The English Language Education In Chinese Colleges And Universities Of Science And Technology

Abstract NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Session 1260 The English Language Education in Chinese Colleges and Universities of Science and Technology Xu Ming Tianjin Institute of Technology With China’s ever-deepening reform and opening to the outside world, English proficiency has come to be regarded as being of great importance for technical personnel in the country, and English language education experienced an unprecedented emphasis and strengthening in Chinese colleges and universities of science and technology (abbreviated to CCUST thereinafter) in the past fifteen or so years. Now, English language courses are offered in all CCUST in a compulsory way. Although Japanese, German, French, Russian are also taught, English is absolutely the mainstream of CCUST foreign language education and has the overwhelming majority of the students. College English Tests ( CET ) are the only required nationally unified college examination in China. Generally speaking, English is taught in Chinese technical institutions of higher leaning in two ways: one is a required basic course called College English or Public English, which is intended for students specializing in all fields except English, and the other is an English specialty referred to as English for Science and Technology ( called EST for short). College English ( CE ) course is the largest-scale form of English teaching in CCXJST, and it is the most stressed basic subject. The teaching purpose of the cxmr.se, accmding to the CE Teaching Syllabus promulgated by the State Education Commission is to train the prospective engineers to read in English pmtkctly, to lis~em vwite and translate with ease, and to speak expressively. CE course is divided into six phasic bands, Band One through Four being the h~ic stage and Band Five through Six the advanced one. According to its students’ English level upon their enrolhnent each CCUST can decide with which band it starts its CE course. ( Of course mosl CCUST start with Band One) CE course starts at the very beginning of the frost term and stops at the end of the fourth term in all CCUST, comprising no less t.hm 280 claw hours. ( usuaUy 4 hours a week ). Now, all four-year programmed in CCUST are required to ftish Band 4 and all the two-year prograrnme Band3. CE curriculum is mainly composed of intensive reading, extensive reading and and listening, with inta.sive reading bting the major one. Textbooks arc in practice prwcribed, and the two major choices are the one compiled by Shanghai Fudan University and the one by Shanghai Communication University. The units of the textbooks mainly cansisl of two major parks: 2 or 3 reading passages and a list of reading comprehension and grammatical exercises. The texts arc rewritten and abridged articles from western publications and their topics include popular science, Westm-n culture, biography, philosophy etc. with science articles like ‘;The Artiilcial Intelligence” making up the bulk There is a test ( CET ) at the ~iiiii’ }- 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings ‘.