Toning down English in China

The Chinese Ministry of Education has recently chopped the importance of English language as a test subject for the national college entrance exam called Gaokao. Beijing Municipal Commission of Education banned students below 12 from taking part in the Graded Examination in Spoken English (GESE), which is favoured by many elite middle schools in choosing candidates. Did China say goodbye to English learning?

English was considered a potent weapon to modernise China. Intended to grasp the knowledge of western technology which is mostly available in English to upgrade the technological skills of Chinese people, Deng Xiaoping reforms encouraged the Chinese students to learn English thirty years ago.

This sparked the passion for English language among middle-class citizens who were allowed their children to study abroad. Chinese traditional minds were indoctrinated with the fever of English language, spawning scores of private English training centres nationwide.

They began looking for more and more people who might not be professional teachers outside China but know how to speak English. According to the Chinese media, English business with more than 50,000 private English training centres earned around 30 billion yuan.

Welcoming both native and non-native English speakers from any corner of the world, the government schools had to design the curriculum to accommodate foreigners as foreign language teachers. So China has been gripped by "English fever" over the past two decades.

It was the time when China became member of WTO in 2001 the crazy for English reached the climax triggering the flood of foreigners into the most populous country as well as springing up their own countrymen who got some talent of speaking foreign languages, the well-know example is Li Yang, the guru of Crazy English in China in 1990s.

The appetency for foreign teachers gave me an opportunity to see China and work as an English teacher fifteen years ago when most of the urbanites were still unable to express English well – this craving tendency provided foreign teachers some privileges such as free accommodation with free food. Now no more free meals thanks to the reforms that made China as the second biggest economy in the world.

Once China attained the position of rival economy to America after gaining enough know-how, the government began reforming the curriculum to scrap English slowly as there is enough number of Chinese who could teach English well.

The new leadership in China thinks that English should not be a burden any more for the new youth who should be graduated from colleges with professional degrees but not proficiency in English language. Basic English is enough with good communication and writing skills for research and development. Besides, English is sometimes barrier for citizens to overcome if they want to get promotion or high salary, where they barely use the English language in their work.

Instruction in mother tongue in Chinese schools at a primary level is considered as the most effective and scientific way of learning knowledge. That’s why there is no English subject in grade one and grade two at elementary level. Some Chinese say English is a language and should be learnt for communication, not for tests and as afterthought that English should be an optional course in primary and middle school.

Colleges should also give students the right to select whether they need to study foreign language depending on their career plans. In the past, schools got decision power when and what students should learn but now parents are to make their decision and assess the importance of English among other curriculum subjects. The aim of reforms is to tone down students' burden in learning English and their Gaokao pressure.

“People's mania for English learning has wasted education resources and threatened the study of Chinese,” said Zhang Shuhua, Dean of the Information and Intelligence Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Nonetheless, English is still a powerful social currency in China regardless of new regulations. According to the new policy, Chinese can employ only native English speakers from the USA, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The content of the English language text-books is now more practical with high quality than before.

By:Ravindrababu Konduri

East Asia Correspondent, The Hans India