China's WTO entry and Beijing's success in its 2008 Olympic Games
bid have aroused mass enthusiasm throughout the country for
learning English. An increasing number of primary schools have
begun, or plan to introduce, bilingual teaching.
Shanghai will soon establish 100 experimental bilingual teaching
schools, and by 2003, there will be 200 primary and middle schools
in Shanghai conducting bilingual teaching. It also plans to
introduce English teaching in the curriculum of all primary schools
and, hopefully, in the near future, all senior middle school
graduates will be able to communicate in fluent English. Currently,
30 percent of middle school teachers in Shanghai can teach classes
totally in English. Therefore, their schools will have no
difficulty conducting bilingual teaching in all science
subjects.
A
district of Nanjing is carrying out bilingual teaching experiments
in some grade-one classes at 14 primary schools.
However, some experts have questioned this practice, saying that,
by starting to learn English at an early age, the children's mother
tongue learning will be affected. They also believe it is too early
to introduce bilingual teaching, due to a lack of qualified
teachers.
Foreign Language Teaching Cannot Replace Education in the Mother
Tongue
Prof. Yang Xiongli (Academician at the Chinese Academy of
Sciences): Presently, all educational institutions, from
kindergarten to university, are enthusiastically advocating
bilingual education. But I think learning a foreign language at too
young an age is likely to affect the development of children's
normal way of thought. When thinking in their mother tongue, the
foreign language may emerge and interfere with their thoughts,
which may even cause logical confusion. Some scientific experiments
have proven this, although the theory is yet to be confirmed.
For most people, a foreign language is merely a tool of
communication. It's enough if they can use it to communicate, and
there is no need for them to unduly pursue their foreign language
proficiency to reach the same level as their mother tongue. Parents
and teachers should pay more attention to cultivating children's
language ability.
Cheng Gang (Director of the Education Bureau in Xicheng District,
Beijing): As Beijing is adapting its elementary education to
international practices, the introduction of bilingual teaching is
worth trying. In a certain sense, bilingual education will provide
Beijing's 1 million primary and middle school students with good
opportunities for practice. But education involves a language art.
When Chinese teachers give lessons in a foreign language, their
teaching skills may be affected. It's not realistic to widely
practice bilingual teaching at present, because even a teacher with
good English language skills may have difficulty giving lessons
entirely in English. Therefore, bilingual teaching can be only a
scientific concept for the time being, rather than an action for
all schools.
Wang Huichun (mathematics teacher at a Shanghai middle school): I
doubt how much a six-year-old child can understand in a class
taught in English. In particular, a mathematics class is not aimed
at teaching students how much one plus one equals, but at
cultivating their mathematical thinking. Even in the mother tongue,
we often have to spend a lot of time explaining a mathematical
problem; I cannot imagine how we can do so in English. Qualified
teachers are another problem. At present, teachers are trained
exclusively in their respective subjects. As a result, English
teachers may not be able to teach mathematics or other subjects. So
how can the quality of a class be guaranteed when a mathematics
teacher is asked to give lessons in a foreign language? The weak
mathematical knowledge foundation of primary one and two students
will produce a negative effect on their future studies.
Bilingual Teaching Is a Trend
Li
Lichun (Director of Beijing Future Star Experimental Kindergarten):
Bilingual teaching is a feature of my kindergarten. In practice, we
place more stress on oral English. For instance, we let children
perform short dramas written in English. In this way, they learn
English naturally while performing their roles in the play.
From my experience in pre-school education over the past 10 years,
learning English at a young age won't necessarily produce negative
effects on the mother-tongue study of children. As we are living in
an environment of pure Chinese conversation and traditional
culture, it's impossible for us to give up our culture and
language. We have been trying to arrange the curriculum in a proper
way. For instance, we create an English-speaking environment for
children in the morning, and a Chinese-speaking environment in the
afternoon.
On
the other hand, we are not in a hurry to teach them to write
English letters and words, because they can learn them after they
have a good grasp of the Chinese phonetic alphabet. Our goal is to
let children get used to an English-speaking environment so that
speaking English won't be a psychological obstacle for them. More
importantly, children can learn more about other cultures and other
nations through foreign language study, thus widening their field
of vision.
Zhang Enhai (Deputy Principal of Beijing No.80 Middle School):
Bilingual teaching is a feature of the new era. Although giving
lessons in English has not been practiced in an all-round way, we
saw a good start in the teaching of certain subjects in English by
some teachers. For example, while giving lessons on American
history, a teacher in my school uses the original textbook written
in English, and teaches the class in English, which has been well
received by students.
Bilingual teaching may not suit all subjects, such as Chinese and
political science, which are better taught in Chinese. The practice
may not be limited to classroom. Creating an environment for
learning and using a foreign language is more important. For
example, all signboards on campus can be in both Chinese and
English.
Bilingual teaching may also not suit all students, because they
vary greatly in their competence in learning a foreign language.
Bilingual teaching cannot start at a randomly selected stage of
education. Taking the cultivation and stability of logical thinking
into account, bilingual teaching should be introduced when children
have a command of their native language.
Bilingual teaching may not suit all schools. Only schools with
enough qualified teachers can introduce it. Bilingual teaching is
yet to be popularized because appropriate teaching methods have to
be explored and an overall environment for foreign language
learning has to be formed.
Nevertheless, future educational undertakings will become more
international, and exchanges between schools throughout the world
will increase. Given this, speaking a common language is important
and, to this purpose, bilingual teaching is an inevitable way.
Yang Li (a parent): China has entered the WTO. Improving the
English level of the entire nation has become an urgent task. For
this, more attention should be given to English teaching for
children.
It's a well-known fact that from birth to six years old is the
crucial period for the development of human's language competence.
The more language stimulus children get from parents, the stronger
their language competence will be. An education in both Chinese and
English at an early age is conducive to removing obstacles to
language learning for Chinese children.
My
child began learning English in kindergarten. The elementary
education of the kindergarten helped cultivate my child's
enthusiasm for learning English after she entered primary school.
But Chinese primary school pupils have very few English classes and
little time to practice English in school. If our children begin to
receive bilingual education from the very day they enter primary
school, their English proficiency will surely improve quickly.
Therefore, I urge the Ministry of Education to attach importance to
English teaching for children, because having children begin
learning English at an early age is of great significance to the
future economic construction of our country.
Zhou Hui (a student of Beijing No.2 Experimental Primary School):
I'm a sixth grader. When I was in kindergarten, every day my mum
taught me a few Chinese characters as well as their meaning in
English. As time passed, I became keen to learn English. Sometimes
I gave mum and dad a quiz by speaking some English words and asking
them what their meaning is.
To
me, the earlier we begin to learn English the better the learning
effects will be, and we are likely to develop a stronger interest.
I often study English together with my dad. I always learn new
English words faster than him, and remember them longer.
On
October 1, my classmates and I went to fly kites in Tiananmen
Square. We met some foreigners and I talked with them in English.
Through our conversation, I learnt that they are tourists from
Australia who are greatly interested in Chinese kites. I told them
that I like the Australian kangaroo.
There are seven years to go before the 2008 Olympic Games. I'll
study English even harder in the coming years, so I can then serve
as a volunteer proficient in English.
(Beijing
Review December 4, 2001)