English language teaching in China: new approaches, perspectives, and standards

摘要

From the outset of his edited volume on recent developments in English language teaching in China, Jun Liu points to the many reasons why both academic researchers and popular media have placed so much attention on developments in English language learning in Chinese language contexts: China's membership in the WTO and growing stature in international business communities; the highly anticipated summer Olympic Games; and the rapid increase in English language learning from pre-school programs to adult education. Centering the chapters on discussions of communicative competence, the position and use of methods in second language classrooms, and the role of context in language assessment and testing, Liu argues that the complexity of classrooms in China 'necessitate a more contextualized understanding of language learning which entails developing more realistic expectations and effective teaching methodologies to promote communicatively competent learners and users' (1). Thus, the goal of this edited volume is two-fold: to begin describing what a contextualized approach to language learning and communicative competence entails; and to analyze these new perspectives in the local contexts of English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms in China.