3.4 Suggestions on English teaching modes in China:
Through the comparative study in Chinese and American Educational Mode, we considered that we should pay attention to improving our English teaching mode in China by following suggestions:
(1) More money and attention should be put into English teaching.
Funding for teaching is always a weak point, especially in English teaching: (a) Lack of language labs and multi-media classrooms, means students have not enough time to practice English ;(b) the quality and quantity of English teachers need to be improved. At present, public college English teachers are mostly young postgraduates who need to improve their teaching methods and quality. Universities should pay more attention to teachers’ training, and their subsidies.
(2) More studies should be done on the reform of public college English teaching. For example, studies on teaching and hearing methods, facilities on the Internet, test systems, new textbooks and excellent textbooks from abroad, English teaching systems and reforming of courses.
(3) Evaluation and test systems need to be improved.
Recently, all kinds of evaluation and test systems have appeared, among which TOEFL and GRE from America, CET Band 4 and CET Band 6 from China are very popular. Passing TOEFL and GRE is the key for Chinese students to go abroad to continue their studies. With the opening of some special training schools, grades may not reflect the students’ true English level. These tests do not influence students’ graduation and job selection, so they are not severely criticized. As for CET Band 4 and CET Band 6, two opinions exist. People who approve of them believe that they function as a bridge which links students’ English level and their future. Meanwhile, these tests encourage teachers to improve their methods so as to achieve higher grades. In short, these tests help improve teachers’ teaching methods and students’ English levels, thus benefiting both. In the long run, they will benefit society.
People who oppose these tests argue that teachers and students pay so much attention to preparing for CET Band 4 and CET Band 6 that they neglect to cultivate the students’ communication skills. They complained that some students passed CET Band 4 and even 6, but they couldn’t speak and write well in English. Although they knew how to pass these tests, they did not digest what they had learned.
(4)English education through the introduction of its culture.
What we need behind English education is to open the students’ eyes through the introduction of western culture. English as a language is derived from its root culture. First of all, we should learn the history of English. Then, we can understand how English developed into what it is today. History also helps us understand the elements of English itself, such as synonyms. “Culture” is such a big concept, as it covers literature, art, religion, philosophy, science, social science, etc.
Through introducing culture, we can see a picture with a background. As for teachers, they should introduce the cultural background first, and then teach some knowledge of English. This will help students understand what they learned deeply and arouse their interest in exploring knowledge behind the language, so students may develop the habit of learning through the background.
4. Suitable way of English education in China
4.1 Analysis on the correct steps of learning a foreign language on the basic of the theory of how babies learn a new language
As we know, everyone learns his or her mother language at an early age. Observing how babies learn their mother tongue could throw light on how a child can quickly learn the language naturally and effortlessly. Following subsections attempt to analyze and understand this process.
First step: listening and reading the body language of people
A new born baby begins to comprehend his or her surroundings by listening to the sound and reading the body language of other people. According to the recent medical research, little babies are very sensitive in listening to the language sound and receiving the information from surroundings.
Second step: speaking and imitating by repeating the words they know
Being sensitive to the people around, babies can speak some basic words when they are one or two years old. Of course, they trend to imitate the ways of how people say the sentences.
Third step: watching pictures and reading some simple words
When babies are more than three years old, they can look at pictures and understand the meanings what they show about. That is because they have learned the scenes by observing with their keen vision when they are not old enough to speak. At this stage, babies can soak up knowledge very fast, and they are also good at memorizing what they have learnt.
Last step: writing and expressing ideas with ease
As a baby grows older, he or she acquires the basic language skills that enable him or her to learn new words and form simple and complex sentences. From then on, they continue to add to their knowledge of the language.
According to the steps above, we can see that most natural way for people learn mother language is by listening, speaking, reading and then writing. However, Chinese English education is just bottom up the order, students are taught to write the words first, and then do a lot of practice in reading, and the last step is listening and speaking. It is obviously not most natural order, and that is the reason why most of people feel difficult to learn English even they spend several years on it. Thus, English education in China should correct the steps of teaching order so that learners may master the language naturally as a baby does.
4.2 Confirm the correct pattern of English education: change the direction of “writing-reading-speaking-listening” to “listening – speaking – reading - writing”
The purpose of English teaching is to let the student acquire four skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, the goal is not to obtain good grades but to empower the student so that he or she can use the new language for communicating with others, new words to hang ideas on and new sentence patterns to unlock doors in the mind through which thoughts cab flow freely and new concepts can be conceived.
上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] 下一页