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TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN CIHINESE UNIVERSITIES

Tamara Sidorova

Tamara Sidorova, senior lecturer of the Department of Foreign Languages

The Siberian Automobile and Highway Academy, Omsk

Abstract. This article is devoted to the problems Chinese high school teachers of English are facing nowadays. It may be interesting for Russian teachers of English too because of similarity of some teaching problems.

Key words: Communicative Language Teaching, English Intensive Reading Course, listening and speaking, traditional methods and technologies of teaching, communicative competence

As stated by Zhenhui Rao and Chunhua Lei [2014; 8] there was a gradual growth in student enrollment in universities in China and a new trend in the English Language Teaching namely introduction of the Communicative Language Teaching is taking place in recent years [Rao, 2010;5].

There is an apparent conflict between the increase of student numbers in each class and the use of Communicative Language Teaching in the language classroom.

Thus they result in some problems for current teaching English in Chinese universities. Teachers of English in universities try to develop students’ communicative competence. But some problems as such as large classes, high demands on English teachers and lack on financial resources prevent teachers from getting their students involved in communicative activities in their teaching process (Rao, 1996; Yu , 2001; Hu 2002).

There are two types of teaching foreign languages in Chinese universities. One is for English majors and the other is for non - English majors. Non - English majors account more than 90% (Jin & Cortazzi, 2006).

English teachers in Chinese universities number 60 000, but only a privileged minority of teachers have the opportunity of studying abroad (Zhang, 2010). As stated by Borg &Liu, not many of English teachers in China are familiar with the new trends in methodology of foreign language teaching. Many of them tend to use the traditional methods and technologies of teaching considering memorization of grammar rules and patterns of their usage as an efficient way of acquiring sufficient knowledge of English.

Teachers in China use nationally uniform textbooks and teaching materials and they cover the curriculum developed by the government. Most of them are teacher-centered and book-centered (Rao, 1996; Hu 2002).

As stated by Jin & Cortazzi (2006) in 2010 the number of university and college students in China rose to 30 million Xinhua (2011). On average these students can read some simple English texts without too much difficulty, but they are quite weak at writing and even weaker at listening and speaking.

There is a gap in English proficiency among students from various types of middle schools and in the use of English learning strategies.

In general students from the large cities are privileged in terms of teachers’ qualifications and teaching facilities. After admission to universities students continuo to study English 300 hours class work for two years. After that students are required to pass the College English Test (CET), a nation wide Standard English test. This is the minimum requirement for graduates in Chinese universities.

But in almost all Chinese universities there is the English Intensive Reading Course with a uniform syllabus, textbooks, among them widely used New College English (Dong, 2010) and corresponding examination system for the course. Students learn one text per week. Four hours e week are allocated for this course. Chinese scientists state that the English Intensive Reading Course enables students to read the text aloud with fairly good pronunciation, learn hundreds and thousands of new vocabulary items, practice certain grammatical points, speak on a limited points of subjects, write generally correct sentences, short compositions and do translations based on the text (Wu;1990).

Teachers and students prepare their lessons extensively before they start teaching. Students refer to dictionaries for unknown words. In the classroom students read the text aloud; teachers check pronunciation and intonation and ask some general comprehension questions. All the points are practiced by drills, translations, sentence manipulation and blank-filling exercises. One of the great roles plays paraphrasing, summarizing and retelling the content of the text. After all there are tests to control the students’ ability to use the new knowledge in practice.

In spite of much criticism (this course is text, grammar-vocabulary-based and teacher - centered) the English Intensive Reading Course is a product of particular cultural, social and economic circumstances which have strongly influenced the way in which English has been taught and learnt in China.

Zhenhui Rao and Chunhua Lei [8] come to the conclusion that one of the best ways to teach English in the 21^st century, is to reconcile Communicative English Teaching with traditional teaching methods, and numerous studies demonstrate, that students’ English proficiency can be greatly improved through this reconciliation of teaching methods.

Some scientists suggest ways to reconcile traditional teaching methods and Communicative English Teaching through applying pattern to teach students the craft of creative writing in workshops. They advise to teach grammar as a tool to be used in comprehension and creation of oral and written discourse (Fotos; 1994; Newton & Kennedy, 1996). As the final aspect to reconcile traditional and communicative English teaching methods in China is to use mother tongue as much as needed to facilitate the students’ learning process

Like in China Russian university students, especially in Siberia, live at a great distance from the English speaking countries. While studying English in the classroom some students are not enough motivated to do their best in study, because they have little access to the English language outside the classroom [6]. Russian university teachers at least at technological high schools have their syllabus with prescription to use communicative approach in their teaching, interactive exercises, project work. But we still can state, that generally the students’ English proficiency is not very high. That is why we see ourselves constantly looking for new approaches how to motivate our students to learn English better.

References:

1. Dong, Y.F.2010.New College English Book 1, 2, 3, 4, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

2. Fotos, S.1994.’Integrating grammar instruction and communicative language use through grammar –consciousness tasks.’ TESOL Quarterly, 28(2), 321-351.

3. Jin & Cortazzi, M. 2006’Changing practice in Chinese culture of learning.’ Language, Culture and Curriculum,’ 19 (1). 5-20.

4. Newton. & Kennedy, G. 1996.’Effects of communication tasks on grammar relations marked by second language learners. ’System’, 24(3), 309-322.

5. Rao, 2010. ‘Chinese students’ perception of native English speaking teachers in EFL teaching.’ Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 31(1), p.55.

6. Sidorova, T.P. 2013/2014. The critical thinking technology in writing at a higher education institution. //T.P. Sidorova, DiL 21. Pedagogic, Praha, Publishing house “Education and Science” s.r.o p.44-45.

7. Wu, Z. 1990. Reading with a purpose –a reassessment of the English reading program adopted in China. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, pp. 287-298.

8. Xinhua, 2011. ‘China wants to produce more competent and innovative people.’ Xinhua News Agency, 26 August.

9. Zhenhui Rao and Chunhua Lei.2014.’Teaching English as a foreign language in Chinese universities: ‘The present and the future.’ English today,’ p.40-45.