FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE SCHOOLS

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FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE
SCHOOLS

• Chen Lin

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QUESTION NO.1

• Our Party has always attached great
  importance to foreign language education and the
  training of her cadres in foreign languages.

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• Before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
  was formally founded in 1921, on August 22nd
  1920, Comrades Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and others
  established the Shanghai Socialist Youth League
  (SSYL) in Shanghai, which was one of the
  predecessors of the CCP.

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• In September 1920, right after the SSYL
  itself was set up, the League founded a foreign
  language teaching school called Foreign Language
  Association (?????) . It engaged in the training
  of revolutionaries in foreign languages and also
  in covering their secret activities.

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• On the newspaper Republic Daily (????) of
  September 30th 1920 there was an enrolment
  announcement saying that the school had set up
  classes of English, Russian, German, French and
  Japanese languages, and that the tuition fee was
  two dollars per month. The announcement also
  stated that grammar lessons would be taught by
  Chinese teachers and pronunciation and speaking
  by foreign teachers.

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• Comrades Ren Bishi, Liu Shaoqi, Xiao
• Jinguang and writers Ding Ling and Cao
• Jinghua and other revolutionaries
• studied at this school.

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• Then, in 1922, the new-born CCP
  established the Shanghai University. It was the
  first higher education institution founded by our
  party. It had three departments Chinese
  literature, English literature and sociology.
  Comrade Qu Qiubai once served as its Dean of
  Studies. The revolutionary writer Shun Yanbing
  (??) taught English and English literature there.

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• Both these two schools were NGO
  (non-governmental organization) or private
  educational institutions engaged in foreign
  language teaching. Therefore, we can see that
  private foreign language education has a long
  history, to say nothing of the beginning of
  Chinas foreign language teaching with the
  establishment of the ????? in 1862 during the
  Qing dynasty.

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QUESTION NO.2

• In the past few years, there have been
  discussions about when school children should
  start foreign language learning. The more common
  understanding nowadays is that they should start
  at what is called the childrens critical
  period for foreign language learning, or in
  other words, at an early age.

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• The general trend in most countries of the
  world, children start to learn a foreign language
  at primary school period. Most of the countries
  of the European Union start FLL at the age range
  of 8-12. In Spain and Belgium FLL starts at
  kindergartens.

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• As stipulated in the National Syllabus
  Standard for ELL of our country, school children
  are encouraged to start ELL in the third year of
  primary school education. However, in all big
  cities and many medium-sized cities ELL starts at
  the first year of primary school. Besides,
  bilingual kindergartens are very popular in our
  country.

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• Therefore, whether
  or not we should start FLL at primary school or
  even earlier is actually no longer a theoretical
  or academic question but rather a generally
  accepted common practice.

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• Whats more, from the point of view of
  human resources, a crying need of our country is
  high-level foreign language personnel. By some
  NGO statistics, the present number of
  high-quality foreign language workers is but 10
  of what the country needs.

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• Therefore, in order to meet this need, it
  is highly necessary to start foreign language
  learning at an early age and lengthen the
  duration of foreign language learning. Only in
  this way can we expect to have an ample number of
  high-level foreign language workers.

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• As China is in great need of language
  workers of other foreign languages than English,
  such as Arabic, French, German, Japanese,
  Spanish, etc. and yet these languages are usually
  not taught in ordinary primary and middle
  schools, it is necessary to have private foreign
  language schools where these languages can be
  learnt.

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• Hence, it is highly advisable that a
  foreign language school should have a
  multilingual programme. Also, students should be
  encouraged to learn a second foreign language, or
  even a third, as a selective course.

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QUESTION NO.3

• Is too much English taught at the expense
  of the Chinese lessons? Are the English lessons
  to be blamed for the declination of the students
  level of their mother tongue and the lack of
  knowledge of their own culture?

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• The answer is definitely NO.
• It is true that nowadays the students
  level of their own language and their knowledge
  of their own culture are not satisfactory, yet
  this is not because they learn too much foreign
  languages. It is because they spend too much time
  on computer games and TV programs and too little
  time on reading books of Chinese cultural
  heritage.

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• Therefore, a good foreign language school
  should not only teach foreign language lessons
  well, but also pay great attention to the
  teaching of the Chinese language and the
  students acquisition of the Chinese culture.

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QUESTION NO.4

• Foreign language schools should make
  great efforts to implement Quality-oriented
  Education (otherwise called Character Education).
  This is particularly so as most of the students
  in an NGO or private foreign language school are
  from we-to-do families where the children tend to
  be spoiled.

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• It is highly advisable for foreign
  language schools to implement Multi-Intelligence
  and Skill Education (or Holistic Education) and
  develop the school children and students in an
  all-round way. They should be encouraged to
  learn from the essence of foreign cultures.

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QUESTIONN NO.5

• A foreign language school should not only
  teach foreign languages well in the classroom but
  also create a good environment for language
  acquisition. Students should be encouraged to
  form the habit of speaking the foreign language
  they are learning in their daily life. A foreign
  language can only be learned well by combining
  language learning and language acquisition.

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• A good foreign language school should set
  up a Chinese learning centre where foreign
  students can be enrolled to learn the Chinese
  language. This will not only be beneficial to the
  school financially but will also help to create a
  language acquisition environment for the Chinese
  students.

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QUESTION NO.6

• Are students in foreign language schools
  necessarily weak in the learning of the other
  subjects?
• The answer is also NO.
• The fact is students who are good in
  their foreign language learning are usually also
  good in their learning of the other subjects,
  particularly the liberal arts subjects.

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• However, in some foreign language
  schools, the students scores in the subjects
  other than English in the mid-exams are
  sometimes lower than those of the students of the
  ordinary middle schools.
• From my own observation, this happens in
  some newly-founded foreign language schools and
  is usually temporary. Things improve when
  necessary measures are taken, such as
  strengthening the teaching force for the other
  subjects.

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• It is very important for a foreign
  language school to have not only good teachers of
  foreign languages but also good teachers for all
  other subjects. This will help the school to get
  out of the possible dilemma of lagging behind the
  ordinary schools in the teaching of the other
  subjects and become a school good in an all-round
  way.

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CONCLUSION

• The aim or objective of NGO or private
  foreign language schools is, first of all, to
  provide a qualified reserve force (???) for
  foreign language colleges and universities where
  students are trained to be high-level foreign
  language personnel, to help prepare those
  students who intend to go and study abroad in
  their foreign language abilities and also to help
  raise the foreign language level of the labor
  force in general.

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• From the point-of-view of the scientific
  development outlook, foreign language schools and
  schools with foreign language characteristics are
  playing an important role in preparing qualified
  personnel for our countrys socialist
  construction. We can proudly say that we
  constitute an indispensable part of our countrys
  foreign language education.

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• Therefore, my dear friends, be bold and
  assured (?????) and put your shoulder to the
  wheel and vie to make your foreign language
  school the best of its kind in the country.

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• Thank you and comments are welcome.