Beyond the Curriculum: A Chinese Example of Issues Constraining Effective English Language Teaching

Abstract

Studies schools of in English Asia for language example, education China (Adamson, in primary 2004), and Hong secondary Kong ho ls i As for ex ple, Chin (Adamson, 2 4), ong Kong (Evans, 2000), Japan (Oda & Takada, 2005), Taiwan (Chern, 2002), Thailand (Wongsothorn, Hiranburana, & Chinnawongs, 2002), or Vietnam (Le, 2007) have shown that at different times the orientation of English language curricula for schools has been adjusted to meet changing sociopolitical and educational trends. In much of Asia the emphasis of the objectives set out in the English curricula has shifted from linguistic knowledge and skills to communicative language competence. Teaching pedagogies recommended in these English curricula have changed from a focus on the traditional grammartranslation, structural approaches, and audiolingualism, to a greater focus on communicative language teaching (CLT). However, in each of the educational contexts a variety of factors have been identified that constrain the implementation of CLT, including: large class sizes, limited teacher proficiency, insufficient resources and instructional time, examination pressure, and cultural resistance (e.g., Hu, 2002; Li, 1998; Nunan, 2003; Tran & Baldauf, 2007; Yu, 2001). Thus, if language teaching is to be more communicative in the Asian contexts, there is a need to investigate the extent of these constraining factors, because new curricula and curricular policies alone are not likely to bring about the desired changes. China provides one example of how these factors constrain CLT implementation. The 2001 national English language curriculurh for primary and secondary schools in China, which was trialed between September 2001 and September 2005, has as its focus the quality of students' overall education achieved through task-based, learnercentered methods and CLT. Furthermore, the 2001 English curriculum