Foreign language education in China is in urgent need of change
Published on: 05 16, 2016
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Last week, as I was correcting my students' midterm exams from an advanced English writing class, I was shocked by the incoherence and lack of logic in their compositions.
This prompted me to take a moment to reflect on my twelve years of experience teaching in China£®
My main objective was to come to terms with the reason behind my shock. Logic would lead me to believe that by now I should be accustomed to the poor quality of Chinese students' English writing abilities.
I realized that the reason for my perplexity was the fact that my students were in an advanced English writing course, meaning they were attending the class to polish their writing skills, not to learn the basics.
Bearing in mind the fact they have been learning English for more than eight years (most of my students have been studying English for somewhere between eight and 10 years), they should have acquired the fundamentals of writing in English, including coherence and logic.
In an attempt to figure out the reasons behind their failure to use logic in their writing, I gave them a simple exercise that consisted of puzzling out the sequence of events in a short story. Unfortunately, they had a hard time coming up with the right sequence.
From my years of teaching in China, I've learned that Chinese students are taught to memorize.
In a discussion with foreign professors during a seminar I attended several years ago, I was informed that they were aware of the intelligence and diligence of Chinese students. However, they witnessed the misuse of these qualities to become memorizing machines instead of coming to complete comprehension of subjects through analysis and critical thinking.
To emphasize their points of views, they mentioned that a Chinese student will be able to memorize a whole book but be incapable of critically analyzing a single page.
Of course, they might have been exaggerating in their assessments of the capacities of Chinese students. However, one must acquire the courage to admit that their evaluations may be partly true.
The fundamental question that should be asked is: "Do the Chinese methods of teaching foreign languages need an overhaul?" Certainly, for the sake of saving the invaluable time of our students, they need to be altered, or at least modified.
Is the task of changing foreign language teaching methods easy? Not by a long shot. Actually, it requires a great deal of effort and time. However, the rewards could be tremendous.
The following question may creep into our minds: "How could we launch an overhaul of the methodology of teaching foreign languages in general, and English in particular?"
Linguistic experts ought to hold seminars or conferences to discuss the issue in detail in order to come up with an effective and efficient plan to accomplish this task.
The Chinese government and Chinese educational institutions should play essential roles in achieving that objective.
The government could select competent Chinese teachers of English and send them abroad to collaborative programs with English-speaking countries to advance their comprehension of English-speaker's thinking patterns and their familiarity with the latest advances in the methodology of teaching English. These same approaches could be applied to other foreign languages.
Upon their return to China, they can share their knowledge and experiences with other teachers at their schools, colleges or universities.
Both government and educational institutions could invite foreign linguistic experts to come to China to give workshops to Chinese foreign language teachers.
All middle, high schools and universities must put a great deal of emphasis on the importance of critical thinking.
Universities with departments of foreign languages ought to exert every possible effort to be selective in admitting students to foreign languages majors.
They must do their best to choose qualified teachers to educate these students, bearing in mind the fact that most of them will become foreign language teachers in the future.
Students have a major responsibility. They must acquire enough courage to get rid of their illogical fear, useless apprehension and utter timidity to be active in class and to make sure that their teachers are fulfilling their responsibilities.
This article has not been written to offend anyone. It is intended to open a forum of discussion to improve the quality of education received by our students, who are the future of our beloved China.
Sava Hassan is a Canadian Egyptian author, poet and educator. He had published three books and written numerous articles on various topics in Canada, USA and China. Currently, he is residing and teaching in China.