1. The history and development of English education in China
1.1 A brief account of the history of English education in China
English education in China dates from Qing dynasty，with more than one hundred years history. It was Britain churchmen that introduced English education to China at the beginning, and then we Chinese started our own English education from 1862 with the foundation of “JingShi TongWenGuan” (Zhang Youliang, ect1988; Fu Ke, 1986). In 1903, China began to set universally the foreign language class in the primary school and university (Fu Ke, 1986).
After the foundation of People's Republic of China, the country constituted the program of seven-year-plan of foreign language education in 1964, and it is the first time in the formal file of China to put forward that English is the first foreign language in Chinese schools（Hu Wenzhong, 2001）.
At the beginning of 21century, the third round of crazy rush to English study in China came with China’s successful participation in WTO and hosting Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Understating, there are more than 200 million Chinese people learning English now. To the people with same mother tongue who are learning the same foreign language, it is the top of the human history of foreign language learning.
1.2 The present condition of English education in China
With the development of English education business in the world, China has made a great progress on theory researches，outline designs, course designs, teaching methods teaching material writings and teachers training. The development of Chinese English education has been approved by the society and personality. However, due to the history and the reality of China, there are still some problems existing in English education, such as purpose, content, education evaluating pattern and teaching method reform, which have blocked the development of English education in China. But the main problems of English education in my view are on three points. The first point is that people rush to learn English without an exact plan, and most of Chinese people overestimate the value of English to people and the country. The second point is that the present English teaching in Chinese school is still carried out in traditional way, and it is out of joint in practical operation. The last point is that English education effect is high cost but with low benefit.
2. The main problems of English education in China
2.1 The “English-study Rush” and Chinese people overestimate the value of English to people and the country
2.1.1 The “English-study Rush” and the problems behind it
As English has become the international language, more and more Chinese people rush to learn it as a foreign language. Moreover, many different kinds of English tests appear one by one, some communities such as foreign language schools, English training schools and contests are set up in recent years. Chinese people regard English as a necessary way to find job at home and abroad, to promote and to get further degree. English is also the symbol of culture sprit and states in China. According to the research, the number of English learners in China is more than 200 million, and it is still increasing year by year.
Let’s take the English learners from primary school for an example. There are at present about 112,463,000 primary school children in China, the detail dates are as follow:
Percentage of primary school children learning English
2000 9.70%
2002 22.10%
2004 35.10%
2006 60.50%
2008 80.60%
Changes in the Academic Status of primary school English teachers
Year College and above Community College Senior High Below Senior High
2000 5.48% 42.00% 51.97% 0.55%
2002 6.51% 44.99% 48.50% 0
2004 6.19% 45.18% 48.43% 0
2006 12.65% 56.29% 29.01% 2.05%
2008 25.85% 62.47% 18.42% 0
The bottleneck problem: Lack of Qualified Teachers
2000 8.60%
2002 9.07%
2004 13.72%
2006 26.78%
2008 36.69%
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