Chinese context.
2. A Brief Introduction to English Teaching Methods in China
2.1 Grammar-Translation Method
English has been taught in China for more than 100 years. In the beginning stage, people did not have any experience on modern language teaching and learning, so they followed a European language teaching method
YE Jin (1978- ), Master of education, lecturer of School of Foreign Language, Shenzhen University; research fields: English language teaching methods, cross-cultural communication, educational assessment,which is used in teaching Greek and Latin in Middle Ages in Europe—Grammar-Translation Method. Some Chinese students become accustomed to this method in learning English and generally showed great interest in language structures and linguistic details. Most of them believe “we would like to know what



References: Barnhouse, K. 1981. Understanding and using learner strategies in teaching EFL in China: Notes on teaching English language literature in the People’s Republic of China. Unpublished manuscript. Campbell, K. & ZHAO Y. 1993. The dilemma of English language instruction in the People’s Republic of China. TESOL Journal, 2(4): 4-6. DUAN H. 1992. Research on English teaching. Xi’an: Shaanxi Normal University Press. Field, K. 2000. Issues in modern foreign languages teaching. London, Routledge/Falmer. Galloway, Ann. 1993. Communicative language teaching: An introduction and sample activities. Center for Applied Linguistics, ERIC Digest (June) HAN Y. 1979. The Thousand-li Horse. In: SHI Shun-li. (Ed.), Chinese classical prose. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. Harvey, P. 1985. A lesson to be learned: Chinese approach to language class. ELT Journal, 39 (3), 183-186. Johnson, K. & Morrow, K. 1981. Communication in the classroom. England: Longman Group Ltd. Littlewood, W. 1981. Communicative language teaching. Cambridge University Press. Nunan, David. 1989. Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambridge University Press. Widdowson, H. G. 1990. Aspects of language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ZUO H. et al. 1993. Investigation and analysis of China’s secondary English teaching. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Reliable Sources Worksheet

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages

    English has become more and more significant. In China, a big part of higher learning, is a…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Blue Ocean Strategy

    • 1658 Words
    • 7 Pages

    With the implementation of the policy of openness and reform, a great number of modem facilities and technologies were introduced into China. The situation indicated that the potential English teaching market was very huge. On the other hand, many of the schools purporting to teach English are less than good. They hire people who are not qualified to teach, and pay them poorly, while charging students big bucks. There are frequent articles in English language Chinese papers pointing out the inadequacies of the teachers.…

    • 1658 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Nunan, D (2003). The impact of English as a global language on educational policies and practices in the Asia-Pacific region. TESOL Quarterly. Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 589-613.…

    • 1875 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Chinese and English are two quite different languages that belong to two language families. When Chinese students study English, they tend to lose sight of the differences between the two languages. As more and more people begin to learn and use English, an unsatisfying problem appears. That is Chinglish, which appears in learners’ pronunciation, writing and translation. This term is familiar to every Chinese student. However, students don’t know the origin of Chinglish—the pidgin, let alone the difference between Chinglish and China English. Although there are several aspects which should be addressed to analyze the Chinglish and China English, such as phonetic, phonological, lexical, semantical, and syntactical aspect, the writer will only focus on phonetic aspect in this term paper. When the analysis on this aspect is presented, the quality of English teaching and the efficiency of English learning will be improved.…

    • 3398 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In order to keep up with the trend of globalization, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan had to outline some proposals for educational reform, including several proposals for the area of English language instruction. Educational reform in the country started in 1997 and is still an ongoing project at present. According to the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum Guidelines, the MOE initiated a new curriculum based on the Education Reform Action Plan for elementary and junior high schools in Taiwan in 1997 (MOE, Taiwan 2004). For years, English language instruction in Taiwan had been designed to begin in the first year of junior high school. However, with the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum, English language instruction was advanced to fifth and sixth grade in 2001 and to third and fourth grade in 2005 (MOE, Taiwan 2004; MOE Taiwan 2006). The second change in educational reform was the opening of textbooks for elementary and junior high schools to non-governmental publication. Previously, all textbooks were designed and published by the National Institute for Compilation and Translation. At present, textbook policy in Taiwan has shifted from a unified editorial system to an open examination and appraisal system (Huang 2005).…

    • 4692 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    With the rapid development of global economy and the increasingly frequent exchange of trade, technology, and culture between China and the other countries, people around the world are facing a more competitive and challenging era. There has been an increasing demand for professionals who have a mastery of English and business knowledge. This has heightened the needs for Business English study in the institutions of higher education and other educational institutions. How to cultivate qualified business language talents is what we should keep studying, and the curriculums are the most important. As we know, curriculums are the basic part of the English teaching. Whether the Foreign language curriculums design are scientific or not relates directly to the quality of the foreign language teaching.…

    • 3626 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Teaching English in Manipur

    • 7530 Words
    • 31 Pages

    CHAPTER NINE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND EDUCATION IN THAILAND: A DECADE OF CHANGE PORNAPIT DARASAWANG…

    • 7530 Words
    • 31 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Firstly, the majority of undergraduates studying in CUHK are admitted through the JUPAS system after taking the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE). For instance, over 80% of the students admitted in 2014 are from the JUPAS stream according to the admission statistics (CUHK, 2014). While the majority of JUPAS students whose first language is Chinese, the Non-JUPAS stream includes students from native English-speaking countries. As Englishisation is unlikely to have adverse impacts on the learning of students with English as their primary language, therefore, this study hopes to exclude them by only counting the ones from the JUPAS stream. Secondly, previous studies show that prior English proficiency may affect the content learning and second language learning of students in courses with English as the instruction medium (Hu & Lei, 2014; ) Since all students admitted through the JUPAS system have reached level 3 or above in the DSE English examination, which roughly equals to 5.48 marks or above in IELTS (Table 1.2) (Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, 2013). This indicates that their English ability have reached a certain degree proficiency, which helps facilitate the…

    • 1653 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    With China’s growing economic might, is Mandarin becoming the preferred language of business? Not anytime soon, says a newly released study. Instead, English will maintain and grow its dominance, moving from “a marker of the elite” in years past to “a basic skill needed for the entire workforce, in the same way that literacy has been transformed in the last two centuries from an elite privilege into a basic requirement for informed citizenship.” (Indeed, the British Council reports that by 2020, two billion people will be studying English.) The new study of 1.6 million online test-takers in more than 50 countries was conducted by EF Education First, a company that – it should be noted – specializes in English language training.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cheng, K. C., & Yu, Y. W. (2015). Report of the Longitudinal Study on the Implementation of "Using Putonghua as the Medium of Instruction for Teaching the Chinese Language Subject”. Hong Kong: Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (scholar).…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Why Do We Learn English

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages

    English now is treated as a tool to connect China to other countries in Chinese society. It will be required to take part in the flow of globalization if a state or an area is expected to become well-developed, so it's essential to communicate with the other states. In this way, English can serve as a bridge of communication for it's the most widespread language in the world, so we study English.…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    CLIL's understanding

    • 3176 Words
    • 13 Pages

    After half of a semester of learning about CLIL, many new concepts and ideas have come to my mind. After knowing some theoretical issues, I am thinking about whether CLIL is as practical and good as many scholars have mentioned. Also I am curious if CLIL can be used properly in my context – the junior years English learning of high school in China. In this essay, I will first review the rationale aspects about CLIL, talking about the definitions, the features and the principles of CLIL. Then a brief introduction of my context will be presented. What’s the situation of English learning in mainland China. Finally, I will analyze the use of CLIL in China based on the critical review of the four articles: Content-based language teaching in China: contextual influences on implementation -- Philip Hoare (2010), Content and language integrated learning (CLIL): limitations and possibilities – Ena Harrop (2012), CLIL implementation: from policy-makers to individual initiatives – Yolanda Ruiz de Zarobe (2013) and Late immersion and language of instruction in Hong Kong high schools; achievement growth in language and non-language subjects –Herbert W. Marsh, Kit-Tai Hau, Chit-Kwong Kong (2000) in order to find out whether it is possible to have CLIL applied in China.…

    • 3176 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    course description

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This course has been a traditional course in the curriculum for English majors in China. One of the underpinning ideas for its enduring presence in the curriculum is the belief that putting learners into touch with “original” news texts found in Western newspapers would (A) enrich language input in learning, which, at least theoretically, could maximize the chance of successful language learning; and (B) provide a chance for learners to “learn about” cultures shaping the news texts. Thus, this course has traditionally been regarded as a course that prepares learners for further development in language and intercultural communication skills.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    With more and more chances for English learners in china to communicate with English-speaking foreigners,it’s essential to develop their communication competence in English and how to achieve the goal has thus become the primary task of education as well as the whole society.Writing is such an important means of communication in written forms that its proper expressions of ideas and feelings directly determine the success of communication.…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays