CommunicativeLanguagTeachinginMiddleSchoolinChinaProblemsandSolutions英语论文.doc

Communicative Language Teaching in Middle School in China: Problems and Solutions SUN Li-ping Abstract: Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an innovation in English language teaching. It has been introduced into China for middle school English teaching nearly a decade. But when the CLT was being employed in a teaching situation in China, the effectiveness of communicative language teaching is not as satisfactory as it had been expected. This paper investigates and analyzes some problems in the application of CLT in middle school in China. According to some basic CLT theories, I will briefly describe some solutions taken to overcome the problems and to ensure CLT should be continued. Key words: Communicative language teaching; problems; the theories of CLT; suggestions I. Introduction Communicative language teaching is probably the main trend dominating in the language teaching profession today (Chen Shu, 1999: 32). The origins of CLT can be traced to concurrent development in both Europe and North America. It was introduced into China in the early 1986s and has become popular. Communicative language teaching distinguishes from the traditional language teaching approach which focuses on grammar and sentence structure. CLT gives students more opportunities to communicate in English in class, hence improve students’ communicative competence. Even more, with China’s recent entry into WTO, there is an even stronger enthusiasm for communicating with Foreigners. So it is very necessary to use CLT in middle school in China. But unfortunately, some phenomena indicate that the effect of CLT is not as satisfactory as people expected. There are some difficulties in applying CLT in middle school in China. This paper attempts to clarify certain issues from the perspective of applying the CLT in middle school, analyze the factors which impede the effects. Then according to the theories of CLT, some suggestions are put forward, which are relevant to the application of CLT in