The weekly column

Article 99, May 2002

English as a Global Language in China

By Ji Shaobin
Wenzhou College of Profession and Technology

Abstract

English is now said to be an international language or known as a global language. It is an obvious fact that English is definitely important as a window for Chinese to see the world. English is the key for us to access the Western modern scientific and technological advances. In this article, I will try to examine some issues with particular reference to the situation of English language teaching (ELT) in China and its relationship with the outside world.

Introduction

In the past few decades since World War II, the emerging global economy has made it possible for English to play an important role as the world standard language. In view of the situation, millions of students are learning English as the most important foreign language for international communication all over the world. People of the world unanimously consider English as the most useful language for cross-boundary communication. Thus, from an ordinary Chinese point of view, English is not the language for us to speak with Americans, the British or any other native speakers. Rather, it is the common language for us to communicate with Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Singaporeans and other Asians and people from developing countries. The global spread of English over the last 40 years is remarkable in the history of the language of English. That English has become an international language means for multinational and multicultural communication.

As the spread of English progresses, English is bound to reflect a diversity of disparate cultures. Since no language is used to its fullest extent by its native speakers, there is always much room left for our non-native speakers to exploit it in the unique form of English usage, phonetically, lexically, syntactically, semantically and pragmatically. As a matter of fact, English has been used by our Chinese as a tool to know the West and at the same time, let the World know China at its greatest extents.

A Brief History of ELT in China

English has no legacy in the land of China. In fact, China had a long history of deliberately avoiding contact with the West for fear of cultural contamination. After the establishment of new China in 1949, the place of English was replaced by Russian as the only foreign language in the country in the 1950s. During the time, English was condemned as unpatriotic because of national campaign against American imperialism and British colonialism. However, this phase didn't last long for the coming up deteriorated relationship between Russian and China in the middle of 50s of the 20th century. The substantial change toward English language teaching in China didn't happen until late 1978 when Deng Xiao'ping (the late chairman of China) came to power after the crackdown of Mao's (the founder of the new Republic) wife's clique. English was again prominent as a main foreign language taught in Chinese various schools. It was not long by the early 1980s that English had been restored as a compulsory subject in the college entrance examinations. With the following open-door policy, quite a number of Chinese scholars have the chance to go abroad to receive higher education in Western countries. English was considered as a vehicle to change an average Chinese fate in his motherland, where the language was used as a tool to know better our hostile West and serve our great country better. On the contrary, we Chinese now regard English primarily as a necessary tool which can facilitate access to modern scientific and technological advances in the countries where English is a major language. The economic progress China has made over the past decades makes it possible for us to enter into WTO (the World Trade Organization) and the successful bid for Olympic Games in the year of 2008. English is becoming the most popular foreign language in modern China. It is estimated that the number of people studying English in China is much larger than that of all native speakers around the world. The spring of English has arrived in China.

Modern ELT in China

A great deal of attention has been paid to English teaching and learning since the beginning of the reform of Chinese economy in 1978. With more and more Western companies and joint-ventures rushing into China, many college students would like to pursue their further education in the West to acquire advanced knowledge in science and technology. The Chinese students are no longer ignorant of the international English tests such as TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) so on. Some foreigners will even be amazed to see the heat-wave of English learning in China. Just take a domestic employer, especially those in the field of foreign trade businesses for example. They consider communicative competence in English to be a decisive factor in hiring a potential employee. Therefore, an applicant must demonstrate his oral English capability besides their various English qualification certificates. This emerging challenge to the traditional methodology of ELT is unprecedented in that the teacher is no longer seen as the sole provider of knowledge and the students are no more encouraged to assimilate their teacher's instruction dutifully and to work their way ploddingly through the lines of their textbook.

The initial progress in ELT took place when English became part of the College Entrance Examinations. The Ministry of Education issued guidelines for textbook makers, requesting that English textbooks should include materials on the Western culture, listening and speaking practice as well. The most prominent in reforming the English testing system in China is that listening and written English are included in some most important English tests for the all Chinese educational institutions. However, there are some disadvantages of ELT education in China. The first is a lack of qualified foreign language teachers most of whom have no experience of living in Western countries. On the other hand, effective English teachers should have abundant cross-cultural awareness. It is often the case that quite a number of English teachers in China have a very limited knowledge of English while students have high expectation from their teachers. As a result, the teacher development program has become the "bottle-neck" issue in our current ELT. Worse is the backward methodology; teachers as well as students typically adopt the Grammar-Translation means to teach and learn English, which focuses on English grammar and vocabulary, on linguistic phenomena rather than on reading the content itself. Let alone the practice of listening and speaking. It is no surprise to see a Chinese student who has a very satisfactory mark on his English examination can't express himself well in English with his foreign peer. There is a popular saying about this extravagant scene in learning English as "dumb and deaf" English.

According to a survey, most college students in China whose majors are not English spend more than 70 percent of their study time on English after class. Meanwhile, They have to attend four-hour English courses every week in class. What's more is that the English teacher, unfortunately, has to face normally 50 or more students in the classroom because of the expansion of enrolling college students in recent years. Therefore, it is almost impossible for an English teacher to take good care of each student in the classroom. Some English classes have no access to audio-video language laboratory, neither do they reach the Internet. This rigid pattern of old fashioned textbook-based, teacher-dominated and test-oriented teaching is out of date with the rapid growth of international communication in China. Educators have realized the importance of shifting the pattern of ELT from the traditional linguistic acquirement to communicative competence and the module of teaching English language from single skill development to integrated skills training. It can be seen from the reform of syllabuses and curriculum development project issued by the Ministry of Education in 1999. The new syllabus emphasis is on a student-centered approach instead of a teacher-centered one. Meanwhile, the vocabulary capacity required for students has been enlarged from the original 1,800 common used English words and phrases to 4,000. Another outstanding feature of ELT reform in China's higher institutions is that English study will be continuous throughout the duration of four years in college. ESP (English for Special Purpose) courses are also added to the final year of students' study of English in college. The goal of these courses is to ensure the non-English major students who have different specialized background can make good use of English after their graduation in their future working career. Besides this, the Ministry of Education requires that all of the specialized subjects (preferably foreign textbooks) be conducted in the English language in the near future. There will be a national English standardized test which will be divided into several levels to evaluate the outcome of reforming in Chinese ELT from primary level to the tertiary level, which means English will become a real tool for communication in China's educational institutions. The construction of a streamlined ELT system from Chinese primary schools (third grade) to the tertiary level is underway.

Conclusion

At this stage, China needs and will continue to want English badly. In order to function efficiently in its economy with the global market, Chinese needs to bring large numbers of people to a higher level of proficiency in English for a wide variety of functions. Success of English language teaching and learning depends largely on understanding English as a tool for communication. Thus, if a student is encouraged to speak with confidence, it is a foreign language teacher's duty to help students overcome the fear of speaking and learn the fact that Chinese English learners can use English effectively without feeling guilty of their strong accent. Modern communication such as TV and the Internet makes us more exposed to an English-medium environment than we used to be. It will be no surprise at all for a Chinese person to survive with English.

About the Author

I am an English teacher in China. I am very interested in teaching English. I would like to make friends who have the same hobbies as mine around the world.

To contact Ji Shaobin please e-mail jishaobin@yahoo.com .

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