Requirements of the Course:
1. A final exam concerning what has been learnt take up 70% of the total.
2.The other 30 % includes 10% of active class participation, and 20% of presentation performances
3. The rewards will be evaluated on the quality of each part.
4. Scores on each part
5% will be reduced on one absence without any reason. 2.5% will be reduced on a failure of one assignment. Scores will be rewarded on the organization, the fluency and the logical persuasion of the presentation.
Introduction
1. The Status Quo of LEFL
1.1 Non-native Language Learning
1) The Chinese culture
2) Few Opportunities to Use the Language
3) The Primary Task—―Enable the learners to command the four basic skills of language for use in the widest possible
range of different situations” ( Halliday
2003:257 Language as Social Semiotic:
the Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning)
4) In most cases, the general English instruction provided in secondary schools is proven to be an inadequate preparation for further language use in high education.
5) “Much more work with less benefit ”(费时低效）
As a result, English learning is quite different in universities and difficult while English teaching is found exactly inefficient.
Reason: Not as much from a defective knowledge of the system of English as from an unfamiliarity with appropriate use of English
( Exam-oriented or driven, English taught in China)
1. 2 The Reasons Found
1) The philosophical theory advocated by Confucius ― Learning as accumulation of knowledge and readin g of many books‖ (积累知识，博览群书)
(Example: a. rote learning as a basic acquisition technique;
b. Teacher’s authority in class;
2) Result: “ The importance of linguistic knowledge such as vocabulary and grammatical rules is overemphasized by neglecting the significance of how to apply the knowledge in communication.”(Dai Wei-dong 2001:323)
That is, “knowing a lot more about what, with insufficient procedure knowledge, knowing how.”
3) Conclusion:
A. Both knowledges (declarative knowledge and procedure knowledge, “ knowing how”) are required to succeed in real-life communication, with more emphasis on the use of acquired knowledge.
B. The situation in China: Chinese learners often “neither understand the language they have been learning as spoken by a native speaker in a ‘real life’ condition, nor make themselves understood in it, nor talk acceptably on subjects relevant to life outside the classroom.”
(Richards 2002: 86)
2. Main Problems of TEFL in China
1)The Influence of Age or Maturational Constraints
