The National Curriculum Effects on English Language Teaching in the People’s Republic of China.pdf

CHAPTER 7 THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM CHANGES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA QIANG WANG Beijing Normal University, China ABSTRACT In China, the national curriculum, which applies to both primary and secondary schools, is the most influential foundation for educational practice. The Ministry of Education (MOE) is responsible for the development of the national curriculum across all subject areas. The national English curriculum, in the past 20 years, has seen some major changes along with the countrys social, political, and economic developments. Changes in the EngUsh curriculum have had a profound influence on the methodological approaches to ELT in Chinese schools. This chapter, by providing an overview of the development of foreign language teaching in China over the last century, looks particularly into the ELT curriculum changes in the last 20 years with a focused examination of the different approaches taken in teaching and in materials development. The article gives special attention to the recent curriculum innovations and discusses the future directions of ELT in China. INTRODUCTION Of all the foreign languages taught in schools, English undoubtedly enjoys the largest number of learners. By the end of 2002, there were about 66.9 million junior secondary school students and 16.8 million senior secondary school students in the formal education sector (Yearbook of Chinese Education, 2003). This does not include college students and students doing vocational studie