（课程与教学论专业论文）双语教学及其在中学化学教学中的应用.pdf

摘 要 随着世界政治的多极化经济的全球化信息的国际化这个世界成了一个 地球村国际间的交流与合作呼唤交流工具的世界化英语教育的重要性日 趋突出然而我国目前的英语教学普遍存在费时多收效低的问题本文即从 此现状出发指出实施双语教学正是解决这些问题的突破口接着本文论述了双 语教学的一些基本问题同时对中学化学课实施双语教学进行了可行性研究并 对其面临的主要问题进行了研究和思考提出了一些建议以期推动上海市的双 语教学试验和研究工作使之能更快更好地普及和发展 关键词双语教学英语教学化学教学 abstract along with the multipolarization of politics, the globalization of economy and the internationalization of information, the whole world becomes a “global village”. communication and cooperation between countries calls the communicative tools to be cosmopolitan so that english education sees its greater and greater importance. however, the current english teaching and learning in our country generally is time-consuming and ineffective. this thesis starts from these problems and points out that bilingual education can be the breakthrough. then it discourses upon some basic concepts about bilingual education, and does the feasibility study of teaching chemistry in high schools. after that, key problems facing bilingual education in china are discussed and suggestions are made, which might push the study and experiment of bilingual education in shanghai and consequently the students may get twice the result with half the effort and reach satisfactory effect in english learning. key words: bilingual education, bilingualism, english teaching and learning, chemistry teaching the application of bilingual education in teaching chemistry in high schools 1 introduction at the turning of the century, bilingualism has become one of the most common and important communication phenomena. how to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning a foreign language - especially english - is the biggest problem facing chinese educators. in such a monolingual country, bilingual education - teaching other subjects in english - can be a good way to achieve better results without sacrificing too much time in learning other subjects as well as english. as an experiment in china, we have to use flourishing implementations in the world for reference. there are many countries and places that have experimented or carried out bilingual education, with both successful and failing outcomes. we may feel confused and puzzled at first. in this thesis i attempt to analyze the different issues in the practices that account for the success or failure, the situation in our country presented afterwards. then we immediately see it is possible to apply it in china and certain to lead to success provided with some conditions. in chapter i, i explain the necessity of english applied in teaching the subject contents, examine the basic concepts related to bilingual education: its definition, origins and typology. chapter ii provides the application in other modern countries as well as in old china, and explores the advantages of being bilingual and features of bilingual education as well as the experiments in shanghai. chapter iii analyzes the feasibility of teaching chemistry in english to junior three students from various perspectives, psychologically and linguistically, among others. the next chapter (iv) raises some vital problems before and in the practice of bilingual education in china, aiming to find out ways to solve them. some personal suggestions are offered on the implementation of bilingual education in chapter v. at last, chapter vi presents the concluding remarks on bilingual education study and research. the application of bilingual education in teaching chemistry in high schools 2 chapter i bilingual education 1.1 the reasons why bilingual education should be applied 1.1.1 the state of students learning english in china english is the most widely used language in the world, historically speaking. it is the language of science, technology, diplomacy, international trade, and commerce. more than 66 percent of the worlds scientists read english. 80 percent of the worlds electronically stored information is in english. english is the basis of modern computer technology and internet technology. english has become the language support of modern information knowledge. the worlds 40 million internet users mostly communicate in english. experts conclude that one-third of the people of the world speak or understand some english (duignan, http:/www-hoover. /publications/he/22/22h.html). since the 1960s english has been taught and learned as a principal foreign language in most schools all over china. so far, millions of chinese students have benefited from their knowledge of english as well as their ability to understand, speak, read and write english. at the same time, however, there are some problems in english teaching and learning. here are the major ones. first, a large number of students cant speak english naturally despite their excellent examination marks. and most of them cant understand native speakers spoken english. they are said to be students of “dumb english” and “deaf english”. second, most students are inefficient in learning english. they usually learn it from the age of ten to twenty, or even over twenty, resulting in poor communicative competence. third, many of them find it difficult to comprehend a scientific or technological article though they have no difficulty in understanding other materials such as stories, essays, newspaper writings, etc. how did these problems come into being? firstly, the testing system in china determines the goal and the way students learn english. as most tests required only reading and writing ability, especially years ago, then most students tend to neglect the application of bilingual education in teaching chemistry in high schools 3 speaking and listening ability. secondly, they are taught the english that has little or nothing to do with scientific research. thus, the very large area of science and technology is what they arent familiar with. thirdly, although they have at least 10 years experience of learning english, they dont keep in close touch with it - they only have 45 minutes a day at most in the english “pool”, the other 1395 minutes are spent in the chinese “sea”. how can 45 defeat 1395? the small doses provided and the focus on grammar, memorization and drill do not present them the skills they need - the ability to work in english and socialize with english speakers. 1.1.2 bilingual education can be a breakthrough how to pour more “water” into the english pool for the “fish” - students to “swim” freely? we think bilingual education can be considered a breakthrough in english teaching and learning. the term “bilingual education” usually refers to the use of two (or more) languages in instruction at some point in the students school career. the languages are used to teach subject matter content rather than just the language itself (cummins 1997: xi). here we use bilingual education to refer to teaching some other subjects in english besides english itself as a subject with the exception of chinese arts, of course. english is used as a teaching language or as a medium to learn maths, physics, music, biology, chemistry, etc. bilingual education can be the solution to the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of learning english in china due to the following facts. first of all, although the testing system in china has been changing itself to be more practical and conform to the educational purposes which are to cultivate the overall quality of students, it has not been or cannot be so close to each students future work and life. the biggest and most influential test - the national entrance examination for higher education - now contains 20% listening points and the students have to take the oral test but the scores are only for the reference by colleges and universities. besides, college english tests (band 4 and band 6) contain a listening part, which takes 20 points out of 100. and on the basis of the satisfactory score of the written test, the students can sit in for an oral test. with the change of the testing structure, students certainly will attach at least a little more importance to the application of bilingual education in teaching chemistry in high schools 4 practicing their tongues and ears, while bilingual education can help most in students practicing. in addition, with the teaching of almost all subjects in english, students have 5 or 6 times 45 minutes in the english pool, and of course they will be quicker and better in learning swimming. moreover, it is imaginable that once english is applied in teaching the science subjects, there will be more and more chances that teachers and students use english, hear english, write in english and read english. a student may answer his classmates question about todays chemistry homework like this, “jin tian zuo (today we do) chlorine chemistry”. after some time of such practicing and inter-language status, students are eventually ready to think in english, speak english and write in english. then the problem concerning science and technology begins to solve itself. with the use of english in chemistry classes for example, students are just as familiar with “oxygen” as with “bread”, then therell be less difficulty in reading a chemical article. the same result is with the other subjects. whats more, according to vygotsky (1962:110), being able to express the same thought in different languages will enable the child to see his language as one particular system among many, to view its phenomena under more general categories, and this leads to awareness of his linguistic operations. analyzing the cognitive nature of meta-linguistic awareness bialystok and ryan (1985) argue that bilingual children may have a greater cognitive control in information processing and that this provides them with the necessary foundation for meta-linguistic ability. further, long-distance education will be a key project in shanghais education work during the tenth five-year project. a structure of high-level “one net, five taches” (pre-school education, fundamental education, higher education, professional education and adult education) is planned to be set up as soon as possible. it is reported that the number of net-folk in china rose doubly during the year 1999 to 7,000,000. it was estimated that the number would rise to 33,000,000 in 2003. another research shows that among the group of internet users, the biggest portion is college and high school students and the smallest portion cadres and teachers. this the application of bilingual education in teaching chemistry in high schools 5 implies that the knowledge and information teachers give to their students may fail to satisfy the students no matter whether in quality or in quantity. the consequence is impossible to cause unconcern. all the above apparently brings about higher requirements of english teaching as well as english teachers and students english level. 1.1.3 the needs of the 21st century for talents along with the multipolarization of politics, the globalization of economy and the internationalization of information, the whole world becomes a “global village”. in the 21st century, high and new science and technology develops swiftly, especially the information technology (it). due to the information speedway, the earth villagers styles of living, working, studying, entertaining, communicating and thinking are sure to change greatly. schools are the cradles of century-turning talents and compound talents. century-turning talents refer to those who know a foreign language - especially english - and computer operation. compound talents refer to those who are capable of using computer, mastering english and exploiting and innovating. people popularly name “english, computer and driving license” as three goal tickets to the 21st century. therefore, the current hotspot being pursued by students and their parents is to cultivate students ability of reading, calculating, writing, computer information processing, modern communicating and other necessary living knowledge. 1.1.4 chinas entry into wto china gets closer and closer to the world. in order that the world knows china and china enters the world, we must strengthen international communication and cooperation with foreign countries, large and small, in the whole process of developing. shanghai, in the forefront of chinas reforming and opening, tends to have more frequent international communication in the course of becoming an international modern metropolis - a center of global economy, finance, trade and shipping. communication needs languages, a kind of tool with which people get to know and understand each other. english, as a widely accepted language in the world, has the application of bilingual education in teaching chemistry in high schools 6 become a thought and a store of knowledge from only a tool along with the progress of man, development of times and advance of society. in shanghai, more and more people enjoy higher education. by the end of 2001, the higher-educated population had arisen to 232 in every 10,000 citizens and the number of years of education in newly-added labor had lifted to 13, which sees the urgency of popularizing 12-year compulsory education. at the same time, intensive competence of talents is facing shanghai along with the entry of our country to the world trade organization (wto). a large number of compound talents and professional talents of high quality are badly needed to adjust the economical structure and improve integrate competing power of the city. simultaneously, along with the gdp in shanghai reached the level of middle developed countries, education becomes necessary in peoples life. the mastery of a foreign language is considered to be more and more important. 1.1.5 the needs of modern education and quality education from the point of view of learners perceiving, a language is a tool of mankinds thinking, and mastering a language means mastering a method of observing and knowing the world. in this sense, when you have learned a foreign language, you get not only another two eyes but another brain as well! at the same time, we should bear in mind that english education is in no doubt to bring important influence to the formation of students views of the world, life and value. it is significant in improving students quality and in shaping perfect personality. it is equally beneficial in cultivating compound talents. what upsetting us is that quite a few english teachers express indifference and ignorance to linguistic and foreign language teaching theories. they simply guess that bilingual education is just to intensify english, without relating it closely with the education root - cultivating students. strictly speaking, talents through bilingual education are those of all-round development besides their excellent foreign language level. 1.2 what is bilingual education? the application of bilingual education in teaching chemistry in high schools 7 1.2.1 definition according to the longman dictionary of applied linguistics, bilingual is defined as a person who knows and uses two languages. in everyday use the word bilingual usually refers to a person who speaks, reads, or understands two languages equally well (a balanced bilingual), but a bilingual person usually has a better knowledge of one language than of the other. for example, he / she may: (a) be able to read and write in only one language; (b) use each language in different types of situation, e.g. one language at home and the other at work; or (c) use each language for different communicative purposes, e.g. one language for talking about school life and the other for talking about personal feeling. and bilingual education (the longman dictionary of applied linguistics) refers to the use of a second or foreign language in school for the teaching of content subjects. bilingual education programs may be of different types and include: (a) the use of a single school language which is not the childs home language, which is sometimes called an immersion program; (b) the use of the childs home language when the child enters school but later a gradual change to the use of the school language for teaching some subjects and the home language for teaching others, which is sometimes called maintenance bilingual education; and (c) the partial or total use of the childs home language when the child enters school, and a later change to the use of the school language only, which is sometimes called transitional bilingual education. in the literature on bilingual education the term is used to describe a variety of educational programs involving two or more languages to varying degrees. in this thesis we limit our definition to describe any system of school education in which, at a given moment in time and for a varying amount of time, instruction is planned and given in the language other than students native one, the latter being dominant in the society. in this definition, the language other than students native one can be l2 or a foreign language. it does not include curricula in which a second or foreign language is taught as a subject, with no other use in academic activities, although l2 teaching the application of bilingual education in teaching chemistry in high schools 8 may be part of a bilingual education program. we also exclude from our definition the cases in which a switch in the medium of instruction occurs at a given moment with no further planning of the two languages in the curriculum, and, of course, the numerous examples of submersion in which an individual child attends a program taught in the language of a different ethno-linguistic group and where the curriculum ignores this childs mother tongue