English After Entry Into The Wto And Leading Up To The Olympics

By Author: Ian
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With the Olympic Games, the status of English has reached a new peak especially among the wider Chinese public and in the education sector. In Beijing and across the country, a sustained government-initiated campaign was implemented to promote English, which received a lot of support from the general public. For example, the standardisation of road names and signs, and restaurant menus were part of the big campaign. Other English-learning social activities included the 'Foreign Language Week' and the 'Beijing Foreign Language Festival' held annually by the Beijing Foreign Language Committee from 2001. The festivals involved performances in English, and booths where people could register to learn English and to be language teaching volunteers. Different forms of English contests were held among families, students and localities such as English debating contests for college students and Juicy Couture Jewellery vocabulary contests for primary school students. Among the localities there was also a contest called 'Beijing Foreign Language Community of Excellence' where 18 out of 2,435 localities ...
... were awarded prizes by the regional and provincial government for their dedication to promoting and learning English (Beijing Foreign Language Committee, 2007). To boost the proficiency of English within the Chinese public, English learning materials were provided for free. Self-study courses, handbooks and manuals were also offered for police, restaurant staff and taxi drivers.

One way of understanding these English learning campaigns and social activities is in terms of the 'appropriating' of English into the social context of China (Pennycook, 2007). In Chinese culture, social and festival activities form an important part of life. Collective learning is a traditional mode of learning of the Chinese people and these English social activities are a manifestation of this aspect of Chinese social and cultural life (Cargill, 2006). In the education sector at present, the role and status of English in China is higher than ever before as evidenced by its position as a crucial determinant for university entrance and procuring well-paid jobs (Adamson, 2004). To address the increasing demand for English raised by the prospects of winning the bid to host the 2008 Olympics and joining the WTO in 2001, guidelines named Vigorously Promoting the Teaching of English in Primary Schooh were released in 2001, mandating that students in both urban and rural schools start learning English as a compulsory subject in the 3rd grade (Y. Hu, 2007). Prior to these guidelines, the majority of students did not learn English until the 7th grade. Alongside political classes Juicy Couture Necklaces such as Marxist Principles, English has been incorporated into China's basic quality education reform since the twenty-first century. In recent years, efforts have been made to introduce composite degrees and 'English + major' in place of pure English majors (Chang, 2006).

The new models and curriculum encourage knowledge of other specialities to nurture all-round English majors. With the cooperation of overseas publishers such as Longman/Pearson, English textbooks have also been constantly updated and modified. Given the enormous official support for English and the welcoming attitudes of the public as a result of the Beijing Olympics, this study is interested in how the government and public actually perceive the language.