A Glimpse into Language Teaching and the Application of Curriculum Elements.docx

1、A Glimpse into Language Teaching and the Application of Curriculum ElementsA Glimpse into Language Teaching and the Application of Curriculum ElementsIntroductionWith globalization going on and the world becoming ever smaller, foreign language learning has become an ever more pressing challenge for

2、Chinese learners; hence the urgent need for appropriate foreign language teaching, or to put it exactly, English language teaching that enables good results and satisfactory effects. For years, Chinese scholars and educators have been endeavoring to figure out the most applicable, practical and feas

3、ible English learning and teaching ideology and methodology to this end. This essay will firstly offer a brief glimpse of the current situation of the English language teaching (ELT) in Chinas universities together with some breakdown of the curriculum setup. Following this is a more specific explor

4、ation of methodology, one of six elements of curriculum. This part will trace the evolvement of methodology and its latest dynamics. Finally, some personal proposals concerning possible changes will be offered.A Brief Glimpse of the Current Situation of ELT in UniversitiesCurrently, Chinese students

5、 usually start to learn English starting from Grade 3 in primary school. For some, they may also start much earlier, say, at the age of 3, depending on their parents affordability and mindset(Hu Wenzhong,2007). They will continue with English learning throughout the six years at junior and senior mi

6、ddle schools. It is also compulsory to attend English courses at the first 2 years in university. As some students, fully aware of the importance of English, tend to keep learning English, generally a student may spend 12 to 14 years in learning English. Everyone knows quite well how important and u

7、seful a foreign language, especially and particularly English, is, but not everyone has a satisfactory or acceptable mastery of English after over a decades English learning. As university is, in most cases, the terminal of ones schooling and the gateway, it has become a ever more pressing task for

8、universities to cultivate and preserve graduates with proper English ability to keep pace with the new developments of higher education in China, further teaching reform, enhance teaching quality, and meet the needs of the country and society for qualified personnel in the new era. In this circumsta

9、nce, the Education Ministry has drawn up the College English Curriculum Requirements clearly regulating that “Under the guidance of theories of foreign language teaching, College English has as its main components knowledge and practical skills of the English language, learning strategies and interc

10、ultural communication. It is a systematic whole, incorporating different teaching models and approaches” (College English Curriculum Requirements). With such guidelines for English instruction to non-English major students, colleges and universities who differ from each other in terms of teaching re

11、sources, students level of English upon entering college, and the social demands they face, are supposed to work out a scientific, systematic and individualized English syllabus to guide their own English teaching in accordance with the abovementioned Requirements and in the light of their specific

12、circumstances, thus paving the way diversified yet harmonized English curriculum setup among universities.The first element of English curriculum is needs analysis (also known as needs assessment) that can be defined as a series of procedures to collect information about needs usually to find out ho

13、w much learners know and can do and what they need to know and do (necessities, lacks and wants) and occasionally to find out needs of schools, teachers, trainers, parents, education policy makers, MoE (Ministry of Education) officials, academic specialists as well as employers; or just to put it si

14、mply, what is needed. In the case of university English curriculum, university students that have received several years training in English and have certain know-how of this language intend to further polish their listening, speaking, reading, writing, and even translating ability and so forth to g

15、et a more favorable footing in job-seeking. In light of this, content enabling and facilitating the abovementioned contents are offered in university English courses(Johnson,1989).Goals and objectives, which slightly differ from each other, are the second element implying what is to be achieved. Whi

16、le goals are general long-term statements of what learners should be able to do when they leave the course or school, objectives are specific short-term, focusing on what learners will learn and the processes associated. Some curriculum designers break goals down into smaller well-specified performa

17、nce objectives (Nation, 2010). The objective of university English curriculum is to develop students ability to use English in a well-rounded way, especially in listening and speaking, so that in their future studies and careers as well as social interactions they will be able to communicate effecti

18、vely, and at the same time enhance their ability to study independently and improve their general cultural awareness so as to meet the needs of Chinas social development and international exchanges(Apple,2004).Syllabus, the third element, can be simply referred to as what is taught, namely content (

19、forms and functions) to be covered in a subject, course, or courses, listing of such items to be learned as knowledge, skills and tasks etc. It falls into two forms: product (-oriented) syllabus and process (-oriented) syllabus. A product-oriented syllabus focuses on things learnt at the end of the

20、learning process (outcomes) rather than the process itself. It can be further classified as grammatical, lexical, phonetic and discoursal in terms of its form, or functions, notions, social interaction and problems regarding its functions. In the contrary, a process-oriented syllabus focuses on the

21、skills and processes involved in learning language. It can either be task-based, negotiated, postmodern, or mixed (layered or integrated). Take vocabulary as an example. The basic requirement right now for university English learners is that on their graduation they should be with an acquisition of

22、a total of 4,795 words and 700 phrases (including those that are covered in high school English courses) with 2,000 words actively used. That is to say, within a certain period of teaching and learning, the syllabus should incorporate all these required vocabulary.As for methodology, the fourth elem

23、ent, in language teaching has been defined and summarized in a variety of ways, among one notion holds that methodology is the bridge between theory and practice(Burns,2012). How it is taught is just the core definition of methodology; nevertheless, within methodology itself, a line of demarcation b

24、etween methods and approaches is usually drawn: while methods are labelled as invariable teaching systems with sets of prescribed forms, rules, routines and habit formationand techniques, approaches are referred to as language teaching and learning theories and beliefs of which the interpretation an

25、d application take diversified forms in the classroom. Methodology also offers multiple forms: content-based, task-based, negotiated, text-based, ESA (namely Engage, Study and Activate) (Willis 1996), corpus-driven and the like. Recently English classrooms in universities have been shifting to more

26、task-based in order to make a more competent English speaker of the students.Connotation of the fifth elementassessmentis about what is tested and how it is tested. In principle, assessment should show whether needs analysis has been responded to, check if goals/objectives have been attained, and if

27、 elements of the syllabus are contained, in addition to reflecting the methodology. Type of tests to be conducted can focus on proficiency, placement, diagnostic, short-term achievement / progress, or end-of-course achievement. A variety of assessment approaches also exist: observation-driven approa

28、ch, portfolios, peer-assessment, self-assessment, individual, collaborative or electronic. Take proficiency. At the moment many universities regulate that their undergraduates should obtain a CET (College English Test) Band 6 certificate or at least a CET Band 4 certificate before graduation; otherw

29、ise they may risk failing to get the diploma. Last but not least, the sixth element evaluation is to measure how successful the course is. Evaluation “focuses on collecting information about different aspects of a language programme” (Bachman,1990). The evaluation could be formative or summative, de

30、scriptive or judgmental, and internal or external. Methodology adopted in this very evaluation ranges from quantitative, qualitative and to mixed methods, with varying results depending on certain circumstances. In China the evaluation falls into 2 aspects: that of students learning and that of the

31、teachers teaching. The former is comprised of assessments that can be either formative or summative, and the latter is mainly themed with the teaching processes and effects that should not be comprehensive, subjective and complete by taking into account both students test scores and teachers attitud

32、es, approaches, and methods, the content of the courses, how are the lessons are organized, and the corresponding effects after the teaching takes place.Mainstream theories of curriculum development for teachers to adopt are from Brown and Richards. Brown defines curriculum development as a set of a

33、ctivities that are helpful and useful to the growth of consensus among staff, faculty, administration and students. He additionally notes that these sets of curriculum activities will provide a framework under which teachers can better accomplish whatever combination of teaching activities is most suitable , that is say, with this framework it is possible to ac