- Title
- English as a foreign language curriculum reform in China : A Study in reconstructionism
- Creator
- Zeegers, Margaret; Zhang, Xiaohong
- Date
- 2016
- Type
- Text; Book chapter
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/179347
- Identifier
- vital:15603
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-881-7_4
- Identifier
- ISBN:978-94-6209-881-7
- Abstract
- China has experienced a number of reforms in EFL teaching and learning since 1949, when The People’s Republic of China was established after years of struggle between the losing Chiang Kai Shek Nationalists and the winning Mao Zedong Communist forces. Given the association of the English language with the western imperialism that China had just fought so hard against, competence in English was regarded as unpatriotic. A number of English-speaking countries, notably the United States of America (USA) insisting on a strong support of the Nationalist Party which had fled to Taiwan in 1949, did not recognise China. Indeed, the new Chinese government had its own concerns with illiteracy in mother tongues, at the time around 80% (Dietrich, 1986; Ministry of Education, 2002; Yang, 2010). English was hardly a priority for government then, although it had been in schools since the 19th century, the result of China’s encounters with the west at that time (Wang & Gao, 2008). Having eschewed all things western in 1949, the authorities took up Soviet models to inform their activities, receiving economic aid from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Yang, 2010). After the enormous upheavals of the revolution itself, China was in a period of reconstruction. The strong political influence of the relationship with the USSR on China’s foreign language education meant that Russian became the dominant foreign language taught throughout the country, with English removed from the secondary curriculum (Hu, 2002). Turning its attention to education, China found itself faced with problems that could be addressed through reconstructionism.
- Publisher
- Springer
- Relation
- Spotlight on China changes in education under China's market economy Chapter 4 p. 53-66
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- © Sense Publishers 2016
- Subject
- Education; English Language; Chinese student; Curriculum reform; English Teacher; English Language Teaching
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