'Adapting Communicative Language Teaching Approach to China’s Context Essay\r'

'1. Introduction With the development of market economy, primary(prenominal)land china is accelerating its go to join the world family in commerce and hea so partnership. With the recent accession to the WTO, the big-awaited Olympic Games in Beijing, china has made scholarship side a subject bea priority. face, with its unique status, has been taught in mainland China for much than degree centigrade years. Today, position is becoming much and more universal. It is a compulsory course for all in all Chinese students from primeval school to university. Clearly it is relatively easy to try the importance of position in current China. This leaven in unravels to argue that to achieve success in face learning for Chinese students the orders of command must be reconsidered.\r\nTherefore this article is structured as follows: First, analyzing variant types of position command systems in China and then focusing on the CLT manner. By analyzing and contrasting thes e incline breeding manners, the need to change current face instruct methods in China go egress be discovered. Finally, explaining the problems of adopting the more modern CLT cuddle and giving suggestions on how it may high hat be adapted to the Chinese circumstance.\r\nSee more: Social Satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay\r\n2. A Brief Introduction to slope T to individually oneing rules in China 2.1 Grammar-Translation Method face has been taught in China for more than 100 years. In the beginning stage, people did non scram either experience on modern expression commandment and learning, so they followed a European terminology dogma method YE Jin (1978- ), Master of education, lecturer of School of conflicting voice communication, Shenzhen University; research fields: slope talking to training method methods, cross-cultural communication, educational assessment,which is partd in training Greek and Latin in Middle Ages in Europeâ€Gramm ar-Translation Method.\r\nSome Chinese students become given over to this method in learning side of meat and mainly exhibited great interest in wording structures and lingual details. close of them believe â€Å"we would kindred to know what happens, beca do if we get a line the system, we arsehole habit incline more effectively” (Harvey, 1985). Therefore, about Chinese side of meat instructors unceasingly take to this method, and think it is essential to analyze grammar to learners, without considering the age of the students or their face proficiency. This method is effective and suitable for round Chinese students, besides non all of them. The aftermath of this method is that students develop poor viva face ability with pronunciation and intonation not substantiateard.\r\nAlthough they contrive learned lots of grammar rules, when using incline to communicate, they will fudge grammatical mistakes frequently. Especially when they are in extern al countries, they cannot ask the way; they cannot order taxi. They are â€Å"observers” rather than agile participants in classes. Students became almost â€Å"structurally competent just now communicatively incompetent” (Johnson & Morrow, 1981). It has been pointed out that this grammar-oriented approach reflects an artificial and formalistic view of spoken communication sciences and learning. It doesn’t allow the learners to use a oral communication in a natural way (Widdowson, 1990). This is the most serious problem in Grammar-Translation Method and similarly in current China’s slope breeding.\r\n2.2 Direct Method This slope teaching method is totally different from Grammar-Translation Method. It uses slope directly in teaching, much(prenominal) as using side of meat to make conversations or cook discussions. Students’ incline competency is unquestionable in this way instead of using grow dialect to translate. The basic pr inciple of this method is that the foreign language learning process should be like the natural process of a child learning his or her sustain tongue. It believes that language is a skill or habit, and this habit can be achieved by repetition and imitation.\r\nAlthough this method can inspire students’ interests in learning face and is in favour of their face pronunciation and intonation, it has authorized congealations: (1) It precisely focuses on experiences and perceptual knowledge in English and it has little approximation on students’ level of consciousness. (2) This method rejects m other(a) tongue in English teaching. It only sees the disadvantages of mother tongue, plainly never makes use of mother tongue to expedite students’ comprehension. (3) afterward learning English for a farsighted period, m whatever students may understand simple oral English but not perplex sentences and invite poor grammar skills. (4) The class size should be ex cellent in using this method. So this method is nevertheless(prenominal) suitable to teach English beginners, and cannot be amply applied in the large countryâ€China.\r\n2.3 audio-lingual Approach This English teaching method puts auditory sense and speaking in the first place. It uses sentence excogitation as the base of teaching and tries to avoid mother tongue in class. When using this method in learning English, students should first listen and then speak. After a long time enforce, students can automatically express what they had heard. Because this method relies on repetition and drills, the main limitations are: (1) It over emphasizes the mechanical practice and ignores students’ English skills training and learning flexibility. (2) This method focuses too overmuch on the language structure and ignores the meaning of the language, so students’ reading and writing abilities are poor.\r\n2.4 Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT) In the early 199 0s, a new English teaching method was introduced to Chinaâ€Communicative Language Teaching Approach. This method emphasizes how to use language as a media to communicate. instructors should not only train students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, but withal train them how to use all of these language skills into the tangible life communication. The teacher ropes up a web site that students are likely toencounter in veritable life.\r\nThe CLT can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their re challenges and responses (Galloway, 1993). The basic features of CLT are: (1) It focuses on students’ expeditious participation, the only schoolroom is not the teacher-centered, but students-centered one. The teacher should give students enough time to practise during class. (2) The English teacher should help students to be more separatist, active and fluent in using English. In genuinel y life situation, students will use the language without teacher’s help. (3) When using the CLT, the teacher often engineers parallel and group mold, the in all classroom put should be arranged in favour of these activities.\r\nAlthough this method is quite an useful and can inspire students’ interest, it even-tempered has some limitations: (1) The text edition using in CLT breaks up the English grammatical system, which increases students’ difficulty in learning grammar. (2) This method is hard to assess. The above quaternary English teaching methods are all use in China in different time and to a certain extent; they have their own features and focuses on better different language skills. So the limitations are necessary when we use them separately in English teaching. Among them, the overagedest language teaching methodâ€Grammar-Translation Method is still popular in some places in current China. Mean age, for several(a) reasons, using the CLT in China met considerable difficulties. How to use the CLT in China’s English teaching context properly still has a long way to go.\r\n3. Adapting Communicative Language Teaching Approach in China To solve this problem, we need to use the CLT flexibly, that is to say, we need to adapt CLT to China’s English teaching context. alone just as Johnson and Morrow (1981, p. 1) say â€Å"new movements often begin as reactions to old ones. Their origins lie in a discontent with an alert state of affairs”. In fact, in 1992 the show Education Development Commission (SEDC) introduced a operative syllabus, in which the communicative teaching aim was set and the communicative functions to be taught were listed. In the same year, in cooperation with the British Longman, the SEDC published a new textbook series. The syllabus and the textbooks call for teachers to teach communicatively in classrooms. This action met considerable resistance at that time.\r\n3.1 Problems The main problems of adopting CLT in China are: First, class size. In China, each class has at least 50 students, and thither are only 45 minutes in one English class. Each student could potentially speak in each class less than 1 minute. So it is impossible for English teachers to chair CLT well in this kind of class. Second, English teachers particularly some primary and secondary school English teachers neglect sufficient English knowledge and teaching skills to adopt CLT without further direction and training. â€Å"Many teachers have tried to change the dominant teaching procedures but quickly get frustrated, lose their initial enthusiasm, and consent to tradition”. (Campbell & ZHAO, 1993) Third, in China the whole process of English teaching and learning is intemperately influenced by examinations, and the matriculation English runnel focuses on students’ linguistic competence.\r\nThe English teaching pattern in China is textbook- base, teacher-dominated a nd tally-oriented, which prevents students from improving their communicative competence (ZUO, 1993). Finally, lack of teaching materials is another obstacle to adopt CLT in China. Right now, some universities in China perplex to their own textbooksâ€College English, which was published in 1989 by strike Foreign Language Education Press, and has remained unchanged for more than 10 years. College English does include some veritable(a) materials from English novels and magazines, but it lacks practical applications and is hard to organize communicative classroom activities to go with it. Because of the above reasons, English teachers cannot adopt CLT directly in China’s context, and the history 31 Adapting communicative language teaching approach to China’s context has already proved that direct adoption would fail at last. They must adapt CLT and use an discriminating method according to China’s current situation.\r\n3.2 Factors to be considered of adapting CLT to China’s context The above four English teaching methods are all used in China’s English teaching. They have their own advantages and disadvantages. Previous research and analysis show that the most scientific way to teach English in China’s context is to trustingness those different English teaching methods together, using an eclectic method. An eclectic method is a method that accepts the best teaching techniques from other methods according to the actual situation. To chord communicative approaches to the teaching of English with traditional Chinese methods helped English teachers in their teaching, but to be eclectic, teachers were required to use CLT as a method while accepting elements of the traditional methods, especially the Grammar-Translation Method.\r\n3.2.1 Combining the true up and volubility in China’s English teaching In English learning, accuracy and fluency are two equally important factors, but in China, accuracy is emphasized more than fluency. Chinese students are keenly interested in the occupy words, have a low tolerance of ambiguity, and tend to focus on discrete grammar points and specific syntactical constructions (Barnhouse, 1981). Modern society needs students use English not only accurately but to a fault fluently, so more attention should be stipendiary to fluency in the future’s English teaching. As for teaching beginners, a solid presentation of English must be emphasized, which is primarily construct on accuracy, so English teachers should use Grammar-Translation Method more in this stage\r\n. Then teachers should boost students to use English orally with as a few(prenominal) errors as possible, and to manipulate the language system as spontaneously and flexibly as possible. CLT is largely come to in this process. After students have over considered the language forms, they ought to be given intensive fluency practice, because although linguistic competence is the b asis of communicative competence, communicative competence does not automatically result from linguistic competence (DUAN, 1992).\r\nAt this stage, English teachers should not interrupt students’ practice to correct their mistakes frequently, but at the end of each fluency practice, the teacher should permit students aware their mistakes, so they can avoid next time. During the whole practice, the teacher should let students use English extensively and limit the use of Chinese. Through this way, accuracy and fluency can be achieved and students’ English linguistic competence and communicative competence can both be developed.\r\n3.2.2 Student-centered druthers For a long time, China’s English classroom is dominated by teachers. They always stand in front of the blackboard, and talk all the time; students sitting in lines separately to listen. This kind of classroom setting is in favour of using Grammar-Translation Method in teaching, but it is not convenient t o press out out students’ practice. In order to facilitate English acquisition, students need oral practice in English classroom. Teachers must ensure that classroom interactions are managed, not just by the teacher, but by all participants. To achieve this, teachers should arrange the desks in such a way that the students can look directly at one another to help lay down interactions among students.\r\n3.2.3 Teacher’s role Instead of being the master of the class, the English teacher could act as an independent participant and facilitator in English classroom. He or she facilitates the communicative process among all learners and between students and confused tasks. He or she can give counsel and advice when necessary. But this does not mean in the teaching process, the teacher should only be a resistless observer. Although the teacher may be nondirective in general, it is still the teacher’s responsibility to recognize the typical qualities in the studen ts (HAN, 1979) and to help students develop those qualities.\r\nOf course, to perform these roles well, English teachers in China need further guidance and training to let 32 Adapting communicative language teaching approach to China’s context them fully understand that teaching English does not consist only of teaching grammar but that the true mastery of a language involves communicative competence, and to let them know how to use CLT in their daily teaching process successfully.\r\n3.2.4 Classroom activities Classroom activities such as role-play, pair work and group discussion should be largely involved in English teaching. At the same time, teachers can also use any unexpected occurrence that happens during class. I still recollect when I was in secondary school, I was always attracted easily by outside sights and noises. Once in an English class, I saw a precise beautiful butterfly flying outside the window. It was so beautiful that I signaled my best friend to look at it. Just at this moment, my English teacher also noticed my signal. Instead of being angry, she asked the whole class to enjoy the beautiful butterfly, and me to describe it in English. Although in China, classroom activities are usually based on textbooks; English teachers can try to create activities to provide students with speaking opportunities and motivate them.\r\n3.2.5 Changes in English test For a long time, English examinations in China did not have oral test and the language use section. Recently, some important English tests in China developed by the fix Education Development Commission began to include the language use section. English teachers can teach to the test from now on. The section was added to measure the four English language skills used for communication and it included such elements like: role-play, reading comprehension and communicative writing. Most of my students in China told me that the English examination is more interesting than ever before and they like these changes.\r\n4. cultivation English teaching in China, with its traditional setting and current situation, differs from many English speaking countries. But this does not mean that the CLT approach is not applicable in China’s context. On the other hand, English teachers can use an eclectic method according to their actual situations. Adapting the CLT approach, making full use of its advantages and reconciling it with the traditional Grammar-Teaching Method, this approach can work the most effectively in China. But adapting CLT to China’s context is a very complicated process, under the guidance of the SEDC, the representatives of the central government, it should be through with(p) step by step. Right now what English teachers in China need to do is to modernize, not westernize, English teaching.\r\n'