Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am an English teacher from the Middle School Attached to Shanghai Normal University. Currently, I’m teaching Chinese in Slough Grammar School on an exchange programme. The topic for our workshop today is: “English Teaching in Senior Middle Schools in Shanghai”. To start with, I will give a brief introduction to English teaching and learning in senior middle schools in Shanghai and then we will have a discussion focusing on the Chinese learners.
First of all, I need to explain what Senior Middle School is. In Shanghai, children go to primary school at the age of six. At the age of eleven they go to junior middle school, where they study for four years until they are fifteen. During the nine years, the children receive their compulsory education at school with two mid-term and two final examinations every year. At the end of Year 9, they take the formal examination set by the municipal authority. Then according to the results of this exam and their own wishes, the students have various choices to make: to go to work, or to technical schools, or senior middle schools, where they will study for another three years until they go to university if they succeed in the Entrance Examination. Senior middle schools are selective and are always among the students’ first choices. So in some way, senior middle schools in Shanghai are similar to Key Stages 4 and 5 in the UK.
Once the children go to senior middle school, they have more subjects to learn. But whatever new subjects they have, English is the fundamental subject throughout their school education.
Most of the students in senior middle schools work hard at English. The following reasons might explain why this is the case. First, English is one of the four essential subjects in the Entrance Examination to university. Secondly, together with the ICT skills, a good command of English is regarded by most people as a passport to a successful life and career. It is often related to an excellent job, high salary, and plentiful opportunities both at home and abroad. Thirdly, English as a universal language, plays a dominant role on the Internet. To enjoy the resources, the benefits and the fun that Internet brings, the students are very well aware that they must have a good knowledge of English. Last but not least, the society, the parents and the teachers are doing a lot to help promote the popularity of English. Therefore, we can safely say that the students are highly motivated for their study of English. They have a clear and definite objective in mind. Therefore, in classrooms they are well behaved and very co-operative with their teachers. In a word, they want to learn, which makes our work much easier.
The students are highly motivated, and now it is the teacher’s responsibility to have them taught to the full development of the four basic language skills, that is, listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Basically, the students have five to six English lessons every week, each lasting 45 minutes. To achieve the best results, the teachers make full use of the facilities and resources at the school, for example, overhead projectors, computers, recorders and videos, all within easy access. For listening lessons, the students go to language labs, and for speaking activities, the normal classes of 40 or 50 are usually divided into smaller ones. Meanwhile, the students have regular reading and writing assignments to make sure that none of the four skills is neglected.
The textbooks we are using now vary from school to school. Several years ago, only one type of textbook was used throughout the country. But now we have more than enough available to choose from. For instance, the ones published by the University of International Studies of Shanghai, the ones by the Oxford University Press, the ones by the Longman Press and some others are all used at the same time by different schools. It is up to the school to decide which textbook they use. Most schools are presently using the Oxford Edition, which has a larger vocabulary, is more up-to-date and closer to real life.
Talking of the methodology adopted in our English teaching, the communicative approach seems to be playing a lead role. The students are expected to get fully involved in the classroom activities. They are encouraged to open their mouths and speak the target language. Teachers use all kinds of strategies they can think of to arouse the students’ interest: pair work, group discussion, picture talk, role play and so on becoming the teacher’s favourites.
As far as assessment is concerned, the students have four big exams normally set by the school every year: two mid-terms and two finals. Smaller tests occur once every two weeks. The students are tested on the four language skills. The Entrance Examination set by the municipal authority has two tests: Written and Oral. The written test contains seven parts with a total score of 150: Listening 30, Structure 20, Vocabulary 10, Cloze 20, Reading Comprehension 30, Translation from Chinese to English 15, and Composition 25. The Oral Test, which includes Quick Responses, Questions and Answers, Picture Talk and Topic Presentation, are graded by A, B, C and D.
After years of studying, some students make incredible progress in their English skills. Not only can they communicate fluently but also they can write very accurately. Nevertheless, what most students do best in the test is the part of Structure, some of which, I suspect, native speakers may find a little more difficult.
We have made much progress in English teaching in the past few years. But on reflection, we find we still have some problems and difficulties. First, what is called the test-centred education is an obstacle to the equal development of the students’ four skills. In spite of our efforts for a more balanced teaching practice, still too much stress is put on grammar teaching, which I think the existing university enrolment policy is to blame for. Under that policy, the highest score means the best university and practices on grammar look like a short cut. Hence, what the students have to do are the piles and piles of multiple-choice questions and the teacher’s job is to search their brains for a reasonable explanation for the supposed answer, which sometimes sounds ridiculous to a native speaker. As a result, English teaching may become dull and boring, no fun!
A second bad consequence which test-centred education brings is that heavy loads of school work deprive the students of their time and energy for English radio and television programmes and speaking activities. Every day they are confronted with huge amounts of homework which they can’t finish until midnight.
Another problem we currently have is that there is a shortage of suitable resources that teachers can use as supplementary materials. In bookstores, there are always a lot more books, tapes, or videos for university students than for middle school students. We teachers have too limited a choice for authentic English resources.
While we are talking about the problems and difficulties in our English teaching, we are still optimistic because we are happy to see that things are changing or going to change. The whole society, officials, teachers and parents have become aware of the necessities for a more relaxed learning atmosphere for the students.
On the one hand, our government keeps making new policies for university enrolment to help relieve the high stress and pressure on the students. A growing number of students are admitted to universities each year to fill the increasing demands of the parents and students. On the other hand, there are frequent changes to the English Entrance Examination Paper, from the focus on the students’ knowledge of grammar to their real communicative skills.
In addition, new textbooks are being introduced to schools. In everyday classrooms, teachers are contributing much more time than before to improving the students’ listening and speaking abilities. English corners and clubs have been organized in almost all the schools to provide the students with as good an English learning environment as possible.
What is more encouraging is that more and more schools are getting involved in international exchanges, which offer the students very good opportunities to communicate with native speakers of English. There are one-year programmes as well as short-term programmes, all of which prove to be extremely beneficial to the participants.
In short, as an English teacher in a senior middle school, we have a lot to do and a lot to expect in our classroom teaching.
Thank you!