College English Teaching in China

Lu Zhongshe

1. Definition for college English

College English, formerly called Service English, refers to English language courses taught to non-English majors in the universities and colleges all over China.

2. A survey of college English since 1977

• The stage of resurrection (1977-1982)
• The stage of improvement (1982-1986)
• The stage of advancement (1986-1994)
• Making a step forward (1994 - )

3.On syllabus design

3.1. Defining 'Syllabus'

'Syllabus' in this paper is employed in the same sense as 'curriculum', rather than the rigid narrow meaning of 'syllabus' in Britain.

3.2. Current views on syllabus

Chinese linguists and English language teachers agreed that a national English syllabus IS necessary, which should serve as a guideline in all the universities and colleges.

3.3. Classification of syllabuses

Productive syllabus:

• traditional syllabus
• structural syllabus
• lexical syllabus
• semantic syllabus: situational/notional/functional

Process syllabus:

• Process syllabus
• Procedural syllabus

Of all the syllabus mentioned the following three are the most discussed:

• structural or grammatical syllabus
• situational syllabus
• notional-functional syllabus (Yalden, 1987)

3.6. Framework for revising an existing syllabus

In revising a syllabus, one does not have to start from the very beginning. It is more a question of examining and modifying the existing syllabus than building up a whole operation. Find out changes in needs survey and what has already been done and what has not been done are essential in deciding goals and objective modification, content selection and sequencing (Yalden, 1987, P. 99).

3.7. Questionnaires and tests in the needs survey

In the needs survey, the revising team did three questionnaires and two tests in 1996. The questionnaires cover:

• administrators’ and teachers’ expectations of college students’ English for the 21^st Century
• graduates' actual use of English in their affiliations
• employers' comments on graduates' English proficiency

And the tests were on students’ vocabulary and their English proficiency upon entering universities. Those three questionnaires and two tests have laid the basic foundation for the revision of the syllabus.

3.8. Goals and objectives setting

The 1999 version of the syllabus has been improved in setting the goals as: "…to develop a strong reading ability for the students and a fairly good ability for listening, speaking, writing and translating so that students are capable of EXCHANGING information in the target language…" (Revising Team, 1999).

3.9. Content selection and gradation

• In theory, the 1999 version of the National English Syllabus is a combination of several types of product syllabus..

1. It is traditional because it has a pre-designed content, it sets out what is to be taught and learned. Moreover, it is composed of a list of linguistic structures and a list of words.
2. It is structural because it emphasises teaching the structure and the vocabulary of the language, and it encourages students to make a comparison between their native language and the target language.
3. It is situational because it realises the importance that different social situations may need different features of language.
4. It is functional because it gives priority to the needs of the students and takes the desired 'communicative capacity' as a starting point, and what is more, its organisation is not determined solely by grammatical considerations but takes communicative categories into account. Since it is a combination of different syllabuses, it is concerned with both accuracy and fluency.

• In practice, it combines the 1985 version of College English Syllabus applicable to undergraduates of science and engineering with the 1986 version of College English Syllabus applicable to undergraduates of humanities, which emphasises the common core of the language.
• It stresses the importance of continuous study of college English by making objectives within two frameworks: the framework of college English teaching for general purposes and college English teaching for specific purposes. The foundation stage, including CET Band 1-4 and CET Band 5-6, is supposed to be finished in the first two years. In this stage students have 'general' courses which are composed of a large number of different types of language, concentrating on the basis of any form of language use. The foundation stage is to develop students' receptive skills (listening and reading) as well as productive skills (speaking, writing and translating), so that students have general language skills at their disposal in the target language. The advanced stage is in the last two years of universities. Students usually have specialised English, introducing them to scientific texts in the English language relating to their professions.
• Once again it gives special attention to reading, a most important activity in any language class, because it is a source of information and a means of consolidating and extending one's knowledge of the language. This is particularly necessary in Chinese context, where the main purpose for students to learn English is to read materials on their own special subjects. Many of them may never have opportunities to speak the language.
• It pays enough attention to productive skills of speaking and writing as a result of the needs analysis. For the first time, those two skills are treated equal with listening and translating.
• Another important decision of the syllabus is that all students have to finish college English Band 4, even if they are minorities and from remote areas. They may start from pre-college level, but they must accomplish all the basic requirements in the foundation stage. Otherwise they cannot start their advanced stage learning.
• Requirements of reading, listening, speaking, and writing have been raised to meet the needs of the students and the society.
• All the four inventories of vocabulary, grammatical summary, functional and notional category and language skills have been changed accordingly.
• Reading in specialised English has been improved to specialised English which requires not only reading, but also a balance-developed language skills such as listening, speaking, writing and translating.

As far as the contents are concerned, the 1999 version of the syllabus can be considered a well-developed and rich syllabus. However, as White stated, the more elements included and specified in a syllabus, the richer it is, but the richer the syllabus, the less choice is given to the teacher and learner. (White, 1988. P. 92)

3.10. Method and evaluation

“Language teaching is full of choices and alternatives, and no one is totally sure which way is right”(Dougill, 1987), so whatever methods, as long as they get students involved in activities of actually using the language on both structures and functions, students can approach to their final goals.

Testing functions as quality control, an important element in syllabus design. Through testing and its feedback, appropriate remedial action can be taken to repair failures or deficits. However testing is only a means of monitoring, not the goal of the whole teaching, it can not and should never replace teaching.

3.11. Some guiding principles for syllabus implementation

The implementation of a syllabus can be illustrated in the following graph:

3.12. Suggestions for improvement

The 1999 version of the syllabus is a well-developed proportional syllabus including both language structure and function, emphasising fluency as well as accuracy. And it contains many elements. Therefore it is restrictedly rigid and leaves hardly any space for adaptation, improvisation and growth. (White, 1988. P. 92).

College English course aims to develop five different language skills to two degrees of competence: the first is reading ability, which deserves more attention; the second is listening, speaking, writing and translating. The four skills in the second degree should be developed equally. Students might opt for different levels of performance in the five skills, for different individuals often have different needs and wants. So it is not necessary to achieve uniformity. If some students want to develop speaking or translating to the first degree, they should be encouraged.

The syllabus intends to be a continuation of what students have learned in high school. Yet there are still many repetitions due to the strong desire of completion and perfection in systemic teaching of vocabulary and grammar, etc.

The syllabus is applicable to about 5 million students in more than 1000 Chinese universities and colleges. Though it has clarified that students should be taught in accordance with their aptitude, the options are not enough to cover such a huge gap. Consequently some requirements might be too high for some students but too low for other students. For instance, vocabulary requirement for Band 4 is low for some key university students, but too high for students from remote areas. Listening and speaking are high in a general term; even students of English majors will need more efforts to reach such goals.

The speed for intensive reading is set at 70 words per minute, which is too specific because learners' reading speed is largely affected by the contents of reading texts and by their knowledge about the subjects. One may read articles on his own subject very fast but slow down with articles of different contents. And it is impossible to limit or predict reading materials in advance.

Evaluation should consist of two aspects: to evaluate or test the students in the program; and to assess the teaching as well as the over-all course program. The syllabus seems to neglect the second aspect, which is as significant as the first.

Some inventories like Functional & Notional Category and Language Skills appeal only to very limited teachers who are to write textbooks. A big majority of teachers and students tend to ignore them.

4. Conclusion

This paper provides some knowledge on background, history and syllabus design of college English in China. College English started only two decades ago but has developed pretty fast. In its development, syllabus revising is considered the most important.

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