A Brief History of English Teaching in China

A Brief History of English Teaching in China

Part I. Introduction

The 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 proficiency 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 reason 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

2.1 China Originally Felt No Need of The West

China originally felt no need of the West, in 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.

2.2 Formal Training in Interpretation Began as the Desire for Joining WTO

However, despite this, partly 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. President 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 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

China's reasons for learning English were well summed up twenty years ago by a team from the U.S. International Communication Agency after visiting five cities and many educational institutions in China: \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 understanding between the People's 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 People's Republic of China, in which reasons for the learning of English by Chinese were summarised:\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 international 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.

4.1 English Language Learning Is Not Uniform Throughout China

The story of English language learning is not uniform throughout China. Maley warns anyone embarking on a study of contemporary China about the difficulty of \geographically, But many\near Tibet is very different 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 China's history this century. Those who wish to find the story more fully told may consult Dzau and Cortazzi and Jin. 4.2 English Teaching First Figured in 1902 and Learned from Japan

Although there is mention of English language teaching (ELT) in China in the mid nineteenth century during the Ching Dynasty, it first figured in the syllabus of schools in 1902 in \Institutions\The method of ELT was traditional, with emphasis on reading and translation. There was much grammar and vocabulary learning, with pronunciation learned by imitation and repetition. This was the norm for about the first twenty years of the century.

4.3 Change of Direction and More towards Western Models

In 1922 there was a change of direction, with a swing away from the Japanese system of education, and towards more Western models. Schools were obliged to follow the \

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 to be Christian missionary schools, which gave more class-hours to English than other schools. 4.3 China-the Founding Stop English Teaching in There

1949 was a crucial date in the history of China-the founding of the People's Republic of China. Education had now to serve the proletarian purpose. All textbooks 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\language learning was clearly stated as being to serve the New Republic.

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 last long, however, since China was already trying to extend her markets throughout the world and immediately felt its lack of English. 4.4 English Teaching Restarted in Secondary Schools.

Accordingly, in 1955 the Ministry of Education announced that English teaching should be restarted in secondary schools. 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 students dutifully as similated the teacher's 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 was 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 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.

4.5 Swept Aside by the Cultural Revolution

But it was not to be. With distressing inevitability. The Chinese pendulum swung, and the progress 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 describes the situation thus:\the Cultural Revolution, when workers 'propaganda teams for the spreading of Mao Tse-Tung's thoughts came to China's 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 exchange revolutionary experiences\

4.6 Happier Times were Ahead for China and for ELT in China After the Cultural Revolution

By 1977 the Cultural Revolution had exhausted itself and the country with it. There is an old York shire saying:\who lived through the Cultural 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

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