中国英语教学改革建议

Suggestions for English language teaching in China 中国

英语教学改革建议

【abstract】 english has been acknowledged as the most important foreign language in china for many years， and english teaching and learning now occupies the attention of millions of chinese. despite the great efforts that have been put into english teaching and learning， english proficiency of many chinese learners still leave much to be desired， and it poses great challenges for english teachers and educators even our educational system as a whole. in this paper， i will make some recommendations for improving the existing situation for english language teaching in china.

【key words】 english teaching china

【中图分类号】g64.23 【文献标识码】b 【文章编号】

2095-3089（2013）24-0-01

1. existing problems for english teaching

though great improvement has been made in the field of english learning and teaching in china， there still exist many problems.

1.1 for many years， examination-oriented education has been a great challenge for english language teaching in china. instead of testing students’ language ability，

paper-and-pencil tests assessment on language knowledge has always been the priority for both teachers and students. chinese teachers’ focus is on the delivery of the english knowledge， grammar points， for example， but not the development of students’ language ability. to some extent，it is understandable， as language ability is not easy to be evaluated， as least not so evident as the result of the paper-and-pencil tests assessment.

1.2 the textbooks are stereotyped. the classroom discourse is also stereotyped and mechanical. in many primary and secondary schools in china， english teachers are still using one singe textbook to teach. students are required to do lots of repetitive practice and mechanical memorizing. though “students-centered” models are strongly encouraged in the process of language teaching， it is still not widely adopted. most english classes are， in reality，“teacher-centered”.

1.3 the hard environment leaves much to be desired. language teaching only occur in the classroom， which is often not spacious and even confine students’ movement. students seldom have chances to be involved in authentic language environment， which will be beneficial for students’s language development.

2. suggestions

what can we do with the existing situation？ this is a question raised and discussed widely in the field of english teaching and learning. of course， there is no once -for-all solution to this situation， and we cannot expect an immediate positive outcome. however， changes need to be made. as a teacher， i believe that there are some measures that could be taken .

2.1 the testing system needs to be improved . as long as the testing system remains unchanged， any reform of teaching methods will just be loud empty talk. the english examinations should be designed to test the real ability of students ‘use of english in different social contexts. i strongly recommend the use of spoken tests in our english assessment process. paper-and-pencil tests are necessary， however， they are not sufficient and effective enough to test students’ command of the language. if spoken tests are added to the current testing system， it will be of great help to reveal students’real ability to communicate by using english. teachers and teachers will also pay more attention to the cultivation of language ability in their daily teaching and learning.

2.2 the relationship between students and teachers should