Speaking English In China

When I was a secondary school student in China, students were expected to speak English at a certain level of fluency. If I feel that my spoken English skills are not up to par with the standards set by the teacher, then I may be afraid of failure that I decide to forgo speaking in class. Common English teaching methods in China respond to this fear of failure by deemphasizing speech in the classroom. The same fear is also reflected in encounters with foreigners. I think many Chinese people have this problem: if they feel that his or her English is too poor, he or she may not communicate with a native English speaker. Because they will be afraid that they will poorly representing Chinese people as a whole. By rejecting speaking practice, the

But the inherited social dynamics still manipulate the classroom and play a role in silencing classroom discussion and participation in large groups (May, 2005). In traditional Chinese hierarchies, youths are not encouraged to show a mastery of skills that is greater than the skills of their adult counterparts. For example, a child should avoiding speaking English to his grandfather if his grandfather’s English skills are inferior to his own. If the child did so, he would be showing disrespect. This reminds me of the week 4’s reading Educating for self-government (Brighouse, 2006), a case study that researched the effects that autonomy that could bring to the modern education. The situation of Chinese traditional English education is just like the Amish community. People study in an enclosed language environment and they find it difficult to gain some practically skill to fit in the society, what Chinese students good at are just the writing and reading skills. However, I found Li’s program is completely different from the traditional education, the program provides the student-centered learning method nurturing autonomy in students teachers themselves. Schools provide the best atmosphere for students and cultivate them to form an independent way of thinking and let them have their own personalities. A positive learning environment was created both for students and teachers. I think

Teacher should prepare different teaching objectives, teaching methods, classroom structure, teaching scenes for students, so that everyone has the incentives to discover their sense of accomplishment, self-confidence, which in turn will stimulate students’ interest in learning. Just like Steffenhagen (2013) indicates that “a personalized learning is to increase students’ initiative, self-directed ability, and cultivate them become interdisciplinary talents”. I think in a personalized learning environment, teachers need to provide a pleasant, harmonious and enthusiastic atmosphere in the completion of their teaching, and inspire students to find their suitable way of learning, so the learning efficiency can be highly