English Language Policy in People's Republic of China

LANGUAGE POLICY

English Language Policy in People's Republic of China

Abdureim I. Abdurashytov

Shain Y. Aliiev

ELT-551

19 May 2013

Nicosia

Since the late 1970-s, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has experienced increasing economic, scientific and cultural development. The contacts with different countries of the world have grown since, as a result demand for English as a global device of interaction grew unpreceedently. By government, English is considered as a means for further modernization of the the country, for it to be open up and attractive for foreign investments. By citizens, proficiency in English is viwed as a great source of opportunities: to enrol and graduate from university, to go abroad and become more qualified, and also to meet modern standards, which nowadays are required by the most of companies in and out of PRC (Y. A. Wu, 2001). English proficiency has gained social and economic prestige. Thus, as response to this demand for English, Chinese policy towards the latter has been rethought and affected the national syllabus in all levels of education system (Boyle, 2000; Cortazzi & Jin, 1995).

The extent to which the English language attracted the attention of Chinese people changed at different times according to political and educational policy of authorities. At the early 1950-s Soviet Union influence on PRC grew rapidly, followed by Western attempts to isolate Communist China. As a result, Russian became the most popular language taught in the country. Whereas, the importance of Enlish declined dramatically (McGuire, 1997). ELT continued in some schools and institutions of higher education, but it was commonly considered unpatriotic to learn English (Adamson, 2001). EFL textbooks were imported from the Soviet Union or adapted from those used in the Soviet Union. The Russian model of foreign language teaching, like the traditional Chinese model, was teacher-oriented and textbook-centered,with a big emphasis on grammar and vocabulary, namely Grammar-Translation method (Tang & Gao, 2000).

In the late 1950s the Foreign language teaching policy in PRC has changed. China's relation with Soviet Union deteriorated. Besides, there were demands for achievements of Western technologies. Consequently, it gave governmnet great insight into necessity of insertion of English into curriculum. Since 1957, English was resurrected in national syllabus of the country (Adamson, 2001). However, new policy was accompanied by a serious problem. That is, it was lack well-qualified English language teachers. Russian language teachers were retrained as English language teachers (Tang & Gao, 2000). New policy resulted in that local organizations were in charge of corriculum design and textbooks. So, various experimentations took place. Curriculums seemed to be unrealistic and textbooks were excessively politicized (Adamson & Morris, 1997). During this period, different methodologies such as the Direct Method, Audiolingualism, and Grammar-Translation were adopted. Listening and speaking received more attention. Thus, ELT at the secondary level had two goals, to provide students with basic knowledge and basic skills.

In 1966 the Cultural Revolution started. China's economic development and education declined by the means of chaos and isolation. The importance of foreign languages were eliminated and motivation for lerning them was unrooted (Shi, 1999). The quality of textbooks were at their lowest. They were produced at provincial level and were full of politically charged texts. Their aims were to serve the political needs, not to teach English (Wei, 2001).

In 1976 is marked by a new era of political, econimic and social development. The national policy of “Four Modernizations” has been triggered. There has been a rapid growth of commercial, cultural, and scientific exchange with the West and Japan, that had a great impact on education, especially on ELT (Shi, 1999). The primary goal of ELT was to develope a new generation of Chinese for the language skills needed to learn science and gain technological know-how from the West. In 1978, the Ministry of Education of China issued a pilot English syllabus and elaborated set of textbooks for English courses. The main method of teaching varied between Audio-Lingual Method and Grammar-Translation, that are prevailed. A lot of Western educators were involved in China universities, and thus the influx of new theories of education flourished. In 1985, a reform in education took place (Y. A. Wu, 2001).

By the late 1980-s, the demand for a workforce fluent in English had seen a rapid growth. Though, the quality of ELT in China was still at the level that didn't meet standards needed. Causes of the low quality of ELT were as follows, inefficient curriculums, inflexible teaching methods, lack of qualified teachers, and examination-oriented instruction (Wei, 2001). At the same time, a huge number of Chinese ELT teachers and specialists were sent to study in Western universities. By 1995, the number of secondary school English teachers reached 400,000. It lead to appearance of communicative language teaching approach in pedagogy, that was succefully introduced and promoted. Consequently, it was the period of important changes regarding English Language Teaching in PRC (Adamson, 2001).

At the present time, different requirements has appeared at various levels of education. At the pre-school level ELT is not compulsory. However, kindergartens in large cities and advantaged areas do offer English lessons. Altough, there are no specific investigations of how many pre-school children take such lessons. Those children who take English in kindergartens generally learn

simple English songs or nursery rhymes, a small number of vocabulary items, some brief dialogues, pronunciation, and basic intonation patterns.Concerning primary school by the end of English course, pupils should comprehend simple questions and topics, conduct brief dialogues, read simple directions and short stories, write simple sentences. Students of Juniory secondary school are required to study English about three and four hours a week for four years. By the end of the course they have 400 hours of instruction totally. Major objectives of curriculum for this level are as follows in the Table 1 (Y. A. Wu, 2001).

Knowledge/Skill Major Objectives

Listening understand and respond to classroom English; understand the gist of a

passage retold by the teacher; understand with 70% correctness after

listening three times to native speakers’recording of familiar materials at

a reading speed of 90 to 110 words per minute

Speaking ask and answer questions about texts; retell the gist of a studied text; carry

out simple conversations; ask questions and talk briefly about familiar topics

with the aid of picture cues; speak with basically correct pronunciation and

intonation

Reading read passages of comparable difficulty to studied texts for gist with the

help of a dictionary; read with 70%comprehension a written passage with

less than 2% new words at a reading speed of 40 to 60 words per minute

Writing answer questions about texts in writing; make simple sentences using the

vocabulary, grammar and sentence patterns learned; write simple letters,

notices, and announcements based on models given

Vocabulary acquire an active oral and written command of 600 to 700 commonly used

words; master 200 idioms and formulaic expressions; have a receptive

vocabulary of another 400 to 500 words; identify the meaning and parts of

speech of derivative and compound words

Grammar master inflections and five basic sentence structures; understand relatively

simple sentences containing adverbial or object clauses; use five basic

tense/aspect forms; use the passive voice in simple present/past tenses;

master object, complement and adverbial usage of infinitives

Senior secondary school students are required to take English as a subject. Totally they attend 427 hours of English class. The main objectives of senior secondary English is to expand the basic language skills in oral and written English, and the reading skills as well. The following table discribes the major objectives of senior secondary English syllabus (Y. A. Wu, 2001).

Knowledge/Skill Major Objectives

Listening understand classroom English and the teacher’s explanation of new

contents in English; understand the gist of a passage/story retold by the

teacher and text-related questions; understand conversations on daily life

that employ standard English and are carried out at a slightly slower than

normal speed; understand the gist of simplified stories or passages on

familiar topics deliveredat a speed of 110 to 120 words per minute after

listening only once; understand important details of similar materials after

listening two or three times

Speaking ask and answer questions about texts fluently; repeat or retell with brief

preparation passages/texts heard or read, with considerable fluency and

coherence; carry out simple conversations involving greeting, suggestion

request and invitation, using the “Daily Expressions in Communication”;

express intended messages with a limited number of grammatical errors

and considerable clarity; speak six ormore sentences in succession, with

limited pauses and repetitions but considerable clarity and fluency

Reading read with 70% comprehension passages on general topics containing less

than 3% new words at a speed of 50 to 60 words per minute; guess the

meaning of new words according to contextual clues and knowledge of

word formation; understand pragmatic genres of writing such as

correspondence, invitations, notices, memos, manuals, forms, and graphs;

follow reasoning, chronological order,and spatial sequence; understand a

writer’s attitude, point of view, and deeper messages; infer implicit

intentions according to known facts

Writing write (at 12 to 15 words per minute) a dictation with no new words read (3

times) at a speed of 110 to 120 words per minute; ask and answer questions

about texts in writing; fill in bio-data forms and write simple

letters, notices, and announcementswithout grave errors; write a

composition of 80 to 100 words in 30 minutes, with the aid of cue words,

to convey messages with sufficient clarity and without grave errors in

basic grammar

Vocabulary in addition to the 600 words acquired injunior secondary school, have an

active oral, aural and written command of another 600 words and a

considerable number of idioms and formulaic expressions; develop a

passive vocabulary of another 800 words and a certain number of idioms

and formulaic expressions; identify the meaning and parts of speech of

derivative and compound words; select the correct meaning of polysemes

and identify the parts of speech of words that belong to more than one

word class

Grammar master ten word classes and their subcategories; master the simple

present, simple past, future tenses, present progressive, past progressive,

present perfect, past perfect, and past future; master the various

grammatical functions of infinitive and past participle phrases; understand

usage of gerundive phrases; master basic sentence types (statement,

interrogative, imperative, exclamative); grasp sentence constituents (subject,

predicate, complement, object, etc.) and agreement; master simple

sentences, compound sentences, and complex sentences containing noun

clauses, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses; understand ellipsis and

inversion

In college, English has about 300 hours of instruction and expands language knowledge and skills which is obtained at secondary school level. The curriculum is focused on reading and understanding information related to their specific fields of study. The assessment is based on College English Test. All undergraduates are required to complete at least Level Four and all postgraduates Level Six. Those who didn't succeed in passing College English Test Four or Six are not eligible for a bachelor’s or postgraduate degree (Wei, 2001).

Within twenty five years reforms in education has brought substantial progress in ELT. China is becoming English proficient in a very fast rate. At the same time, there are still some problems in English field throughout PRC. Collaboration and cooparation with the West make Chinese people more enthusiastic for gaining proficiency in English (Tang & Gao, 2000).

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