China urgently needs a large number of interpreters, guides
and teachers who are competent communicators in the English
Language. One of the foreign language institutes that is
attempting to satisfy this need is the Beijing Second Foreign Language Institute (or Erwai).
It is argued that Erwai fails to produce competent
communicators in English, a failure that is seen to be due
to three interdependent factors: 1) the lack of teacher
training, especially in the area of teaching methodology;
2) the resultant inability to select and effectively
exploit teaching materials; and 3) the inappropriateness
of currently-used teaching approaches to the perceived
goals of the Institute.
It is the third of these factors that receives particular
attention in this paper. A survey is made of the merits
and shortcomings of the three teaching approaches that
have been used at Erwai, namely the 'grammar-translation,'
'audio-lingual' and 'cognitive' approaches. This serves as
back-ground to the proposal that a 'communicative approach'
to teaching be introduced at Erwai.
It is claimed that the communicative approach is the most
appropriate to the goals of Erwai students, the majority
of whom will need to be communicatively competent in their
future professions. The communicative approach is applied
to the four basic skills of language and it is suggested
that these skill areas be integrated in the classroom,
rather than be taught in separate courses, as is presently
the case at Erwai.
Finally, the adoption of a communicative approach is seen
to involve changes not only in classroom activities and
materials, but also in the role of the student and the role
of the teacher.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219241 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Rongji, Lu, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Liberal Studies |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Lu Rongji |
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