Job Discussion Forums

[Austrian]

Perhaps someone knows?

I'd need this for my master level course this year. Is there something like a National Curriculum for English taught as a subject at Chinese Public Primary Schools and if there is, is it available preferably online and in English?

How is the teaching of Oral English integrated into that Curriculum? I currently teach OE to 19 classes from Kindergarten to Grade 6, once a week up here in Jilin. My classes are not graded, there are no exams, I basically cover what the Chinese English teachers have already taught, only from an oral perspective. That must somehow be considered in their curriculum or is it entirely extra-curricular?

I'd appreciate any help, tips, ideas, etc.

Regards,
Austrian

[kev7161]

From what I've read and experienced, there doesn't seem to be a standard, nation-wide. I kind of doubt there is even city-wide standards. Heck, in my last school, there wasn't even a school-wide standard!! There are so many textbooks out there to choose from. When it comes to spoken English, that's hit or miss really. Rarely do Spoken English courses run parallel to what the kids are being taught in their English grammar and pronunciation classes. Many times FTs either choose their own textbooks, are given textbooks that are pretty much worthless, or are given no textbook at all and are "on their own" to create interesting lessons for their students to sleep through.

[vikdk]

When choosing an ESL method or curriculum headmasters may well play the market with regard to those companies which produce the teaching materials/FT's/private lessons, taking into account how many free dinners, and percent of the takings from related private classes and teaching materials sold they can receive. It's just a big game, but with real monopoly money - and lots of sad little faces belonging to the real victims of this horseplay!!!
Luckly as time goes by parents are very slowly getting wise to this and a few of them are starting to demand quality infront of a new cars and holidays for school administrators. However they still have to learn that quality doesn't equate to their children sitting hour after useless hour at a desk, and thereafter being tortured by further private lessons - but then again real posotive change maybe takes time to sink in

[Roger]

Read today in a column from one of China's big cities:

Not only is TEACHING English a sort of gold mine but producing the materials that Chinese parents insist their poor kids must "learn" and teachers happily oblige to use.
A plethora of "studios" specialises in Shanghai in doing recordings using native speakers as the big draw.

They read aloud those texts - which were written by CHINESE English teachers.

Said an American hiree: "Even if we find grammar mistakes they ignore our input."
Said another participant: Students will be prepped to pass exams in which they hear multiple-choice questions. With only a little imagination they can pass them even if their grammar is sub-par.,.."

OBserved another: "Some of the texts are really weird and/or nationalistic..." citing textual errors such as "Paris, with a view of the Ocean" or "I want a real English breakfast...French fries, beer and a lot of toast..."

Sorry if I paraphrased the sentences between speech marks, to enhance the effect - the whole column (in today's SCMP's Editorial and Opinions page) reads really weird and convincing!

[Roger]

Read today in a column from one of China's big cities:

Not only is TEACHING English a sort of gold mine but producing the materials that Chinese parents insist their poor kids must "learn" and teachers happily oblige to use.
A plethora of "studios" specialises in Shanghai in doing recordings using native speakers as the big draw.

They read aloud those texts - which were written by CHINESE English teachers.

Said an American hiree: "Even if we find grammar mistakes they ignore our input."
Said another participant: Students will be prepped to pass exams in which they hear multiple-choice questions. With only a little imagination they can pass them even if their grammar is sub-par.,.."

OBserved another: "Some of the texts are really weird and/or nationalistic..." citing textual errors such as "Paris, with a view of the Ocean" or "I want a real English breakfast...French fries, beer and a lot of toast..."

Sorry if I paraphrased the sentences between speech marks, to enhance the effect - the whole column (in today's SCMP's Editorial and Opinions page) reads really weird and convincing!

[Roger]

Read today in a column from one of China's big cities:

Not only is TEACHING English a sort of gold mine but producing the materials that Chinese parents insist their poor kids must "learn" and teachers happily oblige to use.
A plethora of "studios" specialises in Shanghai in doing recordings using native speakers as the big draw.

They read aloud those texts - which were written by CHINESE English teachers.

Said an American hiree: "Even if we find grammar mistakes they ignore our input."
Said another participant: Students will be prepped to pass exams in which they hear multiple-choice questions. With only a little imagination they can pass them even if their grammar is sub-par.,.."

OBserved another: "Some of the texts are really weird and/or nationalistic..." citing textual errors such as "Paris, with a view of the Ocean" or "I want a real English breakfast...French fries, beer and a lot of toast..."

Sorry if I paraphrased the sentences between speech marks, to enhance the effect - the whole column (in today's SCMP's Editorial and Opinions page) reads really weird and convincing!

[vikdk]

indeed Roger - when newspapers start writing stuff like that it's surely a sighn that things are a changing - but how quickly????

[Austrian]

Thank you all for your comments. You might know, but just in case you don't, I found the website of the Chinese Ministry of Education - http://www.moe.edu.cn/english/ - it seems pretty decent and it is in English as well. But I have to read through it to see whether they mention anything close to a NC. But probably there isn't. On the other hand England didn't have one either until the mid 80ies?

Thanks again.
Austrian

[Roger]

Here is a little episode, Austria:
When I taught English Literature I was told my students would have to pass a standardised form of final examination; they called it a "national" one.
The book I was given was highly helpful, containing excerpts from the works of major English writers from the 16th century up to the 20th century.
The book even had some typical questions we in the West would expect to have to answer in any test.

Thus I was misled!
Because it transpired very quickly that most of my students were simply too blase to browse through their books without being supervised in doing it.
You could never ask them to read up before class; class then was a waste of time because you couldn't discuss anything with them even though they were English majors (at a normal school).
I decided to push them a little harder, requiring them to take a test every two weeks. The tests were a mild form of medicine, almost a placebo; still never more than half prepared for the test.
Many instead opted to complain about the rigours of study in my class. I was hauled into the Principal's office.
I then learnt that "in China we don't always know whether the cow leads the cowboy or the cowboy leads the cowherd..."
Translation: the teacher is NOT always in charge. The students have the final word.

What was I doing wrong?
The Principal quoted what she termed a "wisdom" from Mao's infamous red booklet:
"If you don't like your teacher's choice of a book, choose another book."

So, my students didn't like to read a chapter from 'Wuthering HEights" - they were free to read a JHapanese comic strip...

And as for my bi-weekly tests: my students didn't need to do that. Instead they only need to be told who was the best author in the 17th century, the second best, the third best, down to the 20th century.

And for that they got an FT who could orally convey the message... ...and the final exam would not have to be "national" but personal: at least 90% of my students had to pass no matter their standards... If they could spell Charles D.ickens correctly you give them 100 points out of 100...

[dialogger]

Good topic Austrian (and others).
There is no doubt that additional emphasis on OE at primary and high school levels is producing better speakers at freshman university level.
However there is no OE exam at the final high school year stage and this means that freshmen university students often have no OE for 15 months prior to coming into their university class.
The high school academic year plus the summer holiday, plus 5 weeks military combine here.
We all know how quickly oral skills fall off when not used.
The text book industry hasn't kept up with the fact that there is a subject called OE taught largely by FTs.
Look for dialog material in texts like New Interchange and it skimpy and with a heavy US cultural overburden
'Hi my name is Charles, but you can call me Chuck'.
Yuk!!
I'll look at that website - thanks for locating it.

[Neilhrd]

Yes there is a national curriculum for English teaching throughout the nine years of compulsory education in Chinese state schools. It was revised from September 2005 towards a more task based, communicative syllabus. It is based on standards which are supposed to be attained at 3 stages after year 3, year 6 and year 9. In some ways it is ambitious and progressive.

However in practice the new curriculum is largely irrelevant as very few schools, particularly in rural areas, have the resources in terms of qualified teachers, decent text books , timetabling etc to implement the curriculum. Much of the methodology underlying it also clashes with the prevailing norms in the teaching of other subjects in Chinese schools and is therefore resisted by principals and other teachers.

Many old hands in the Chinese education system don't share the government's emphais on teaching English and grudge the time and resources required to do it properly. There is also a widespread fear that teaching English in the 1st year of primary school will interfere with the student's learning of Pinyin. Some schools will not allow English teahcers to teach the alphabet in year 1 and claim that this is written into the national curriculum. This is open to interpretation.

What other posters have said about interference by bureaucrats who either incompetent or on the make is also true. For example in Guangxi, where I work in a state primary school, my school has to submit copies of all our test papers to the Provincial Education Authority to ensure that they comply with the national syllabus. But we have to translate them into Chinese because the officials approving them can't read English! I kid you not.

I am sorry I don't have a web link for the text of the new curriculum. You could try asking at your local school because every school is supposed to have a copy. If they give you blank looks I would suggest rummaging in the waste paper baskets.

The national curriculum doesn't apply to private schools where there is no regulation of teaching content at all. The new national syllabus does not require specifically oral classes or oral testing and many parents who are aware of this deficency continue to resort to additional private classes of varying degrees of usefulness.

[Roger]

Thanks to all who took part in this exchange of posts, especially to Austria and neilhard.

I have just visited the website Austria mentioned; it is a very useful introduction to teaching English in China!