Copyright ? 2007 Prepared 中国 and Canada 第五届中国英语教学国际研讨会17-21 May 2007基础论坛征文Teaching Methodology and Learning Strategies
H OW N EAR A RE Y OU TO E NGLISH?—C RITICAL P ROBLEMS IN EFL/ESL IN C HINA
Abstract
The shortest distance between two points will always be a straight line, in theory. To a
learner of English in China, the shortest distance between her or him and the English
language is heavily lengthened in practice by (1) International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), (2) correct Chinese equivalents, (3) incorrect Chinese equivalents, (4) no fewer than 18 brands of language translators, (5) roots-finding consciousness or sectionalism, (6) a great many people regarding themselves as being in loco parentis around the learner, and last but not least, (7) deception by authority. To study such phenomena collectively named ‘Erroneous Knowledge’ (EK) and the reason behind it, we isolated two incidents occurred in Canada.
Case one focuses on a newcomer from China registered in a grade eight science
programme. On one single page of a grade eight science textbook of 325 words, including duplicates, this newcomer recorded 26 new words with their Chinese equivalents on a
5× Super Sticky Note. Twenty-six out of 325 is 8%, which renders the page difficult for 3
the newcomer. Case one shows that as late as 2006 EFL and ESL in China abound with serious problems in K-12 education.
Case two focuses on an observation in 2004 of an ESL classroom in a university
programme designed mainly for international students. Of 25 international students over half are from China. Other than the EK mentioned earlier, these students are not provided with the best (8) learning strategies in EFL/ESL while the programme tries to keep (9)
financial benefits to the fullest. This case shows that the same or similar serious problems abound in tertiary education in China.
Both cases suggest that the true agents of learning, i.e., the learners or students of the
English language, have not been led into effective and efficient learning strategies in
China, despite the fact that more native speakers and native language publications have
been introduced into China. The question that this study proposes is: Are EFL/ESL
learners in China actually learning English in a way that English is to be most effectively and efficiently learned, or actually learning Chinese with the help of some English?
Detailed analysis of how English is learned in China to reveal some critical problems and how English should be learned as an alphabetic language in sharp contrast to the
logographic Chinese is provided based on the examples drawn from the two incidents,
exhibiting the nine erroneous and mistaken concepts (1-9) of ESL/EFL learning and
teaching. Specifically, corresponding remedial measures against the erroneous knowledge are also exemplified.
Keywords: erroneous knowledge, EFL, ESL, remedial measures, deception by authority.
Introduction
A learning event takes place when the stimulus situation affects the learner in such a way that his or her performance changes from a time before being in that situation to a time after being in it. The change in performance is what leads to the conclusion that learning occurred (Gagné, 1965). After reading in English a story which the learner has never read or heard in any other language before but only in English, and the learner is able to retell the story extremely
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well in her or his native tongue but not in English at all, is this an indication that learning occurred? Yes, it is. However, it is not necessarily an indication that the English language is learned at all. English language learners are created to serve different purposes, and at least one group of the learners are supposed to be able to use the English language to communicate productively, in either spoken or written form. It is to this group of English language learners that this study addresses learning strategies.
Case One: a Grade Eight Learner in Canada
Depending on where one is located, either English or French can be the classroom language of instruction in a K-12 school in Canada. Our informant, the newcomer from China registered in a grade eight science programme is assigned to use a science textbook designed for the local province (Gue et al., 2001). The ScienceFocus 8 is for grade eight, with xxix+546 pages in total, a glossary of 11 pages, and an index of 6 pages.
Page 57 starts with a section on the processing of petroleum. After previewing the section, our informant recorded 26 new words (Figure 1.) from this single page, out of a total of 325 words, i.e., 8% of the total words on the page.
Figure 1 26 New Words
Out of the 26 new words, only 3 appeared in the glossary: heat, soluble, and vaporisation (vaporise). In the index, we find pumps, soluble, structure, vaporisation (vaporise), and vehicle, though the meanings of some of them are different from those on page 57. In the following table is a summary of the usage of the 26 words in their context. Tilde (~) is used to represent the new word. The last two columns show the frequency of the word, indicating whether they are the most important words to know according to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (Summers, 2003). As an example, S2 means that the word is one of the 2000 most common words in spoken English.
No. New Words Context S W
1 Drill ~ing test holes
2 Locate ~ new underground deposits
3 3
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No. New Words Context S W
3 Deposit new underground ~s of petroleum 3
4 Hydrocarbon mixture of ~s
5 Kerosene such as ~
6 Gasoline such as kerosene, ~
7 Diesel oil such as kerosene, gasoline, and ~
8 Burn Petroleum products, …, are ~ed to produce 2 3
9 Vehicle move ~ of all kinds 2 2
10 Pump ~ing petroleum to the surface
3
out of the ~
is ~ed into the bottom
petroleum
11 Crude ~
material 3
~
11 Raw a
12 Usable to make ~ products
13 Yield that ~s different petroleum products
14 Vaporise to change into a gas (~)
mixture will ~
to ~ every part of the mixture
15 Chamber a separate ~ 3
16 Soluble Are ~ in each other but not in water
3 3
17 Tower a two-~ structure
the shorter/ the taller ~
18 Heat the mixture is ~ed … to change into a gas
2 2
the ~
is ~ed … to vaporize
~ 3 2
two-tower
19 Structure a
20 Bottom The ~ of the taller tower 1 3
~ 2 2
21 Fuel Jet
oil
22 Lubricating
23 Waxy ?waxes
24 Tar ~ and asphalt
25 Asphalt Tar and ~
26 Region in the oil-producing ~s of Canada 1 1 Instances of Erroneous Knowledge
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An obvious error is the misspelling of ‘chamber’, which is wrongly spelled as ‘champer’, though the Chinese equivalent is correct. On a few spots Liquid Paper DryLine Grip Correction Tape (i.e., whiteout) is applied to correct some errors. The word ‘waxy’ is not found on page 57, instead, ‘waxes’ is found. It is likely that ‘waxy’ is mistakenly used for ‘waxes’, but the Chinese equivalent is accurate. Some of the new words have more than one Chinese equivalent, indicating an area where a monosemic English word becomes polysemic once it is translated into Chinese, adding confusions to a learner of English. For instance, asphalt (沥青，柏油), hydrocarbon (碳氧化合物，烃, one Chinese character is wrong here, 氢, not氧), kerosene (煤油，火油), tar (柏油，焦油), or vehicle (机械器具，运输工具). This latter part is what we may call deception by authority, since the polysemy is recorded in English-Chinese dictionaries which are usually compiled by authority on English language.
Further Analysis
Our informant did not learn some of the most common words in English (the first 3000), either spoken or written. Having grown up in the Chinese environment, our informant did not learn how to use synonyms to explain new words as well. It is comforting to see that IPA is not used, indicating that our informant does not have much trouble pronouncing English words. However, the principle of ‘no context, no text’ may not work for our informant since the context is not recorded on the sticky note. Our informant is heavily influenced by the Chinese language, without which an understanding of the English text is hardly reached. Some of the new words, especially those appearing in either glossary or index, can be learned without translation. There are a few strategies to learn the new words without the assistance of a native tongue, and our informant does not know those strategies.
How the 26 Words Are to Be Learned
Out of the 26 new words we will take 3 words to exemplify how they are to be learned, since they appeared more than once on page 57 and all pertain to the most common word list. We will exemplify strategies to learn those 3 words without translation.
HEAT
Three sample sentences are taken from page 57.
1. In any distillation, the mixture is heated so that at least one part begins to
change into a gas (vaporize).
2. The gas travels up and away from the mixture and the heat.
3. In the shorter tower, the petroleum is heated strongly enough to vaporize every
part of the mixture.
From the 3 samples, we can say that parts of a mixture are heated to change into gas or vaporise, and the gas leaves the mixture and the heat, and petroleum is heated to change parts of mixture into gas as well. Learners should be warned here not to translate English into Chinese, and to use and memorise the English as much as they can. The purpose of such exemplification is to remember the 3 sample sentences, which is the aim to study science in grade eight.
基础论坛征文PUMP
Three sample sentences are taken from page 57.
1. Pumping petroleum to the surface is only the first step.
2. What comes out of the pump is crude petroleum, a raw material.
3. Then the mixture of hot vapours is pumped into the bottom of the taller tower.
We can pump petroleum to the surface, and what comes out is called crude petroleum. It comes out from the pump. Vapours can also be pumped into the bottom of the taller tower. So we can use a pump to pump petroleum or vapours. In other words, we can use a pump to pump liquid or gas. With some creativity and variety, both the nominal and verbal use of the word
‘pump’ can be mastered easily.
TOWER
Six sample sentences are taken from page 57.
1. Fractional distillation is done in a two-tower structure, as shown in Figure 1.18.
2. In the shorter tower, the petroleum is heated strongly enough to vaporize every
part of the mixture.
3. Then the mixture of hot vapours is pumped into the bottom of the taller tower.
4. Fractionating towers are a common sight in the oil-producing regions of
Canada.
5. What raw materials enter the short tower?
6. What processed materials leave the tall tower?
What can we learn from those six sentences? Without referring to Figure 1.18 in the textbook, we know that a tower is a structure, which is called a fractionating tower, with two towers, one is shorter, and the other is taller. Petroleum, or crude petroleum, goes into or enters the short tower to be heated, and the vapours are pumped into the tall tower to be fractionated. Who Will Use the Strategies?
Teachers of science are not expected to use the strategies mentioned above. These learning strategies are suggested for the learner of the English language who really wants to learn the English language as a language, but not a tool to add more to the Chinese knowledge base. Specifically, many of the 26 new words should and can be learned when our informant was in grade seven or eight back in China, which is the topic to be covered in another of our articles. More strategies will be introduced in our second case.
Case Two: Chinese Students in an ESL Programme in Canada
In October 2004 an opportunity came to observe an ESL class at a university in a southern city in Canada. The programme is designed to prepare academically qualified students whose native language is not English for entry into the university’s degree or diploma programs. The application fee is $35 and the registration fee is $100, non-refundable. For a thirteen-week
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long semester with four courses, international students need to pay about $3700 in tuition, plus $280 student fee, plus $150 for books and supplies. Non-international students pay half the tuition fee but do not save on others. In other words, international students need to pay double the tuition required of a non-international student.
This proved a wonderful chance to examine how ESL is learned and taught in a classroom that costs each student $1000 Canadian every month to learn in.
What the Students Learned?
In the classroom of about 25 students, half of them came from China with some tertiary education. They are in the ESL classroom because they want to pursue academic studies leading to degree or diploma programmes at a university level. It is important that students not be told things that are untrue or be led to believe that skills and understandings can be achieved without the necessary intellectual qualities and the extensive training and experience that academic competence demands (Best, 1970). However, no matter how beautifully organised and tailored a lecture, it puts nothing into the heads of students. Only the students themselves can put information into their own heads (Farnham-Diggory, 1992). Let us examine what the students are learning in that classroom.
It was an extensive reading class. Obviously students did some preparation. As observers we could see clearly that on a letter-size page, many students marked their new words and pronunciations, in IPA and their native tongue. When asked how many new words they encountered, the answer varied. Many of the students had about 30 new words on that single page. And it is not intensive reading, but extensive.
This class was classified as Level 1, which means it has 2 more levels to go if the students in this class want to go into a degree or diploma programme without a passing TOEFL score. Financially, it means $12,000 Canadian and a full year altogether before being qualified.
When asked if the students could paraphrase any of the sentences they prepared in their own English, the answer came as a negative. Neither could they remember any complete sentences from the reading. Most of the students translated the new words into their native tongue and forgot about the original English words. All the original words were translated into the native tongue, how could they remember original sentences? Obviously, they were learning their native tongue using English, instead of learning English as English.
What Is to Be Extensively Read?
In extensive reading, an article cannot, or should not, be too difficult. Then the question is how difficult is too difficult? According to Day & Bamford (2002), intermediate learners might use materials with no more than five difficult words per page. Thirty new words per page would be too many, or the article is too difficult for even advanced learners.
This situation leaves us with many open questions:
Is the material too difficult for the students, and if so
Why students are enrolled in the programme to study such material?
Was it simply because of financial benefits?
Are the students aware of their own situation?
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Do students themselves know how to read extensively, or how best to read extensively?
If the students do not know the answers, did anybody within the programme ever tell them?
The answers may lie in the teacher’s teaching, as the purpose of education is to explain reality to the young, and the teacher’s work is helping the student to find the correct way of knowing for a particular question (Ryan & Cooper, 1984). Therefore we concentrated further on the teacher activities in the classroom.
What the Teacher Taught?
The tenth principle of Day & Bamford (2002) states that the teacher is a role model of a reader. As early as 1992, Farnham-Diggory (1992) summarised similarly as follows: Amazingly enough, however, school teachers rarely demonstrate how they
themselves have actually gone about learning the material they are presenting to
student.
The teacher in the class mentioned how English should be learned. In a vivid manner, the teacher explained how to attack each and every new word the students supplied. The teacher explained clearly to the students it was not absolutely necessary to know the exact native tongue translation of each and every new word in an extensive reading class. The students, initially viewing the teacher with suspicion, eventually answered the teacher’s hints and questions willingly and enthusiastically. The teacher told students clearly that English is not learned from the teacher, but from textbooks and other authentic resources. What students should learn from the teacher is mainly the method to attack problems, the problem-solving skills, as long as the students have problems.
Ryan & Cooper (1984) contend that as human beings we search for the correct and most effective way to live. Of course, as teachers we search for the correct and most effective way to teach, and as students, we search for the correct and most effective way to learn.
Having seen all the reactions from the students, and favourable reactions from other observant teachers, we had to pose other questions:
Given that the students see a best teacher with the best method, do they recognise
him or her?
Can the students learn from the best method?
Do students themselves know their own best method to use?
Does the management allow the best method that saves time and money for the
students?
The last question surprised ourselves as observers. It could be possible that the management wants $12,000 per student per year for 3 years, instead of hiring a better teacher. If this is the hidden agenda, the management has a thousand and one reasons to refuse to hire a better teacher with a better method, or let students know of any best, or even better, method.
More likely than not it is part of the hidden agenda that the management would not want somebody to bring in a better method to their ESL programmes. Whatsoever was true, seek and ye shall find. That was for old-timers. Nowadays, whatever is true, who cares.
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One of the fundamental qualities that distinguishes human beings from brutes is that humans can think (Ryan & Cooper, 1984). Do the students think? Does the teacher think? Further research is being done to confirm along the same line of thinking.
ESL Learned? Effectively and Efficiently?
In the past 40 years or so, there were research on anti-intellectualism in American school or life (Hofstadter, 1963; Howley, Howley, & Pendarvis, 1995). There were also research on the failing of American education (Hood, 1993). Some researchers pointed out, convincingly, the reason for the failure of American education (Gross, 1999; Stout, 2000). However, most of the researches that we were led to read were talking about the southern neighbour of Canada. How about Canada, who has, perhaps, the best bilingual and immersion programmes in the world? Presumably Canada may also have the best ESL programmes in the world.
We sought the teacher afterwards and promised, in written form, the anonymity of the teacher, the name of the university, the name of the city, or any identity that could reveal hitherto anything mentioned. Written consent was obtained, and a second signature was recorded on the permission form to take the answers. The teacher was informed that the recording did not have to be completed and could be stopped at any point. Only then did the teacher agree to explain some of the thought provoking traces of an expert learner and an expert teacher, all in one.
The teacher’s thinking was heavily influenced by Daoism, Phenomenology, and Chinese Gongfu (Kung Fu):
Chinese Gongfu is real. I do not mean to say that one can fly in the air. What I
mean is the reason or logic behind the idea. For example, is there a single best
stroke in Gongfu, since one has to practise many strokes for years? And it was a
continuum of strokes, or actions, or activities. Of course, there is the best one, the
one that kills the enemy. In teaching or learning, there is also the single one best
method that is the quickest and the easiest.
We could not agree more. We could easily see the dilemma the teacher is in, or perhaps, the teacher has been personally experiencing for many years.
“How does that have to do with Daoism?” We asked.
Daoism is seeking the truth, and Dao is the truth, difficult to be sought. In
Daoism, wisdom comes from self-cultivation, where the performance and the
performer are not separated or separable. One always seeks the guidance of a true
master in Daoism, or the full potential will never be reached. Once found, the
master and the student becomes one. And once the potential is reached, one
should pass on what one knows, so that others may benefit from one’s experience.
As a student, one should seek the best teacher and the best method; and as a
teacher, one should seek the best method and pass it on to student.
“I can’t know what you feel right now, but I can understand your grief. How about the relation to phenomenology?” We tried to explore further. We could see that this teacher is well-educated and must have read a lot. We hope to gain some insight from this teacher.
I said earlier that Daoism is seeking truth. However, if one can reduce something,
one has not reached the ultimate truth. This idea in Daoism is similar to the
bracketing in phenomenology. The objects of phenomenology are absolute data
基础论坛征文grasped in pure, immanent intuition. One has to reduce, as in Daoism, as well, to
the essences. The essence in phenomenology, the ultimate truth in Daoism, and
the best stroke in Chinese Gongfu, all lead to the best method of learning, and the
best method of teaching.
“Then what do you see the current problem with ESL is? We explored.
I do not think I am smart, because I worked very hard to find the best method. I
do not think I am a genius either. Someone out there’ve got to let those kids know
they are spending their parents’ hard-earned money, and you told me it is $12,000
for a year, for almost nothing. Don’t get me wrong. There are good teachers out
there. However, some simply told me they are just government-paid baby-sitters.
How the kids learn, who cares, as long as they get a monthly deposit in their bank.
“We are with you all the time. We are both teachers and we do understand your confusion. Do you see any possibilities for a solution?” We kept drawing back to the topic.
Maybe, but not easy to find. Everything is money-talk. This is a consumerist
society. Do you want those students in ESL to learn the quickest or the best,
getting out of your programme the soonest?
The teacher tried to throw the question back to us.
“Well, we have to say we do. When they learn the quickest we can get more students in the programme. In the long run, we have the same turnout rate of students in the programme.” We answered.
That is probably you. Others may not think so.
We could see from the face of the teacher that the conversation may lead to a sullen ending. So we decided to wrap it up.
“We own you a dinner and we will pay it back when we see you next,” We promised.
Conclusion
Contenta (1993) speaks about the hidden curriculum which is responsible for an education system that fails both students and society. The ideas and questions that occurred to us, all of a sudden, during the observation of the class in October 2004, including the student in Grade Eight science, surprisingly pointed to the hidden curriculum, or hidden agendum. The conversation with the teacher further confirmed the questions, unanswered, of course.
We received a phone call from the teacher, who told us that the programme was not right, and the teacher left the programme and went on to seek further truth, maybe an ultimate one, this time.
In view of our two cases, we may conclude that (1) IPA is still used to represent both BrE and AmE pronunciations in newer dictionaries, but is learned wrongly to have become something a learner cannot do without, even with their electronic language translators. (2) Even if English-Chinese dictionaries compiled by authority provided with correct Chinese equivalents, one meaning of an English word is usually translated into more than one meaning in Chinese, which add either confusion or extra burden to a learner of English. It is better to use an English-English dictionary. (3) Learners themselves created many incorrect Chinese equivalents. A good
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example is synonymy. Those that are not synonymous in English become synonymous after being translated into Chinese. In other words, Chinese translations created more synonyms in the English language than English should have. (4) Electronic language translators, similar to English-Chinese dictionaries, only deskill learners of the English language, making them better at memorising Chinese rather than English. (5) Every culture has its ups and downs, its goodness and badness. Chinese culture is one of the oldest, but not necessarily above every other culture. Sectionalism needs to be supplemented with globalism, and globalism requires some of us to use English productively. (6) Do not ever point to an English word or sentence and ask your own children or somebody else’s children in Chinese: ‘What does that mean?’ This simple question will help the learner to form a bad habit of turning everything English into Chinese. If anybody in loco parentis feels a need for such a question, please point to a Chinese word or sentence and ask the same question. It is better not to translate until an advanced level of both languages has been reached. (7) View authority with adequate reason. The 15-century British scholar, Robert Record, creator of the equals sign (=), told us that ‘authority often times deceiveth many men [sic]’. When everybody believes in authority, it is the very time when everybody is easily deceived by authority. (8) Find for oneself the most effective and efficient learning strategies. Each and every learner of the English language is different, and everybody is supposed to only use his or her best strategies. (9) Although information with high value is very costly to obtain (Chen, 2005), how to learn a language is almost only one person’s endeavour. A real learner does not have to pay an arm and a leg to learn English well as long as he or she constantly expands his or her knowledge base. Be watchful of expensive programmes and seek and ye shall find.
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R EFERENCES
Best, J. W. (1970). Research in Education (2d ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Chen, J. (2005). The Physical Foundation of Economics: an Analytical Thermodynamic Theory.
Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific Pub. Co.
Contenta, S. (1993). Rituals of Failure: What Schools Really Teach. Toronto, ON: Between the Lines.
Day, R., & Bamford, J. (2002). Top Ten Principles for Teaching Extensive Reading. Reading in
a Foreign Language, 14(2).
Farnham-Diggory, S. (1992). Cognitive Processes in Education (2nd ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Gagné, R. M. (1965). The Conditions of Learning: Holt Rinehart and Winston.
Gross, M. L. (1999). The Conspiracy of Ignorance: the Failure of American Public Schools.
New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Gue, D., Makar, D., Martin, J., Martin, T., Strachan, I., Bullard, J., et al. (2001). ScienceFocus: Science, Technology, Society. Toronto, ON: McGraw Hill Ryerson.
Hofstadter, R. (1963). Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. New York, NY: Knopf.
Hood, J. (1993). The Failure of American Public Education. The Freeman, 43(2).
Howley, C. B., Howley, A., & Pendarvis, E. D. (1995). Out of Our Minds: Anti-Intellectualism and Talent Development in American Schooling. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Ryan, K., & Cooper, J. M. (1984). Those Who Can, Teach (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Stout, M. (2000). The Feel-Good Curriculum: the Dumbing-Down of America's Kids in the Name of Self-Esteem. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
Summers, D. (2003). Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (New ed.). Harlow: Longman.
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A UTHORS’N OTE
Mr. Rui Feng冯睿
Rui.Feng@https://www.doczj.com/doc/203831312.html,
Iris Hong Xu徐弘
Iris.Xu@https://www.doczj.com/doc/203831312.html,
二位作者曾任教于中国、加拿大及美国，1986 年在中国开创名之曰“智能班”的
双语教育试验，1988 年针对当时英语学习‘学者众多，精者几何’的现象进行过总结，
在其《HEP's School Dictionary of Technical Terms 中学生术语词典》弁言中提出过改进方法。1989 年二人先后赴加拿大及美国学习工作。从事资金管理，教学行政，移民辅助，
英语教学，汉语教学多年。目前的研究方向有：学法与教法，语言学习的误区，东西方文化比较，正反合中的相同，语言习得的‘得与不得’，师资教育，课堂交际用语，英语科技写作，LEAP (Learning English for Academic Purposes)，对外汉语教学，海外汉语教学，等。
Our mutual area of research includes cross-cultural comparisons, national and international identities, culture and society, ESL, writing in a second language, selection and evaluation of ESL/EFL textbooks, learning and teaching resources, Chinese as Internationally Taught (CIT), East Asian studies on historical principles, and mathematics education and writing.
投稿注释
本篇为‘学好英语，用好英文English Well Done, Friends We All Won’系列之一，除文字讹误外，本文作者希望不做任何修改，并保留版权，因为本文部分内容的英文版拟在有关英文杂志发表。