Essay Example on English language education

During the isolationist years of the Cultural Revolution lingual educators and their institutions were accused of being all things bad feudal bourgeois revisionist hothouses for cultivating revisionist sprouts and intellectual aristocrats and English simply ceased to be taught Shortly after the Cultural Revolution 1966 1976 a political movement of ideological extremism started by Mao Tse tung came to an end with his death in 1976 Adamson Morris 1997 During that time there was a saying Without learning ABC we can still make revolution After the Culture Revolution English was restored but just the name What the students learnt were only quotations from Mao Tse tung and some other materials serving political ends The motivation and interest of the teachers and students for English learning and teaching almost dropped to zero In April 1978 Deng Xiaoping addressed the National Education Conference of the CCP arguing the whole nation to raise the quality of Education especially the level of teaching and learning of Science and culture in order to better serve the socialist construction of our country Then foreign language teaching has been restored to a normal track 

However owing to the fact that Research on education theories the compilation of textbooks and the qualification of teachers were still at a very low level not much progress in TEFL has been made English language education figured prominently in the drive for modernization Adamson Morris 1997 Deng was convinced that advanced science and technology held the key to China's modernization and that China would need to access scientific and technological advances worldwide to develop the scientific knowledge base needed for national revitalization People's Education Press 1986 As Ashworth 1985 notes Educational policies are affected by economic and social policies as these regulate the amount of money and resources that will be available to institutions as well as establishing the atmosphere that surroundings and permeates them The government's Four modernizations program modernization of industry agriculture science and technology and national defense and open door policies made great contributions to every field of China Due to the two policies the Chinese people are aware of the importance of learning English Learning English has a fever swept throughout China In 1977 the National Entrance Examination for higher education was restored and foreign language took its place in the school curriculum as a required course English became a popular foreign language but the majority of students were beginners 

Textbooks contained basic grammar knowledge and simple English words and technical terms and short passages were used for classroom teaching The concept of English study was nothing more than memorizing grammar rules and facts in order to understand and manipulate the morphology and syntax of the foreign language Richard Rodgers p 5 The Chinese leadership recognized the many educational deficiencies that would undermine national competitiveness and staged a new wave of educational reforms CCP Central Committee State Council 1993 The Ministry Education launched a new campaign to reform EFL education at the turn of the 21st century With the development of China's economy and technology china s market needs plenty of English talents to communicate with the other countries In 2008 the Beijing Summer Olympic Games brings out an enthusiasm for Studying English English has become a fever in China and that is remarkable China joins in the WTO in 2001 more and more Chinese students are eager to communicate with the foreigners in every walks of field Suddenly the TEFL market exploded a lot of Kindergartens private elementary and secondary schools private language schools and companies in order to hire foreign teacher to strengthen Chinese s English skills English training classes sprouted out like mushroom after spring rain and attending evening English class become a trend The most common exams related to English studies Chinese students have to take are comprehensive English language tests or proficiency tests Zou 2004 such as CET 4 CET 6 College English Test Band 4 and 6 and many local tests modeled on CET that in turn modeled on the international English tests e g IELTS

Those who want to continue their studies overseas have to pass the international proficiency tests English majors in China have to take two more national exams TEM 4 and TEM 8 Test for English Majors Band 4 and 8 the first test is obligatory and serves as a prerequisite for obtaining a B A degree in English Zhou 2004 In Spain In November 1975 because of the Franco s death Spain ended nearly 40 years of military dictatorship Spain began to move towards a road to democratization In 1978 Spain issued a new constitution In 1986 Spain joined the European Union to further integrated into the European family and plays an increasingly important influence in the world Spain in its development process the most prominent is the strong ritual of democracy and the strengthening of local decentralization this trend also greatly affected the development of education in Spain After the end of the military dictatorship in 1975 Spain went to the path of democracy and rule of law Spanish education develops strictly in accordance with legal requirements Whether it is all levels of classroom preschool training standards or all levels of class recruitment standards are promulgated by the form of the law Spain also implements the autonomous regional units of the local administrative autonomy management system Although the state has a unified provision but each place can be based on the characteristics of the region the development of the corresponding provisions