Communicative language teaching in China[文档资料]

Communicative language teaching in China 本文档格式为 WORD,感谢你的阅读。 【 Abstract】 In the last thirty years， the traditional approach of English language teaching （ ELT） is widely used in China. From then on， to improve communicative competence of Chinese students， communicative language teaching （ CLT） was introduced into China in 1980s. To adapt CLT successfully into English education， numbers efforts have been given. However， although many efforts have been expanded， adapting CLT in Chinese context seems to need a long way to go. 【 Key words】 Communicative language teaching （ CLT）， English language teaching （ ELT）， Challenges Definition of CLT Douglas describes definition of CLT as teaching second languages for the ultimate goal of communication with their speakers of the second language. Such a focus has centred on speaking and listening skills， on writing for specific communicative purpose， and on antithetic reading text （ Brown， 1994a， p. 244） . Development of CLT in China CLT as a new teaching approach was introduced into China by Li Xiaoju in 1979. She and her associates applied communicative English to Chinese learners， and published English textbooks of communicative English teaching. Li also published the first article in ETL Journal in 1984. She （ 1984） states that language is communication and learning a language is learning to communicate （ p. 2） . The article has significant influence on English teachers attitude of CLT in china. CLT approach was started applying in English classroom in China in the early 1990s. The goals of designing national syllabus have been changed from structure-based national unified syllabus to communication syllabus by the State Education Development Commission （ SEDC） in 1992. In this syllabus， listening， reading， speaking and writing are four main training aspects that would achieve the aim of communication in English. In the middle 1990s， CLT approach has become a general and main teaching approach in English teaching in china. Challenges of adopting CLT approach in China Firstly， although CLT approach has been introduced into China since late 1970s， there were seldom schools and universities emphasis on communicative English teaching at that time. Zuo （ 1990） states that 87% of teachers in Chinas middle schools used the traditional method in the late 1980s （ p.40） . To investigate the situation of applying CLT in Chinas universities， Wang （ 1999） did a case study of applying communicative method in a traditional English teaching class at East China Teachers University. As a result， he suggests that to promote English teaching in China， traditional English teaching method and CLT approach both can be utilized in English classroom. Secondly， there are many constrains of applying CLT approach in Chinese current circumstances. Due to the low income of English teachers， many teachers also have part time teaching job. Consequently， teachers will not have time to analyze students needs or collect suitable materials for communicative English teaching （ Hui， 1997） . In addition， a large number of students in a class are not suitable for learner-centered teaching. In CLT classroom， group work or pair work is seen as effective activities to practice English in class. However， considered more than 60 students in one class， those activities are not practical to apply in the class. Furthermore， lacking of qualified English teachers is an issue in English education in China. According to Liu and Gong （ 2010） only 89.4% of junior middle school teachers and 55.0% of senior middle school teachers are professionally qualified out of middle school teachers in China. Conclusion It is not an easy task to adopt CLT approach to traditional grammar-translation teaching method in China. Nowadays， the educational systems and national structures emphasis on traditional language teaching， and there are a variety of perspectives to CLT. In the near future， the traditional English teaching approach will be continually domain the English education in China. Additionally， the students who are taught English by grammar-translation teaching method may use the same teaching method to their students， when some of them become English teachers in the future （ Xiao， 1998） . To ultimately change the English teaching method from traditional approach to the new CLT， English teachers may be trained how to teach communicative language， as well as improve their linguistic ability at the same time. Reference Brown， H. D. （ 1994a） . Teaching By Principles United States of America： Pretice Hall Regents Prentice-Hall， Inc Li， X. （ 1984） . In defense of the communicative approach. ELTJourna， 38（ 2）， 13. Zuo， H. （ 1990） . Investigation and analysis of Chinas secondary English teaching. Shangh