abriefhistoryofenglishteachinginchina.docx

1、abriefhistoryofenglishteachinginchinaA Brief History of English Teaching in ChinaPart I. IntroductionThe learning of English in China, however, has a longer history and now occupies the attention of millions of it s people. How many million is hard to say, since much depends on the level of proficie

2、ncy one takes as the norm. But there are probably three hundred million actively engaged in the job of learning English.This paper includes four big parts, the beginning is a brief introduction for china English learning. Part two is the actuality of English learning in china. Part three is the reas

3、on that English introduction and learning widely in china. Last one part is a brief introduction of English teaching in china from Ching dynasty until now.Part II. The Actuality of English Learning in Resent China China Originally Felt No Need of The WestChina originally felt no need of the West, in

4、 fact deliberately avoided all contact, for fear of cultural contamination. The bombing of the Chinese embassy during the Kosovo war was a terrible setback in relations which had been steadily improving. Formal Training in Interpretation Began as the Desire for Joining WTOHowever, despite this, part

5、ly because of its desire to join the World Trade Organization (WTO),China has welcomed and listened politely to leaders of Western countries as they gave their views on democracy and human rights. The language in which President Clinton spoke, during his Visit to China, was of course English. Presid

6、ent Jiang Zemin made his replies in Chinese. But each was backed up by a team of first-class interpreters, who made smooth communication possible. Formal training in interpretation is comparatively recent in China. It was only in 1978 that the first object for Translators and Interpreters started at

7、 the Beijing Foreign Language Institute. The object subsequently developed into the prestigious school of translation in the Beijing Foreign Studies University. Part III. The Reason that Why We Learn English Chinas reasons for learning English were well summed up twenty years ago by a team from the

8、. International Communication Agency after visiting five cities and many educational institutions in China: The Chinese view English primarily as an ecessary tool which can facilitate access to modem scientific and technological advances, and secondarily as a vehicle to promote commerce and understa

9、nding between the Peoples Republic of China and countries where English is a major language.This basic motivation has not changed, as can be seen from the report of the English 2000 Conference in Beijing, sponsored jointly by the British Council and the State Education Commission of the Peoples Repu

10、blic of China, in which reasons for the learning of English by Chinese were summarised:They learn English because it is the language of science, specifically perhaps of the majority of research journals. They learn it because it is the neutral language of commerce, the standard currency of internati

11、onal travel and communication. They learn it because you find more software in English than in all other languages put together.Part IV. Brief Introduction of English Teaching in China from Ching Dynasty until Now. English Language Learning Is Not Uniform Throughout ChinaThe story of English languag

12、e learning is not uniform throughout China. Maley warns anyone embarking on a study of contemporary China about the difficulty of making sensible generalisation about it, since China is not one place geographically, But many. The learning of English in the Mountain ousprovinces near Tibet is very di

13、fferent from the way it is studied in the cities of Nanjing, Shanghai or Beijing. Nevertheless, there are sufficient general characteristics about the history of the learning of English in different parts of China to justify a brief review, if only to remind us of the pendulum swings of Chinas histo

14、ry this century. Those who wish to find the story more fully told may consult Dzau and Cortazzi and Jin. English Teaching First Figured in 1902 and Learned from JapanAlthough there is mention of English language teaching (ELT) in China in the mid nineteenth century during the Ching Dynasty, it first

15、 figured in the syllabus of schools in 1902 in His Majestys Teaching Standards for Primary and Secondary Institutions .In those early days the model for education in China was that of Japan. The method of ELT was traditional, with emphasis on reading and translation. There was much grammar and vocab

16、ulary learning, with pronunciation learned by imitation and repetition. This was the norm for about the first twenty years of the century. Change of Direction and More towards Western ModelsIn 1922 there was a change of direction, with a swing away from the Japanese system of education, and towards

17、more Western models. Schools were obliged to follow the Outlines for School Syllabuses of the New Teaching System. These put more emphasis on listening and speaking skills. There was more use of the target language and of the new teaching resources offered by the mass media. The best schools tended

18、to be Christian missionary schools, which gave more class-hours to English than other schools. China-the Founding Stop English Teaching in There1949 was a crucial date in the history of China-the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. Education had now to serve the proletarian purpose. All textb

19、ooks became vehicles for government propaganda, loaded with messages of service to the people and the mother land. The Ministry of Education issued a new Scheme for English Instruction in Secondary Schools in which the goal of English language learning was clearly stated as being to serve the New Re

20、public. All capitalist thinking, especially educational ideas from the United States and Britain, were condemned as unpatriotic.The place of English was taken in school syllabuses（大纲） by Russian and by 1954 Russian had become the only foreign language taught in Chinese schools. This phase did not la

21、st long, however, since China was already trying to extend her markets throughout the world and immediately felt its lack of English. English Teaching Restarted in Secondary Schools.Accordingly, in 1955 the Ministry of Education announced that English teaching should be restarted in secondary school

22、s. In big cities, like Shanghai, it was also reintroduced at primary level. Initially the textbooks were based on the former Russian models, which, like their Japanese predecessors, were very traditional. Methodology too was backward: the teacher was seen as the provider of knowledge and the student

23、s dutifully as similated the teachers words of wisdom, working their way ploddingly through the textbook. However, in the late 1950s and early 1960s,a minor revolution in education took place in China, as the need to open up to the international scene became more urgent. The importance of English wa

24、s accepted and a significant step was taken in 1962 when English became part of the entrance examination for colleges and universities. New teaching materials appeared, with listening and speaking again given prominence. The Ministry of Education issued guidelines for textbook writers, recommending

25、that English text books should include material on the culture of the English speaking countries. It began to look as though better days had come for ELT in China. Swept Aside by the Cultural RevolutionBut it was not to be. With distressing inevitability. The Chinese pendulum swung, and the progress

26、 made in the early 1960s was swept aside by the Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966 and lasted for ten dreadful years. English was. again banned from schools. Foreign language teachers were branded as spies. Some universities were closed, others were subjected to re-education visits. Dow descri

27、bes the situation thus:During the Cultural Revolution, when workers propaganda teams for the spreading of Mao Tse-Tungs thoughts came to Chinas colleges, classes were stopped altogether, and the students travelled instead all over the country in order to take part in criticism and debate and to exch

28、ange revolutionary experiences. Happier Times were Ahead for China and for ELT in China After the Cultural RevolutionBy 1977 the Cultural Revolution had exhausted itself and the country with it. There is an old York shire saying:Theres not like religion when its bent. Those who lived through the Cul

29、tural Revolution in China would challenge that saying ,maintaining that distorted political ideology can be much worse than bent religion. However, happier times were ahead for China and for ELT in China. In 1978 the Ministry of Education held an important conference on foreign language teaching. En

30、glish was given prominence again in schools, on a par with Chinese and Maths. By the early1980s it had been restored as a compulsory subject in the college entrance exam. It has not looked back since then and the fervor for learning English has been fanned by Teach Yourself English programme on tele

31、vision, watched by hundreds of millions of people. The Need for Both Social and Academic English Became ApparentAs China opened up more and Chinese scholars were allowed abroad, the need for both social and academic English became apparent. As markets also opened up and more foreigners were allowed

32、into the country to do business, the appetite for Business English among all levels of Chinese people has become insatiable. The Chinese are a diligent and intelligent race and are surely destined to make a significant mark on the history of the twenty-first century. Bibliography：Baidu the history of english languageBaidu the history of english language learning in chinaSogou The Actuality of English Learning in Resent China摘要. .i Abstract.